Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Chinese American men live in partially hostile environments where they confront discrimination and stereotypes that can undermine their sense of manhood. Through a critical analysis of autobiographies, this study explores how two Chinese American men, Yi-Fu Tuan and Ben Fong-Torres, poignantly construct viable masculinities. In the face of discrimination, they experience conflicting selves as they negotiate between their gender, race, class, and cultural and sexual identities: a process that involved search for empowerment, splitting of selves, and painful loss. Life studies as a method of doing masculinity research reveals the complexities of men's experiences and the need to examine how gender, race, class, culture, and sexuality together both limit and allow possibilities for being men.

Keywords

masculinities discrimination Chinese American identities life studies

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berry, J. W. 1990. Psychology of acculturation: Understanding individuals moving between cultures. In Applied cross-cultural psychology, edited by R. W. Brislin , 232-252. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Bjorklund, D. 1998. Interpreting the self: Two hundred years of American autobiography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Briscoe, M. L. 1982. American autobiography 1945-1980: A bibliography. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Chen, A. 1999. Lives at the center of the periphery, lives at the periphery of the center: Chinese American masculinities and bargaining with hegemony. Gender and Society 13 (5): 584-607.

Cheng, A. 2001. The melancholy of race. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cheng, C. 1996.“We choose not to compete”: The “merit” discourse in the selection process, and Asian and Asian American men and their masculinity. In Masculinities in organizations, edited by C. Cheng , 177-200. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Cho, M. 2001. I'm the one that I want. New York: Ballantine Books.

Eng, D. L. , and S. Han . 2003. A dialogue on racial melancholia. In Loss: The politics of mourning, edited by D. L. Eng and D. Kazanjian , 343-371, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Fong-Torres, B. 1994. The rice room. New York: Plume.

10.

Hobby Do Books . 2004. Gay and lesbian biographies and memoirs. Retrieved from http://www.hobbydo.com/books/Biographies-and-Memoirs-books-Gay-and-Lesbian-page-1-html

11.

Freud, S. 1917. Mourning and melancholia. Vol. 14 of The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, 243-258.

12.

Han, S. 2000. (Dis)claiming Asian-American masculinity. In Gay Masculinities, edited by P. Nardi , 206-223. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

13.

Huang, G. 2001. Introduction: Be/coming American. In Asian American autobiographers: A bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook, edited by G. Huang , 1-16. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

14.

Hong-Kingston, M. 1980. China men. New York: Knopf.

15.

Liu, E. 1999. The accidental Asian: Notes of a native speaker. New York: Vintage Books.

16.

Rainbowsauce . 2002. Gay non-fiction: Gay autobiographies and biographies. Retrieved from http://www.rainbowsauce.com/gaynonfic/gayautobi.html

17.

Rich, A. 1983. Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. In Powers of desire: The politics of sexuality, edited by A. Snitow , C. Stansell , and S. Thompson , 177-205. New York: Monthly Review Press.

18.

Sone, M. 1979. Nisei daughter. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

19.

Tuan, Y. 1999. Who am I?: An autobiography of emotion, mind, and spirit. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

20.

Wilkinson, S. 2000. Women with breast cancer talking causes: Comparing content, biographical and discursive analyses. Feminism & Psychology 10:431-460.

21.

Wyatt, D. n.d. Gay, lesbian and bisexual historical and celebrity figures. Retrieved from http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/wyatt/celebs-list.html

22.

Yep, L. 1991. The lost garden. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Constructing Masculinities and Experiencing Loss

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References