차이나타운에 나타난 인종차별: 잔월루와 중국인 거리를 중심으로 (The Racial Discrimination in Chinatown: Disappearing Moon Cafe and Chinatown)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국동서비교문학학회
· 수록지 정보 : 동서비교문학저널 / 34호 / 191 ~ 218페이지
· 저자명 : 황남엽

초록

Disappearing Moon Cafe by Sky Lee, a Chinese-Canadian writer, and Chinatown by Junghee Oh, a Korean writer, reveal the racial discrimination of the Other in the social and cultural context of Chinatown. This perspective is expressed through heroines of the two novels, Kae and an unnamed female character. In the process of exposing racial discrimination, Kae and ‘the girl’ become the mainstream speaking agents for the mostly silent and marginalized ethnic Chinese living in Canada and Korea. Kae, in Disappearing Moon Cafe, re-writes Chinese-Canadian history by using key historical events from 1892 to 1986. Through rewriting her family history and the historical accounts of the Chinese in Canada, she influenced her community to speak out against their present discrimination. In comparison, ‘the girl’ in Chinatown discloses a variety of racial discriminations. ‘The girl’ distances herself from her family members and observes the discrimination of the others: mostly Chinese and a Korean prostitute named Maggie. This includes Maggie’s mixed race daughter being racially victimized by ‘the girl’s grandmother. Through the perspective of an elementary school student, ‘the girl’ represents the transitional situation in Chinatown between the old culture represented by China and the new culture represented by America in the 1950s. Facing a confusing and contradictory world, ‘the girl’ realizes that there is nothing absolute and chooses an alternative life, one in which racism is no longer perpetuated. In brief, Kae and ‘the girl’ create a picture, which dispels prejudices against people of color, especially the Chinese, as social constructions, and in this picture we are presented with heroines exercising their agency, pursuing a more tolerant world, namely one without any racial prejudices.

영어초록

Disappearing Moon Cafe by Sky Lee, a Chinese-Canadian writer, and Chinatown by Junghee Oh, a Korean writer, reveal the racial discrimination of the Other in the social and cultural context of Chinatown. This perspective is expressed through heroines of the two novels, Kae and an unnamed female character. In the process of exposing racial discrimination, Kae and ‘the girl’ become the mainstream speaking agents for the mostly silent and marginalized ethnic Chinese living in Canada and Korea. Kae, in Disappearing Moon Cafe, re-writes Chinese-Canadian history by using key historical events from 1892 to 1986. Through rewriting her family history and the historical accounts of the Chinese in Canada, she influenced her community to speak out against their present discrimination. In comparison, ‘the girl’ in Chinatown discloses a variety of racial discriminations. ‘The girl’ distances herself from her family members and observes the discrimination of the others: mostly Chinese and a Korean prostitute named Maggie. This includes Maggie’s mixed race daughter being racially victimized by ‘the girl’s grandmother. Through the perspective of an elementary school student, ‘the girl’ represents the transitional situation in Chinatown between the old culture represented by China and the new culture represented by America in the 1950s. Facing a confusing and contradictory world, ‘the girl’ realizes that there is nothing absolute and chooses an alternative life, one in which racism is no longer perpetuated. In brief, Kae and ‘the girl’ create a picture, which dispels prejudices against people of color, especially the Chinese, as social constructions, and in this picture we are presented with heroines exercising their agency, pursuing a more tolerant world, namely one without any racial prejudices.

참고자료

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