Abstract
Whether born in the United States or naturalized citizens, Chinese American authors often find that their interest in both Chinese and American history is not restricted to past events but embraces current US-Asia relations. Often enough, mainstream attitudes toward Asian immigrant communities are influenced by the politics of international relations, which may mean that the Asian American subject’s sense of national belonging can never be taken for granted. When America goes to war, the implications of which are engaged with in detail in Kingston’s Fifth Book of Peace, the racial Other who would otherwise remain undisturbed under conditions of peace faces pressure to declare his or her patriotism to the nation, a declaration that gives uncompromising support for all wars fought against America’s enemies.
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Notes
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© 2013 Walter S. H. Lim
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Lim, W.S.H. (2013). The Vietnam War and the Cultural Politics of Loyalty in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Fifth Book of Peace. In: Narratives of Diaspora. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137055545_3
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