Belonging Across Cultures
Immigration and Citizenship in A Free Life
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10891735 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Arnold Pan (Arnold Pan is Associate Editor of Amerasia Journal., corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 19-24 |
| Publication date | 2012-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Amerasia Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0044-7471 • E-ISSN: 2642-0228 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.17953/amer.38.2.7j546426728t3wh3 |
| OpenAlex | W2286262884 |
| Language | EN |
Published in 2007, Ha Jin's A Free Life garnered attention from book critics as the first “American” novel written by the prolific Chinese-born author. This essay explores how A Free Life reimagines the relationship between culture and citizenship with which Asian American literary studies has long struggled, foregrounding how formal legal status is anything but secure for immigrant Asian Americans. The novel urges its reader to ask what is the cultural position and legal status of the immigrant subject who gives up identification with one nation for another, and, as a result, finds himself with no sense of identity or existential security from either
Aesthetics · Art · Chinese americans · Citizenship · Existentialism · Foregrounding · Identity (music · Immigration · Literature · Political science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Gender Studies · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
| Highly cited | No |
|---|