THE "DEAR DIANE" LETTERS AND THE ENCOUNTER OF CHINESE YOUNG WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA

Abstract

Abstract Focusing on the "Dear Diane" advice letters, both the English and Chinese texts, this dissertation explores a group of young Chinese immigrant women as they encounter American culture as Chinese Americans were reshaped by new immigration and radical demographic changes in the 1980s. By utilizing assimilation theory as a framework for analyzing Chinese immigration, this work examines several important dimensions and aspects of young Chinese American women's adaptation to American life. This study also compares the "Dear Diane" letters with the Jewish "Bintel Brief" letters in order to explore some common characteristics of the female immigrant experience in the United States. The writer identifies a number of issues that young Chinese American women including the intensifying generational conflict and identity dislocation. Moreover, the writer finds that both groups of letters reveal that Chinese young women faced similar issues as their counterparts--other ethnic Asian and Jewish women. With a strong desire to Americanize, young Chinese American women often faced conflict with both their parents and mainstream society. Therefore, assimilation for young Chinese women was problematic, painstaking, and a prolonged process.