Qun Wang

In the study of Asian American literature, the issue of "authenticity" is as problem-
atic as the definition of the term Asian American itself. Although the racial bound-
ary of the Asian American community is historically and geographically delin-
eated by the origin of its immigrants and ontologically dictated by the commonal-
ity in people's struggle for dignity and social justice, Asian American literature's
cultural configuration is controversial. Nineteen ninety-one, for instance, saw the
publication of The Big AIIIEEEEE! An Anthology of Chinese American and Japa-
nese American Literature, edited by Asian American writers and critic Frank Chin
et al. The selections in the anthology are as debatable as Chin's introductory ar-
ticle, "Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake," in which
Chin divides Chinese and Japanese American writers into two groups: Asian Ameri-
can authors and Americanized Asian authors.

In the article, Chin posits that only those Asian American writers who are not
susceptible to "Christian conversion" ( 18 ) and who uphold traditional Chinese
and Japanese values such as Confucianism, "the Japanese sense of honor," and
"the samurai sense or nobility" ( 69 ) can be considered as the real voices in Asian
American literature. This group includes Chinese American writer Louis Chu ( Eat
a Bowl of Tea, 1961) and Japanese American writers Toshio Mori ( Yokohama,
California, 1949) and John Okada ( No-No Boy, 1957). But Chinese American
writers such as Pardee Lowe ( Father and Glorious Descendant, 1943); Jade Snow Wong
( The Fifth Chinese Daughter, 1945); Maxine Hong Kingston ( The Woman
Warrior, 1975; China Men, 1980; Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, 1989); and
Amy Tan ( The Joy Luck Club, 1989; The Kitchen God's Wife, 1991), Japanese
American writer Bill Hosokawa ( NISEI: The Quiet Americans, 1969), and Asian
American writers who use the exclusively Christian form of autobiography ( 11 )
and revise Asian "history, culture, and childhood literature and myth" ( 29 ) are the
fake. In their depiction of the "Christian yin/yang of the dual personality/identity

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