In Search of Self-Narratives: (Re) Imagining Intimacy and Diasporic Identities in Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet and Alice Wu's Saving Face

Abstract

This project explores the intersection between diasporic identity negotiation, gender, sexuality, and multi-cultural experiences portrayed in Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Alice Wu’s Saving Face (2004). It features two main chapters, an introduction, and a conclusion. Chapter One focuses on the intimacy aspect in The Wedding Banquet, examining how it intersects with gender and sexuality in promoting cross-cultural identity formation. Through analyzing intimacy as the site of contestation between alienation, ambivalence, and sacrificial narratives, both of which contribute to the formation of a nuanced, multi-layered Asian American identity. I argue that Lee’s portrayal of familial intimacy challenges stereotypical depictions of Asian American family units and proffers a nuanced yet intricate understanding of cross-cultural identity formation, uncovering the dilemma and hypocrisy inherent in the Gao family narrative that is manifested as social critique under the disguise of a romantic comedy. Chapter Two analyzes Saving Face focusing on the intersection between the discourses of indebtedness, guilt, and female liberation. I argue that by paralleling the dilemma and different forms of oppression and alienation faced by Hwei-Lan and Wil, Wu provides insight into the elastic relationship between the liberation discourse and indebtedness, guilt, and filial responsibilities of ‘Chinese daughters’. Through the constant negotiations of these elements, self-narrativity is achieved through the construction of flexible identities that strive to attend to both filial responsibilities and the search for individual narratives and autonomy.