Language Lessons: Translating Jade Snow Wong's Fifth Chinese Daughter and the Making of an Ethnic American

Abstract

Abstract:In 1953, Jade Snow Wong's autobiographical novel Fifth Chinese Daughter was translated by the US government to fight Communism in Southeast Asia. Wong herself was sent abroad soon after to prove that the piece was not propaganda, and that a Chinese could indeed succeed in America's free democracy. And yet, the archival records of this diplomatic tour reveal that Wong worked assiduously to erase the Chinese translators she used while abroad in the Chinese diaspora. This article argues that these disappeared Chinese translators end up revealing the extensive work required to construct the identity of the "ethnic American" on both sides of the Pacific. Reading the Chinese translation of Fifth Chinese Daughter likewise reveals how Wong's diplomacy tour constructed an American identity for Wong back home, ultimately showcasing the ambivalent Cold War logic underlying Wong's transnational creation of an ethnic American.