Abstract: Gish Jen is an outstanding Chinese American female writer in American literary history, who arouses great concern of both American readers and critics. She has published a one short novel and three long novels. They are Who’s Irish, Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land and The Love Life. Her first novel Typical American describes three Chinese immigrants’ experience of purchasing their American dream in America. The second novel Mona in the Promised Land, a sequel to Typical American, mainly articulates the heroine Mona’s growing process. This paper aims to analyze initiation parts of the main characters in the two novels. While articulating the growing experience of two Chinese American generations, Gish Jen deconstructs so-called typical Americans and authentic American culture. Furthermore, Gish criticizes the melting pot mode of cultural integration, and demonstrates the both Chinese and American cultures should be appropriately differentiated and absorbed in the process of construction of cultural identity, hence a new but more harmonious Chinese American culture and a different identity.
Key words: Typical America; Mona in the Promised Land; initiation theme

摘要：任碧莲是美国文学史上一位引起美国读者和评论界关注的杰出华裔女作家。她已经出版了一部短篇小说集和三部长篇小说，分别为《谁是爱尔兰人》，《典型美国人》，《莫娜在应许之地》及《爱妻》。她的处女作《典型美国人》讲述了三位中国移民在美国寻求美国梦时所经历的酸甜苦辣。她的第二部《莫娜在应许之地》是《典型美国人》的续集，讲述了女主人公莫娜的成长历程。本文主要分析这两部小说中主人公成长所涉及的内容。通过叙述两代中国移民的成长历程，任碧莲解构了所谓的典型美国人及真正的美国文化。此外，任碧莲批判了“熔炉式”的文化融合模式，主张在建立文化认同的过程中，东方文化和西方文化都应进行适当的区分与吸收，从而创建出一个华裔美国新文化和新的文化认同。
关键词：《典型美国人》；《莫娜在应许之地》；成长主题

  Chinese American literature is an important part in American literature. Gish Jen is one of the most popular Chinese American Writer in the world. Her novels are highly recommended because of their recognition of ethnic identity and cultural diversity. This paper analyses the initiation theme of her novels from the angle of contents and characters.

The writer Gish Jen, a second generation Chinese American, is an outstanding Chinese American writer, as a novelist, she publishes her first novel Typical American in 1991, which greatly shocks the American literature. Consequently, she has drawn great attention from American readers and critics since then. After the publication of Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land (1996), an anthology of short stories Who’s Irish? (1999), The Love Wife (2004) and World and Town (2010) have come out in succession. In her works, the common themes include immigration experiences, ethnic conflicts and assimilation and the pursuit of the American dream.