Claiming the Lost Homeland

Through a detailed study of the intertextuality between the poems of Chinese American poetess Marilyn Chin and Chinese classical poetry, this paper aims to interpret the significance of Chin’s borrowing from, parodying of, and/or echoing Chinese classical poetry—namely, whether she attempts to return to the Chinese literary tradition or simply appropriates Chinese cultural codes to promote her ethnic identity. Are her works in accordance with or against the Chinese American literary tradition? The paper points out that the bilingual intertextuality practiced by Chinese American poets is not only influenced by the literary and cultural tradition of the motherland and the adopted land, but also by their personal choices, which is determined by the identity politics of American ethnic minorities.