84
Keller, Nora Okja. Fox Girl. New York: Penguin Books,
2002.
Dana Hansen
Frontiers of Love, The Diana Chang (1956)
The first and best-known novel of DIANA CHANG,
The Frontiers of Love explores the issues of racial
and cultural hybridity by depicting three Eurasian
characters living in Shanghai in 1945 toward the
end of World War II: 20-year-old Sylvia Chen
(the daughter of a Chinese father, Liyi Chen, and
an American mother, Helen); 19-year-old Mimi
Lambert (the daughter of an Australian father
and a Chinese mother); and 26-year-old Feng
Huang (the son of a wealthy Chinese lawyer and
an Englishwoman).
The novel opens with Sylvia’s reflections on
her divisiveness between her Chinese father and
American mother. Sylvia, however, does not define
herself through racial identity; unlike other Eur-
asian characters, she is able to come to grips with
her life by growing up to be “Sylvia Chen”—not
Chinese like nostalgic Liyi and not American like
domineering Helen. In contrast, Feng abandons
his English half and assumes the Chinese heritage.
Resenting his aggressive, condescending English
mother, he drops his English name, Farthington,
for Huang. Mimi, the opposite of Feng, rejects ev-
erything Chinese and embraces her Caucasian half.
After her Swiss lover, Robert Bruno, impregnates
her but refuses to marry her due to her mixed ra-
cial origin, Mimi throws herself at any white man
to get herself out of China. Mimi’s rancor stems
from the duality in herself and results in sexual
promiscuity and self-loathing, which, in turn,
cause her annihilation.
The tripartite perspective is juxtaposed with
the viewpoints of two Chinese characters. Sixteen-
year-old Peiyuan, born and raised in China, is “an
untainted Chinese.” Peiyuan’s rustic appearance
antagonizes Helen, who hates the “part savage,
part leprous and totally mysterious” Chinese (48).
Although he is the only character not in conflict
with his identity, Peiyuan’s chauvinism leads to
his death in the minefield of Communist strife.
Sylvia’s father, Liyi, despite his full-blooded Chi-
neseness, is divided within himself like the three
Eurasians. Liyi’s Western liberal stance toward pol-
itics and his nostalgia for old China place him in
a “between-worlds” condition: between the pres-
ent reality and the unattainable past. At the end
of the story, Liyi is able to reconcile the two halves
and realize the vital force of love and responsibil-
ity. Judging from the closing of the novel, in which
Liyi envisions Eurasian children as new citizens
for a growing country, the author seems to suggest
that self is something that one creates and con-
stantly improvises.
It is noteworthy that vis-à-vis the inner loops of
the Eurasian characters lies a metaphorical Shang-
hai in the narrative. Japanese-occupied Shanghai
before the end of World War II stands as a geo-
graphical and cultural contact zone with the West,
as a “Eurasian city” where the Chinese, Japanese,
French, British, and Americans cohabit, render-
ing the city “both Chinese and Western, native
and foreign, liberatory and oppressive, national
and international” (Lim viii). Like the Eurasians,
Shanghai emerges as a central symbol of hybridity
and cosmopolitanism.Bibliography
Baringer, Sandra. “ ‘The Hybrids and the Cosmo-
politans’: Race, Gender, and Masochism in Diana
Chang’s The Frontiers of Love.” Essays on Mixed-
Race Literature, edited by Jonathan Brennan, 107–- Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press,
Lim, Shirley Geok-lin. Introduction. In The Frontiers
of Love, v–xxiii. Seattle: University of Washington
Press, 1994.
Ling, Amy. Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chi-
nese Ancestry. New York: Pergamon, 1990.
Bennett Fu
Fulbeck, Kip (1965– )
The author/artist Kip Fulbeck was born in Fon-
tana, California, to a Chinese mother and a Cauca-
sian American father. Fulbeck’s father, an English
professor at California State Polytechnic Univer-84 Frontiers of Love, The