Author(s)

Yu Ma

Corresponding Author

Yu Ma

ABSTRACT

In the orientalist discourse system, the occident constructed its own superiority through various negative discourses about the Orient. Under such constructions, the occident is superior politically, economically and culturally while the orient is of poverty, chaos and barbarity. Due to her familial environment and Chinese American identity, Amy Tan has consciously or unconsciously reconstructed such stereotypes of China and Chinese in her novel, The Hundred Secret Senses. This paper discusses stereotypes of China and Chinese in the novel and points out that these stereotypes are the products of the collective imagination of the Western society.

KEYWORDS

The Hundred Secret Senses, orientalism, Amy Tan