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From Disconnection to Incorporation: A Study of Identity Quest in Li-Young Lee's Poetry

This study aims to explore the identity quest of Li-Young Lee as a Chinese-American poet by analyzing his poems "Persimmons" and "The Cleaving." Born of Chinese parents in Jakarta, Indonesia, he underwent a process of continuous dislocation until he finally settled down in the United States in 1964. Therefore, one can readily anticipate that his poetry will show "a feeling of disconnection and dislocation" on the part of an immigrant who is required to assimilate into unfamiliar surroundings. However, Li-Young Lee also reveals a longing to escape from his narrow ethnic boundary as a Chinese-American and arrive at "nobodyhood" or paradoxically "everybodyhood," which is tantamount to a truly essential self beyond "cultural existence." One of his best-known poems, "Persimmons" starts with an episode in which the poet is "slapped" by his sixth-grade teacher because he could not distinguish the phonetic difference between persimmon and precision. Even though he seems to succeed in assimilating into American society as he grows up, he has been gradually losing his connection to his cultural origin. His father's adherence to his cultural legacy shown in painting persimmons blind forces him to feel ashamed because of the separation he maintains from his ethnic heritage. In "The Cleaving," Li-Young Lee shows a daring attempt to get beyond a feeling of disconnection and dislocation to strengthen his ties with his ethnicity and finally incorporate himself into the shared humanity of different races. The poet focuses on a butcher in Chinatown and feels a sense of solidarity with him "with my own face." This sense of congeniality leads him to find faces of diverse races in the butcher and embrace them, regardless of their racial and ethnic differences. The poet also embraces Emerson's idea of the interconnectedness of all existences in spite of his prejudice against Chinese people. This inclusion and tolerance in turn shows the longing of the poet to pursue his true identity as a universal self beyond race and ethnicity. Ultimately, he is ready to take the next step into another journey to reach his foundational place through religious reflections.