It is More than a Bunch of Numbers: Trauma, Voicing and Identity in Jennifer Chow’s The 228 Legacy

• Published in: Res Rhetorica Vol. 7; no. 4; pp. 98 - 113
• Main Author: Ni, Pi-hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Polish Rhetoric Society 01.12.2020; Polskie Towarzystwo Retoryczne; Polskie Towarzystwo Retoryczne/ Polish Rhetoric Society
• Subjects: Asian American Literature; diaspora; Studies of Literature; Taiwanese American Literature; trauma fiction; Diaspora; Taiwanese American Literature; Asian American Literature; Trauma Fiction
• ISSN: 2392-3113; 2392-3113
• DOI: 10.29107/RR2020.4.7

This paper explores how Jennifer Chow’s The 228 Legacy (2013) recaptures the buried hi/stories of the 228 Massacre with a trauma narrative about Silk’s deep-kept secrets. It first delineates the evolution of trauma theory and trauma fiction highlighting the significance of articulating trauma and its relevance in healing, hi/storytelling and identity construction. This demarcation shall frame a critical lens to illustrate how Chow innovates distinct insulated narratives on the protagonists to mimic intergenerational ramifications of trauma in the Lu family, to represent their psychological healing and to express the association between silence-breaking, remembering and identity construction. This critical endeavor will also demonstrate that Silk’ story of survival promises the survival of hi/story. Thus, the novel proper not only portrays the traumatic impact, a nightmarish “legacy,” of 228 but also renders Silk’s trauma narrative as the “legacy” to connect with Taiwanese heritage and construct Taiwanese American identities. Given Chow’s innovative form and unique themes about trauma and Taiwanese American diaspora, the article situates her novel in the emerging Taiwanese American literature, Asian American literature, contemporary American diasporic literature and trauma fiction.