Patriarchy and Racism: The Female Lament in Eat a Bowl of Tea

Abstract

Eat a Bowl of Tea, the only novel by Chinese American author Louis Chu, first published in 1961, is regarded as a significant contribution to the field of Chinese American literature. Set within the context of Chinatown’s bachelor society, the novel realistically portrays the lived experiences of early Chinese immigrants in the United States through the marital narrative of Ben Loy and Mei Oi. Existing scholarship has focused mainly on the representation of male characters in the novel, while critical attention to female figures remains relatively limited. In response to this gap, this study centres on three distinctly characterized female figures, Lau Shee, Mei Oi, and the Jook Sing girls in the novel, and examines their lived realities and struggles under the dual pressures of patriarchal traditions within the Chinese immigrant community and systemic racism in American society, thereby revealing the structural oppression produced by the intersection of gender and ethnicity.