doi: 10.18178/ijlll.2026.12.4.670
From Collective Assimilation to Self-Determination: Transracial Identity Construction in Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life
Leqi Liu
- School of English, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
- Manuscript received August 2, 2026
- accepted September 29, 2026
- published October 17, 2026
Abstract
This paper examines Chang‑rae Lee’s novel A Gesture Life through Francis Fukuyama’s theory of identity politics to explore how the protagonist Hata’s outer and inner selves are continuously deconstructed and reconstructed in a transnational context across Korea, Japan, and America. It argues that wartime Japan’s political assimilation policies, family adoption, and gender norms impose a collective identity on Hata, leading him to internalize a “Japanese Lieutenant” persona while denying his Korean origins. However, his encounters with K and Sunny catalyze his inner self‑awareness—what Fukuyama terms “thymos”—by exposing the disjunction between his external roles and suppressed subjectivity. K’s challenges to colonial narratives and Sunny’s embodied racial difference reveal the limitations of imposed identities and the necessity of self‑determination. Ultimately, Hata’s final choice of rescuing his foreign grandson Thomas and abandoning his pursuit of racial identity illustrates the possibility of breaking free from institutional molds to reclaim an autonomous inner self. By situating Hata’s journey within transnational and transracial contexts, this study highlights the complex interplay between race, recognition, and individual agency in global literature.
Keywords
- transnational identity
- racial embodiment
- collective assimilation
- institutionalization
- self determination
How to Cite
Leqi Liu, "From Collective Assimilation to Self-Determination: Transracial Identity Construction in Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 258-262, 2026. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijlll.2026.12.4.670
Copyright & License
Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).