Family Authority, Intergenerational Relationships, and Cultural Belonging: Negotiating Diasporic Identities in Double Happiness and The Wedding Banquet

Abstract

During the 1990s, the expanding Chinese diaspora in North America brought family relationships, cultural identity, and belonging to the fore in Chinese diaspora cinema. This study compares Mina Shum's Double Happiness and Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet , drawing on Stuart Hall's cultural identity theory and Homi Bhabha's third space theory. Through textual analysis, it examines how the two films construct diasporic identities in immigrant families, focusing on family authority, intergenerational relationships, and cultural belonging. Both films transcend the binary between Chinese tradition and Western modernity, portraying identity as an ongoing process of negotiation and reconstruction. However, their modes differ: Double Happiness highlights subjectivity built through everyday resistance and autonomous choices, while The Wedding Banquet reconciles familial obligations and personal desire via compromise, identity performance, and role transitions. These differences are shaped by gender, family structure, and immigration background. The findings suggest that Chinese diasporic identities are neither complete assimilation nor mere cultural preservation, but a continuous process formed through family, cultural, and social interactions. The article deepens understanding of identity construction in North American Chinese diaspora films and offers a comparative lens for future research.