Volume VI Special Issue I January 2026

Name of Author : Deepa Singh, Dr. E. Sugantha Ezhil Mary

Title of the paper : The Burden of Heritage: Alienation, Displacement, and the Struggle for Belonging in Amy Tans The Hundred Secret Senses

Abstract: The Hundred Secret Senses 1995 by Amy Tan is a work about the cultural memory, heritage, and identity in a bicultural setting. Using the friendship of Olivia, a Chinese American, and her half sister, Kwan, the representative of ancestral memory and spiritual insight Tan opposes assimilation and tradition. The tensions between generations and ethnic minorities are brought out by the differences between Olivia, who is ashamed of being Chinese and Kwan who is proud of her Chinese heritage. In the novel heritage is used as a weight and as a point of understanding. Using the notions of being and becoming as cultural identity by Stuart Hall, the novel exposes that belonging is a negotiation that is achieved in the form of hybridity and reconciliation. By depicting alienation and the transformative potential of cultural memory, Tan shows how the heritage, despite causing conflict, does result in self awareness and emotional healing as a part of the diasporic experience.

Keywords : Amy Tan; The Hundred Secret Senses; heritage; alienation; displacement; belonging; diaspora

DOI :

Page Number : 269-273