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China Fictions / English Language
Literary Essays in Diaspora, Memory, Story
Series: - Textxet: Studies in Comparative Literature, Volume: 54
Volume Editor:
The world is anything but unfamiliar with diaspora: Jewish, African, Armenian, Roma-Gipsy, Filipino/a, Tamil, Irish or Italian, even Japanese. But few have carried so global a resonance as that of China. What, then, of literary-cultural expression, the huge body of fiction which has addressed itself to that plurality of lives and geographies and which has come to be known as âAfter Chinaâ? This collection of essays offers bearings on those written in English, and in which both memory and story are central, spanning the USA to Australia, Canada to the UK, Hong Kong to Singapore, with yet others of more transnational nature.
This collection opens with a reprise of woman-authored Chinese American fiction using Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan as departure points. In turn follow readings of the oeuvres of Tan and Frank Chin. A comparative essay takes up novels by Canadian, American and Australian authors from the perspective of migrancy as fracture. Chinese Canada comes into view in accounts of SKY Lee, Wayson Choy, Evelyn Lau and Larissa Lai. Australia under Chinese literary auspices is given a comparative mapping through the fiction of Brian Castro and Ouyang Yu. The English language âChina fictionâ of Singapore and Hong Kong is located in essays centred, respectively, on Martin Booth and Po Wah Lam, and Hwee Hwee Tan and Colin Cheong. The collection rounds out with portraits of Timothy Mo as British transnational author, a selection of contextual Chinese British stories and art, and the phenomenon of âChinese Chick Litâ novels. China Fictions/English Language will be of interest to readers drawn both to âAfter Chinaâ as diasporic literary heritage and comparative literature in general.
This collection opens with a reprise of woman-authored Chinese American fiction using Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan as departure points. In turn follow readings of the oeuvres of Tan and Frank Chin. A comparative essay takes up novels by Canadian, American and Australian authors from the perspective of migrancy as fracture. Chinese Canada comes into view in accounts of SKY Lee, Wayson Choy, Evelyn Lau and Larissa Lai. Australia under Chinese literary auspices is given a comparative mapping through the fiction of Brian Castro and Ouyang Yu. The English language âChina fictionâ of Singapore and Hong Kong is located in essays centred, respectively, on Martin Booth and Po Wah Lam, and Hwee Hwee Tan and Colin Cheong. The collection rounds out with portraits of Timothy Mo as British transnational author, a selection of contextual Chinese British stories and art, and the phenomenon of âChinese Chick Litâ novels. China Fictions/English Language will be of interest to readers drawn both to âAfter Chinaâ as diasporic literary heritage and comparative literature in general.
A. Robert Lee is Professor of American Literature at Nihon University, Tokyo, having previously taught at the University of Kent, UK. His publications include Designs of Blackness: Mappings in the Literature and Culture of Afro-America (1998), Multicultural American Literature: Comparative Black, Native, Latino/a and Asian American Fictions (2003), which won the American Book Award for 2004, Japan Textures: Sight and Word, with Mark Gresham (2007), and Gothic to Multicultural: Idioms of Imagining in American Literary Fiction (2008).
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Helena GRICE: âThe beginning is hersâ: The Political and Literary Legacies of Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan
Cynthia F. WONG: Asymmetries: Loss and Forgiveness in the Novels of Amy Tan
A. Robert LEE: Bad Boy, Godfather, Storyteller: The China Fictions of Frank Chin
Deborah L. MADSEN: Bearing the Diasporic Burden: Representations of Suicide in SKY Leeâs Disappearing Moon Café, Fae Myenne Ngâs Bone, and Hsu-Ming Teoâs Love and Vertigo
RocÃo G. DAVIS: Chinatown as Diaspora Space in SKY Leeâs Disappearing Moon Café and Wayson Choyâs The Jade Peony
Mary CONDÃ: Canadian Border Crossings: Evelyn Lau and Larissa Lai
Nicholas BIRNS: The Earthâs Revenge: Nature, Transfeminism and Diaspora in Larissa Laiâs Salt Fish Girl
Nicholas BIRNS: Diaspora Beyond Millenium: Brian Castro, Ouyang Yu, and Chinese Australia
Elaine YEE LIN HO: Childhood and The Cultural Memory of Hong Kong: Martin Boothâs Gweilo and Po Wah Lamâs The Locust Hunter
Robbie B. H. GOH: The Anxiety of Influences: Dis-Locating Authority, Culture and Identity in the Novels of Colin Cheong
Robbie B. H. GOH, Writing âThe Globalâ in Singapore Anglophone Fiction: Language, Vision and Resonance in Hwee Hwee Tanâs Fiction
Laura HALL: The Shit Hits The Fan: Timothy Moâs New World Disorder
Diana YEH: Contested Belongings: The Politics and Poetics of Making a Home in Britain
Wenche OMMUNDSEN: From China With Love: Chick Lit and The New Crossover Fiction
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Helena GRICE: âThe beginning is hersâ: The Political and Literary Legacies of Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan
Cynthia F. WONG: Asymmetries: Loss and Forgiveness in the Novels of Amy Tan
A. Robert LEE: Bad Boy, Godfather, Storyteller: The China Fictions of Frank Chin
Deborah L. MADSEN: Bearing the Diasporic Burden: Representations of Suicide in SKY Leeâs Disappearing Moon Café, Fae Myenne Ngâs Bone, and Hsu-Ming Teoâs Love and Vertigo
RocÃo G. DAVIS: Chinatown as Diaspora Space in SKY Leeâs Disappearing Moon Café and Wayson Choyâs The Jade Peony
Mary CONDÃ: Canadian Border Crossings: Evelyn Lau and Larissa Lai
Nicholas BIRNS: The Earthâs Revenge: Nature, Transfeminism and Diaspora in Larissa Laiâs Salt Fish Girl
Nicholas BIRNS: Diaspora Beyond Millenium: Brian Castro, Ouyang Yu, and Chinese Australia
Elaine YEE LIN HO: Childhood and The Cultural Memory of Hong Kong: Martin Boothâs Gweilo and Po Wah Lamâs The Locust Hunter
Robbie B. H. GOH: The Anxiety of Influences: Dis-Locating Authority, Culture and Identity in the Novels of Colin Cheong
Robbie B. H. GOH, Writing âThe Globalâ in Singapore Anglophone Fiction: Language, Vision and Resonance in Hwee Hwee Tanâs Fiction
Laura HALL: The Shit Hits The Fan: Timothy Moâs New World Disorder
Diana YEH: Contested Belongings: The Politics and Poetics of Making a Home in Britain
Wenche OMMUNDSEN: From China With Love: Chick Lit and The New Crossover Fiction
Notes on Contributors