| Chapter : | Introduction |
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The river climbed over the banks, the smaller trees all went underwater and the fish occupied the nests of the birds.
Even this tree, although it was so big, began to flow over the water. It swam across long stretches of land, heading straight for the open sea.
But the sea was too far away. Before it reached the sea, the water had begun to go down.
After another long, long time, the abandoned tree felt its branches touching the bottom. Then it could no longer move on. Helpless, the tree watched the water shrink, collecting the wide flow into the narrow meandering curves of the river course.
Soon afterwards, leaves and flowers covered the river banks once more, and the birds and butterflies returned to their homes. Within a few years, both sides of the river were once again covered by lush green forests.…
GIRL: … Didn’t your old tree swim a long way and then grow into an island? If trees, who are supposed to be still, can move like that, why can’t humans, who are supposed to be always moving, stop and be still… [emphasis added]
— Kuo Pao Kun, “Scene 5: Island of the Abandoned Tree,” from The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree2
In The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree, the late Singaporean playwright Kuo Pao Kun suggested that migration is a natural process of life. The Sinophone subjects in Singapore and Malaysia are products of such migration—a movement of people that is bound to processes of change and acculturation. So if trees can move across oceans by scattering their seeds and rerooting in foreign lands, why can’t human beings?
In recent years, scholars in anthropology, cultural studies, literature, and sociology have critically examined Sinophone communities as part of Chinese diaspora and Chinese overseas studies. Focusing on the triangular relationship among globalization, transnationalism, and diaspora studies, these scholars tend to assume that Sinophone experiences are similar across culture, history, ethnicity, and gender, neglecting the uniqueness of individual Sinophone communities. Rethinking Chineseness addresses this oversight by adopting the Sinophone as a critical concept in investigating