Rethinking Chineseness: Translational Sinophone Identities in th ...

the unique experience of the Nanyang Chinese within the context of literary studies.

Rethinking Chineseness: Translational Sinophone Identities in the Nanyang Literary World examines the relationship between the Nanyang Chinese, their original homelands (Borneo, Malaysia, and Singapore), and their imaginary homeland (China) through the works of the writers Kuo Pao Kun (郭寶崑), Chang Kuei-hsing (張貴興), and Vyvyane Loh (羅惠賢). The increasing international scholarly interest in works by these individuals—part of an ever-growing Sinophone canon—draws critical attention to the politics of identity formation and transnational discourses of ethnicity and identity. Although these works and concomitant discourses have generated a great deal of interest in Asia, they remain largely unexplored in English-language scholarship. Though many scholars, such as Ien Ang, Quah Sy Ren (柯思仁), Philip Kuhn, Ng Kim Chew (黃錦樹), Aihwa Ong, Shu-mei Shih, Tee Kim Tong (張錦忠), Jing Tsu, David Der-wei Wang, Wang Gungwu, and Zhu Chongke (朱崇科), have contributed to the field, there is still great disparity between the primary and secondary literature written in Chinese and English. To expand the scope of discussion on Sinophone studies with a focus on the Nanyang Chinese, Rethinking Chineseness creates a dialogue by breaking down the linguistic boundaries between these critical discourses.

Through examining works by Nanyang Chinese writers from 1965 to the present, Rethinking Chineseness investigates the methods by which these writers have endeavored to reclaim a sense of belonging to the homeland by destabilizing the notion of “Chineseness.” Loss and displacement—two central themes—trigger the Nanyang Chinese writers’ shared desire to map out a set of contingent and productive notions of Sinophone articulations in their work within the global landscape. In addition, Rethinking Chineseness proceeds to discuss how and why Chineseness as an identity category is repeatedly reconstructed in the works of Nanyang Chinese as a way to suggest broader implications of Sinophone cultures in the age of globalization. Hence, in short, the