| Chapter : | Introduction |
On the one hand, differently located Chinese women authors do not “represent” a preconceived national totality, but they “produce” part of complex, fluid, and constantly changing realities, which do not simply exist, but are put into existence through language and discourses. On the other hand and more significantly, feminist critics (myself included), through reading controversial women authors of color, actively “produce” the cultural significance of the authors, the political mapping of the nation, as well as the definition of feminism.
My selections of specific authors and their texts are determined by their literary, social, and political impact within their national locations, and the controversy has much to do with the critical project of defining national literature and literary canon. Maxine Hong Kingston of Chinese America and the publication of The Woman Warrior coincided with the Asian American cultural nationalist movements, and her controversy has shed light on the mechanism of Eurocentric American literary canon formation as well as on the construction of Asian American literature. Similarly, the Wei Hui phenomenon of Mainland China is not simply a controversy on the individual author but an intensified continuation of the debate on contemporary Chinese literature. It is intimately related to the production of a new-generation urban authors as well as the construction of a new-generation readers nationwide.
I choose Li Ang from the geopolitical location of Taiwan not only because Li Ang has always been a controversial woman author, but more significantly, she is a unique and influential figure in the literary and cultural circles of Taiwan. Women authors both before and after her, even if they were / are controversial, have not caused as much literary, social, and political stirs in contemporary Taiwan. While fully aware of the different forms of nationalisms constructed by different groups of people, I focus on oppositional Taiwan-centered nationalism as a deliberate distancing from Sinocentrism. Li Ang as a nativist [xiangtu] writer who advocated Taiwan-based nativist literature [xiangtu wenxue] and has been involved in oppositional nationalist movements is a perfect candidate for this project. Similarly, the choice of Li Bihua is connected to how Hong Kong literature is delineated and how Hong Kong identities are imagined, particularly in relation to Chineseness.