アーカイブ

Southeast Asia was once considered by Liang Qichao to be China's naturally endowed colony by virtue of its geographical proximity. While his comment reflects an early phase of nationalistic thinking where such expansionist views were little contested, the opposite has been unfolding in current literary studies. Southeast Asia, in the writings of contemporary Malaysian Chinese authors, has become the place where the idea of China is being undone. A small but controversial group of Chinese Malaysian writers in Taiwan has raised new challenges regarding the past and current historiography of modern Chinese literature. The most outspoken of them have called for a more extensive project of de-Sinicization. Their protests, however, are much more than the expected contestations between major and minor literatures within any given literary field. In my talk, I will be reevaluating this recent phenomenon in light of the history of how the modern Chinese language--the twin project of modern Chinese literature--left out the question of regional dialects, now the rallying ground for Southeast Asia Chinese writers who refuse to recognize Mandarin as their mother tongue. I further show how their platform has been importantly influenced by the recent revisionist approach in Taiwan toward the history of Japanese occupation.