Author Description

Culture, Identity, Commodity is a pioneering work focused on diasporic Chinese literary production in English. It provides broad-ranging, critically-engaged textual analyses that address the dynamic area of diasporic Chinese literary studies from American, Australian, and Canadian perspectives. The innovative research in this collection comes from established and emerging scholars who draw on threads of transnational, postcolonial, globalization, and racialization theories to engage with a broad range of texts including novels, autobiographies, plays and Chinese cooking shows. In so doing, the authors examine issues of cultural and racial identity, the politics of Chinese-ness and the commodification of race/ethnicity, and negotiations of belonging in contemporary Western society. The breadth and depth of the volume's twelve chapters and critical introduction encapsulate vital components of this active research field. The book is a handy reference and critical work for researchers and students and others interested in diasporic Chinese literatures in English, contextualizing national conditions and interrogating the thematics of diasporic and transnational experiences. The volume will be of interest to those researching in diasporic Asian studies, Chinese and English literatures, Australian, Canadian or American literary studies, as well as lay readers interested in intercultural creative and cultural issues.