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Representations of Memory and Identity in Chinese- Australian English-Language Novels from 1990 to 2010 Beibei Chen

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Representations of Memory and Identity in Chinese- Australian English-Language Novels from 1990 to 2010 Beibei Chen Representations of Memory and Identity in Chinese- Australian English-language Novels from 1990 to 2010 Beibei Chen A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities and Social Sciences UNSW Canberra August 2015 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I am greatly indebted to my stunning supervisor Associate Professor Nicole Moore for her direction, persistence, patience and optimism throughout. I also would like to thank my co-supervisor Dr Heather Neilson for her invaluable guidance and optimism. Without them, this thesis would not have been possible. This thesis is lovingly dedicated to my mother and my father to thank them for contributing so much to my life. I would like to take this chance to thank their unconditional love and constant support. Dr Christina Spittel is of great help in introducing me to memory theories and directing the thesis’s theoretical framework, and I thank Dr Michael Austin for his excellent proofreading. I also owe my thanks to Dr Nicholas Birns for offering his creative comments on my thesis chapters and Dr Bernadette Brennan for giving me her book on Brian Castro to assist my research. Professor Zuo Jinmei in Ocean University of China is supportive in various ways to assist me in my research. My postgraduate peers, from whom I receive great encouragement, are the ones I must say thanks to: Jiefei Wang, Umut Ozguc, Kelly Frame, Emily Robertson, Cindy Chen, Najib Kailani, and Falik Isbah, just to mention a few. During my four-year study in Australia, these people give me much help and support in various ways. My friends are always with me, so my sincere thanks to them for their consistent love and care. I would like to thank my best friends Tilly Tan, L.K, Michelle Chen, Selena Chen and Helen Chen who encourage me to keep going. My special thanks to China Scholarship Council for its four-year financial support. I apologise to those who have helped me but I have not acknowledged here iv Publication List Beibei Chen. “Contesting Identity and Forming ‘Cosmopolitan Memory’ in Brian Castro’s Shanghai Dancing.” Antipodes, 30 (2015) 29.2. [forthcoming] v Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2 1. Definition and Scope of Asian-Australian Literature ........................................................ 5 2. Chinese-Australian Literature ............................................................................................ 6 3. The Reception of Chinese-Australian literatures in China .............................................. 16 4. Thesis Research Scope: Time, Topics and Genres .......................................................... 18 Chapter One: Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................... 24 1. Overview .......................................................................................................................... 24 2. Memory Matters............................................................................................................... 26 2.1. Memory Studies as an Interdisciplinary Field .......................................................... 28 2.2. Memory and Literature ............................................................................................. 37 2.3. Memory and History ................................................................................................. 43 2.4 Memory and Identity.................................................................................................. 48 3. Tracking Diasporas .......................................................................................................... 53 3.1 Definition of Diaspora ............................................................................................... 53 3.2. Diaspora and Identity ................................................................................................ 57 3.3 Theorising Chinese Diaspora ..................................................................................... 60 4. Theoretical Framework and the Texts ............................................................................. 65 vi Chapter Two: Memory, Trauma and Identity in Lillian Ng’s Silver Sister ............................. 68 1. Memory, Narrative and Diasporic Literature ................................................................... 70 2. The Hybrid Genres of Silver Sister .................................................................................. 75 2.1 A Biographical Feminist Bildungsroman .................................................................. 75 2.2 A Trauma Fiction ....................................................................................................... 78 3. The Interaction of Individual Memory and Collective Memory in Silver Sister ............. 80 4. How Memory makes Identity in Silver Sister .................................................................. 88 5. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 99 Chapter Three: Contesting Identity and Forming “Cosmopolitan Memory” in Shanghai Dancing ............................................................................................................................. 102 1. Literary Review of Shanghai Dancing .......................................................................... 103 2. Shanghai Dancing as a Postmodernist Fictional Autobiography .................................. 107 3. Shanghai Dancing as a Memory Text ........................................................................... 112 4. Cosmopolitanism and Cosmopolitan Memory .............................................................. 119 5. Establishing “Cosmopolitan Memory”: Identity at Stake ............................................. 121 6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 129 Chapter Four: Language, Cultural Memory, and Translated Identity in Ouyang Yu’s The English Class ..................................................................................................................... 132 1. Ouyang Yu: “Angry” Bilingual Writer in Australia ...................................................... 137 2. The English Class as a Book on Language and Memory .............................................. 140 vii 3. The Loss of Memory and the Failed Translated Man .................................................... 144 4. Speaking English Represented as the Loss of Memory ................................................. 147 5. The untranslatable and failed “Translated Man” ........................................................... 154 6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 163 Chapter Five: Political Memory, Amnesia and Identity in Playing Madame Mao ............... 166 1. Overview ........................................................................................................................ 166 2. The Politics of Memory and Amnesia ........................................................................... 176 2.1 The City as a Space of Collective Amnesia ............................................................. 178 2.2 The Mirror World as a Space of Memory and Tradition ......................................... 180 3. Where are They Going? Contesting Singapore’s National Identity ............................. 182 4. A Search for Identity ...................................................................................................... 190 4.1 Die for Art’s Sake—Tang’s pursuit of Identity ....................................................... 190 4.2 Exile and Crossing Borders—Ching’s search for a “stable” Identity ...................... 194 5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 197 Chapter Six: Brave New World: Transgenerational Memory and “Future Identity” in Behind the Moon ............................................................................................................................ 200 1. Australian Teenager Bildungsroman ............................................................................. 203 2. Transgenerational Memory and “Future Identity” ......................................................... 213 3. A “Vietnamese Daughter” with an “Aussie Heart” ....................................................... 217 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 234 viii 1. Re-thinking Memory and Identity in Chinese-Australian Literature ............................. 235 2. Beyond Homeland Nostalgia and “Australian Dream” ................................................. 244 3. Strengthening the Relation between Memory and Identity ........................................... 248 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 254 ix 1 Introduction As cultural globalisation develops, dramatic changes are happening in the discipline of literary studies. Anglophone literature is no longer confined to the label of ‘English literature produced by local writers’ and it now experiences dramatic
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