The Spectral Nanyang: Recollection, Nation, and the Genealogy of Chineseness
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 The Spectral Nanyang: Recollection, Nation, And The Genealogy Of Chineseness Zhou Hau Liew University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Liew, Zhou Hau, "The Spectral Nanyang: Recollection, Nation, And The Genealogy Of Chineseness" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3054. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3054 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3054 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Spectral Nanyang: Recollection, Nation, And The Genealogy Of Chineseness Abstract Decolonizing counter-narratives to Malaysia's official national history are insufficiento t account for the complex legacies of nationalism in Malaysia, and its relationship with Chineseness, race, and colonialism. This dissertation close reads the fictional works of three contemporary Mahua (Malaysian Chinese) authors – Zhang Guixing, Ng Kim Chew and Li Tianbao – to argue that Mahua identity is haunted by a nationalistic Chineseness deriving from late 19th and early 20th century mainland China, which defines itself on the basis of an archaic, civilizational imaginary, with undertones of racial and cultural purity. This conditions Mahua political and cultural identity during flashpoints of Malaysian history across Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia) and Borneo (now partially East Malaysia), spanning anti-colonial Hua- dominated communist movements during the Cold War, such as the Sarawak Communist Insurgency (1962-1990) and the Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergencies (1948-1960 and 1968-1989); and Hua literati responses to a post-1969 renewal of the politics of Malay indigeneity. By complicating recuperative but reductive accounts of Hua communism that stress their nationalistic contributions, and subverting diasporic fascination with a literary and cultural China (wenhua Zhongguo) ideal, their fictional histories provide postcolonial critiques of the legacies of Hua nationalism, revealing how it appropriates and translates turn-of-the-century nationalistic Chineseness as a response to local and regional politics. They deconstruct the appearance of static universality and unbroken temporality that forms part of the discourse of nationalistic Chineseness, and propose an alternate, mobile understanding of Chineseness that guards against ethnocentric Hua nationalism. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Comparative Literature and Literary Theory First Advisor Xiaojue Wang Keywords Chineseness, History, Nanyang, Nationalism, Spectrality Subject Categories Comparative Literature This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3054 THE SPECTRAL NANYANG: RECOLLECTION, NATION, AND THE GENEALOGY OF CHINESENESS Zhou Hau Liew A DISSERTATION in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Supervisor of Dissertation XIAOJUE WANG Associate Professor of Chinese Literature, Rutgers University Graduate Group Chairperson EMILY WILSON, Professor of Classical Studies Dissertation Committee David Kazanjian, Professor of English and Comparative Literature Jim Sykes, Assistant Professor of Music THE SPECTRAL NANYANG: RECOLLECTION, NATION, AND THE GENEALOGY OF CHINESENESS COPYRIGHT 2017 Zhou Hau Liew iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not be possible without the support and effort of many people. I would like to thank, first and foremost, my chair and committee members, Professor Xiaojue Wang, Professor David Kazanjian and Professor Jim Sykes, who were integral to this production; I am grateful for the numerous good ideas and advice they gave during the writing process. I am also indebted to their guidance and teaching throughout my graduate career, as I am to Professor Ayako Kano, as they each opened up new intellectual horizons and helped to make visible what was only an inkling before. Many friends and colleagues offered their time, patience, and wisdom during this undertaking: Nicholas Wong pushed me to refine my argument and writing, and is a great foil and collaborator in the literary Sinosphere; Sean Bray read the earliest drafts of my prospectus and was always willing to share his insightful and careful comments; Katherine Culver and Aman Kumar gave characteristic cool- headed support and humour. For their kindness and friendship I am always thankful. My thanks also goes to Alex Moshkin, Jerry Chang, Pavel Khazanov, Annie Chan, the rest of the Comparative Literature cohort, and Coleman Connelly, for their company and friendship over the years; Professor Kevin Platt for believing in my ability to pursue this doctorate; JoAnne Dubil for holding everything together, providing encouragement, assurance, and simply being a wonderful human being. My parents, sisters, and Ryan remain supportive of whatever I do; for that I am truly blessed. And last but not least, dear Esther, who sat with me through my momentary doubts during this project, and somehow convinced me that it was all going to be alright; without you life would be a little less special. iv ABSTRACT THE SPECTRAL NANYANG: RECOLLECTION, NATION, AND THE GENEALOGY OF CHINESENESS Zhou Hau Liew Xiaojue Wang Decolonizing counter-narratives to Malaysia's official national history are insufficient to account for the complex legacies of nationalism in Malaysia, and its relationship with Chineseness, race, and colonialism. This dissertation close reads the fictional works of three contemporary Mahua (Malaysian Chinese) authors – Zhang Guixing, Ng Kim Chew and Li Tianbao – to argue that Mahua identity is haunted by a nationalistic Chineseness deriving from late 19th and early 20th century mainland China, which defines itself on the basis of an archaic, civilizational imaginary, with undertones of racial and cultural purity. This conditions Mahua political and cultural identity during flashpoints of Malaysian history across Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia) and Borneo (now partially East Malaysia), spanning anti-colonial Hua- dominated communist movements during the Cold War, such as the Sarawak Communist Insurgency (1962-1990) and the Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergencies (1948-1960 and 1968-1989); and Hua literati responses to a post-1969 renewal of the politics of Malay indigeneity. By complicating recuperative but reductive accounts of Hua communism that stress their nationalistic contributions, and subverting diasporic fascination with a literary and cultural China (wenhua Zhongguo) ideal, their fictional histories provide postcolonial critiques of the legacies of Hua nationalism, revealing how it appropriates and translates turn-of-the-century v nationalistic Chineseness as a response to local and regional politics. They deconstruct the appearance of static universality and unbroken temporality that forms part of the discourse of nationalistic Chineseness, and propose an alternate, mobile understanding of Chineseness that guards against ethnocentric Hua nationalism. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................ iv Table of contents ......................................................................................................... vi Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 The field of the nation – national history, recollection, and temporality ................... 4 Chineseness: race, history, and nationalism ............................................................ 14 Specters of denationalization ................................................................................... 23 Chapter outlines ....................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 1: Zhang Gui Xing’s Elephant Herd and the spectrality of Chineseness ...................................................................................................................................... 33 Part 1: The state of guo and the political nationalism of the Sarawak Hua ............. 33 Context ..................................................................................................................... 35 Space and Chineseness ............................................................................................ 42 Hua communist mapping and settling...................................................................... 53 Part 2: Shicai’s alternative journey .......................................................................... 60 A different animal .................................................................................................... 67 Indigenous identities ................................................................................................ 75 Chapter 2: The critique of linguistic ontopology and the representational gaps of the nation in Ng Kim Chew’s Nanyang People’s Republic Memorandum ........ 86 Ontopology, origin, and Ng’s displacement