Writing Chinese - Reshaping Chinese Cultural Identity

Writing Chinese addresses complex issues surrounding the claim of "Chineseness" in our increasingly borderless world. Cutting across geographical boundaries, the author undertakes a comparative study of the politics of Chinese cultural identity facing writers of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US-Chinese, and the Chinese diaspora in the West. Here Letty Chen challenges current discussions of hybridity and nationalism by contrasting the experiences of writers in all parts of greater China with those of the Chinese diaspora. Professor Chen proposes an aesthetics of hybridity as a way to envision an open, creative, and individualized notion of Chinese cultural identity.