Read more
This book examines the paradox of China and the United States' literary and visual relationships, morphing between a happy duet and a contentious duel in fiction, film, poetry, comics, and opera from both sides of the Pacific. In the 21 st century where tension between the two superpowers escalates, a gaping lacuna lies in the cultural sphere of Sino-Anglo comparative cultures. By focusing on a "Sinophone-Anglophone" relationship rather than a "China-US" one, Sheng-mei Ma eschews realpolitik, focusing on the two languages and the cross-cultural spheres where, contrary to Kipling's twain, East and West forever meet, like a repetition compulsion bordering on neurosis over the self and its cultural other. Indeed, the coupling of the two-duet-cum-duel-is so predictable that each seems attracted to and repulsed by its dark half, semblable , (in)compatible for their shared larger-than-life-ness.
List of contents
1. Sino-Anglo-Euro Wolf Fan(g)s from Jiang Rong to Annaud.- 2. To Anglicize and Angelize the Rape of Nanking.- 3. Asiatic Aspie: Millennial (ab)Use of Asperger's Syndrome.- 4. Turandot: The Chinese Box by Puccini, Zeffirelli, Zhang, and Chen.- 5. Speaking (of the) Dragon: Slain by the West, Ridden by the East.- 6. Asian Inscrewtability in Hollywood.- 7. Gene Luen Yang's Graphic Bi-Bye to China/town.- 8. Asian Birthright and Anglo Bequest in Chang-rae Lee and Bich Minh Nguyen.- 9. On Sci-Fi's Good China, Bad China: Maureen F. McHugh and Chang-rae Lee.- 10. Fed (up) with Gyoza and Vodka: Oldboy's Forbidden Fruit of Alterity.- 11. Noodle Western: Asian Gunslingers, Swordplayers, Filmmakers Gone West.- 12. Millennial Taiwan Food Films: Naming and Epicurean Cure.
About the author
Sheng-mei Ma is Professor of English at Michigan State University, USA, specializing in Asian Diaspora and East-West comparative studies. His books in English include: The Last Isle (2015); Alienglish (2014); Asian Diaspora and East-West Modernity (2012); Diaspora Literature and Visual Culture (2011); East-West Montage (2007); The Deathly Embrace (2000); and Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Literatures (1998).
Summary
This book examines the paradox of China and the United States’ literary and visual relationships, morphing between a happy duet and a contentious duel in fiction, film, poetry, comics, and opera from both sides of the Pacific. In the 21st century where tension between the two superpowers escalates, a gaping lacuna lies in the cultural sphere of Sino-Anglo comparative cultures. By focusing on a “Sinophone-Anglophone” relationship rather than a “China-US” one, Sheng-mei Ma eschews realpolitik, focusing on the two languages and the cross-cultural spheres where, contrary to Kipling’s twain, East and West forever meet, like a repetition compulsion bordering on neurosis over the self and its cultural other. Indeed, the coupling of the two—duet-cum-duel—is so predictable that each seems attracted to and repulsed by its dark half, semblable, (in)compatible for their shared larger-than-life-ness.
