On Not Speaking Chinese by Ien Ang

On Not Speaking Chinese by Ien Ang

In this major new book, leading cultural thinker Ien Ang engages with urgent questions of identity in an age of globalisation and diaspora. The starting point for Ang's discussion is the experience of visiting Taiwan. Ang, a person of Chinese descent, born in Indonesia and raised in the Netherlands, found herself faced with an almost insurmountable difficulty - surrounded by people who expected her to speak to them in Chinese. She writes: It was the beginning of an almost decade-long engagement with the predicaments of Chineseness' in diaspora. In Taiwan I was different because I couldn't speak Chinese; in the West I was different because I looked Chinese. From this autobiographical beginning, Ang goes on to reflect upon tensions between Asia' and the West' at a national and global level, and to consider the disparate meanings of Chineseness' in the contemporary world. She offers a critique of the increasingly aggressive construction of a global Chineseness, and challenges Western tendencies to equate Chinese' with Asian' identity. Ang then turns to the West', exploring the paradox of Australia's identity as a Western' country in the Asian region, and tracing Australia's uneasy relationship with its Asian neighbours, from the White Australia policy to contemporary multicultural society. Finally, Ang draws together her discussion of Asia' and the West' to consider the social and intellectual space of the in-between', arguing for a theorising not of difference' but of togetherness' in contemporary societies.

'Clearly written and well-argued. . this book makes a valuable contribution, not only to current debates in the field of cultural studies and identity politics, but also to the international debate on the Chinese diaspora and Chinese identity.' - Chinese Information

Ien Ang is Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Institute for Cultural Studies Research at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean. She is the author of a number of books, including Watching Dallas (1985), Desperately Seeking the Audience (1991) and Living Room Wars (1995)

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780415259125
ISBN 10	0415259126
Title	On Not Speaking Chinese
Author	Ien Ang
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Routledge
Year published	2001-11-08
Number of pages	244
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable