Chinese Woman in New York City: Transcultural Travel and Postsocialist Cosmopolitanism in Twenty-first Century China
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2016-03-13
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper explores transcultural travel as the new space of Chinese women and culture in motion in a globalizing postsocialist China. We adopt Lisa Rofel’s concept of ‘postsocialist cosmopolitanism’ to examine how a new generation of Chinese women writers fashions a new female self in their writings about lived experiences in transnational and transcultural environments. According to Rofel, postsocialist cosmopolitanism combines first, a self-conscious transcendence of locality accomplished through the formation of a global consumer’s identity, and second, a domestication of cosmopolitanism by way of nationalist-inspired renegotiation of China’s place in the world. We examine the literary tropes of travel, dwelling and homecoming in the works of two new women writers, i.e. Wei Hui (b.1973) and Chun Shu (b.1983), while extending Rofel’s insights by adding the aspects of motion, border-crossing and cultural negotiations. Both authors rose to fame with novels— Shanghai Baobei (Shanghai Baby, 1999) and Beijing wawa (Beijing Doll, 2002) respectively—that depict young urban women’s self-awareness of their body and mobility in China’s postsocialist metropolis. Both set their follow-up works—Wei Hui’s Wo de chan (Marrying Buddha, 2004) and Chun Shu’s Guangnian zhi meiguomeng (Light Years – American Dream, 2010)—in New York City, the archetypal citadel of capitalism, including its Chinatown. This study will analyse the geo-political, eco-political, linguistic, religious, and sexual conflicts arising through the main female protagonists’ travel in and out of New York City, Shanghai and Beijing. It will show how transcultural travel and the construction of postsocialist cosmopolitanism in these works involve nationalist rhetoric, a critique of capitalism, a longing for presocialist China before 1949 and the identity formation process of the protagonists as global consumers. It will shed light on the new image of twenty-first century Chinese woman in New York City and enhance our understanding of her new postsocialist dreams and nightmares.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SHSS - Kulturen, Institutionen, Maerkte (KIM)
Event Title
International interdisciplinary conference “People and Cultures in Motion: Environment, Space and the Humanities”
Event Location
Chengchi University, Taipei, Republic of China
Event Date
12.-13.03.2016
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
251801
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
DB%20RK%20abstract_taibei_2016.docx
Size
14.16 KB
Format
Microsoft Word XML
Checksum (MD5)
37734bc81851efc667a7799652d29b3a