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Title |
Envisioning Taiwanese Sinophone: Some Reflections on “Chineseness” and “Community” |
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Author |
Chung, Chih-Wei |
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Doctoral Candidate, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Taiwan University |
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Abstract |
This paper seeks to reflect upon the many possibilities to approach Taiwanese literature and culture under the development of Sinophone studies. On the one hand, since Sinophone studies attempts to reevaluate the multiple discourses on “Chineseness,” it allows many Taiwan scholars to reevaluate the relationship between Taiwan and China while redefining what is “Taiwanese identity.” On the other hand, Sinophone studies, as a concept evolving in the academic field in North America, may not be an applicable concept while it is adopted in the study of Taiwan. How applicable is the Sinophone paradigm in the study of Taiwan has yielded much scholarly debate. This paper attempts to engage into this discussion through evaluating the blindness and insights shown in works advocating Sinophone studies and those promoting localism in Taiwan. Inspired by David Der-wei Wang’s Sinophone discourse and his “post-loyalism,” this paper proposes the concept of “derivative China” which complicates the numerous identities and styles found in Sinophone narratives. This paper also seeks to probe into the concept of “Taiwanese interpretative community” coined by Pei-fong Chen, which is closely related to the transmissions and transformations of “Chinesness” in Taiwan. An investigation of this concept allows us to expand our understanding on Sinophone culture in this island where serial colonialism occurred. Furthermore, this paper would borrow Italian theorist Giorgio Agamben’s thoughts about “community” in order to envision a more radical Taiwanese Sinophone. Building in particular on the basis of Agamben’s elaborations on “singularity” and “whatever,” this paper proposes that Taiwanese Sinophone community should view the relationships between different identities as “exposure” rather than “representation.” Only in this sense, Taiwanese Sinophone community would indeed be a community that embraces plurality and reflexivity. |
