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.

Genres: China, Nonfiction, Sociology, Cultural Studies

242 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2001

About the author

May Ien Ang is Professor of Cultural Studies at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney (UWS), Australia, where she was the founding director and is currently an ARC Professorial Fellow. She is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Born in Java, but raised and educated in the Netherlands, Ang received her Doctorate in the Social and Cultural Sciences, from the University of Amsterdam in 1990. She is among the global leaders in cultural studies. Her work focuses on media and cultural consumption, the study of media audiences, identity politics, nationalism and globalisation, migration and ethnicity, and issues of representation in contemporary cultural institutions. In 2001 she was awarded the Centenary Medal 'for service to Australian society and the humanities in cultural research'.

Her writing encompasses contemporary Asia and the changing new world (dis)order, Australia-Asia relations, as well as theoretical and methodological issues. She is a prominent public commentator in Australia and a member of the Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Reviews

[Jeanne Tai]

My favourite line from the book: "If I am inescapably Chinese by descent, I am only sometimes Chinese by consent. When and how is a matter of politics."

[Robyn]

Started reading this a year ago. Just picked it up again today. I think I am getting better at reading these things about transnationalism. Getting familiar with the vocab and stuff.

[Jiaxing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ang challenges essentialist and ethnocentric conceptions of Chinese diasporic identity that fixate on a singular, bounded “Chineseness.” She also critiques white liberal feminism for its exclusionary tendencies toward migrant and minority women, and problematizes liberal multiculturalism, especially as practiced in settler states like Australia, where it often functions more as containment than genuine negotiation of difference.

In response, Ang advocates for a liminal, hybrid identity grounded in everyday lived experience—what she terms “ordinary hybridity”—and highlights the importance of micropolitics, the subtle, interpersonal interactions and negotiations through which cross-cultural coexistence is actively constructed.

This approach moves beyond static identity categories toward a dynamic, relational understanding of culture and politics, emphasizing fluidity, ambivalence, and engagement in actual social spaces. It reflects a postcolonial and postnational sensibility that resists fixed boundaries and essentialisms, seeking instead practical strategies for “living together” in a globalized and culturally entangled world.

Her work provides valuable insights on hybridity but is critiqued for its limited engagement with foundational diaspora studies. Relying heavily on William Safran’s 1991 definition of diaspora as a fixed collective identity, Ang’s monolithic and pessimistic view overlooks James Clifford’s and the Boyarins’ more nuanced concepts of diaspora as fluid, multiple, and creative. Critics argue that Ang’s dismissal of diaspora’s possibilities reduces it to nationalist exclusion rather than a site of negotiation and transformation. Her schematic historicism and idealized vision of globalization lack attention to anti-globalization movements and imperialist structures, limiting analytical depth. Furthermore, Ang’s theoretical approach reflects broader cultural-studies tendencies toward insularity and postmodern jargon, often lacking empirical rigor and wide intellectual curiosity. Thus, while pioneering in some respects, Ang’s work risks reifying diaspora and hybridity without fully engaging with their complex realities.

On Not Speaking Chinese is essential reading for scholars of diaspora, Asian studies, and transnational cultural politics.

[Kai T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring autobiographic sociological work on the idea of Chinese diaspora in the context of globalisation. It lays out clearly the concepts related to the discussion - race, migration, imperialism, colonialism, assimilation, hybridity.

With personal experience added in the sociological discussion, the reading process became interactive and smooth. As a Chinese Indonesia growing up in the Netherlands and living in Australia, Ien Ang clearly proposes the importance of “together-in-difference”. Diaspora is a unifying term but lacks explanatory power when contrasting the diverse localities and socioeconomic and political backgrounds.

I would like to comment that, though, the discussion of the anti-Asian discourse in Australia is slightly too long. About three chapters discussing the same topic feels like the book is not moving forward somehow.

[mei gerard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to read, but it was definitely an interesting read. Went into it thinking it was just going to be an account about what it was like being part of a diaspora but not truly fitting into that community (something I definitely relate to) but instead it was an inciteful discussion on the nuances and intersectionalities of racial politics and diversity, especially from an Australian perspective.

There's definitely instances where I had to reread the same paragraph over and over again to grasp what it meant, but overall it was an interesting and thought-provoking read that accompanied me during my train rides home.

[XD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, this book Saves me like............talk about legitimizing the diaspora/diasporic authorship/deconstructing authenticity as oppressive authority

[Anna Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though many of the themes within this book speaks to cultural studies and Anthropology enthusiasts, Ien Ang has this wonderful way of taking complex academic issues and relating them to very real world problems. I'm a bit of an Ang groupie, and this is probably one of her best texts

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very academic, but a good read on general race and ethnicity issues, especially the role of Asians in Australia.

[Q]

Anyone got a copy of this?