Visuality and Identity: Sinophone Articulations across the Pacific

Asia Pacific Modern

by Shu-mei Shih

Shu-mei Shih inaugurates the field of Sinophone studies in this vanguard excursion into sophisticated cultural criticism situated at the intersections of Chinese studies, Asian American studies, diaspora studies, and transnational studies. Arguing that the visual has become the primary means of mediating identities under global capitalism, Shih examines the production and circulation of images across what she terms the "Sinophone Pacific," which comprises Sinitic-language speaking communities such as the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Chinese America. This groundbreaking work argues that the dispersal of the so-called Chinese peoples across the world needs to be reconceptualized in terms of vibrant or vanishing communities of Sinitic-language cultures rather than of ethnicity and nationality.

Genres: History

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Nathaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars I guess, but if I give it either 3 or 4 stars it'll skew the balance. interesting and I appreciated the disciplinary point, but the more times she danced around the issue of settler colonialism in Taiwan the more frustrated I got. but that wasn't what she set out to do, I suppose.