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A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure across the Pacific
Who gets to speak for China? During the interwar years, when American condescension toward barbarous China yielded to a fascination with all things Chinese, a circle of writers sparked an unprecedented public conversation about American-Chinese relations. Hua Hsu tells the story of how they became ensnared in bitter rivalries over which one could claim the title of America s leading China expert.
The rapturous reception that greeted "The Good Earth" Pearl Buck s novel about a Chinese peasant family spawned a literary market for sympathetic writings about China. Stories of enterprising Americans making their way in a land with four hundred million customers, as Carl Crow said, found an eager audience as well. But on the margins in Chinatowns, on Ellis Island, and inside FBI surveillance memos a different conversation about the possibilities of a shared future was taking place.
"A Floating Chinaman" takes its title from a lost manuscript by H. T. Tsiang, an eccentric Chinese immigrant writer who self-published a series of visionary novels during this time. Tsiang discovered the American literary market to be far less accommodating to his more skeptical view of U.S.-China relations. His floating Chinaman, unmoored and in-between, imagines a critical vantage point from which to understand the new ideas of China circulating between the world wars and today, as well."
The rapturous reception that greeted "The Good Earth" Pearl Buck s novel about a Chinese peasant family spawned a literary market for sympathetic writings about China. Stories of enterprising Americans making their way in a land with four hundred million customers, as Carl Crow said, found an eager audience as well. But on the margins in Chinatowns, on Ellis Island, and inside FBI surveillance memos a different conversation about the possibilities of a shared future was taking place.
"A Floating Chinaman" takes its title from a lost manuscript by H. T. Tsiang, an eccentric Chinese immigrant writer who self-published a series of visionary novels during this time. Tsiang discovered the American literary market to be far less accommodating to his more skeptical view of U.S.-China relations. His floating Chinaman, unmoored and in-between, imagines a critical vantage point from which to understand the new ideas of China circulating between the world wars and today, as well."
288 pages, Hardcover
Published June 7, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 15, 2017
A really interesting investigation into who shaped the narrative on China in America, as well as how and why. It also takes a look at the figure of the Chinese-American in these narratives and how they served those who were crafting these images for the mainstream American to consume. Hua Hsu meaningfully presents Tsiang, Buck and other 'experts' on China in conjunction together to display the landscape of 'China' in the American imagination in the mid-20th century.
November 29, 2016
(2 and 1-2 stars) This is an academic book about popular culture, focusing on two writers of the 30s who tried to explain or decipher the "mystery" of the Chinese and Chinese-Americans for an American audience. One is Pearl Buck, a Caucasian born in China to missionary parents, who wrote The Good Earth, a novel that romanticized Chinese peasants and which made her a literary superstar who is still read today. The other is H. T. Tsiang, a Chinese immigrant who wrote strange, experimental novels which, for the most part, he had to publish himself. Hua Hsu says his book is about how these authors tried, in their writing and in their actions, to stake claims of authority.
On the one hand, I love that he picked such a bizarre and obscure figure as Tsiang to write about. But since Tsiang was never widely read or even taken very seriously by anyone, he seems a strange subject to pit against Buck. Tsiang doesn't stand a chance to become an "authority." mostly because, it seems, he wasn't a very good writer. Hua Hsu talks quite a bit about how popular books about the Chinese were in the 30s and 40s, but he only writes about a small handful of authors, presenting little evidence that Buck's popularity wasn't just a quirk of the times. (In fact, as he mentions no other best-sellers than a few of Buck's novels, I'm led to believe that her "authority" was something of a fluke. He does spend some time on Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life, but he's not really an author in the sense that Buck and Tsiang were.)
For me, the author's thesis falls apart quickly. I wish he had written a more traditional biography of Tsiang, an interesting character, or found some more "authentic" voices to pit against Buck. The writing style is quite readable, but repetitive--in practically every chapter we are told, in almost identical wording, that Tsiang hawked his books on the streets of New York out of a battered old suitcase. He also constantly recaps what he's done in previous chapters. The book actually feels like a collection of previously published essays that have not yet been polished to stand up as a coherent book. But having said all that, I do now feel compelled to read some of Tsaing's works, which have been reprinted recently.
On the one hand, I love that he picked such a bizarre and obscure figure as Tsiang to write about. But since Tsiang was never widely read or even taken very seriously by anyone, he seems a strange subject to pit against Buck. Tsiang doesn't stand a chance to become an "authority." mostly because, it seems, he wasn't a very good writer. Hua Hsu talks quite a bit about how popular books about the Chinese were in the 30s and 40s, but he only writes about a small handful of authors, presenting little evidence that Buck's popularity wasn't just a quirk of the times. (In fact, as he mentions no other best-sellers than a few of Buck's novels, I'm led to believe that her "authority" was something of a fluke. He does spend some time on Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Life, but he's not really an author in the sense that Buck and Tsiang were.)
For me, the author's thesis falls apart quickly. I wish he had written a more traditional biography of Tsiang, an interesting character, or found some more "authentic" voices to pit against Buck. The writing style is quite readable, but repetitive--in practically every chapter we are told, in almost identical wording, that Tsiang hawked his books on the streets of New York out of a battered old suitcase. He also constantly recaps what he's done in previous chapters. The book actually feels like a collection of previously published essays that have not yet been polished to stand up as a coherent book. But having said all that, I do now feel compelled to read some of Tsaing's works, which have been reprinted recently.
January 24, 2024
A fascinating movement through the stories of Pearl Buck and H.T. Tsiang, this is a thoroughly researched and meticulous study of how literature advocates for the common man, but how particularities of race determine which voice substitutes for the voice of all. In this, Hsu captures the playfulness of Tsiang even as he labors to grasp greater narrative and cultural control onto his works.
January 1, 2023
I have read some great books this year, but finishing 2022 with this one leaves me haunted with many thoughts. Looking forward to reading Hua Hsu's Stay True!
August 11, 2023
Not an easy read, but well worth the effort in this thoughtful exploration of China, Chinamen, and eccentrics.
October 9, 2016
Just read the sample, an interesting take on this part of history, however, due to different way of spelling, if the author could add the Chinese characters to those names, it would be wonderful for the readers, in particular those Chinese readers, to check the historical references… will buy and read through. Thanks to the author.
July 14, 2016
Uneven.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews