Authors
Adam Aitken
Publication date
2009
Journal
Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature: JASAL
Volume
9
Pages
1
Publisher
Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL)
Description
Most importantly the study points out how stereotyping and othering of Chinese people operates by omission as much as by commission. Because the Chinese were mostly voiceless subjects throughout Australia's colonial history, writers have assumed that the Chinese could never speak for themselves, but had to be represented. Wary of his own admitted tendency to be Sinocentric, Yu nevertheless steers away from'taking sides' so as not to ignore the hybrid and diasporic conditions of Chinese-Australian migrants.[...] Yu's study ends on an optimistic note, highlighting the more sensitive depictions of the Chinese in the work of Australian fiction writers such as Brian Castro, Nicholas Jose, and Alex Miller.[...] Chinese cooks, gardeners and other characters became the symbols of hard work, patience, honesty, and above all, loyalty to their Australian employers. While Freud's definition of paranoia is cited to account for …
Scholar articles
A Aitken - Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian …, 2009