When east meets east: Framing the Sino-South Asian diaspora

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Abstract

This essay examines the contours of Chinese identity in the Indian subcontinent through three Sino-South Asian texts: "Travels Afar" (2001) by Chinese-Pakistani writer Maria Tham, "In Search of Lin Jia Zhuang" (2001) by Chinese-Sri Lankan writer Milan L. Lin-Rodrigo and The Palm Leaf Fan and Other Stories (2006) by Chinese-Indian writer Kwai-Yun Li. The shared configurations of the two autobiographical essays and the short story collection - all three are triangulated narratives involving ancestral origin in China, birth and adolescence in South Asia and eventual migration to North America - highlight a forgotten circuit of diasporic movement: one that does not simply follow an East-West pattern of migration, but also inhabits a middle place in the Indian subcontinent. In placing these three works next to each other, I sketch the thematic preoccupations of the twice-migrant Sino-South Asian diaspora, particularly focusing on where we can situate writing and writers that are Chinese in ethnicity, South Asian in upbringing and North American in location. © 2009 SAGE Publications.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Journal of Commonwealth Literature

First Page

35

Last Page

52

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