The Chinese Exotic: Modern Diasporic Femininity
Olivia Khoo
Abstract
This book examines new representations of diasporic Chinese femininity emerging from Asia Pacific modernities since the late twentieth century. Through an analysis of cultural artefacts such as films, popular fiction, food, and fashion cultures, the book challenges the dominant tendency in contemporary cultural politics to define Chinese femininity from a mainland perspective that furthermore equates it with notions of primitivism. Rather, it argues for a radical reconfiguration of the concept of exoticism as a frame for understanding these new representations. The study raises questions on th ... More
This book examines new representations of diasporic Chinese femininity emerging from Asia Pacific modernities since the late twentieth century. Through an analysis of cultural artefacts such as films, popular fiction, food, and fashion cultures, the book challenges the dominant tendency in contemporary cultural politics to define Chinese femininity from a mainland perspective that furthermore equates it with notions of primitivism. Rather, it argues for a radical reconfiguration of the concept of exoticism as a frame for understanding these new representations. The study raises questions on the relationship between the Chinese diasporas and gender, and provides a critical intervention into the current visualizations of diasporic Chinese femininity. It contends that an analysis of such images can inform the reconfigured relations between China, the Chinese diasporas, Asia, and the West in the context of contemporary globalization, and in turn takes these new intersections to account for the complex nature of modern definitions of diasporic Chinese femininity.
Keywords:
Chinese femininity,
Asia Pacific,
cultural artefacts,
cultural politics,
exoticism,
globalization
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9789622098794 |
| Published to Hong Kong Scholarship Online: September 2011 |
DOI:10.5790/hongkong/9789622098794.001.0001 |
