Professor David Wang : Sailing to the Sinophone World: On Modern Chinese Literary Cartography

This monologue podcast is a lecture by David Der-wei Wang on Sinophone literature. The lecture begins by introducing prominent Chinese writers who live and/or write outside mainland China, prompting a discussion on the definition and implications of "Sinophone literature" versus "Chinese literature." Professor Wang then presents a debate between himself and Professor Shi Shumei, contrasting postcolonial and postloyalist perspectives on the topic, ultimately proposing a "postloyalist" approach that emphasizes the poetics of disposition over the politics of roots. He concludes by posing five key questions for future Sinophone studies, highlighting the need for a more nuanced and complex understanding of the subject beyond simple geographical boundaries. A key example used is the discussion of Jin Yong's literary classification, highlighting the complexities of assigning national identity to writers.