Asian/American Encounters on the International Stage: Readings in Fiction, History and Life-Writing

亚裔/美国人在国际舞台上的遭遇：小说、历史和传记读物

• 批准号: AH/F004737/1
• 负责人: Helena Grice
• 金额: $ 2.85万
• 依托单位: Aberystwyth University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FF004737%2F1
• 关键词: Asian; American; Encounters; International; Stage

This book will critically examine four key moments in Asian/American cultural contact and their subsequent representation across a range of cultural forms, including the Korean War and the revivification of Geisha culture in Japan. The past ten years have witnessed a growth of interest in Asian and Asian American history. One manner in which this has been manifested is the proliferation of fictional, historical and autobiographical books about Asia, and aspects of Asian/American interaction, mostly published in America. In particular, a set of key Asian historical moments have latterly become the subject of intense American cultural scrutiny. These are: China's Cultural Revolution and its aftermath; the Korean American war and its legacy; the era of Japanese geisha culture and its subsequent decline; and China's one-child policy and the rise of transracial, international adoption in its wake. This book seeks to examine and account for this cultural and literary preoccupation and to explore the corresponding historical-political situations that have both circumscribed and enabled greater cultural and political contact between Asia and America. This attention may be neither positive nor welcome, and I also address the investments and issues at stake in these interests, both at local and transnational levels. Through a series of case study chapters, that deal in turn with American literary or life-writing representations of an aspect of China, Japan and Korea, four historical phenomena and four moments of unique transnational contact, are examined via a series of commercially successful and critically acclaimed narratives. In each case, the relationship between narrative and history is analysed in order to demonstrate a two-way interaction, whereby the texts themselves not only provide new and often alternative perspectives on each historical instance, but are also implicated in each cross-cultural encounter.Each historical example has also been chosen for the manner in which it has been largely under-addressed, intentionally suppressed, or misrepresented in either Asia or America. For instance, China's censorship of unflattering portraits of life under Communist rule is well-documented, and so it is only from the perspective and vantage point of being outside China that many books criticising China's regime have been possible. This is especially pertinent to historical accounts of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath that have been published both in the United States and in Britain. The Chinese government's recent displeasure at Anglo-American criticism of its population policy and of the state of its orphanages provides a second example. In yet another case, geisha culture has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy, which may also account for the many myths and mysteries that surround it. It is only recently that the real, obscured, history of the geisha has been explored from the perspective of the West, as well as the contemporary life of Japan's remaining geishas. In my final example, I examine the combined effects of Korea's determination to forget its colonial era, the shame attached to memories of years of Japanese rule, and Japan's deliberate suppression of details about its occupation, as well as recent denials of comfort women's ordeals, that have all resulted in a lack of accounts about the decades of Japanese hegemony. Korean American historical narratives, seek to reverse this omission, and in so doing, to also specifically acknowledge the atrocities endured and the roles played by Korea's women during this period.

本书将批判性地审视亚洲/美国文化接触中的四个关键时刻，以及它们随后在一系列文化形式中的表现，包括朝鲜战争和日本艺妓文化的复兴。在过去的十年里，人们对亚洲和亚裔美国人的历史越来越感兴趣。这种情况的一种表现方式是关于亚洲的虚构、历史和自传书籍的激增，以及亚洲/美国互动的各个方面，这些书籍大多在美国出版。特别是，一系列关键的亚洲历史时刻最近成为美国文化密切关注的主题。这些是：中国的文化大革命及其后果;韩美战争及其遗产;日本艺妓文化时代及其随后的衰落;以及中国的独生子女政策和随之而来的跨种族国际收养的兴起。本书旨在考察和解释这种文化和文学上的关注，并探讨相应的历史政治情况，这些情况既限制了亚洲和美洲之间更大的文化和政治接触，又使之成为可能。这种关注可能既不积极也不受欢迎，我还讨论了在地方和跨国一级与这些利益攸关的投资和问题。通过一系列的案例研究章节，依次处理中国，日本和韩国的一个方面，四个历史现象和独特的跨国接触的四个时刻，美国文学或生活写作的代表性，通过一系列商业上成功和广受好评的叙述进行检查。在每一种情况下，叙事和历史之间的关系进行了分析，以证明一个双向的互动，即文本本身不仅提供了新的，往往是不同的角度对每一个历史实例，但也涉及到每一个跨文化的遭遇。或在亚洲或美洲被歪曲。例如，中国对共产主义统治下生活的真实写照的审查是有据可查的，因此只有从中国以外的角度和优势出发，许多批评中国政权的书籍才有可能。这一点与英美两国出版的有关文化大革命及其后果的历史记载尤其相关。中国政府最近对英美批评其人口政策和人口状况的不满提供了第二个例子。另一方面，艺妓文化一直被神秘地笼罩着，这也可能是它周围有许多神话和谜团的原因。直到最近，人们才从西方的角度探索艺妓的真实的、模糊的历史，以及日本幸存的艺妓的当代生活。在我的最后一个例子中，我考察了韩国决心忘记其殖民时代的综合影响，日本统治多年的耻辱，日本故意隐瞒其占领的细节，以及最近否认慰安妇的苦难，所有这些都导致了日本霸权几十年的缺乏。韩裔美国人的历史叙述，试图扭转这一遗漏，并在这样做，也特别承认所遭受的暴行和韩国妇女在这一时期所发挥的作用。