Reading Contemporary Chinese Migrant Fiction - by Meng Xia (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Reading Contemporary Chinese Migrant Fiction examines the spectrum of Chinese migrant writing about memory since the 1990s and what it tells us about history, memory and trauma in contemporary China.

Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary approaches the book casts new light on texts by writers from the Cultural Revolution generation, including Ken Liu, Yiyun Li and Geling Yan among others. Meng Xia demonstrates how these writers construct collective identity in the contexts of transnational experiences of migration and historical trauma. The book delves into the possibilities and problems of transposing memory across borders and engages with debates over the unspeakability and politicization of trauma across public and private lines.

About the Author

Meng Xia teaches Chinese Studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She has worked as senior lecturer at the Communication University of Zhejiang; researcher at Case Western Reserve University; 2023 research fellow, Worldmaking Project, Heidelberg University. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, editorials, reviews and translations and presented her work internationally.