Sinophone-Anglophone Cultural Duet

✍ Scribed by Sheng-mei Ma

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 246
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"This book examines the paradox of China and the United States’ literary and visual relationships, morphing between a happy duet and a contentious duel in fiction, film, poetry, comics, and opera from both sides of the Pacific. In the 21st century where tension between the two superpowers escalates, a gaping lacuna lies in the cultural sphere of Sino-Anglo comparative cultures. By focusing on a “Sinophone-Anglophone” relationship rather than a “China-US” one, Sheng-mei Ma eschews realpolitik, focusing on the two languages and the cross-cultural spheres where, contrary to Kipling’s twain, East and West forever meet, like a repetition compulsion bordering on neurosis over the self and its cultural other. Indeed, the coupling of the two—duet-cum-duel—is so predictable that each seems attracted to and repulsed by its dark half, semblable, (in)compatible for their shared larger-than-life-ness."-- Read more...

Abstract: "This book examines the paradox of China and the United States’ literary and visual relationships, morphing between a happy duet and a contentious duel in fiction, film, poetry, comics, and opera from both sides of the Pacific. In the 21st century where tension between the two superpowers escalates, a gaping lacuna lies in the cultural sphere of Sino-Anglo comparative cultures. By focusing on a “Sinophone-Anglophone” relationship rather than a “China-US” one, Sheng-mei Ma eschews realpolitik, focusing on the two languages and the cross-cultural spheres where, contrary to Kipling’s twain, East and West forever meet, like a repetition compulsion bordering on neurosis over the self and its cultural other. Indeed, the coupling of the two—duet-cum-duel—is so predictable that each seems attracted to and repulsed by its dark half, semblable, (in)compatible for their shared larger-than-life-ness."

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii
Front Matter ....Pages 1-1
Sino-Anglo-Euro Wolf Fan(g)s from Jiang Rong to Annaud (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 3-21
To Anglicize and Angelize the Rape of Nanking (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 23-38
Asiatic Aspie: Millennial (ab)Use of Asperger’s Syndrome (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 39-56
Turandot: The Chinese Box by Puccini, Zeffirelli, Zhang, and Chen (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 57-68
Speaking (of the) Dragon: Slain by the West, Ridden by the East (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 69-85
Asian Inscrewtability in Hollywood (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 87-99
Front Matter ....Pages 101-101
Gene Luen Yang’s Graphic Bi-Bye to China/Town (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 103-122
Asian Birthright and Anglo Bequest in Chang-Rae Lee and Bich Minh Nguyen (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 123-136
On Sci-Fi’s Good China, Bad China: Maureen F. McHugh and Chang-Rae Lee (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 137-155
Fed (Up) with Gyoza and Vodka: Oldboy’s Forbidden Fruit of Alterity (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 157-171
Noodle Western: Asian Gunslingers, Swordplayers, Filmmakers Gone West (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 173-186
Millennial Taiwan Food Films: Naming and Epicurean Cure (Sheng-mei Ma)....Pages 187-201
Back Matter ....Pages 203-240

✦ Subjects

Popular culture -- China -- Cross-cultural studies;Popular culture -- United States -- Cross-cultural studies;POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Cultural Policy;SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural;SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture;Popular culture;China;United States