Learning across borders – Chinese migrant literature and intercultural Chinese language education

Abstract

Chinese migrants have been a rich source of influential international literature, represented by key works such as Eat a Bowl of Tea by Louis Chu in 1961 and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan in 1989. Cultural differences and conflicts, stereotypes and other complex issues regarding the diasporic lives of the Chinese sojourners are revealed vividly in those stories. In the intercultural language teaching of Chinese in USA, Australia and Europe, a central and pressing task is to improve students' intercultural sensitivities and develop the capability to communicate efficiently with China and Chinese people. In light of critical literary studies that treat literature as a kind of ‘cultural artefact’ and recent analysis of Hay and Wang which advocates ‘migratory’ literature as a ‘third place’ for intercultural communication, this paper takes a step further. It does so by expanding the spectrum into Chinese norms, stereotypes and some core values that are significant in intercultural communication with Chinese and explores interdisciplinary approaches to linking studies of Chinese migrant literature and the intercultural education of Chinese at university level.

世界各地的海外华人创作了诸多反映其海外生活经历的文学作品，比如说雷霆超的《吃碗茶》和谭恩美的《喜福会》。这些作品体现了东西方文化上的差异、文化固见和诸多复杂的、因为文化差异引起的话题或问题。同时，在世界各地的汉语教学中又有一个迫切的任务---提高汉语学生的跨文化敏感性和与中国人有效交际的能力。本文将移民文学与国际汉语教学相结合，探讨移民文学在提高汉语学生跨文化敏感性和跨文化交际能力等方面的作用和意义。

Keywords:

• teaching Chinese as a second language
• Chinese migrant literature
• third place
• ‘migratory’ literature
• intercultural sensitivity
• intercultural education

Notes on contributor

Dr Wang Yongyang is a research fellow, and executive director in the Australian federal government funded research project, ‘Intercultural Approaches to Teaching Chinese: A Basis for Pedagogical Innovation’ and recipient of Guizhou Education Bureau ‘Migratory Scholar Grant’. She is the author of an academic book ‘Reading Chinese Literature or Reading China’ in which she proposes a creative and intercultural thematic reading approach for teaching Chinese as a foreign/second language. Her research interests include second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, critical and cultural studies, process drama for Chinese and intercultural communication.

Notes

1. ‘Migratory’ literature (Hay & Wang, 2010) exists in various languages to which the literature-based ‘reading’ approach discussed in this paper applies equally.

2. Under some circumstances, the term ‘Chinese migrants’ is used interchangeably to refer to Chinese internal migrants who uproot from the countryside and adopt a new life in urban cities such as in Magistad (2006). This paper uses ‘overseas Chinese migrants’ to differentiate from Chinese internal migrants.

3. ‘Beauty Writers’ refers to a group of young Chinese female writers, represented by Wei Hui – the author of Shanghai Baby, 2002 and Mianmian – the author of Candy, 2003. As Lu (2008) points out, ‘their writings are characterized by an unabashed, unprecedented foregrounding of female sexuality. The parading and pandering of female subjectivity via a body politics have become a major literary fad in contemporary mainland China’ (p. 167).

4. The Four Great Inventions of ancient China refer to Compass, Gunpowder, Papermaking and Printing that are celebrated in Chinese culture as symbols of ancient China's advanced science and technology.