“Survival – to keep writing”: An interview with Shirley Geok-lin Lim

Abstract

In this email interview conducted in 2016, author and scholar Shirley Geok-lin Lim addresses the changing social and political conditions in the United States. Lim discusses the affective relationship between aesthetics and politics in her work, the anxiety of multilingual stylistics, and the in-between nature of the trans-nation. She also reflects on the academic marginalization she has experienced as a result of her immigrant designation and subjectivity, as well as the indirect influence of China and Chineseness on her writing. Commenting on her memoir Among the White Moon Faces, Lim notes the difficulty of titling, and addresses the impact of anglophone literature upon her during her colonial Malaysian upbringing.

Keywords:

• Shirley Geok-lin Lim
• multilingualism
• transnationalism
• memoir
• literary influences