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Sinophone Studies: A Critical Reader . Edited by Shu-mei Shih , Chien-Hsin Tsai , and Brian Bernards . New York : Columbia University Press , 2013. 472 pp. $120.00 (cloth); $40.00 (paper).
Book Reviews--Asia Comparative/Transnational
The recent emergence of the promising yet problematic field of Sinophone studies is a stimulating development in Chinese studies. With this volume, Sinophone studies appears to have ascended from an individual's guerrilla fight against a Chinese "regime of authenticity" to a concerted field-building campaign.1Besides being a valuable sourcebook introducing fundamental ideas and major intellectuals in this field, this compilation also encourages the search for alternative approaches to cultural production in a dynamic Sinosphere.
The book is divided into three parts. Part one includes six reprints of theoretical texts that frame the essential issues by interrogating such notions as national identity and cultural allegiance. What is curiously missing is Victor Mair's article on Chinese topolects. The two programmatic essays by Shu-mei Shih clarify the field's nature and scope. Shih's postulate has been controversial because of its epistemological confusion leading to some methodological loopholes. Slightly modified, these two pieces still maintain her basic premises, positioning Sinophone studies as a "resistance" discourse in the Marxian vein of postcolonial studies. Here, the Sinophone is defined as "the linguistic community" (p. 37) of Sinitic-language speakers, which derives its identity from a "problematic relation to China" (p. 33) rather than from ethnic considerations. This "non-ethnic"...