Call for Papers
Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities
ISSN: 1024-3631
Special Issue: Sinophone Literature in the Global South
Guest Editors:
Min-xu Zhan, Assistant Professor of the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature and Transnational Cultural Studies, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
Chia-rong Wu, Senior Lecturer of the Global, Cultural and Language Studies, The University of Canterbury, New Zealand
The discourse of Sinophone literature is two-fold in the network of the Global South. First, it is common to see in traditional Chinese history such expressions as “southern barbarians” and “South Seas,” both of which have long been employed to imagine and portray the Chinese south. From a Chinese perspective, Sinophone literature in the Global South refers to the literary production of the South beyond mainland China. To be more specific, the field includes Sinophone writing produced in the southern regions, including Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. In recent years, the horizon of the Chinese literary study has been expanded in response to world Chinese literature and Sinophone literature within the framework of the Global South. Current scholarship not only recognizes the geographical distinctiveness between the north and south in Chinese literary production, but it also highlights the unique features of the literary south with respect to the colonial history, multiethnic exchange, and cultural practices of the local community.
Second, the discourse of Sinophone literature in the Global South responds to the ongoing trend of international disciplines of social science and humanities, as observed in such new academic journals as The Global South. As illuminated in the inaugural issue of The Global Southby its founding editor, Alfred J. López, the Global South encompasses Africa, Central and Latin America, and much of Asia. Additionally, it includes the South within the geographically and politically defined North. The American South and Mediterranean and Eastern Europe are cases in point. In this regard, the concept of the Global South directly speaks to the critical accounts embedded in the interrelated contexts of Third-Worldism, tricontinentalism, and postcolonialism with the aim to accentuate the shared experience of the subalterns in face of the dominance of globalization and neoliberalism. Under the umbrella of the Global South, Sinophone literature goes beyond the limited scope of Chinese national literature and thus facilitates its connection with the minor or peripheral literature around the world. On top of the discussion about ethnic identities and cultural localities, the Global South greatly contributes to a critical view of economic growth, capital flow, and developmental imbalance.
It is important to note that The Global South has contained only one article on Sinophone literature since it was launched in 2007. Given such circumstance, this special issue invites scholars to reconsider the profound connection between Sinophone literature and the Global South in order to probe the sophisticated implications of Sinophone writing in response to the intermix of capital flow and transculturalism. The topics of the special issue include, but are not limited to:
1. Immigrants, refugees, and transnational migration
2. The South-South connection
3. The North-South connection
4. Transcontinental comparison
5. Functions of transcultural communication and media and identification mechanism
6. The dissemination and influence of the new free market capitalism
7. The interaction between and hybridity of diverse races and ethnicities
8. Indigenous and Austronesian cultures
9. The landscape, environmental discourse, and (non-)humanity of the South
Please submit a full English manuscript of between 5,000 and 10,000 words along with contact information to the Editorial Board (sysjoh@mail.nsysu.edu.tw) by August 31, 2020. All submissions shall conform to the guidelines of The MLA Style Manual and must not be under consideration by any other publications. The special issue is expected to be published in January 2021. The general notice to the contributors can be accessed via the link below.
Any inquiry regarding the special issue can be directed to the guest editors: Min-xu Zhan (mxzhan@dragon.nchu.edu.tw) and Chia-rong Wu (chiarong.wu@canterbury.ac.nz).