Beyond Chineseness: De-Nationalising and De-Sinicising Modern Chinese Literature

The chapter outlines the conceptual framework of modern Chinese literature as an ambivalent nationalistic and coercive vernacularization project in 20th century China. It illustrates how the institutionalization of modern Chinese literature was reinforced by canonization, language policy and sinocentric identity discourses, framed by Marxist and teleological historiography. In recent years the monolingual and sino-centric mantra has been challenged by a growing corpus produced by writers with transnational and multicultural backgrounds from Chinese communities worldwide. Drawing on concepts of Francophone or Anglophone literatures, it advocates Sinophone studies as counterhegemonic and analytical tool to de-nationalize and de-sinicize the conceptualization of modern Chinese literature.