Thursday, April 27, 2006
Difficulty of Labeling
Question: If *one day* May-yi is to become to a great writer of her age and writes in ENGLISH - and let's not be concerned about the content of her writing for the time being - which of the following type of writer would you consider herself as:a) A Chinese/Taiwanese writer
b) A Chinese-American/Taiwanese writer
c) An American writer
d) An Anglophone writer
e) A cosmopolitan writer
e) None of the above
f) All of the abvoe
g) No idea ... Who cares?
Now, if the question is revised to be the following: If *one day* May-yi is to become ag reat writer of her age and writes in CHINESE - again, not taking into consideration of the content of her writing for now - which type of writer would you qualify her as?
a) A Chinese/Taiwanese writer
b) A Chinese-American/Taiwanese writer
c) An American writer
d) An sinophone writer
e) A cosmopolitan writer
e) None of the above
f) All of the abvoe
g) No idea ... Who cares?
Cast your votes please!
梅ちゃん at 1:14:00 PM
6 Comments
-
at 4/27/06, 2:15 PM
said... all of the above
ymshaw-
at 4/27/06, 3:31 PM
said...
g, for both
-
at 4/27/06, 3:32 PM
said...
should've said:
g, for both. What matters is the great writer part, not the identity part.-
at 4/27/06, 4:01 PM
said...
f for both.
-
at 4/28/06, 3:03 AM
said...
i guess i'd have to say (d) for both, since by that time, who knows where you'll be or how you'll define yourself. all i'd be able to say is what language you're writing in. =)
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at 4/28/06, 10:38 AM
said...
g) for both.
There are only great writers to a lifelong literature fanatic like me. Labeling is nothing but third-rate literary critics' tactic when they cannot find a better way of criticism. Writers never write because they are Sinophone or Malaysian or German writers. They only write on behalf of themselves. That's what I got in the writers' workshop last weekend. And that's also why I never felt the necessity to discuss Hong Ying's _K_ in classroom if only because she is a so called 'sinophone writer.' Even the jucy plot never stunned me.
Sorry for such a wordy response.