The Interweaving of Chineseness, Localness, and Modernity: The Construction of Sinophone Subjectivity in Li Zishu’s Worldly Land

Qian Zheng, Mohamad Luthfi Abdul Rahman, Nadiatul Shakinah Abdul Rahman and Sheat Fun Chow

Asian Social Science, 2025, vol. 21, issue 3, 14

Abstract: Malaysian Chinese (Mahua) literature occupies a unique position at the intersection of Chineseness, Localness, and Modernity, forming a three-dimensional framework of cultural hybridity. However, despite this inherent richness, Mahua literature has long grappled with the predicament of an “absence of classics,” as many writers struggle to integrate these dimensions cohesively. Using Li Zishu’s Worldly Land (2021) as a case study, this study explores how narrative strategies can serve as cultural mechanisms for constructing sinophone subjectivity. Employing Gérard Genette’s narratological model, the analysis focuses on three core aspects - narrative tense, mood, and voice - to uncover how the novel orchestrates complex cultural synthesis. The findings reveal that Chineseness is primarily conveyed through narrative mood, particularly via the use of direct speech and omniscient storyteller-style focalization rooted in Ming-Qing vernacular fiction. Localness is manifested across all three narratological dimensions through repeating narrative, multicultural dialogue, and shifts in narrative perspective, whereas modernity emerges through free direct speech and the destabilization of linear temporality. By demonstrating how Worldly Land (2021) weaves these three dimensions into a cohesive narrative, this study not only provides a model for future Mahua literary creation, but also offers new insights into how cultural hybridity and identity negotiation are articulated through narrative form within the global Sinophone literary framework.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/download/0/0/51775/56314 (application/pdf)
https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/view/0/51775 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ibn:assjnl:v:21:y:2025:i:3:p:14

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Asian Social Science from Canadian Center of Science and Education Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Canadian Center of Science and Education ().