Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Chinese literature in Malaysia is regarded as an oversea branch of Chinese literature by Chinese scholars. As we know, Malaysia is one of the most multicultural nations in Southeast Asia. The Malaysian Chinese is the great majority of this group of people who arrived in Malaya between the early-nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century. Nowadays, the Malaysian Chinese consider themselves as Malaysian; they refuse to have any direct relationship with China. To their understanding and experience, they no longer belong to China as their identity is Malaysian. The author has proposed the Sinophone idea, opposing the idea that overseas Chinese literature should be incorporated into the Chinese literature system. She is also against the diaspora idea in which it regards overseas Chinese literature as literature produced by the Chinese system. Li Zi Shu is one of the famous novelists in Malaysia, some China scholars call her famous short fiction, “Southern Border” as the work of root-seeking, which is based on Shih’s theory in which she gives a whole new perspective toward how diaspora can be. We can interpret that Li tries to clarify and cut off the root-seeking signs of Malaysian Chinese. At last, the author thinks that cutting roots is the only way to integrate into Malaysian life as your national identity is Malaysian.