‘Flexible Citizenship’: Strategic Chinese Identities in Asian Australian Literature

Abstract

This essay analyses representations of ‘Asian Australian’ in Ouyang Yu's The Eastern Slope Chronicle, and explores the extent to which the concept of ‘Asian Australian’ reflects Asian and Australian attitudes towards cultural and political citizenship. It argues that Asian Australian cultural production is not only symptomatic of deep ambivalences surrounding cultural and political citizenship, but that it is also subject to constant re-negotiation with historical and prevailing attitudes about race and culture. The concept of ‘flexible citizenship’ is particularly applicable to considerations of ‘Asian Australian’ cultural identity, not only for emphasising the fluidity of hybrid subject positions, but also especially for its use value and exploitable advantage in economic and political terms.

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