Chinese Masculinity Redefined: Brian Castro’s After China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Influential Australian author Brian Castro has a mixed ethnic background that often identifies him as a multicultural writer. To Castro, however, this label imposes upon him a static identity he has long tried to break away from. His agenda is to unshackle himself from both the Australian and Chinese cultures he straddles. This effort is evidenced by his attempts to redefine Chinese masculinity in his novel After China. In Chinese masculinity studies, Chinese masculinity can be best understood in terms of the wen–wu paradigm—the wen ideal being conditioned by Confucianism. The male protagonist in After China, however, You Bok Mun, is influenced by Taoism and Western postmodernism in his expression of masculinity. Furthermore, while in traditional gender discourse masculinity is equated with sexual potency, in this novel, Castro eliminates sexual prowess from You Bok Mun's masculinity and replaces it with his ability to narrate stories. Although You Bok Mun experiences displacement and alienation in Australia, he does not intend to elevate his manhood for the purpose of being admitted into the Australian mainstream. Instead, he chooses to remain an outsider and uses this status to unsettle and challenge stereotypes of Chinese masculinity.