Five worlds from the man in the blue T-shirt: Interview with Russell C. Leong

Abstract

ABSTRACT This interview delves into Russell Leong’s complex coming-of-age as a Chinese American poet, influenced by US–Sino relations, the notorious Joseph McCarthy anti-Red and anti-China era of the 1950s, and the local status of being a person and writer of colour in a post-World War Two America during the past 70 years. The interview explores why Leong considers himself to be more a “man in a blue T-shirt” than a diasporic colonial in exile; how scholars in China view Chinese Americans, and Leong’s response in terms of his life, identity, and poetry; the relation between theory and practice in Leong’s work; how Chinese American works as “diasporic”; whether he was “orientalized” by studying Asian Americans; how he would characterize his own work; and how, as a fellow poet, Hart sees Leong’s work as a poet and visual artist. The interview ends with Hart’s “Musings on the Interview” and his sample close reading.