Research work of Professor Fang-Mei Lin

Abstract

Sinophone (Chinese speaking) Studies was first fully explored by Professor Shih Shu-Mei at University of California with the intention of challenging China-centrism. Professor Fang-Mei Lin, Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan, is teaching and researching gender and nationalism, popular culture, post-colonial studies and Sinophone Studies. She is questioning and de-constructing the idea that a homogenous group of people who speak the Chinese language is Chinese and Sinophone Studies support this, emphasising the importance of place and location and specific social and historical backgrounds. Lin is also emphasising the importance of becoming native in the place one has settled down for decades or even centuries. The Chinese diaspora sent migrants across the globe and their descendants don't consider themselves to be Chinese, despite some of them still speaking and writing in Chinese. This concept is supported by a novella called 'Ambon Vacation,' written in Chinese by Singaporean writer Chia Joo-Ming, which Lin is exploring. She is also exploring the multidimensional history of the island Ambon and its important metaphors, with Ambon helping with reflections on the complicated history of migration, displacement and colonialism. Lin's approach to studying literature is sociological, with emphasis on the literary text in question as a symbolic construction was created, distributed and consumed in certain historical, cultural, economic and social conditions.