AustLit

'Antipodean China was born from a decade of cross-cultural literary exchange between the Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University and the Chinese Writers’ Association. It features writings from a wide spectrum of literary figures including writers, poets, translators, and critics, who positively engage with issues of difference in the cross-hemispherical other while envisioning connections between the two countries from a literary perspective. This is embodied in the multi-chapter dialogue between Alexis Wright and the Tibetan writer Alai, which re-imagines the parameters of nation and locality in literary writings.' (Introduction)

'Australia and China: the two terms are so fluid, so contested, yet inescapably denotative – the China of the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the diaspora? The Australia that does not exist? Antipodean China, born of intercultural dialogue and exchange, goes against the typical hubris of the global north. Despite enjoying the freedom, power and privilege to learn from other cultures at its cosmopolitan leisure, Australia can often barely be bothered to understand one – whereas the global south, by necessity, must learn about northern cultures alongside its own (and often many others besides). In its inherent concern for this conundrum – and its vanishingly rare appreciation for issues of cultural essentialism and syncretism – Antipodean China practically sells itself.' (Introduction)