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y separately published work icon The English Class single work   novel  
  • Author:agent Yu Ouyang http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/ouyang-yu
Issue Details: First known date: 2010... 2010 The English Class
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'At the end of the Cultural Revolution in China in the late 1970s Jing, an educated youth (zhishi qingnian) who has spent a few years as a peasant in the countryside, becomes a truck driver in a provincial shipyard. He manages to teach himself English in adverse circumstances while driving his truck, eventually passing the examination to get into the English Class at Donghu University. There, he meets with classmates from vastly different cultural backgrounds and falls in love with Deirdre, the estranged partner of Dr Wagner the English teacher. This engaging and masterful novel explores the aspiration of many to migrate to English speaking countries. Like much of Ouyang's work it subtly deconstructs the mechanisms of colonialism against an increasingly vibrant Chinese economy. The vivid fictional life of a Chinese truck driver who aspires to the western life is beautifully and evocatively realised.' -- From the publisher's website

Notes

  • Dedication: To Zuo Zhen who gave me the tongue to create a second tongue.

  • Epigraph:

    At night he stands up, the distant call of birds
    already deep inside him; and feels bold
    because he has taken all the galaxies
    into his face, not lightly-, oh not like someone
    who prepares a night like this for his beloved
    and treats her to the skies that he has known.
    -Rainer Maria Rilke
    The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke

    to have lived
    through one solitude to arrive at another,
    to feel oneself many things and recover wholeness.
    -Pablo Neruda
    The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

    I couldn't make love in English
    -An unnamed interviewee
    Quoted in Kachru, Asian Englishes

    So much takes place in the head, so little is known and fixed.
    -Jonathan Raban
    Soft City

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Yarraville, Footscray - Maribyrnong area, Melbourne - West, Melbourne, Victoria,: Transit Lounge , 2010 .
      image of person or book cover 649610233409452158.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 397p.
      Note/s:
      • Published August 2010
      ISBN: 9780980571783
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Other Formats

  • Braille.
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Related Works

The English Class Yu Ouyang , 2005 extract novel (The English Class)
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 50 no. 2005; (p. 275-278)
The English Class Yu Ouyang , 2007 extract novel (The English Class)
— Appears in: Review of Contemporary Fiction , Fall vol. 27 no. 3 2007; (p. 102-108)
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (2)

Works about this Work

Thought Is Free Yu Ouyang , 2022 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Meanjin , September vol. 81 no. 3 2022; (p. 56-64) Meanjin Online 2022;
Bilingualism and Cultural Translation : On the Dilemma of Migration in Ouyang Yu's 'The English Class' Beibei Chen , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 63 no. 2 2018; (p. 174-184)

'This essay elaborates on Ouyang Yu's novel The English Class (2010) from the perspective of bilingualism, and demonstrates how this text tackles the dilemma of Chinese migrants as they face choices in language and identity. In the context of a mobilised world of migration, diaspora and globalisation, forms of memory and perceptions of language are dramatically changed. Both language and memory cross borders in the process of migration.' (Introduction)
The Confusion of Bilingualism : On the Dilemma of Migration in Ouyang Yu's The English Class 双语的错乱——论欧阳昱小说《英语班》的移民困境 Beibei Chen , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: 华文文学 , no. 2 2017; (p. 52-57)

'随着全球一阵又一阵的移民潮,语言和记忆也跨越边境,流亡异国.很多理论家,社会学家以及人类学家都曾经对语言和记忆的流动性从不同的视角做出过解释,近年来,双语主义与移民身份,跨国境记忆与归属感都逐渐成为了文化研究和移民文学研究的热点.基于上述背景,该论文将从语言,记忆和身份三个视角分析欧阳昱的长篇小说《英语班》.小说集中反映了以京为代表的移民群体的三个困惑:我是谁;我为什么在这里;我的文化根基在哪里.京对于两种语言的矛盾,反映了他对于自己文化身份摇摆不定的定义.这部小说通过京的语言习得和移民经历,显示了生活在两种语言和文化中的移民群体所面临的种种矛盾和尴尬境地.'

Source: CAOD.
y separately published work icon Representations of Memory and Identity in Chinese Australian English Novels Supervisor Beibei Chen , Canberra : 2015 18594841 2015 single work thesis

'This thesis argues that one of the main characteristics of contemporary Chinese Australian literature in English language is its heavy focus on memory and identity. In order to prove this claim, the thesis analyses five English-language novels written by Chinese Australian writers from the period 1990-2010.'

Source: Thesis abstract.
Book Review : The English Class Michael X. Savvas , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 6 no. 2 2014;
— Review of The English Class Yu Ouyang , 2010 single work novel
Untitled Sandy McCutcheon , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 4 -5 September 2010; (p. 24)
— Review of The English Class Yu Ouyang , 2010 single work novel
Untitled Jackie Tang , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , September vol. 90 no. 2 2010; (p. 31)
— Review of The English Class Yu Ouyang , 2010 single work novel
Language Comes to Life Peter Pierce , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 30-31 October 2010; (p. 34)
— Review of The English Class Yu Ouyang , 2010 single work novel
Sally Fitzpatrick reviews The English Class by Ouyang Yu Sally Fitzpatrick , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , October no. 8 2010;
— Review of The English Class Yu Ouyang , 2010 single work novel
Ingenuity Stumbles in Artifice Peter Fuller , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 12 February 2011; (p. 24)
— Review of The English Class Yu Ouyang , 2010 single work novel
Bilingualism and Cultural Translation : On the Dilemma of Migration in Ouyang Yu's 'The English Class' Beibei Chen , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , November vol. 63 no. 2 2018; (p. 174-184)

'This essay elaborates on Ouyang Yu's novel The English Class (2010) from the perspective of bilingualism, and demonstrates how this text tackles the dilemma of Chinese migrants as they face choices in language and identity. In the context of a mobilised world of migration, diaspora and globalisation, forms of memory and perceptions of language are dramatically changed. Both language and memory cross borders in the process of migration.' (Introduction)
The Confusion of Bilingualism : On the Dilemma of Migration in Ouyang Yu's The English Class 双语的错乱——论欧阳昱小说《英语班》的移民困境 Beibei Chen , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: 华文文学 , no. 2 2017; (p. 52-57)

'随着全球一阵又一阵的移民潮,语言和记忆也跨越边境,流亡异国.很多理论家,社会学家以及人类学家都曾经对语言和记忆的流动性从不同的视角做出过解释,近年来,双语主义与移民身份,跨国境记忆与归属感都逐渐成为了文化研究和移民文学研究的热点.基于上述背景,该论文将从语言,记忆和身份三个视角分析欧阳昱的长篇小说《英语班》.小说集中反映了以京为代表的移民群体的三个困惑:我是谁;我为什么在这里;我的文化根基在哪里.京对于两种语言的矛盾,反映了他对于自己文化身份摇摆不定的定义.这部小说通过京的语言习得和移民经历,显示了生活在两种语言和文化中的移民群体所面临的种种矛盾和尴尬境地.'

Source: CAOD.
y separately published work icon Representations of Memory and Identity in Chinese Australian English Novels Supervisor Beibei Chen , Canberra : 2015 18594841 2015 single work thesis

'This thesis argues that one of the main characteristics of contemporary Chinese Australian literature in English language is its heavy focus on memory and identity. In order to prove this claim, the thesis analyses five English-language novels written by Chinese Australian writers from the period 1990-2010.'

Source: Thesis abstract.
Thought Is Free Yu Ouyang , 2022 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Meanjin , September vol. 81 no. 3 2022; (p. 56-64) Meanjin Online 2022;
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (10)

Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (5)
Last amended 29 Jan 2021 08:23:00
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