This book comprises a selection of poetry and prose by 25 Australian writers whose experience of China is reflected in their work. The writing covers the period from 1988 to 2018, four decades from the Australian bicentenary year of 1988, when migration from the mainland of China to Australia increased markedly, to the present, when China’s resurgence in wealth and power makes it a major partner in many areas of Australian life.
The writers included in this anthology have lived through that transformation which is reflected in their life experience, their travels, their encounters and relationships, and in their work. The experience of China is cultural too, through engagement with Chinese language, art, literature and philosophy, as it comes to be present in new writing. In making the selection, we have understood ‘transcultural’ to include the commitment to create something new from the coming together of different cultural formations. The writing is open, curious, experimental, inventive and full of feeling. It invites further dialogue and response. It imagines other worlds and alternative possibilities. It enriches and enlivens the literature of Australia and China as it does so.
The collection features writing from: Kim Cheng Boey, Lachlan Brown, Felicity Castagna, Brian Castro, Tom Cho, Eileen Chong, Robert Gray , Nicholas Hasluck, Linda Jaivin, Gail Jones, Nicholas Jose, John Kinsella, Julie Koh, Bella Li, Isabelle Li, Miriam Wei, Wei Lo, John Mateer, Jennifer Mills, Ouyang Yu, Glen Phillips, James Stuart, Jessie Tu, Beth Yahp, Alexis Wright and Fay Zwicky.
