Rassegna degli studi anti-essenzialisti sulla produzione letteraria sino-malaysiana e sino-americana

In this article, I present some authoritative critical works which deal with the literary production of Ethnic Chinese in Malaysia and the United States from an anti-essentialist perspective. My review is divided into two parts that focus respectively on the two above-mentioned countries. In each section, I first illustrate the studies that mainly examine ethno-essentialist representations in the literary texts, then I show how selected critics discuss gender issues taking into account relative racial factors. My aim is both to suggest some valid theoretical tools and to caution against an orientalist approach which still affects today’s Chinese studies.