On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West

Leading cultural thinker Ien Ang engages with urgent questions of identity in an age of globalization and diaspora. Ang reflects upon tensions between 'Asia' and 'the West' at a national and global level, and considers the disparate meanings of 'Chineseness' in the contemporary world. Ang then turns to 'the West', exploring the paradox of Australia's identity as a 'Western' country in the Asian region, and tracing Australia's uneasy relationship with its Asian neighbors, from the White Australia policy to contemporary multicultural society. Finally, Ang draws together her discussion of 'Asia' and 'the West' to consider the social and intellectual space of the 'in-between', arguing for a theorizing not of 'difference' but of 'togetherness' in contemporary societies.

Ien Ang is Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Institute for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.