| ID | 178511 |
| Title Proper | Engendering Tionghoa nationalism |
| Other Title Information | Female purity in male-authored Sino-Malay novels of colonial Java |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Chin, Grace V.S |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The recurring trope of female purity holds an important place in the Sino-Malay literature of colonial Java from the late 1910s to the 1930s, a turbulent and transformative sociopolitical period that also saw the rise of Tionghoa (Chinese) nationalism in the Dutch Indies. Used mainly by male writers who dominated the Sino-Malay literary scene, the gendered trope features polarised femininities — the archetypal virtuous Tionghoa girl, and the Westernised modern girl who defies Confucian traditions — and reflects the male perspectives and sexism of the time. I contend, however, that the trope reveals ideological motivations that go beyond patriarchal concerns, as it is also employed to articulate and perpetuate nationalist and anti-colonial ideas and views. Using theories of gender and nation as well as anthropological concepts of purity and pollution, I examine how the female body's inscribed purity draws on embedded epistemologies of race and gender to represent Tionghoa identity and nationalism in two male-authored Sino-Malay novels, Liem Hian Bing's Valentine Chan atawa rahasia Semarang (1926) and Tan Chieng Lian's Oh…..Papa! (1929). As my readings show, female purity as a nationalist ideology validates Tionghoa masculinity as the defender and guardian of not just woman's virtue, but also of an imagined morally and culturally superior Tionghoa nation. |
| `In' analytical Note | Journal of South East Asian Studies Vol. 52, No.1; Mar 2021: p.110 - 132 |
| Journal Source | Journal of South East Asian Studies 2021-03 52, 1 |
| Key Words | Colonial Java ; Engendering Tionghoa Nationalism ; Female Purity ; Sino-Malay Novels |