Mirroring Chineseness: Racialized Reflections and Violence in Diasporic Jianghu Restricted; Files Only
Dong, Aobo (Summer 2024)
Abstract
Mirroring Chineseness: Racialized Reflections and Violence in Diasporic Jianghu explores mechanisms of violence and racialized forms of mirroring in the Chinese diaspora. Extending the traditional jianghu metaphor (“rivers and lakes”) commonly found in pre-modern Chinese literature and contemporary martial-arts films to the diaspora, my dissertation conceptually links anti-Chinese violence Chinese communities have endured in North America and Indonesia to their unique subject-positions as inhabitants of multiple life-worlds in jianghu. Specifically, I argue that members of Chinese diasporic communities are uniquely susceptible to arbitrary and perverse characterizations because of their perceived affiliations with foreign powers and exotic concepts. Living in between culturally distinct spaces—including Chinese churches and spas—and normative society at large, Chinese and Chinese-looking bodies become convenient targets of anti-Asian hate and political scapegoating.
Drawing from critical theoretical texts by Tom Boellstorff, Eric Hayot, and René Girard, my dissertation advances a theory of racialized mirroring occurring in jianghu that often allows Chinese-looking individuals to be instrumentally used as a body-double by a non-Chinese observer to advance a personal, political, or intellectual desire. In Chapter 1—“The Twin,” I re-examine the sensational 2012 murder case of queer Chinese student Lin Jun, whose tragic death and dismemberment at a Montréal apartment was overshadowed by the media’s obsession with his narcissistic killer—Luka Magnotta. In Chapter 2—“The Villain,” I revisit conservative Chinese churches’ campaigns against same-sex marriage since the early 2000s, focusing on their “homophobic villain” image perpetuated by the media and more progressive Asian American organizations. Such political scapegoating is also prevalent in the sacrificial scenes in “The Vessel” chapter that features cases of mass violence in Indonesia. I argue that ethnic Chinese took on a plethora of affiliations—allowing them to be sacrificed for nationalist desires. Finally, in Chapter 4—“The Demon Goddess”—I return to the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, focusing on how the perpetrator, Robert Aaron Long, cowardly used Asian women as a mirror that mediated and reflected his sexual struggles.
Combining close textual readings with ethnographic research, my project offers an alternative framework for interpreting violence and fantasies directed at Chinese diasporic communities in jianghu.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
CHAPTER 1: THE TWIN
Lin Jun, Queer of Color Negativity, and the Making of Jianghu in Canada---------------------------------37
CHAPTER 2: THE VILLAIN
Sailing against the Currents: Chinese Evangelicals and Sexual Politics-----------------------------------88
CHAPTER 3: THE VESSEL
Archipelagic Mimesis: Murmurs and Memories in the Indonesian Chinese Diaspora--------------------135
CHAPTER 4: THE DEMON GODDESS
Hate Crime Troubles in the 2021 Atlanta Spa Shootings Case -------------------------------------------203
CONCLUSION----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- 240
BIBLIOGRAPHY------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------250
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File download under embargo until 21 August 2030 | 2024-07-19 23:12:00 -0400 | File download under embargo until 21 August 2030 |
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