Inscribing China: Australian Fictional Representations 1979-1989

<p>China, the so-called 'enigma of the Orient', has challenged the Western</p><p>imagination for centuries. 'From the earliest traveller's tales, to reach Europe', the</p><p>Australian novelist and diplomat Nicholas Jose notes, 'to Voltaire and Coleridge,</p><p>and on to the present day, China as strange, curious, awe-inspiring Cathay has</p><p>attracted writers as a realm for tall tales, fantasy and the revelation of profound</p><p>mysteries, a fabled zone of difference.'1 As China has emerged as a power to be</p><p>reckoned with politically and economically, the Western world's interest in it has</p><p>increased. In Australia, for instance, Asianists have come to the fore in intellectual</p><p>circles, and a 'new wave of interest and activity is occurring' . Books about or</p><p>referring to China have been published with increasing frequency. With the</p><p>appearance of critically acclaimed novels such as Alex Miller's Miles Franklin award</p><p>winner The Ancestor Game (1992) and Brian Castro's After China (1992), the</p><p>judgement that 'China has attracted writers, and turned people into writers, but has</p><p>not helped to produce masterpieces', perhaps needs revising.</p><p> </p>