I am a final year English Literature PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, where I am particularly interested in North American and Pacific Literature. My background prior to beginning my PhD includes an MScR in Postcolonial Literature, where I focused on the East Asian diaspora within New Zealand Literature. My work has always been interdisciplinary, as I am particularly interested in discussing how literature and history intersect, and how it is of huge benefit to utilise literature with regards to understanding history.

With regards to literature, the lives of the East Asian diaspora within Australia, New Zealand, and Canada is wholly under-researched; historically there have been steps taken, but literary wise there is a lacking quantity of academic critique. The aim of this research is to discuss the representation of East Asian diaspora (predominantly the Chinese and Japanese diaspora, although the Korean diaspora has a brief mention too) within this literature – but above all, this research is focused on how the outbreak of war affected the identity of said diasporas. For the Chinese diaspora, they had historically been marginalised in these nations both verbally and legally; yet in the First and Second World War China was now allied with the Anglophone nations. In contrast, the Japanese diaspora (whilst still facing racial discrimination) were more welcomed than the Chinese; yet in the Second World War, the Japanese were at war with Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. For people already wrestling with the

complications of a dual national identity, how did war exacerbate that complexity?

This research aims to discuss that question by utilising both historical research and social theory, but through the lens of literature written and set in the three Anglophone nations mentioned.

In her novel Chappy, Patricia Grace writes “Even after he became fluent in their
language, the questions they put to him – Who is your mountain? Who is your river? Who are your ancestors? Who is your name? – were never answered. ” In many ways, this quotation summarises the sense of in-between that the East Asian diaspora were made to feel in the twentieth century in Anglophone nations; this sense of not feeling a true sense of belonging there, but at the same time having spent so much time away (if ever having lived there at all) from the country of their heritage that there was a feeling of not belonging there either. The question of East Asian diasporic identity and belonging is one which has been undertaken from a historical perspective, but there is a distinct lack of research on this area from a literary perspective.

This research focuses on the East Asian diasporic experience through literature from three Anglophone nations – Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. All three nations have an intricate history regarding British rule, and in the 20th century developing as countries which were now independent but still felt a strong degree of loyalty to Britain. All three nations additionally have similar histories regarding East Asian migration, with the beginning of migration occurring in the Gold Rushes of the 1800s and steadily increasing into the early 1900s.

Due to East Asian migration to Canada being predominantly on the West Coast, the
three nations additionally have the commonality of experiencing the Second World War very much in the terms of the Pacific Theatre. It is through the lens of war that this research is focused; not only how did East Asian identity shift and change in the 20th century, but how did war affect that sense of nationhood and identity? As well as analysing this historically, this research pulls on sociological theory – in particular that of Benedict Anderson’s Nation Theory, where linguistics plays a large role in representing a sense of nationhood and belonging.

AUSTRALIA

The texts selected for the Australian research are The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013) by Richard Flanagan and The Divine Wind (1998) by Garry Disher. These novels provide the opportunity to discuss white Australian identity juxtaposed against Japanese-Australian identity; and, in The Narrow Road to the Deep North’s case, Korean identity against Japanese identity, and how being occupied by Japan affected the Korean diaspora.

We see the importance of nation through Flanagan writing about how the soldiers “tried to hold together with their Australian dryness and their Australian curses, their
Australian memories and their Australian mateship”; how holding onto being collectively Australian, and being part of something bigger than themselves is key to
maintaining motivation throughout the war. Meanwhile, in The Divine Wind, there is a
Japanese-Australian character named Mitsy who we are shown struggles with feeling
both Japanese and Australian simultaneously, and this is exemplified by the quotation “I sensed that I’d said something right this time […] to acknowledge the Japanese side of Mitsy’s nature.” Being seen as both Australian and Japanese is something which was next to impossible for Japanese-Australians due to legislation during the Second World War, and The Divine Wind explores the difficulties with that.

NEW ZEALAND

With New Zealand, one of the texts is a novel set during the Second World War (Chappy (2015) by Patricia Grace) whilst another is set during the First World War (As The Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong (2009)). The reason for this highlights the very reason such literary research needs to be undertaken – there are not New Zealand novels (barring Chappy) which focus on East Asian diasporic experience during the Second World War. However, this provided the opportunity to broaden the scope of research to both World Wars, which turned out to be key regarding New Zealand’s experience in the First World War at Gallipoli (a terrible campaign which was a turning point for New Zealanders feeling definably separate to Britain).

In Chappy, there is the opportunity to discuss Japanese-New Zealander relationships with Māori characters, and how both groups were marginalised within New Zealand
society; but also the way in which Japanese and Chinese diaspora were mistaken for
one another, protecting Chappy somewhat as “They all think you’re a Chinaman. ”
Meanwhile, in As The Earth Turns Silver, we look at white New Zealander relations with the Chinese diaspora, where Wong explores racism at the turn of the 20th century.

CANADA

Both Obasan (1981) by Joy Kogawa and The Jade Peony (1995) by Wayson Choy are set in the Second World War; but whilst Choy is focused on the Chinese diaspora, Kogawa is focused on the Japanese diaspora. Kogawa’s narrative goes beyond the war, showing how internal displacement affected Japanese-Canadians long after the war ended, whilst Choy’s narrative takes place during the war, and highlights both Chinese-Canadian experiences and Chinese-Canadian and Japanese-Canadian relationships during the Second World War.

Both authors utilise nation theory throughout his novel, writing how his characters use “a mixed-up kind of English and Chinese” to emphasise how blended their world is as both Canadian and Chinese. Kogawa’s protagonist, Naomi, meanwhile only speaks English fluently, used to emphasise just how cruel her isolation as a Japanese-Canadian is; she knows nothing except being Canadian, yet is treated like a traitor because of her heritage. These linguistic decisions provide the opportunity to deeply analyse how language represents nationhood.