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Emerging Extravaganc e i n Diasporic Asia n Women's Writing Attractive straight white male/middle-aged busines s executive looking for that special httle/China Doll, preferably short, petite and obedient Objec t / to fulfi l typica l fantasie s o f th e stereotyp e o f Orienta l ladies/anxiou s t o marry a Canadian i n orde r t o ge t ou t o f Hong Kon g or/th e Philippine s and willing to do anything to pamper and please/her man Phot o required (C AUyso n Lee, "Recipe" 335) \ \ I hil e literatur e b y an d abou t hyphenate d Asia n V V masculinitie s i s onl y no w garnerin g seriou s theoretica l attention, Asian diaspori c women' s writin g ha s developed int o a recognisabl e body o f wor k Mor e specifically , i t i s Chinese women' s storie s tha t hav e become th e mos t associate d wit h 'Asia n women' s literature ' Characterise d by author s suc h a s Jung Chang , Amy Tan, and Maxin e Hon g Kingston , th e most visibl e work s ar e thos e writte n b y Asian-Americans an d distributed , in th e main , by multinationa l publisher s Th e gradua l developmen t o f Asian women's writin g i n Canad a an d Australia, then , i s partiall y eclipse d b y th e overwhelming amoun t o f Asian-America n publicatio n an d criticism , particularly alon g a feminis t axi s Becaus e o f this , mos t recognitio n o f hyphenated Asia n women' s writin g a s a body o f literatur e come s wit h th e pi ice o f eas y an d ofte n inaccurat e generi c categorisation s Th e assumptio n that Asian women' s storie s ar e necessaril y 'confessional ' narratives , ofte n i n the for m o f autobiograph y (albei t 'disguised' ) i s a stereotyp e tha t persist s This stereotype i s encouraged b y th e strongl y promote d Chines e revolutio n stories whic h ar e markete d a s seemingl y internationa l texts , not grounde d at all in nationall y contextuahse d literar y o r socia l structures Th e prevalenc e ISO Banana Bending of these publication s indicate s a market deman d fo r them , but t o shif t fro m reading Asian women' s text s onl y i n th e autobiographica l genre , o r simpl y retelling stories , allow s the m t o realis e th e oppositiona l element s foun d i n literature o f "Necessity" and "Extravagance" (Wong , Sau-Ling, Reading 13 ) Sau-hng Won g posit s thes e abstraction s a s rhetorica l opposites : Necessit y figures a s "contained , survival-drive n an d conservation-minded " wherea s Extravagance connote s "freedom , excess , emotiona l expressiveness , an d autotehsm" (13). For Asian-Canadian an d Asian-Australian hterature , I woul d configure Necessit y a s mor e apparen t i n recoverie s o f socia l an d politica l history, boosting representatio n fro m writer s o f Asian descen t o n th e literar y scene an d instigatin g communit y awarenes s an d activism . Particularl y fo r Asian women' s literature , havin g Extravaganc e a s th e dominan t not e configures a style o f hterature tha t ofte n shift s perception s o f Asian identitie s and gende r roles , playing with expectatio n an d reversin g voyeuristic readin g practices. The tw o facet s must , Wong argues , always accompany on e anothe r in theoretica l reading s o f texts . This dua l functio n bear s emphasisin g fo r Asian women' s text s because o f the one-dimensiona l readin g strategies ofte n used t o examin e thei r wor k Discussing 'Extravagance' in literatur e i s challenging fo r literar y analyse s of Asian-Canadia n an d Asian-Australia n writin g I t provide s usefull y overlapping discourse s outsid e th e...

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