The Intersection of Decolonization and Linguistic Diversity in a Malaysian Chinese novel: Monkey Cup
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper explores the decolonization strategies in Zhang Guixing’s Monkey Cup through multilingual literary practices. Using Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s theory of linguistic decolonization, the study analyzes how the novel employs English, Chinese, and Dayak to reshape postcolonial cultural identity. Rather than absolutely rejecting colonial languages, the novel reconfigures power relations by marginalizing English marked by characters’ resistance and elevating Chinese and Dayak. Chinese anchors cultural memory and adapts to the Malaysian context, while Dayak becomes a poetic and critical force countering colonial stereotypes. The interplay of these languages forms a rooted cosmopolitanism that bridges tradition and modernity. Ultimately, the novel illustrates how linguistic pluralism can challenge colonial hierarchies and offer inclusive postcolonial alternatives beyond nationalism or globalization.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Statements and opinions expressed in articles herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the editors or publisher.
Article, information, text, image, etc. which are published in Journal of International Studies, belong to Journal of International Studies. If anybody or any organization would like to use part or whole of them, they must receive written permission from Journal of International Studies before usage.
References
Chua, B. H. (2008). Southeast Asia in postcolonial studies: An introduction. Postcolonial Studies, 11(3), 231–240.
Dalley, H. (2014). The postcolonial historical novel: Realism, allegory, and the representation of contested pasts. Palgrave Macmillan.
Huang, L. L. (2015). On the sensory writing in Zhang Guixing's Qunxiang and Houbei. Huawen Literature, (6), 110–116.
Huang, Y.-t. (2019). The settler Baroque: Decay and creolization in Chang Kuei-hsing’s Borneo Rainforest novels. In Y.-t. Huang & R. Weaver-Hightower (Eds.), Archiving settler colonialism: Culture, space and race (pp. 238–253). Routledge.
Jia, Y. (2016). Deconstructing colonial legacies: Rainforest civilization in Zhang Guixing’s fiction. Southeast Asian Review, 18(2), 189–204.
Jia, Y. (2018). Oscillating historical memory: Chinese pioneering history in Zhang Guixing’s Rainforest Trilogy. Sinophone Studies, 9(3), 142–163.
Jin, J. (2009). From exile in Taiwan to the return to the rainforest: The spiritual evolution of Zhang Guixing, a Malaysian Chinese writer in Taiwan. Taiwan Literature Studies, 15(2), 45–67.
Ngugi, W. T. (1987). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. Zimbabwe Publishing House.
Rojas, C. (2022). Becoming semi-wild: Colonial legacies and interspecies intimacies in Zhang Guixing's rainforest novels. Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature, 19(2), 438–453.
Zeng, L. (2013). Of course, the rainforest: Zhang Guixing’s localized writing. Southeast Asian Literary Studies, 24(3), 112–131.
Zhang, G. (2000). Monkey cup. Rye Field Publishing.
Zhang, H. (2023). Zhang Guixing: Crafting a Chinese ethnic totem in the land of scavengers. Asian Literary Studies, 34(1), 76–95.
Zhuang, H. X. (2005). Yang empunya cerita: A critical study on modern Malay literature. Youren Publishing House.
