| Summary: | This dissertation was conceived in response to the recent paradigm shift in ethnic studies from the dominant vertical model of minority-versus-majority opposition to horizontal networks of minor-to-minor interconnectedness. It explores the diverse representations of cross-ethnic relationships between Chinese immigrants, First Nations, and Black Canadians in Anglophone and Sinophone Chinese Canadian fiction. At the centre of this dissertation is an examination of the contested interstitial space between “transversality” and “ethnicity,” a space which reveals the continuous formation and transgression of permeable ethno-racial boundaries. This transethnic space challenges the multicultural frame that ignores and discourages the study of interactions and relations between visible minorities and First Nations. It provides a vantage point from which to survey the coexistence of horizontal interconnections and vertical hierarchies still entrenched in the horizontal networks, a reminder of the asymmetrical power relations between minority groups that persist either unrecognized or in less recognizable forms. The multiple forces of race, gender, class, and relations to the state push and pull minority groups toward or away from each other, forcing them to reposition themselves under changing circumstances. Through a multidirectional critique of these shifting positions, I attempt to rethink personal and political alliances in contradistinction to the minor-against-major polarity without ignoring the structural complexity within and the power imbalance between minority communities. The first part of this dissertation examines the long and complicated history of Chinese-Native relations, as reflected in the narratives of Chinese-Native romance. These narratives reveal the closely related yet also conflictual and divided positioning of the two communities in the settler-state of Canada, especially with regard to the ambivalent formation of national identity. The second part moves to Chinese-Black encounters in new immigrant literature. Taking into account the racial hierarchy of Canada and geo-political changes in Asia, this new immigrant literature reveals how Chinese-Black relationships are mediated by the global movement of ethnicized labour and transnational capital, demonstrating fluid processes of “whitening” and “blackening.” Reading Anglophone and Sinophone Chinese Canadian fiction in conjunction allows us to dispute a homogenous Chinese or Chinese Canadian subject position and presents us with a more complex picture of cross-ethnic relationships. Ph.D. 2018-02-12 00:00:00
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