the radical opposite of ‘‘emoting.’’ I dislike poems
that emote, the way I dislike make-up on a
woman for deceiving appearance. More and
more I am trying to discover an organic form
that is true to the particular moment of the par-
ticular poem, the simple plain inwardness of that
moment. A short story also possesses intensity
but that quality is more carefully and deliberately
rather than ‘‘spontaneously’’ wrought. One must
take care not to be writing poetry when writing a
short story, even as rhythmic and figurative lan-
guage plays a major part in how a story evokes
meaning and feeling. Prose has its own hard-won
pleasures from poetry, a different pacing and
staging for irony, ideas, and insights, a compul-
sory insistence on separate voices of characters,
their separate values and actions. Michel Bakhtin
is correct in noting that the novel (and the short
story) comes from a dialogic imagination that
incorporates heteroglossic and carnivalesque fea-
tures, while poetry—especially lyric poetry—
tends to work in a more monological manner.
As for academic writing, it belongs to a very
different universe of discourse. The imperatives
for citation, rigorous evidentiary argument,
some form of logical clarity, despite what
appears to be humanism’s total surrender to
the poststructuralist dogmas of undecidability,
indeterminacy, and contingency, all impose a
closed conventional structure where even writing
something differently becomes framed as play-
ing against such discursivity, that is, becomes
part of academic writing.
MAQ: Is California or Kuala Lumpur your
home turf? You left Malaysia to take up residence
in America more than thirty years ago but you still
seem to be ‘‘writing home’’—narrating Malaysian
life and experiences in many of your stories,
including your first novelJoss and Gold,which
is partly set in Malaysia and deals mostly with
Malaysian characters.
SL:Kuala Lumpur is definitely not MY
home turf; I am not delusionary. But neither is
California. As I had said earlier, my work is
deterritorialized, an ironic prior property for a
writer to whom ‘‘home’’ has been such a first-
order question and thematic.
Much of my imagination has been and con-
tinues to be located in my earlier experiences as a
Malaysian. After all, not only was I about 24
years old when I left Kuala Lumpur for Boston,
but I return home frequently to visit my numer-
ous brothers, relatives, and friends. The prospect
of spending a good part of my later years in
Malaysia is very much a possibility.
But I am a US citizen with an American
family. This is not to say that I have no home
turf or two. Imagination is a tricky power; it
refuses to stay in one or even two places.
My recent two years as Chair Professor of
English at the University of Hong Kong resulted
in a number of poems that, for the first time,
explore the question of a Chinese identity in my
individual and collective history. However, more
and more I find myself wanting to explore what
having lived in America, as you note, for over
thirty years means imaginatively.
MAQ: Really moving from Kuala Lumpur to
California has not changed your circumstances all
that much—it is like moving from one margin to
another, from being a Malaysian Chinese to an
Asian American, right?
SL:Your assumption is incorrect. The sta-
tus of a Malaysian Chinese is nothing like that of
an Asian American, because the two states have
very different constitutions and institutional
structures. What you imply, I think, is that
both identities are marginal. But they are identi-
ties embedded in very different socio-political
economies and rights. Asian Americans do not
face a constitutional restriction on their rights as
citizens. Prejudice and racism are as present in
the United States as they are anywhere, but
actions proven to arise from these evils are
legally prohibited. The rights of minorities are
protected by the constitution, and although
there is no utopia here, no internal security act
bans struggles for a more equal and just union.
Of course the ISA applies equally to ALL
Malaysians, regardless of ethnicity. As a US
citizen, I can open my big mouth, and I some-
times do, without fear of losing my job, losing a
promotion, or losing my liberty.
However, Chinese Malaysians are not a
marginal community in Kuala Lumpur as they
are here in California. While Chinese Malay-
sians are not the majority community, neither
are they marginal to the nation, its history, cul-
ture, and economy the way that Asian Ameri-
cans still are in the United States.
That is, my circumstances as an equal
national citizen here make me part of the Amer-
ican mainstream, whereas in Malaysia, I would
be a marginalized citizen. But my ethnic position
here makes me part of a very marginal ethnicPantoun for Chinese Women