Page 10 - On Not Speaking Chinese Living Between Asia and the West

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Much of this work has been made possible by an Australian Research Council Large
Grant on ‘Reimagining Asians in Multicultural Australia’, which I received jointly
with Jon Stratton. I thank Jon for being such a stimulating and searching intellectual
companion throughout the decade. Short-term residencies at the Obermann
Center for Advanced Studies, University of Iowa, the Center for Cultural Studies,
University of California, Santa Cruz and the Centre for Advanced Studies, National
University of Singapore at different times during the past decade have enabled me
to concentrate on reflecting and writing. I thank all those involved for making this
possible. I also thank all those who have over the years invited me to numerous
conferences, seminars, workshops, etc., where I had the opportunity to present
early versions of the essays collected in this book.
Over the years, many friends and colleagues, old and new, have been around
for conversation, discussion, camaraderie, guidance, the sharing of work, fun and
frustration, discovery of new horizons, or simply getting my act together. I cannot
mention them all, but here I wish to especially thank (for reasons I hope they
know): Jody Berland, Michael Bérubé, Charlotte Brunsdon, Rey Chow, Chua
Beng-huat, James Clifford, Jane Desmond, Virginia Dominguez, Rita Felski,
Simryn Gill, Mitzi Goldman, Helen Grace, Ghassan Hage, Koichi Iwabuchi, Elaine
Lally, Lisa Law, Jeannie Martin, Iain McCalman, Dave Morley, Meaghan Morris,
Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Bruce Robinson, Mandy Thomas, Zoë Sofoulis, Yao Souchou
and Anna Yeatman. I also thank Rebecca Barden from Routledge – now Taylor and
Francis – for her always reliable support. The University of Western Sydney,
especially through my colleagues at the Research Centre in Intercommunal Studies
– now the Institute for Cultural Research – has been a wonderful place for pursuing
new intellectual avenues in a time of rampant restructuring and diminishing
resources. Last but not least, I thank Ian Johnson for distracting me from finishing
this book, if only by taking me in entirely different directions . . .

Earlier versions of some chapters were published in the following places. I remain
grateful to the editors who first included my work in their publications:

Chapter 1 was first published as ‘To Be or Not to Be Chinese: Diaspora, Culture
and Postmodern Ethnicity’, in South-East Asian Journal of Social Science, vol. 21,

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