image of person or book cover 5451417124545548167.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon After China single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1992... 1992 After China
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'An architect exiled from China meets an Australian woman writer who is terminally ill. He tells her traditional Chinese stories as a way of overcoming time/mortality, and of coming to terms with his own difficult past.

'For a book which takes loneliness and death for its themes, After China has unexpected reserves of warmth, affection and humour. Insisting on the erotic, it is surprisingly delicate, restrained and chaste. And for a work of such diverse and eclectic reference it is rewardingly resonant and interconnected. The whole novel is thus a brilliant feat of balance.' (Publication summary)

Adaptations

After China Peter Copeman , 1998 single work drama

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 1992 .
      image of person or book cover 5451417124545548167.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 145p.
      Description: port. Brian Castro (cover).
      Note/s:
      • Published July 1992
      ISBN: 1863732438
      Series: y separately published work icon Allen and Unwin Original Fiction Allen and Unwin (publisher), Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 1990 7513778 1990 series - publisher
    • Adelaide, South Australia,: Lythrum Press , 2003 .
      Extent: xv, 159p.p.
      Description: port.
      Note/s:
      • Introduction by Katharine England
      ISBN: 0957996039
Alternative title: Ling Yi Pian Hai Tan
Language: Chinese
Notes:
English translation of the title: The Other Shore
Notes:
Translated from English into Mandarin.

Other Formats

  • Also braille and sound recording.

Works about this Work

The Wound That Does Not Heal : Brian Castro's Literary Career Shannon Burns , 2022 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , December vol. 81 no. 4 2022; (p. 188-195)

'Brian Castro dramatises and even valorises forms of literary and artistic failure throughout his fiction, but his body of work is a raging success by mortal standards. None of his novels disappoint on close inspection. Double-Wolf and Shanghai Dancing are endlessly rewarding; The Swan Book is gorgeously written and deeply moving; After China is conceptually neat, seductive and stylish. Others, such as Drift and The Bath Fugues, appeal to select readers but are dazzlingly rich and structurally brilliant. Even Stepper—which Castro sees as a relatively conventional spy novel—is a satisfying and affecting Nabokovian game. Every novel is stamped by a talent that induces envy as much as gratitude. You want to know what it feels like to write that way.' (Publication abstract)

Chinese Masculinity Redefined : Brian Castro’s After China Zhong Huang , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 4 2022; (p. 450-464)

'Influential Australian author Brian Castro has a mixed ethnic background that often identifies him as a multicultural writer. To Castro, however, this label imposes upon him a static identity he has long tried to break away from. His agenda is to unshackle himself from both the Australian and Chinese cultures he straddles. This effort is evidenced by his attempts to redefine Chinese masculinity in his novel After China. In Chinese masculinity studies, Chinese masculinity can be best understood in terms of the wen–wu paradigm—the wen ideal being conditioned by Confucianism. The male protagonist in After China, however, You Bok Mun, is influenced by Taoism and Western postmodernism in his expression of masculinity. Furthermore, while in traditional gender discourse masculinity is equated with sexual potency, in this novel, Castro eliminates sexual prowess from You Bok Mun's masculinity and replaces it with his ability to narrate stories. Although You Bok Mun experiences displacement and alienation in Australia, he does not intend to elevate his manhood for the purpose of being admitted into the Australian mainstream. Instead, he chooses to remain an outsider and uses this status to unsettle and challenge stereotypes of Chinese masculinity.' (Publication abstract)

Degrees of Transparency in Brian Castro's Birds of Passage and After China Marjorie Aambrosio , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Commonwealth Essays and Studies , Autumn vol. 35 no. 1 2012; (p. 73-82)
'This essay intends to highlight how Brian Castro's Birds of Passage (1983) and After China (1992) waver between transparency and opacity. It explores some of the techniques employed - among which a blurring of categories and a questioning of narratorial reliability - in order to create what Roland Barthes calls a "text of bliss" - one which challenges the limits of language as a means of communication.' (Author's abstract)
"Grammars of Creation” : An Interview with Brian Castro : 24 November 2008 Marilyne Brun (interviewer), 2011 single work interview
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies on Australia , vol. 2 no. 1 2011;
'This interview with contemporary Australian writer Brian Castro addresses a number of themes and concepts that are central to his critical work and fiction. In the interview, Castro discusses his oeuvre as a whole, providing insights into the starting point for his first eight novels. He comments on the concepts of transgression, hybridity, polyphonia, cosmopolitanism and play, underlining the central significance of grammar, ethics and aesthetics in his work. The interview also includes reflections on the development of Asian Australian studies and the importance of translating novels. In the final sections of the interview, Castro discusses the relation between his critical work and his novels and reflects on the common conflation of the novelist and the theorist in much literary criticism.' Source: Marilyne Brun.
Centres of Absence in 'After China' Bernadette Brennan , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Brian Castro's Fiction : The Seductive Play of Language 2008; (p. 69-93)
Breaking Conventions : A Double-Folding Fan Helen Daniel , 1992 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 142 1992; (p. 4-6) Australian Book Review , December-January no. 257 2003-2004; (p. 68)

— Review of After China Brian Castro , 1992 single work novel
When Hsiu Means Shu David Gilbey , 1992 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 142 1992; (p. 6-7)

— Review of After China Brian Castro , 1992 single work novel
About Books : China Matters Nicholas Jose , 1992 single work review
— Appears in: National Library of Australia News , September vol. 2 no. 12 1992; (p. 8-10)

— Review of Mates of Mars David Foster , 1991 single work novel ; The Hole Through the Centre of the World : A Novel Kevin Brophy , 1991 single work novel ; After China Brian Castro , 1992 single work novel ; La Mort de Napoléon Simon Leys , 1986 single work novel ; The Yellow Lady : Australian Impressions of Asia Alison Broinowski , 1992 single work criticism ; The Ancestor Game Alex Miller , 1992 single work novel
Untitled Joe Grixti , 1993 single work review
— Appears in: Imago : New Writing , August vol. 5 no. 2 1993; (p. 92-94)

— Review of Double-Wolf Brian Castro , 1991 single work novel ; After China Brian Castro , 1992 single work novel
Women in Water Rosemary Sorensen , 1993 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 52 no. 4 1993; (p. 778-783)

— Review of Soundings Liam Davison , 1993 single work novel ; After China Brian Castro , 1992 single work novel
Sheng ming Zai zao Yu Wen hua Chong jian : Ling Yi pian Hai tan 'Fan yi Suibi' Fen Liang , 1996 single work criticism essay
— Appears in: Otherland , no. 2 1996; (p. 157-159)
y separately published work icon Brian Castro's 'After China' : A Translation into Mandarin and a Study of the Novel's Linguistic and Social Contexts in Australia and China Fen Liang , Nedlands : 1997 Z1221640 1997 single work thesis
Shen fen yu chuang zao li: Jie du Bulaien Kasite de Zhongguo zhi hou Identity and Creativity: Reading Brian Castro's After China; 身份与创造力:解读布来恩·卡斯特的《中国之后》 Lili Ma , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Foreign Literature Studies , August vol. 28 no. 120 2006; (p. 97-102)

'中国之后>是澳大利亚作家布来恩·卡斯特有关中国的系列小说之一.在这部小说中, 卡斯特运用了后现代的多层叙述、故事重叠法,解构了传统的东方和西方、男性和女性形象.这里,中国人不再是被东方化了的"他者",而是被赋予新的性别身份,从而成为创造力的源泉,传承和联结两性文化以及东西方文化的载体.中国乃至亚洲文化,最终成为一个活生生地产生新的"混杂性"的发源地.'

Source: CAOD.

Diaspora and Identity : A Comparative Study of Brian Castro and Kazuo Ishiguro Yasue Arimitsu , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Beyond Good And Evil? Essays on the Literature and Culture of the Asia-Pacific Region 2005; (p. 133-142)
Centres of Absence in 'After China' Bernadette Brennan , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Brian Castro's Fiction : The Seductive Play of Language 2008; (p. 69-93)
Last amended 24 May 2018 08:34:08
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