Cirrus@Austlit

This paper intervenes in the ongoing debate about the nature of Asian Australian Writing, a debate that started sometime circa 2000s and seems to have gathered some force with the putative rise of global Asia. In its early stages, the referent for this academic debate was Asian-American Studies and whether or not it made sense for such a trans-Atlantic term to be applied to the Antipodean region. In the last decade, Australia’s position within the Asian geo-political region has been increasingly articulated with respect to bilateral exchange with its immediate neighbours, mainly in the arena of trade and security. Writing this essay in 2012, it seems that the two strands, the academic and the geographical, have strategically merged to define the parametres of Asian Australian Writing. [First paragraph of the article]