Being/Not Being at Home in the Writing of Zhu Tianxin

Abstract

Constructing home is a nostalgic, postmodern endeavor associated with the waning of colonialism. With decolonization, the passing of the old order of colonialism and/or neocolonialism brought into being new nationhoods that present varying degrees of the accommodation of difference. New Zealand is an example of a postcolonial nation in which the political representation of white males, women, Maoris, other ethnic minorities, homosexuals, and transsexuals represents a relatively balanced articulation between universality and particularity.¹ Such a nation approaches Laclau’s and Mouffe’s conception of a radical democracy that is defined by pluralism and the acceptance of the constitutive character of antagonisms.² Elsewhere, statehoods are less accommodating, and, because of a lingering authoritarianism or the rise of nationalism, result in displacement or the migration of nationals overseas.