Yanshuo Zhang (University of Michigan)

Home to fifty-five officially recognized ethnic minority groups, China has witnessed a vibrant blossoming of multiethnic literature produced by its non-Han groups in the reform era. In Western scholarship, such multiethnic literary voices have remained largely silent and understudied. Drawing from her first book manuscript, in this talk, Dr. Zhang will offer a critical and timely introduction to Chinese ethnic minority literature from a global perspective. Particularly, she will demonstrate how literature produced by ethnic groups of southwest China seeks to forge a "transnational tribal solidarity:" minority poets articulate their connections to Native American cultures and Latin American literary influences.