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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
Other Formats
- Also braille and sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Degrees of Transparency in Brian Castro's Birds of Passage and After China
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)
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"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'
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Brian Castro's Fiction : The Seductive Play of Language 2008; (p. 69-93) -
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》
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
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)
-
Breaking Conventions : A Double-Folding Fan
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 1992 single work novel -
When Hsiu Means Shu
1992
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July no. 142 1992; (p. 6-7)
— Review of After China 1992 single work novel -
About Books : China Matters
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 1991 single work novel ; The Hole Through the Centre of the World : A Novel 1991 single work novel ; After China 1992 single work novel ; La Mort de Napoléon 1986 single work novel ; The Yellow Lady : Australian Impressions of Asia 1992 single work criticism ; The Ancestor Game 1992 single work novel -
Untitled
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: Imago : New Writing , August vol. 5 no. 2 1993; (p. 92-94)
— Review of Double-Wolf 1991 single work novel ; After China 1992 single work novel -
Women in Water
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 52 no. 4 1993; (p. 778-783)
— Review of Soundings 1993 single work novel ; After China 1992 single work novel -
Sheng ming Zai zao Yu Wen hua Chong jian : Ling Yi pian Hai tan 'Fan yi Suibi'
1996
single work
criticism
essay
— Appears in: Otherland , no. 2 1996; (p. 157-159) - y Brian Castro's 'After China' : A Translation into Mandarin and a Study of the Novel's Linguistic and Social Contexts in Australia and China 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》
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
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'
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Brian Castro's Fiction : The Seductive Play of Language 2008; (p. 69-93)
Awards
- 1993 shortlisted NBC Banjo Awards — NBC Banjo Award for Fiction
- 1993 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
- 1993 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
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cChina,cEast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,