The Inherent Contradiction of Sinoglossia

This short essay reflects on the inherent tensions afforded by the notion of Sinoglossia in conjuring a cultural politics of Chineseness that breaks free from the presumed centrality of “China” in diasporic modes of Sino-representation. These tensions are implied in the very prefix “Sino,” tensions from which one can only partially escape by pairing “Sino” and “glossia.” I illustrate this through a discussion of the case of proliferating Chinatowns around the world in a time when China is an increasingly hegemonic global superpower.