Ecocriticism and Ecofeminism in Transnational Asian Speculative Fiction

As media attention turns towards Asia in this time of climate crisis, ecofascistic viewsmasquerading as ecoconsciousness have become increasingly seductive to a developedworld eager to allocate blame. More than ever, the field of environmentalism needs to berebalanced and shifted to account for—indeed, be colored in with—more international,non-Western and nonwhite perspectives and contexts. In this proposed project, I adopt an ecocritical and ecofeminist approach centeringfeminist, queer, and minoritized groups to examine transnational Asian speculativefiction as a response to climate change. In particular, I will analyze selected novelsaddressing pollution and toxic waste across different Asian contexts and show how Asiais connected to the world through toxic waste. By working with transnational Asian texts(in English and translation) such as Chang-Rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea, Ruth Ozeki’sA Tale for the Time Being, Chen Qiufan’s Waste Tide, Chi Ta-Wei’s The Membranes,and Yoko Tawada’s The Last Children of Tokyo, and by complementing text analysiswith relevant in-depth archival and site visit research, I aim to accomplish two goals.First, I want to debunk two myths about Asia’s environmental landscape—that it iseither an unspoiled Shangri-La or a waste site due to poor environmental stewardship.Second, I aim to reveal the existence of a more measured reckoning with climate andpollution issues in Asia and demonstrate how these texts transcend dystopic imaginingsof climate change, and how they may offer creative new ways to think about our currentclimate and environmental impact problems. This project will be the first in-depth study that brings together a wide range oftransnational East Asian writers who tackle issues of pollution and toxic waste throughspeculative fiction. At stake is a new cartography based on “toxic intimacies” thatsituates Asia within the global circulation of waste. By grounding these texts in sociohistoricaland material contexts using a cultural studies ethnographic approach, andconsidering them through contemporary ecocritical and ecofeminist approachesdeveloped by feminist, Asian, and woman of color thinkers, I will provide a new canon oftransnational Asian speculative ecofiction and develop an ecofeminist framework thattakes Asia as its center. This approach will firmly inscribe Asia as a core rather thanperipheral element of these theoretical frameworks, offering a more accurate globalhistory of literary environmental engagements.