James Poy Wong's Essays

Compared to all of Wong’s writings, this genre is the least productive in quality and may be strictly disqualified as literary criticism when evaluated by academic standards. This is especially the case for the pieces published in the 1940s. With application of such rigorous criterion, these writings would be categorized more generally under “literary thoughts” on this page, despite the writer himself having specifically identified these essays as “literary criticism”.

However, from the viewpoint of understanding the historical development of overseas Chinese literature, or to a lesser extent, the significance of Chinatown literary production and culture, Wong’s essays in their unprofessional form and content are straitened windows to the world of a diasporic intelligentsia whose members from various, disadvantageous backgrounds had earnestly sought to build a literary circle outside of China. A memorable case in point is the piece in which Wong disguised as another writer with a different psuedonymn and wrote a literary critique of his own work to invite or encourage further discussion within the confined literary community. The writer recalled that such a tactic was used between the writings of his friends as well to achieve the same eager attempt of creating waves within a placid literary pond within the ethnic enclave.

Value of historical significance within this dimension could also be extended but not limited to tracing sources of influence that some overseas Chinese writers had from literature within China and beyond. Similarly, unique perspectives of such effort to build a literary movement among overseas Chinese could also be found in the pieces written in early ‘70s, prior to the proliferation of another movement recognized through the literary works by students from Hong Kong and Taiwan, the Foreign Student Literature (liuxuesheng wenxue 留学生文学).

Articles Published in 1970s and 1940s

Title		Summary
	"What Is Overseas Chinese Literature?"	Through a comparative analysis of three poets’ works to illustrate the literary theory of “gap” or “no-gap” by Wang Guowei, Wong presents an important perspective of what could be considered to be and as good overseas Chinese literature.
	“Xiaonong and 'Calling from the East Coast' ”	With a brief history of interaction between Wong and Xiaonong, the author of an one-act play “Calling from the East Coast”, as well as a reading of the play, this piece reflects thoughts and desires of two generations that sought to see a revival of the cultural landscape of Chinatown communities.
	"The Question of Developing Chinese Literary Garden"	Another thought provoking correspondence between the author and his friend focusing on the topic of “for whom” a piece of work is written and the larger question of the role of literary production in society.
	"Criticism Is Needed"	An important discussion that reflects how the author believes in the necessity of literary criticism for overseas Chinese literature as a guide to further develop this field of literature.
	"A Critique of the Performance of ' Expectation’ "	Relatively longer than other pieces of criticism that the author has written on radio drama, this writing presents various aspects of this form of art popular among the 1940s generation.
	"Weekly Talk on Art: Appreciation and Criticism"	Drawing on the theory of Zhu Guangqian, a Chinese theoretician of aesthetics of the May Fourth generation, Wong concisely illustrated the connection among art creation, appreciation, and criticism.
	"Weekly Art Talk: Chinatown Drama Cannot Rise"	This piece discusses the general historical circumstances surrounding the state of development of Chinatown dramas.
	"A Critique of Works by Li Li"	Despite many flaws in this piece of critique, it is valuable in reflecting the author’s times, inexperience in writing literary criticism, personal values and aspiration towards literary production.
	"A Critique of 'Mr. Wang' "	This is another piece reflecting the author’s eagerness to promote literary criticism for Chinatown literary writings as a way to elevate overseas Chinese literature as a whole.
	"A Critique of 'Christmas Gift' "	An important writing to document how the author had attempted to promote literary development in overseas Chinese literature by writing a critique of his own short story.
	"A Critique of 'New Species' "	Despite various shortcomings of Wong’s inexperienced approach to writing literary thoughts, this short piece provides a glimpse at other meaningful works at the time.
	"A Critique of Works by Lu Wei"	Moving beyond generalization of details concerning a given work, one could learn valuable information from this piece: the direct sources of influence from May Fourth writers of China for overseas writers like Wong himself, the limitation of writing within the medium of short short story, and persistent literary themes of critique against corrupt society.
	"Criticism and Commentary"	Through this piece, Wong clearly expresses a strong stance for writers to be against public figures who are self-interested and the obstacles of social progress.
	"Such A Life"	A short piece of critique of a play “Such A Life” that also includes information and thoughts about the development of drama in the Chinatown literary community.
	“A Publicized Invitation” & “A Publicized Reply Letter”	Provoked by the author’s first criticism of the play “Such A Life”, these published short pieces- an invitation and a reply letter- reflect what could be literary debates that took place within the Chinatown literary community at the time.
	"A General Critique of Radio Drama"	Despite the critique summing up only general views regarding six plays, the collective review adequately reflects sincere eagerness to advance the development of radio drama within the overseas Chinese community at the time.

James Poy Wong 黃培正

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