Shen Congwen, Faulkner, and a Hong Kong Story

This is a hybrid and experimental essay that brings together Shen Congwen and William Faulkner, discussing their different and intriguing attitudes toward "location" and "dislocation." It also highlights an episode in the reception of Faulkner in 1990s Hong Kong. The Hong Kong story questions conventional reception studies, which typically focus on tracing the lineage of a particular writer's arrival and translation, as well as exploring that author's universal appeal. It also challenges recent developments in reception studies, which have been shaped and somewhat limited by academic trends and theoretical approaches such as postcolonialism. This essay demonstrates that both fail to account for many fascinating moments of cross-cultural communication. In addition, it addresses the author's personal and intellectual affinity with the idea of the South, a concept that is never monolingual and is constantly being translated, negotiated, and performed.