Multiculturalisms, Mistranslations and Bilingual Poetry: On Writing as a Chinese

摘要

This paper foregrounds the writing self, as well as the practice of creative writing and translation, as a function of an array of interrelated cultural, political, linguistic and institutional influences at work in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. As a creative writer, who flirts with translation (or mistranslation) rather than a scholar of translation studies, I am very much intrigued by the poet-translator's revisionist role as an interpreter. This paper also explores the situation of bilingualism; it is also a reflection on how my bi-locational situation in Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as my cultural, linguistic and geographical proximity to mainland China, affect my creative practice.