...speaking Chinese', therefore, has become a personal political issue to me, an existential condition which goes beyond the particularities of an arbitrary personal...constructed as a lack, a sign of loss of authenticity. This, then, is the reason why I felt compelled to apologize that I have written this text in English...

...translating for them. Language has always been a central problematic in the politics of diaspora.14 len Ang argues that her inability to speak Chinese...lack, a sign of loss of 'authenticity' " (Ang 1994, 11). The privileging of Chinese languages in the official meetings of the Convention clearly reinscribes...