Global Imaginaries and Global Capital: Lawrence Chua's Gold by the Inch and Spaces of Global Belonging

In: Manusya: journal of humanities, Band 12, Heft 4, S. 49-69

Abstract

The unnamed narrator in Lawrence Chua's novel Gold by the Inch is multiply queered. He appears to the reader as a gay Thai/Malay migrant of Chinese descent living in the United States. As a traveler, his encounters with episodes of sexual desire lead him to different notions of belonging as his race, class, and sexuality travel with him, marking him as an out sider from one space to another. Likewise, every instance of mobility challenges his identity, allowing him to bear witness to unique forms of structural violence relative to whichever locality he happens to be in. In short, Chua's narrator is faced with oppressions based on radical assumptions by the outside world that utilize his race, gender, sexuality, and American cultural identity as indicators for an insurmountable cultural attitude.