This practice of “writing back” is also demonstrated in the humor and laughter in the novel, though as will be discussed later, the effect of the laughter is questionable. In post-colonial writings, the function of humor and laughter is largely associated with its liberating and subversive effects released from the colonized as opposed to the dominance and hegemony of the colonizers. Among the theories of humor, Bakhtin’s concept of carnivalisque laughter is often appropriated by critiques of post-colonial cultural production. In his notion, carnivalisque laughter is “universal, liberating, and revitalizing” and it discredits the stratification and distinction between the high and the low. The laughter is associated with what he calls the “grotesque body,” which embodies the regenerating spirit derived from the lower stratum of the body that is “deeply positive” and “something universal, representing all the people.” In the case of Rose, humor also has a subversive power, as exemplified in Dong’s fart which is “linked to the body, especially to those functions which are officially tabooed and not allowed to manifest themselves.”
I damn near puked, with
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From the Korean War onward, Taiwan was incorporated into America’s military deployment in East Asia in Cold War. It was provided financial help for fifteen years which fundamentally transformed and influenced not only Taiwan’s economy but every aspect of society. Taiwan also assisted America’s war efforts in Vietnam not only in military but also by participating in the R&R program to earn foreign exchange and showcase its economic achievement. What remains unspoken in the history is the action and discourse of selling women for the purpose of nation building through the complicity with America’s neocolonial