Exploration In Exile

As a descendant of the Chinese immigrants, Yuandian committed himself to the core problem--cultural identity. For Yuandian, literature is not only a simple record of his personal life experience, but also a way to seeking and asking identity. In different periods, Yuandian wrote his confusion and loss during the seeking in different styles and different subjects of literature, searching and harvesting. Yuandian’s writing history is also an exploring history, in which he chased after his cultural identity in a heterogeneous cultural space. Writing is just that his soul probes to the eternal home.In general, Yuandian’s identity, with his literary creation, has gone through three phases. The first stage was Yuandian’s nonage youth. During this period, Yuandian mainly devoted himself to the political identity of Singapore’s socialist reform. His debut "Youth Cry" recorded Yuandian’s enthusiasm and disappointing to participate in Singapore’s socialist reform, struggling and confusing; The second stage is called "the wandering abroad" period. In this period, Yuandian began his Seeking Cultural Roots Tour, coming northwards to China. "Written in Chinese poem" witnessed the joy of Yuandian for the first coming to China, but also implied that Yuandian connected with the mother country’s culture turning to fail inevitably. Afterwards, Yuandian wandered to Hong Kong, launched a 19 -year’s confrontation with Hong Kong in this commercial society, "Hong Kong scenery" depicted that Yuandian adhered cultural identity in the heterogeneous culture; The third stage was that Yuandian returned Singapore. During this period, Yuandian chose to convert to Christianity, purificating and redempting the individual life in faith, and creating the novel "Exploring Trilogy". He returned to Singapore as a Christian writer.Yuandian’s literature demonstrates the urgent desire of culture re-joining the overseas Chinese with mainland home country, and this connection fails. All of these typically reproduced the diaspora of their own identity confusion and exploration, both longing but also alienated with the mother country’s culture embarrassing situation, as well as localization of Singapore literary efforts and attempts to show the self-identity of overseas Chinese in the rough and bumpy road, confusion and harvesting.