Becoming Global Asia
Contemporary Genres of Postcolonial Capitalism in Singapore
Cheryl Narumi Naruse
Winner of the 2025 Association for
Asian American Studies Literary Studies Book Award
“Becoming Global Asia is an important addition to transpacific work in Asian American studies.”
Journal of Asian American Studies
“Naruse’s profound interpretive insights have emerged at a moment in which the political and disciplinary stakes of her interventions could not be higher.”
ariel: A Review of International English Literature
My first book, Becoming Global Asia: Contemporary Genres of Postcolonial Capitalism in Singapore, was published with the Transpacific Studies series at University of California Press in 2023.
In this book, I bring a historical materialist reading practice to a wide-ranging literary and cultural archive in order to theorize the role of postcoloniality in the making of global capitalism.
In doing so, Becoming Global Asia offers a rethinking of the dynamics of empire and neoliberalism from the context of Singapore.
Considering including Becoming Global Asia in your classes?
Becoming Global Asia will be appropriate for courses on
- contemporary postcolonial/marxist literary criticism and theory
- diasporic Asian and Asian American literary criticism and theory
- global Asia studies, transpacific studies
- global capitalism and globalization
- genre studies
It is a book that can show students how to work at the intersections among postcolonial studies, political economy, Asian American studies, Asian (area) studies, and ethnic studies.
If you are thinking of assigning specific chapters:
Chapter 1
The Cultural History of Singapore Literary Anthologies
good for classes on postcolonial/anglophone literary history, print culture, publishing studies, politics and aesthetics of translation
Chapter 3
Coming-of-Career Narratives, the Postcolonial Work Ethic, and the Promise of a New Nation
good for classes on labor/work culture, migrant workers, inter-Asian cultural politics (key literary texts: Hwee Hwee Tan’s novel, Mammon Inc, Anthony Chen’s feature film Ilo Ilo)
Chapter 2
Overseas Singaporeans and Their Uses
good for classes on print culture and periodicals, biopolitics, Asian diasporic literature (key literary text: Jeremy Tiang‘s short story collection, It Never Rains on National Day)
Chapter 4
The Princess Fantasy of Singapore
good for classes on popular/contemporary culture, Asian diasporic/American literature, film and adaptations, Orientalism, gender (key literary text: Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians and its filmic adaptation)
Fun Facts
I rewrote the introduction fourteen times.
About two thirds of the book is new material.
The revision of my dissertation into a book took a total of nine years.
I moved six times int he course of revising my dissertation into a book. Three of those moves were across the Pacific.
Chapter Four took me nearly two years to write.
I changed the title seven times.