This thesis employs a Sinophone literature perspective to examine ghost narratives in ten Chinese-language novels published since 2010, originating from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Chinese mainland. It highlights liminality as a point of intersection between these narratives, prompting reflections on the significance of Sinophone Studies in the context of literature and cultural studies.

This thesis argues that Taiwanese ghost narratives strategically utilize the anachronistic nature of ghosts and incorporate various cultural symbols to engage in “worlding,” aiming to articulate “Taiwaneseness” amidst multiple layers of colonization. Hong Kong ghost narratives, on the other hand, re-examine the contemporary significance of disappearance discourse, prompting reflections on Hong Kong’s in-betweenness amidst recent social turmoil. Malaysian Chinese ghost narratives, adopting a “post-Chineseness” perspective, contemplate the identity construction of local Chinese within a transnational framework. Meanwhile, mainland Chinese ghost narratives, through “fabulation,” interrogate the essence of history and reality, continually reshaping the contemporary significance of China/the Central Plains. By meticulously analyzing the novels under discussion, this study reveals that ghosts in these ten texts not only embody anachronism, différance, and in-betweenness but also unveil the connotations of liminality.

The liminality depicted in these texts resonate with Sinophone communities worldwide as they navigate the complexities of negotiating between Chineseness and localness, serving as active bases for the construction or expression of various Chinese identities. The inspiration derived from this active agency for researchers lies in realizing that the essence of Sinophone does not reside in binary judgments of belonging or non-belonging but rather in an epistemological innovation.

Diverging from the approach that views Sinophone as a category excluding literature from the Chinese mainland, this thesis embraces Sinophone as a method to explore the diversity, fluidity, and complexities inherent within the Sinosphere. It seeks to unveil the richness obscured by the oversimplification of the term “Chinese” in Western discourse, which often imposes violent categorizations, thus neglecting the nuanced realities of cultural production and expression.