Scripted Resonances: Han Écriture, Minor Literature and Vernacular Negotiation in Sinophone Asia

Abstract

This paper examines how the Han script, as a non-phonographic and ideographic writing system, has historically mediated linguistic diversity in East Asia and how it continues to function as a site of negotiation between standardized national languages and vernacular or subaltern voices. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s critique of phonocentrism and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s theory of minor literature, the study argues that the Han script resists the phonographic imperatives of modern nation-states by retaining semiotic elasticity. Through this capacity, it enables the co-articulation of dominant and minor languages, allowing alternative modes of voice and subjectivity to emerge within its scriptural space. Case studies from Taiwan, particularly the diasporic Chinese communities in Taiwan and China illustrate how Han écriture enables both subversion and accommodation of linguistic norms, as seen in Liām-kua, Mahua literature, and scriptal visuality. These examples show that Sinophone expression is not merely a reaction to central authority but often operates within a hybridized field of cultural production that exceeds binary oppositions. Rather than conceptualizing Sinophone texts solely as resistance, the article proposes a reframing of scriptal mediation as an arena of affective, performative, and visual negotiation. It offers a new account of East Asian modernity as shaped not only by state-led language reform or colonial influence but also by the persistent pluralism encoded in the materiality of script. The Han script thus emerges not as a static emblem of tradition but as a dynamic infrastructure through which linguistic diversity is continuously voiced, managed, and reimagined.