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Color around the Globe: Langston Hughes and Black Internationalism in China

Publication ,  Journal Article
Lai-Henderson, S
Published in: MELUS
June 1, 2020

Langston Hughes was the first African American writer to set foot on Chinese soil. Having visited Mexico, Europe, and West Africa before he turned twenty-two, Hughes eventually also made his way to the Soviet Union, Japan, and China in 1933. At the age of thirty-one, he accomplished what none of his contemporaries or predecessors had been able to achieve-to rewrite the public image of African Americans in the Chinese cultural and intellectual imagination. Crucially, his visit to China pushed beyond the limits of black internationalism as he responded to American and European global hegemony through using China as an experimental ground. At a time when the Soviet Union held center stage in communist revolutionary thought, Hughes's Chinese encounters challenged the assumption within the American and African American communities that China was largely irrelevant in the discourse of proletarianism. The internationalist perspectives that he obtained from the sojourn offered him a powerful tool to communicate the struggles of black citizenship at home in a global context. It stimulated a racial consciousness that defied national, geographical, and political boundaries of the US color line.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

MELUS

DOI

EISSN

1946-3170

ISSN

0163-755X

Publication Date

June 1, 2020

Volume

45

Issue

2. Oxford UP.

Start / End Page

88 / 107

Publisher

Oxford UP

Related Subject Headings

  • 4705 Literary studies
  • 2005 Literary Studies
 

Citation

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Lai-Henderson, S. (2020). Color around the Globe: Langston Hughes and Black Internationalism in China. MELUS, 45(2. Oxford UP.), 88–107. https://doi.org/10.1093/melus/mlaa016
Lai-Henderson, S. “Color around the Globe: Langston Hughes and Black Internationalism in China.” MELUS 45, no. 2. Oxford UP. (June 1, 2020): 88–107. https://doi.org/10.1093/melus/mlaa016.
Lai-Henderson S. Color around the Globe: Langston Hughes and Black Internationalism in China. MELUS. 2020 Jun 1;45(2. Oxford UP.):88–107.
Lai-Henderson, S. “Color around the Globe: Langston Hughes and Black Internationalism in China.” MELUS, vol. 45, no. 2. Oxford UP., Oxford UP, June 2020, pp. 88–107. Manual, doi:10.1093/melus/mlaa016.
Lai-Henderson S. Color around the Globe: Langston Hughes and Black Internationalism in China. MELUS. Oxford UP; 2020 Jun 1;45(2. Oxford UP.):88–107.
Journal cover image

Published In

MELUS

DOI

EISSN

1946-3170

ISSN

0163-755X

Publication Date

June 1, 2020

Volume

45

Issue

2. Oxford UP.

Start / End Page

88 / 107

Publisher

Oxford UP

Related Subject Headings

  • 4705 Literary studies
  • 2005 Literary Studies