The Sinophonecene in More-than-Asian Studies: Planetarity, Habitability, and the Cosmopublic

The Sinophonecene framework is intended to create a dialogue between Sinophone studies (and Asian Studies) and the critical scholarship on different concepts surrounding the Anthropocenes. From a multispecies perspective that addresses the human question beyond anthropocentrism, the author proposes the Sinophonecene as an aesthetic framework for engaging human–nonhuman relations under the planetary conditions of environmental degradation and climate crisis. This mode of generative inquiry includes three connected themes: planetarity, habitability, and the cosmopublic. Planetarity highlights a postanthropocentric approach to environmental issues as both locally grounded and simultaneously planetary. Meanwhile, habitability is conceived as a “response-ability” (Haraway) of addressing changes in human habits to enable a habitable planet where humankind cohabits with non-humankinds. Finally, the cosmopublic is a concept that aims to rethink human–nonhuman relations in a way that a network of solidarity between human and nonhuman beings can form to generate legible and legitimate forms of the political (that is, a postanthropocentric form of the political). Together with the scholarships on Asian Anthropocenes, “global Asias,” and critical Black Studies, the Sinophonecene mode of inquiry contributes to a new field of what I call “more-than-Asian” studies (combining both more-than-human and Asian studies) and expands the horizon of our critical reflections on human–environmental relations in “more-than-Asias.”