Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5297-7065
Abstract
To criticize exploiting water as an extractive resource and to provide an alternative way of engaging with water, I highlight the philosophical “undercurrents,” the hidden threads of Taoism and Indigenous streams of thinking in Chinese Canadian poet Rita Wong’s undercurrent (2015). Central to water-based ecological thinking, the notions of reciprocity and resilience are important components within both Taoist and Indigenous water philosophies. The confluence of Taoism and Indigenous ways of knowing water is key to understanding Wong’s hydro-poetics and hydro-politics. I further adopt “fluid solidarity” to address the dynamic and complex allyship between Chinese Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. I argue that Wong’s undercurrent challenges Euro-Western environmental dualisms while fostering cross-cultural alliances between Chinese Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. Taoist and Indigenous streams of thinking aim to replace extractive uses of water with generative ones. They are in the spirit of alternative ecological thinking to ease climate injustice and environmental degradation, particularly the human-made water crises that plague Indigenous Peoples and racialized communities the most.
Recommended Citation
He, Yiyi
(2026)
"Fluid Solidarity: The Taoist and Indigenous Water Philosophies in Rita Wong's undercurrent,"
Kritika Kultura:
No.
49, Article 6.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13185/1656-152X.2245
Available at:
https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss49/6
