The twenty-seven essays in this volume are the product of the Ninth Biennial Symposium on the Literatures and Cultures of the Asia-Pacific Region held in Singapore in December 1999. The contributions explore complicitous interactions between cultures, nations and people in the Asia-Pacific Region. Grouped into the three sections of «Asia-Pacific Relations», «The Politics of Identity» and «Language, Gender and Empowerment», these essays examine selected texts from countries which include Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Micronesia.