首发于《收获》长篇小说专号的《唐人街》是一部描写海外华人非法移民的长篇小说。这些小人物、偷渡者、边缘人群的故事,如果放在宏大的民族国家的视野之下,也可以看做是一套关于家国想象的叙事。本文从作为序列的时间、作为空间想象的时间和作为轮回的时间三个角度,阐述《唐人街》时间概念对于处于社会底层的海外华人在想象中建构祖国所起到的作用。正是这些时间上的概念,在内在逻辑上把小说中的各色人物和他们形形色色的故事连结成了一个有机的整体。这些时间概念,对于这些底层人民的自我认知,也起到了重要的作用。 Chinatown, which debuted in The Harvest no., Is a novel about illegal immigrants from overseas Chinese. The story of these little people, stowaways and marginalized people can also be regarded as a set of narratives about the imagination of the home country if they are placed under the ambitious vision of a nation-state. This article elaborates the role of “Chinatowns” time concept in building a motherland in the imagination of the overseas Chinese who are at the bottom of society from three aspects: time as a sequence, time as a space imagination and time as a reincarnation. It is these time concepts that inherently logically combine the various characters in the novel with their various stories into an organic whole. These concepts of time have also played an important role in the self-awareness of these underprivileged people.