Interpreting Chinese diaspora heritage: a case study

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
Songshan (Sam) Huang ◽  
Betty Weiler
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Diaspora

Chang, Eileen (Zhang, Ailing) (1920–2005)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Shen
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Family History ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Eileen Chang ◽  
Zhang Ailing ◽  
Vernacular Fiction ◽  
The Family ◽  
Imperial China

Eileen Chang was one of the most unique and distinguished voices in early twentieth century China. Focusing mostly on intricate family and romantic relations in the colonial and urban settings, her early works bridge the divide between tradition and modernity by infusing the Chinese vernacular fiction tradition with modern sensibilities. Her bilingual writings in English and Chinese present a fascinating case study for cross-cultural translation in the context of immigration and Chinese diaspora. Eileen Chang grew up in a distinguished family of prominent politicians and military leaders during the last dynasty of imperial China. Many myths and memories about her famous ancestors would find their way into Chang’s essays, short stories, and novels. But the part of the family history that most affected Chang was the discord between her parents due to the divergent paths they had chosen between tradition and modernity. Her mother, a prototypical New Woman, left China when Eileen was two years old, and sojourned in Europe for a number of years.

scholarly journals Becoming a Confucian in Contemporary Singapore: The Case of Nanyang Confucian Association

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 854
Author(s):  
Chang Woei Ong ◽  
Khee Heong Koh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Chinese Identity ◽  
Cultural Affiliation ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Identity Based

Using the Nanyang Confucian Association (NCA) as a case study, this paper explores the multi-faceted processes through which a segment of Singapore’s Chinese community constructs its self-identity based on an understanding of Confucianism that dismisses its religious attributes while underscoring the ethnic and cultural dimensions. Tracing the history of the association since its formation in 1914, the paper hopes to contribute to recent overseas Chinese studies on the rethinking of the notion of the Chinese diaspora within the context of the formation, circulation, and contest of a global Chinese identity by asking the following questions: Does identifying with the Confucian tradition necessarily require one to acknowledge their connection with China? Would a self-proclaimed Confucian be perceived as someone who looks to China for ethnic and cultural affiliation and thus appears less local? The authors argue that, while still acknowledging the spatial–temporal centrality of China as the origin of Confucianism and Chinese civilization, leaders of the NCA clearly intended to simultaneously position the NCA at the center of global Confucian activism. What emerges from the processes initiated by the NCA in constructing its identity is a complex overlay of history, geography, and culture that gives rise to a vision of multiple centers.

Chinese communities of Paris: Integration, preserving identity

2021 ◽  
pp. 136-163
Author(s):  
Alexander Gordon ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Model Minority ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Chinese Community ◽  
French Society ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Southern Vietnam ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
Social Heterogeneity

The article examines specifics of integration of the Chinese diaspora into French society. The author identifies several Chinese communities, differing by the place of origin, such as «Indo-Chinese community» (from Southern Vietnam), «Wenzhou» (county in Zhejiang province), «Dongbei» (from the region of the same name of the PRC). The study reveals the influence of «push» («exodus» from Vietnam) and «pull» to the country of immigration («Wenzhou» and «Dongbei» communities) factors. The paper investigates social heterogeneity of the diaspora, from the «artisan proletariat» and small merchants to wholesalers and financiers. The author analyzes common features originating in cultural identity. The importance of ethno-cultural characteristics in the integration of the Chinese and their success (as a «model minority») is emphasized. The paper discusses the nature of anti-Chinese sentiments in French society (ressentiment). Using the case study of the Chinese diaspora, the author raises the question of the possibility of multicultural integration in contemporary France.

Curation as research. A case study in orphaned and underreported archaeological collections

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara L. Voss
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Innovative Research ◽  
Archaeological Collections ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common

AbstractAs archaeologists grapple with the international curation crisis, new attention is being given to the problem of ‘orphaned’ archaeological collections and collections that are underanalysed and underreported. The common rationale for curating such collections is to restore research potential, but such efforts are met with frustration because of the difficulties of re-establishing provenance and quantitative control for artefacts long separated from their original archaeological context. Moreover, most archaeologists view curation as a process that manages, rather than investigates, archaeological collections. To the contrary, this article argues that accessioning, inventory, cataloguing, rehousing and conservation are not simply precursors to research, but rather meaningful generative encounters between scholars and objects. Examples from the curation of the Market Street Chinatown archaeological collection illustrate how the process of curation can generate innovative research undertakings. Because archaeological research on this collection cannot proceed in a typical way, the research developed through the curation process departs from archaeological conventions to bring new perspectives on the social history of the Overseas Chinese diaspora.

Exploring Community Festivals In The Context of The Chinese Diaspora

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nanyi Nicole YU ◽  
Judith MAIR ◽  
Andy LEE ◽  
Faith ONG
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Complex Data ◽  
Chinese Community ◽  
Dual Identity ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
Community Solidarity ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
External Development

This exploratory case study investigated the organisers’ rationale for hosting a community festival for the Chinese diaspora and takes as its context the 2018 Brisbane Chinese Festival held in Queensland, Australia. Diaspora groups are in a paradoxical situation as they hold a dual identity, with a sense of belonging to their homeland and host land simultaneously, and thus festivals aimed at diasporic communities are culturally complex. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 15 Chinese community leaders living in Queensland who were festival organisers. The results show that organisers had reasons for both community internal and external development. The internal focused reasons include reinforcing Chinese community identities and increasing community solidarity and cohesiveness among different individuals and groups. The externally focused reasons include building a united image of the Chinese community, along with fostering social harmony between the minority diaspora groups and the dominant populations in a multicultural society. The research also demonstrated that defining and characterising the Chinese diaspora, which is acknowledged to be super-diverse, was highly complex, but that cultural identity was the key way in which members of the Chinese diaspora define themselves. Suggestions for future research using social capital as a potential theoretical framework are provided.

Push and Pull: a Case Study of the Dynamics of Chinese Diaspora Philanthropy

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-303
Author(s):  
Jiangang Zhu (朱健刚) ◽  
Yanchun Jing (景燕春)
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Guangdong Province ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Push And Pull ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Multiple Actors

Abstract The contribution of overseas Chinese to their ancestral homeland in China is an important topic for research. This article uses the concept of diaspora philanthropy to analyze the patterns and mechanisms of philanthropic giving by overseas Chinese to their ancestral hometowns or villages, also known as qiaoxiang. Based on an ethnographic study in Shunde, Guangdong Province, this article argues that Chinese diaspora philanthropy is not just based on a tradition based on the donors’ affinity, emotional ties, and personal relations to their hometowns, but is involved in the historical process organized and strategically orchestrated by multiple actors, including individuals, organizations, and the state. In this process, the associations of overseas Chinese and local governments in China, especial through the cooperation between local “qiao cadres” and leaders of oversea Chinese communities, play important roles in promoting philanthropy and bringing about desirable outcomes. The intersection of push and pull mechanisms in stimulating donor giving constitutes the basic dynamics of contemporary Chinese diaspora philanthropy. This is the reason why philanthropic giving from overseas Chinese continues to rise even as qiaoxiang have been already well developed.

Mission among the Chinese Diaspora: A Case Study of Migration and Mission

2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enoch Wan
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Global Mission ◽  
Sheer Size ◽  
Factual Data ◽  
Potential Forces

The dispersion of Chinese from the Mainland is a significant contemporary demographic phenomenon. Description and factual data regarding the Chinese diaspora are presented to show two missiological trends: The emergence of both mission opportunities among the dispersed and the potentials in mission participation by them. These two trends are significant in global mission due to the sheer size of diaspora Chinese among the unreached and their potential forces adding to the resources of global mission in the Two-Thirds World.

scholarly journals Abalone in Diasporic Chinese Culture: The Transformation of Biocultural Traditions through Engagement with the Western Australian Environment

Heritage ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Chen ◽  
John Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Immigrants ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Recreational Fishing ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
The West ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Ethnographic Methodology ◽  
Western Australian

In October 2017, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development of Western Australia (WA) promulgated a new regulation on recreational abalone harvesting. A notable change was that, from 2017 on, the annual fishing season in the West Coast Zone was reduced to four days, from every December on Saturdays only. During the last decade, WA’s abalone fishing regulations have been overhauled frequently because of depleting local stocks. Worldwide, the marine heatwave resulting from climate change and illegal overfishing are considered the two principal reasons for abalone’s decline. Today, the highly lucrative abalone market has attracted more participants in recreational fishing in Perth, WA. Based on Asian natural heritage traditions and employing a multispecies sensory ethnographic methodology, this article provides an in-depth case study of the interaction between the local Chinese diaspora and the environment as represented in abalone harvesting practices. Between 2014 and 2016, the authors conducted one-on-one and focus group interviews with Chinese immigrants to Perth, WA, and also participated in abalone harvesting. The analysis reveals a suite of environmental influences on local Chinese diasporic life through heterogeneous forms of interaction between abalone and Perth-area Chinese immigrants.

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