Yoruba-Chinese Ethical Intersectionality: Towards a Community of Shared Future in Afro-Asian Diasporic Spaces

Diasporic communities, as geographies of national cultures abroad, are central to cultural hybridity as new cultures emerge when migrants intersect with their host communities. They have also been construed by national governments as informal trajectories for continuities of economic and diplomatic relations. This study examines the cultural intersectionality of the Yoruba and Chinese diasporic communities by situating the points of convergence for normative ethics within the Yoruba – Chinese sociocultural experiences as cross-cultural templates for diasporic spaces serving to consolidate official national partnerships. The study explores case studies from performances of the Chinese Ru tradition, founded on three basic virtues of ren, yi and li, and juxtaposes them with Yoruba ethical equivalents of ṣ’ènìyàn (humaneness), òdodo (righteousness) and ìwà-ètọ́ ̣(propriety) as prerequisites for qualifying as omo ̣ lúàbí ̣ . The study contends that these ethical codes, retained in diasporic communities through family traditions, music and theatre, are viable templates for smooth Nigeria-China relations in building the proposed community of shared future within the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The Macanese Diaspora in British Hong Kong

Diaspora transformed the urban terrain of colonial societies, creating polyglot worlds out of neighborhoods, workplaces, recreational clubs and public spheres. It was within these spaces that communities reimagined and reshaped their public identities vis-à-vis emerging government policies and perceptions from other communities. Through a century of Macanese activities in British Hong Kong, this book explores how mixed-race diasporic communities survived within unequal, racialized and biased systems beyond the colonizer-colonized dichotomy. Originating from Portuguese Macau yet living outside the control of the empire, the Macanese freely associated with more than one identity and pledged allegiance to multiple communal, political and civic affiliations. They drew on colorful imaginations of the Portuguese and British empires in responding to a spectrum of changes encompassing Macau’s woes, Hong Kong’s injustice, Portugal’s political transitions, global developments in print culture and the rise of new nationalisms during the inter-war period.

Coloniality, Belonging and Citizenship Deprivation in the UK: Exploring Judicial Responses

In this paper, I interrogate the English case law on citizenship deprivation and its effects on the migrant and diasporic communities most affected by it from a critical postcolonial perspective. I explore how it forms part of state responses to national security that are rooted in racist imperialist ideologies. These underpinnings are ignored in law because such responses are supposedly reserved for exceptional circumstances. This has led to a lack of critical awareness of the wider damage they cause. The damage caused is compounded by the ways that citizenship deprivation constitutes a technology of the politics of belonging. It orientalises people, “othering” and dividing them into those who belong and those who do not based on their differences. This approach leaves racialised and minoritised citizens more vulnerable to losing their citizenship which is a deliberate form of control reminiscent of the longstanding behaviour of colonialist imperialists.

The Macanese Diaspora in British Hong Kong

Diaspora transformed the urban terrain of colonial societies, creating polyglot worlds out of neighborhoods, workplaces, recreational clubs and public spheres. It was within these spaces that communities reimagined and reshaped their public identities vis-à-vis emerging government policies and perceptions from other communities. Through a century of Macanese activities in British Hong Kong, this book explores how mixed-race diasporic communities survived within unequal, racialized and biased systems beyond the colonizer-colonized dichotomy. Originating from Portuguese Macau yet living outside the control of the empire, the Macanese freely associated with more than one identity and pledged allegiance to multiple communal, political and civic affiliations. They drew on colorful imaginations of the Portuguese and British empires in responding to a spectrum of changes encompassing Macau’s woes, Hong Kong’s injustice, Portugal’s political transitions, global developments in print culture and the rise of new nationalisms during the inter-war period.

Prologue: Between Empires

The colonial histories of mixed-race diasporic communities have often been linked to narratives of policy discrimination, strategic collaboration and collective resistance. Deviating from these themes, the experience of the Macanese diaspora in British Hong Kong offers us an opportunity to observe the constructions of race, class and culture as more nuanced than the colonizer–colonized polarity usually allows. Through the lenses of transimperial migration, identity contestation and cosmopolitanism and transnationalism, the collective biographies of middle-class Macanese individuals in this book combine to demonstrate the resilience of mixed-race diasporic communities in the face of normative reality and uncover the liberties they exercised on foreign soil in the search for wider opportunities, a better life, social status and power.

A Māori and Pasifika Label—An Old History, New Context

The term ‘Māori and Pasifika’ is widely used in Aotearoa, New Zealand to both unite and distinguish these peoples and cultures. As a collective noun of separate peoples, Māori and Pasifika are used to acknowledge the common Pacific ancestry that both cultures share, whilst distinguishing Māori as Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Pasifika as migrants from other lands in the Pacific region. The term ‘Māori and Pasifika’ is a ‘label’ established in New Zealand to combine the minority cultural populations of both Māori, and Pacific migrant peoples, into a category defined by New Zealand policy and discourse. Migration for Māori and Pasifika to Australia (from Aotearoa) has generated new discussion amongst these diasporic communities (in Australia) on the appropriate collective term(s) to refer to Māori and Pasifika peoples and cultures. Some believe that in Australia, Māori should no longer be distinguished from Pasifika as they are not Indigenous (to Australia), while others believe the distinction should continue upon migration. Through the voices of Samoan and Māori researchers who reside in Australia, insider voices are honoured and cultural genealogy is privileged in this discussion of the label ‘Māori and Pasifika’ in the Australian context.

Return of the Legend: Anatoly Kashpirovsky’s Treatment of COVID-19

The tensions between western scientific and alternative medicine become more palpable during times of uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a period of confusion, evoking mistrust of conventional medicine, which has been unable to fully protect people from this new disease. Gis situation has compelled some to seek help and comfort elsewhere. This article demonstrates how people in post-Soviet countries and post-Soviet diasporic communities resurrected their faith and trust in Anatoly Kashpirovsky, a legendary psychotherapist and charismatic leader who first rose to prominence in the USSR in the 1980-90s. On the basis of digital fieldwork conducted during the lockdown, I showcase how Kashpirovsky once again became popular in 2020 at a moment of global economic, social and political instability. While Kashpirovsky’s audience finds comfort in his professional training and medical experience, his YouTube “health sessions” offer treatments for COVID-19 that relegate him to the realm of folk healer, magician, or psychic.