Suchergebnisse

Books reviewed in this article:Lynn Pan (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Chinese OverseasLynn Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor: A History of the Chinese DiasporaSharon K. Hom (ed.), Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, and Poetry

The Chinese diaspora is compelled either to prostrate to an edifying project of assimilation to U.S. liberal democracy, or be branded as illiberal "Red Guards" unfit for serious political discourse. This discursive context has long mobilized overseas Chinese to affirm the universalism of Western liberalism in opposition to a Chinese despotism defined either by dynastic backwardness or communist depravity. Can overseas Chinese speak for themselves in the face of the West's "hegemonic right to knowledge?" Or will all such speech that challenges U.S. presuppositions of liberal selfhood and Chinese despotism simply be tuned out as illiberal noise?

This article is a further contribution to the discourse of ethnic 'diffusion' in European countries. The debate started on the pages of the Baltic Region journal by three authors - Yu. N. Gladky, I. Yu. Gladky, and K. Yu. Eidemiller [4]. We assume that Europe has been a major centre of attraction for immigrants in recent decades and a site for the rapid emergence of ethnic communities. Unlike Muslim immigration, a product of the Arab Spring and often a measure of last resort, Chinese immigration is a result of a certain convergence between the ideologies of the host countries, committed to multiculturalism, and the country of origin pursuing a 'go global' policy. We chose the EU countries as a 'demonstration site' and the Chinese diaspora as the object of research. Our aim is to describe the process of migration from China and the formation of a Chinese diaspora in European countries. We analyse the timeline and the scope of Chinese immigration, qualitative changes in the composition of immigrants, factors affecting the choice of the country of entry, and the quantitative parameters and settlement patterns of today's Chinese diaspora in the region. We suggest grouping the EU Countries by the number and 'age' of their Chinese diasporas. We consider ethnic 'diffusion' as part of the 'European project' within Beijing's global strategy.

Through a comparative study of two films, The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians, the article elaborates how Chinese diaspora films use Mahjong's cinematic symbolism and cultural significations to negotiate Chineseness in different ways. In particular, three differences between the two films are analysed. The first one is the different attitudes of the female protagonists towards Mahjong as well as the Chineseness embodied by it. The second concerns the disparate presences of Mahjong in films made by mainland China-based filmmakers and Chinese diasporic filmmakers due to Mahjong's differed historical trajectories and sociocultural implications. The last one is about the distinct goals the two film directors set when they employ Mahjong to (re)construct their identity and Chineseness on the part of the Chinese diaspora. This article concludes that Chineseness is not a monolithic and rigid category, but rather a chameleonic formation that is contextually and individually determined; moreover, in the age of globalization when coexistence and interdependence are valued more than mutual-resistance, the dynamic nature of Chineseness necessitates a more hybrid and critical identity framework: in-betweenness.