Global Spaces of Chinese Culture: Diasporic Chinese Communities in the United States and Germany

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Routledge, 2013 M09 13 - 238 pages

This book is an exploration of how Chinese communites in the United States and Germany create and disseminate a sense of diasporic Chinese identity. It not only compares the local conditions of the Chinese communities in the two locations, but also moves to a global dimension to track the Chinese transnational imaginary. Van Ziegert analyzes three strategies that overseas Chinese use to articulate their identities as diasporic subjects:

  • being more American/German
  • being more Chinese
  • hybridizing and commodifying Chinese culture through trans-cultural performances.

These three strategies are not mutually exclusive and they often intersect and supplement each other in unexpected ways. The author also analyzes how the everyday lives of overseas Chinese connect with global and local factors, and how these experiences contribute to the formation of a global Chinese identity.

 

Contents

Rethinking the Chinese Transnational Imaginary
1
Reflections on the 2000 Organization of Chinese Americans Convention
21
An Ethnography of the Lowell Chinese School
59
The Paradox of Impossible Return
93
Performing Chineseness for Self and Other in Lowell and Tilburg
129
Chapter Six Transcultural Performances of ChineseGerman Identity
169
Global Spaces of Chinese CultureFrom Cui Jian to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
201
Notes
211
Bibliography
219
Index
227
Back cover
231
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About the author (2013)

Sylvia van Ziegert holds a PhD in Anthropology from Rice University.

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