As China grows, the diaspora starts to flex its muscle

assis104s · Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 144

As China's power grows, the diaspora starts to flex its worldwide muscle

Poverty once drove their mass emigration, but the overseas Chinese now revel in the status and wealth of their homeland

Already 2008 has proved a tumultuous year in terms of global perceptions of China, and there are still 59 days to go until the Beijing Olympics. The tragedy of the Sichuan earthquake followed hard on the heels of the riots in Tibet and the demonstrations surrounding the Olympic torch relay. Sympathy and compassion, combined with admiration for the rescue efforts of the Chinese government, served to soften the harsh memory of the riots in Lhasa and the blue-tracksuited Chinese officials. The world is having a crash course on China.

Inevitably, our view of these events is shaped by our western mindset. The problem is that as the global centre of gravity tilts away from the west, it is becoming increasingly important to look beyond our assumptions and gain a wider picture. We failed miserably in this respect on the Burma cyclone, behaving as if all that counted were western attitudes and aid, and only belatedly recognising that the key to unlocking the junta's resistance was the cooperation of its neighbours, together with the UN. In our indignation over Tibet we also largely failed to notice that in a large majority of cities the demonstrations in support of the Olympics were much bigger than those against.

True, in London, Paris, Athens and San Francisco pro-Tibet demonstrators greatly outnumbered those expressing support for the games. In Canberra, however, 10,000 demonstrated in favour of the games, hugely outnumbering the protesters. In Seoul thousands turned out in support, as they did in Nagano in Japan, in both cases dwarfing the number of protesters; likewise in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Hong Kong. Everywhere, those demonstrating support for the Beijing games were overwhelmingly comprised of Chinese - either students from the mainland or people from the local Chinese community.

The Chinese diaspora is long established in many countries, sometimes dating back to the 19th century, or much earlier in south-east Asia. It is often very diverse, combining several-generation settlers from Hong Kong and southern China with a large wave of new migrants, many poor and illegal; growing numbers of students; and those connected with China's burgeoning overseas economic interests, who are especially to be found in the countries around its borders. It is estimated that there are now at least half a million Chinese living in Africa, most of whom have arrived very recently. There are more than 7 million Chinese in each of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, more than 1 million each in Burma and Russia, 1.3 million in Peru, 3.3 million in the US, 700,000 in Australia and 400,000 in this country - about 40 million in all, which is almost certainly a considerable underestimate.

Notwithstanding the diversity of their communities - in terms of origin and length of stay - the overseas Chinese enjoy an extremely strong sense of shared identity as well as a powerful attachment to China, feelings that tend to override regional and political differences. This affinity finds expression in many ways. The overseas Chinese have played a crucial role in China's economic growth, providing the lion's share of inward investment since the late 1970s. According to the World Bank, in 2007 China received more remittances - nearly $26bn - than any other country except India.

In the case of many diasporas, those living overseas tend to enjoy greater prestige than those at home; the reverse is true of the Chinese. Status emanates from the Middle Kingdom, to the extent that more recent migrants tend to enjoy higher esteem than longer-established members of an overseas community. Until recently, indeed, China tended to look down upon those who had left its territory, but since the reform period began almost three decades ago the government has increasingly come to value Chinese overseas communities and sought to establish closer cultural and economic links with them.

It is not difficult to imagine the pride that many overseas Chinese take in China's rise. After two centuries during which their homeland was synonymous with poverty and failure, it has risen to a position of great global prominence and allure in a remarkably short space of time. Television channels the world over are pouring out programmes about China, and in many countries people are signing up in large numbers to learn Mandarin. Not surprisingly, the gravitational pull exercised by China on its overseas communities has increased markedly as a result. My son's Sunday Mandarin school decided to cancel lessons for the day in order to proudly join the London festivities for the Olympic relay. For them China was coming home and being embraced by their adopted city. There was genuine delight in China's achievement and the global recognition that the Olympics signified.

In taking to the streets in so many cities and in such large numbers in support of the Beijing Olympics, the overseas Chinese proved a powerful political force both in their adopted countries and for the Chinese government. This kind of phenomenon, of course, is neither new nor particularly Chinese: diasporas in many countries have long played a significant role in support of their homeland, the most striking recent example being that provided by the Jewish diaspora for Israel.

The Chinese diaspora, however, has three characteristics that together mark it out as distinct. First, it is numerically large and spread all around the globe, from Africa to Europe, east Asia to the Americas. Second, for historical and cultural reasons, it enjoys an unusually strong identification with the Middle Kingdom. Third, China is already a global power and destined to become perhaps the most powerful country in the world. And as its rise continues, as Chinese worldwide interests grow exponentially, the Chinese diaspora is likely to expand greatly; become increasingly prosperous, buoyed by China's own economic success; enjoy growing prestige as a result of China's rising status; and feel an even closer affinity with China.

Even then, however, to retain a sense of historical proportion, the Chinese diaspora will remain far less influential than the European diaspora. Such is the latter's ubiquity and longevity that we tend to take it for granted, often even failing to recognise its existence, let alone its huge influence and unique nature. Unlike the Chinese diaspora, whose growth hitherto has overwhelmingly been driven by China's poverty, the European diaspora was largely a function of Europe's colonial expansion. The European diaspora's most important monuments are those countries in which white settlers managed to establish themselves in the majority, once they had effectively eliminated the host population; namely the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Today we habitually speak of the west and the western world, but these, in fact, are more or less synonymous with Europe and its diasporic lands, or what the economic historian Angus Maddison describes as "western offshoots". That west, as we are aware, has dominated the world for the past 200 years. However powerful China might become, it seems inconceivable that its diaspora will ever exercise the kind of influence that Europe's has.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/11/china.comment

Jeff Minter · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 319

chunxueping · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 474 Location: Surrey, UK

Its because they try to relate us to something they know so they think “being Chinese” is like “being jewish.” Because we a bit different, maybe like different foods, family is important, worry about ancestors and celebrate different things, an uninformed opinion could well be “Oh Chinese, it must be a bit like being jewish.”

Certainly my view of China been recent immigrant is different to people born here. I tend to daydream of China and enjoy going back but see is steadily grown “alien” to me. My English get better and Mandarin get worse. On last trip I decide that Phoenix Claw (Chicken Feet) is really disgusting and I used to like them. When speaking to Chinese descended people born here China is just another, very interesting, but still foreign, country to them and they identify more with UK. I know this is certainly true of “American and Canadian Chinese” who identify with their nationality first and ethnicity second.

I didn’t know you were Welsh Jeff? Aiya, Im agreeing with you again… This is record for me.

kyu · Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 4 Location: UK & CHINA

he overseas Chinese enjoy an extremely strong sense of shared identity as well as a powerful attachment to China

I think he means a good number of these people here share that strong sence of identity. Well am a 5th generation bbc and proud to say I feel fully attached to China. Well I agree there are many of those who dont give a s*** about there roots, thats life I guess but I personally feel its a shame.

yo Jeff am from Wales as well!

Lois Hashimoto · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 5 Location: Laval, QC,Canada

Jeff said:

"This is not an indication that I am ashamed of my racial origins or ancestry - far from it. But, just like with West Africans, Carribbean and many Asians that only identify with their country - UK or US or some other European country, many Chinese are exaxtly the same. And you will find that sentiment grows the higher the generation number gets - regardless of newspaper columnists giving their expert opinion on who we really are.[/quote]

I am Japanese-Canadian, born eight decades ago on the west coast of Canada, and feel exactly as Jeff does--I am Canadian first. I visited Japan for the first time 6 years ago, and loved the wild mix of the ultra-modern and the ancient traditional. It was a very moving experience to visit my mother's birthplace with my first cousin as my guide. Her mother and mine had sung us the same Japanese nursery songs!

However, when I returned to Canada and went through customs, the cheerful
"Welcome home!" of the young Mountie as he handed back my Canadian passport brought unexpected tears to my eyes. No question, Canada is my home, and its democratic values are my own.

I am grateful to my parents for bravely emigrating to
an unknown country so foreign to their own, and I hope that they would have approved of their great- grandchildren who are a wonderful mixture of Japanese
plus a dozen other ethnic roots!
_________________
LYH

orbital eccentric · Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 7

Like Jeff I find assis104s, actually, extremely annoying and it's quite damaging.

To use kyu words I don't really give a s!#t about China - yes I'm curious about my roots - so curious that I've started asking my mother (before she pops her clogs) about my family (and I might even try to locate where the family came from in China before emigrating to Malaysia) but that doesn't mean I should feel any sense of patriotism to China because I'm ultimately part of this Chinese diaspora!

I'm British and Britain is my home.

Despite my liberal tendencies when I hear stuff like this I have shameful thoughts along the lines of: WTF - if China's so great...... Sad

assis104s · Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 144

erm, orbital eccentric, I didn't acutally write the article -it was on the Guardian website. I thought it might be of interest to the people here though.

You can choose how you want to indentify yourself, but I think it's quite interesting that this sort of issue gets taken up by mainstream press, and it highlights how many Chinese there are now in the UK and elsewhere.

orbital eccentric · Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 7

apologies - should have checked out the link!
Embarassed

dimsumer · Joined: 21 Jul 2008 Posts: 6

When I was reading the first post, I certainly thought it was written by assis104s. Perhaps it would been clearer to put something like this at the top:

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/11/china.comment

and then quote.

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