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Abstract
While racialized youth are often central in debates on citizenship, multiculturalism and belonging, those ascribed as ‘British Chinese’ are constructed as model minorities, lacking a hybridized culture but insulated from racism, and thus invisible in these discussions. This article argues, however, that the model minority discourse is itself a specific form of contemporary racialization that revives ‘yellow peril’ discourses on the capacities of particular ‘Oriental’ bodies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it examines how young people challenge these constructions, by drawing on popular culture to organize and participate in what they call ‘British Chinese’ and, more provocatively, ‘Oriental’ nightlife spaces. It analyses how through these spaces participants forge a sense of identity that allows them to reimagine themselves as racialized subjects. It demonstrates how these spaces constitute transient sites of experimental belonging, facilitating new cultural politics and social identifications that at once contest reified conceptions of British Chineseness yet also create new exclusions.
... Moosavi (2020) argues that East Asian students are often perceived as lacking critical thinking skills and intellectual competence, which reflects on-going orientalism and Eurocentrism within Western HEIs. Alongside this, East Asian and Chinese international students are also often positioned as 'model minorities' who are seen as 'peaceful', 'docile', 'law-abiding' and 'insular' community, who therefore do not face racism, which further erases their racialised experiences (Yeh, 2014), reproducing the post-racial myth that views racism as increasingly irrelevant in the liberal West (Paul, 2014). ...
... However, we argue such strategies reinforce racialisation and intensify anti-Asian and particularly anti-Chinese racism in the long run. Additionally, strategies of avoidance may also feed into the persisting cultural stereotype of Chinese students as being 'quiet' and 'submissive', as part of the 'model minority' discourse (Yeh, 2014). As Wang pointed out, Our quietness affirms their impression of us as an easy target. ...
... However, it is detrimental to Chinese students, since it reproduces the post-racial assumptions that the Chinese do not experience racism, which further works to silence and erase anti-Asian racism in the UK context (Song, 2003). Despite 'positive' stereotypes, the model minority discourse should be understood not as an opposite of microaggressions but rather as a part of wider racial schema of neo-orientalism and neo-racism (Yeh, 2014). ...
As the world recovers from the pandemic and anti-Asian hate crimes have been gradually disappearing from the headlines, this article offers a timely reflection on Chinese international students’ experiences and perceptions of racialised microaggressions during the pandemic, and, more importantly, takes the discussion further by deconstructing and challenging the underlying post-racial discourse. Based on 54 interviews with Chinese students from 13 universities across the UK, this article examines four phrases used by Chinese international students in making sense of their racialised experiences, in terms of the denial of racism (‘it is not racism’), the justification of racism (‘it is normal’), taking the blame of racism (‘it is my fault’) and in some rare cases, their reflections on anti-Asian racism in the so-called post-racial universities in the UK (‘we are invisible’). It argues that such expressions are induced by and reflects neo-racism, neo-orientalism and everyday racism embedded within the wider post-racial discourse in the UK, which affirms the relevance of anti-Asian racism in the post-pandemic era rather than negates it. We thus make recommendations to UK universities to better support international students and combat anti-Asian particularly anti-Chinese racism.
... We acknowledge that using labels such as "people of color," "Blacks," "Asians," or "Chinese" to denote a racial category constitutes an oversimplification or an essentialism. Such labels disregard linguistic, cultural, and contextual differences as well as different bodies' differential access to cultural, political, and social representation-the "politically contested social processes that construct meanings of race and ethnicity" (Poon et al., 2016: 3; also see Perez, 2002;Yeh, 2014). ...
... Critical scholarship that has narrated experiences of racial discrimination of Chinese women academics Sai, 2020, 2021;Võ, 2012) across different contexts, has explored how hegemonic discourses and inter-locking systems of oppression, shaped by "whiteness" and by relations of power between Asia and the West (Chang, 2011;Poon et al., 2016), yield paradoxical outcomes for Chinese immigrants. As reflected in the narrative, these paradoxical outcomes emerge as the informant, much like other Chinese women academics, is seen as being simultaneously subjected to and benefiting from the racial hierarchies in operation in Western contexts (Yeh, 2014). On one hand, these hierarchical structures construct Asian academics' identities as others-namely, "foreign invaders" (Liu, 2017; see also Einola et al., 2021)-while, on the other, as "model minorities" they are believed to be insulated from racism (Song, 2003;Yeh, 2014). ...
... As reflected in the narrative, these paradoxical outcomes emerge as the informant, much like other Chinese women academics, is seen as being simultaneously subjected to and benefiting from the racial hierarchies in operation in Western contexts (Yeh, 2014). On one hand, these hierarchical structures construct Asian academics' identities as others-namely, "foreign invaders" (Liu, 2017; see also Einola et al., 2021)-while, on the other, as "model minorities" they are believed to be insulated from racism (Song, 2003;Yeh, 2014). ...
This article draws on an in-depth narrative of a Chinese woman, early career researcher based in a UK business school, to consider questions of subtle racism in academia. Specifically, engaging with our informant’s testimony, and reading it in the context of critical organizational debates on race, we offer episodic accounts of the subtle racism that she has encountered in academia to conceptualize experiences of in-betweenness of racial minorities excluded from dominant diversity discourses. In her case, subtle racism appears to emanate from a set of gendered and racialized tropes, culminating in the “model minority” myth. This article captures how racism is encountered differently by different populations; specifically, it illuminates how racism materializes in culturally-dependent, idiosyncratic forms, which should not be de-contextualized from the historical, political, and social dynamics that engender it. In so doing, it contributes to recent efforts to speak out against racism in the academy.
... Research about British Chinese students has been mostly conducted in London where the dominant Chinese communities reside (e.g. Archer & Francis, 2006;Yeh, 2014); others also include larger metropolitan cities such as Liverpool and Birmingham (e.g. . These growing studies nonetheless still present a stereotypical image of Chinese students, focusing on their educational aspects, while ignoring the specific localised nature of their everyday lives such as physical activity, sport, and leisure. ...
... For some, 'British Chinese' refers to any 'Chinese' in the UK, and associated terms such as 'British-born Chinese' are often assumed to have originated from Hong Kong because of the legacy of the British empire and migration histories. Unlike in Australia, the United States and Canada, where Chinese are grouped under Asians, in the UK the term Asian refers to South Asians from the Indian subcontinent and excludes the Chinese and other East Asians (Yeh, 2014). Diasporic Chinese, whether identified as primarily Chinese or as citizens of another country, have to constantly (re)negotiate their identities and tensions around stereotypes (Yeh, 2014). ...
... Unlike in Australia, the United States and Canada, where Chinese are grouped under Asians, in the UK the term Asian refers to South Asians from the Indian subcontinent and excludes the Chinese and other East Asians (Yeh, 2014). Diasporic Chinese, whether identified as primarily Chinese or as citizens of another country, have to constantly (re)negotiate their identities and tensions around stereotypes (Yeh, 2014). It is critical to be aware that any labels given and their effects upon people's experiences are contentious and potentially problematic. ...
In an increasingly complex world marked by transnationalism and globalisation, the role of physical cultures in everyday life is undergoing change, as people with different orientations to movement and bodies, especially its dominant Western forms, negotiate their relationships to it. The examination of race in Europe and the United Kingdom (UK) in the current intellectual landscape is often located within a Black-White debate that often excludes the Chinese from any form of critical analysis. This lack of academic recognition and critical engagement is coupled with gendered and racialised British Chineseness in everyday discourses. The ambivalent positions of the hyper-visibility of high-achieving British Chinese students in educational research is in contrast to the invisibility of their other everyday lived experiences, such as physical activity, leisure, sport and health. This juxtaposition is reflected through the complexity of how discourses and practices, shaped by colonial and racial legacies, contribute to a form of Chineseness that remains ‘at risk’ and overlooked in research about their bodies and physicality. This paper calls for explorations of Chinese minority ethnic students’ voices to set the impetus for a critical sociology of Chinese diaspora and health and physical cultures research agenda. It critically engages with the contestable work of cultural norming in relation to Chinese diasporic students’ health and bodily experiences. In response to these challenges, this paper introduces the Rethinking Health Experiences and Active Lifestyles – Chinese Students (REHEAL-C) project in the UK (supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship 2019–2020) as one contribution to shifting the academic landscape.
... In countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, the model minority stereotype more frequently constructs Asian people as introverted ''nerds'' who may have some technical capabilities (e.g. as accountants, bankers and small business owners), but devoid of individuality and incapable of creativity or innovation (Kwek 2003;Ray 2003;Yeh 2014). Attributions of their diligence or work ethic simply serve to paint Asian people as a homogenous horde set on the steady yet sterile pursuit of material wealth (Parker 2000;Yeh 2014). ...
... In countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, the model minority stereotype more frequently constructs Asian people as introverted ''nerds'' who may have some technical capabilities (e.g. as accountants, bankers and small business owners), but devoid of individuality and incapable of creativity or innovation (Kwek 2003;Ray 2003;Yeh 2014). Attributions of their diligence or work ethic simply serve to paint Asian people as a homogenous horde set on the steady yet sterile pursuit of material wealth (Parker 2000;Yeh 2014). ...
... The employees' views of Jeff were primarily underpinned by the abiding stereotype of Asian identities as the model minority. The model minority figure is a passive but hardworking individual who focuses on assimilating into the dominant white norm rather than challenging the status quo (Chae 2004;Cho 1997;Yeh 2014). While the model minority is touted as an exemplar for more resistant communities of colour (Cho 1997), it is at the same time ridiculed in white culture through representations of Asian migrants as nerdy and repressed. ...
Servant leadership offers a compelling ideal of self-sacrificing individuals who put the needs of others before their own and cultivate a culture of growth in their organisations. Although the theory’s attempts to emphasise the moral, emotional and relational dimensions of leadership are laudable, it has primarily assumed a decontextualised view of leadership untouched by power. This article aims to problematise servant leadership by undertaking an intersectional analysis of an Asian cis-male heterosexual senior manager in Australia. Through in-depth interviews with the manager and his staff, the article shows how his attempts to practice servant leadership were informed by intersecting power dynamics of race, gender, sexuality, age and class that subordinated him to white power. The findings demonstrate the ways servant leadership is necessarily embedded in wider power structures that shape who gets to be a “servant leader” and who remains merely a “servant”.
... Though Asians are still viewed as a threat to Western civilization in certain contexts, the dominant monolithic depiction of Asians has shifted from "yellow peril" to "model minority" (Pettersen, 1966). The model minority stereotype suggests that Asians are universally successful, do not experience racism, have an edge in obtaining education and employment due to their diligence, and are considered White or White-adjacent, a view that has readily been adopted in every Western country with a significant Asian presence (Ho, 2014;Museus & Iftikar, 2014;Suzuki, 2002;Yeh, 2014). ...
... During this stage, we iterated between data and theory more frequently, while continuing to consult the literature to confirm emerging patterns that emerged from the analysis (J. Y. Kim & Meister, 2022;Roshanravan, 2009;Sue et al., 2009;Yeh, 2014 Table 1. ...
We explore the different types of racial violence encountered by Asian American and Asian Canadians (whom we refer to as Asians) in the workplace during COVID‐19 and how they respond. Using a grounded theory approach, we found that during the COVID‐19 pandemic, Asians experienced different types of workplace racial violence, most of which manifested as microaggressions, including a revival of the yellow peril trope, physical manifestations of bordering behavior, and identity denial. In some cases, manifestations of physical violence also emerged. The data revealed that Asians demonstrated various types of agentic responses to challenge and counter unwanted and incorrect identities conveyed by the racial microaggressions. We enhance theory by shedding light on the experiences of Asians whose voice has largely been ignored in the organizational literature. Our study draws together and contributes to the theory on racial violence and racialized identity by highlighting the different types of racial violence faced by Asians and exploring the challenges they encounter in the face of racial microaggressions. Finally, we discuss practical implications of our study results and offer insight into how organizations can help support their Asian employees.
... The U.K. Chinese population represents a diverse range of migration trajectories, as well as cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and generational differences, with people descended from Hong Kong, China, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. However, the 'model minority' construct is a racist discourse which disregards the population's complexity and essentialises Chineseness against Whiteness (Yeh 2014), as well as 'problem' minorities, for example, African Americans (San Juan 1999; Lee 2009) and British Black Caribbean students. Scholars (Okihiro 1994;Benton and Gomez 2008;Yeh 2014) have argued that in fact the model minority discourse reproduces the 'Yellow Peril' image by marginalising Chinese yet again as threatening (e.g. ...
... However, the 'model minority' construct is a racist discourse which disregards the population's complexity and essentialises Chineseness against Whiteness (Yeh 2014), as well as 'problem' minorities, for example, African Americans (San Juan 1999; Lee 2009) and British Black Caribbean students. Scholars (Okihiro 1994;Benton and Gomez 2008;Yeh 2014) have argued that in fact the model minority discourse reproduces the 'Yellow Peril' image by marginalising Chinese yet again as threatening (e.g. educational 'hypersuccess', 'gaming the system' into elite educational institutions and professions) and inhuman (e.g. ...
... Existing accounts of British Chinese women largely derive from a sociological and social policy perspective which largely centres on the sites of the family and employment (Song, 1995;Lee et al., 2002;and Yuen, 2008), with the exception of Yun-Hun Hsiao (2008) who explored the creative literature of British Chinese women. Diana Yeh (2014) asserts "this does so […] by assigning to particular bodies a machine-like capacity for work but an inherent lack of creativity, which constructs them [the Chinese] as essentially 'Other', denies their status as fully human, and questions their very ability to participate in the social and cultural realm" (2014: 1207). While some British Chinese creative professionals have received some academic attention, this literature has generally been concerned with the artistic expressions of artists (Yeh, 2014;Lok, 2004). ...
... Diana Yeh (2014) asserts "this does so […] by assigning to particular bodies a machine-like capacity for work but an inherent lack of creativity, which constructs them [the Chinese] as essentially 'Other', denies their status as fully human, and questions their very ability to participate in the social and cultural realm" (2014: 1207). While some British Chinese creative professionals have received some academic attention, this literature has generally been concerned with the artistic expressions of artists (Yeh, 2014;Lok, 2004). In this study, the use of CRM focuses on everyday British Chinese women to offer an opportunity for them to situate their subjectivities through visual strategies. ...
This paper will examine the ways in which the practices of dressing and adornment are employed to manage the otherness experienced by second generation British Chinese women. In amongst the lack of social representation in the wider British imagination, the objects of dress and adornment chosen by the women enables them to negotiate their visibility.
As such, the negotiation of power is not an abstracted struggle within the mind, rather I propose that the struggle of power manifests as a material strategy through dressing. Drawing on creative ethnographic fieldwork, the women narrate their experiences through materiality to create personal artworks, which offers an insight into the affective dimension of their personal embodiment.
As a creative ethnographic methodology with a focus on material practices, this research demonstrates the enriched insights of such qualitative and experimental research methods to emphasise the significance of everyday actions and objects in the negotiation of power in the formation of ethnic women's identities.
... The U.K. Chinese population represents a diverse range of migration trajectories, as well as cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and generational differences, with people descended from Hong Kong, China, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. However, the 'model minority' construct is a racist discourse which disregards the population's complexity and essentialises Chineseness against Whiteness (Yeh 2014), as well as 'problem' minorities, for example, African Americans (San Juan 1999; Lee 2009) and British Black Caribbean students. Scholars (Okihiro 1994;Benton and Gomez 2008;Yeh 2014) have argued that in fact the model minority discourse reproduces the 'Yellow Peril' image by marginalising Chinese yet again as threatening (e.g. ...
... However, the 'model minority' construct is a racist discourse which disregards the population's complexity and essentialises Chineseness against Whiteness (Yeh 2014), as well as 'problem' minorities, for example, African Americans (San Juan 1999; Lee 2009) and British Black Caribbean students. Scholars (Okihiro 1994;Benton and Gomez 2008;Yeh 2014) have argued that in fact the model minority discourse reproduces the 'Yellow Peril' image by marginalising Chinese yet again as threatening (e.g. educational 'hypersuccess', 'gaming the system' into elite educational institutions and professions) and inhuman (e.g. ...
The high achievement of British Chinese students in the British education system is established in the official literature and has recently been subject to increased attention and comment; albeit it remains the case that few studies have asked students or their families about the factors contributing to their success. This paper revisits findings from an earlier research project that investigated the extent to which British Chinese students and their parents value education (and their rationales), their experiences of British education, and the construction of British Chinese students by their teachers. The study revealed the ‘hidden racisms’ experienced by British Chinese students, the problematisation of their perceived approaches to learning by British teachers in spite of their high attainment, and the benefits, costs, and consequences of their valuing of education. This article contextualises these prior findings within more recent discourses and debates around ‘Chinese success’, precipitated by increased policy attention to the educational attainment of different groups of students, especially from low socio-economic backgrounds. It argues that these discourses on one hand elevate Chinese successes and teaching methods (in contrast to prior narratives), but on the other they continue to exoticise and ‘Other’ the British Chinese, misrecognising educational practices common among White middle-class parents.
... On the surface, there were some problematic ways in which the participants appeared to uphold white power, perpetuate the myth of white benevolence and reproduce stereotypes of Chinese people as the compliant 'model minority' (Yeh, 2014). However, their approach needed to be understood in light of the historical context of British colonialism, national protectionism and white-controlled multiculturalism. ...
... There is a persistent tendency in racial and gender politics to valorize 'gentle' forms of resistance while silencing other struggles through tone policing. This practice is highly racialized and reproduced through historical stereotypes of Asian migrants as the 'model minority' (Yeh, 2014), whose supposed compliance with white regimes is evoked to denigrate primarily Black, Latino and Indigenous struggles for justice. I offer this coda in a Daoist spirit of non-duality to emphasize the need for both softness and hardness in anti-racism. ...
As Australia propels towards a so-called ‘Asian Century', pro-diversity discourses have begun to permeate organizations and society. Yet despite this outward commitment to ethno-cultural diversity, mainstream diversity discourses and practices have been critiqued for subordinating social justice agendas and reinforcing the dominance of whiteness. This article analyses in-depth interviews with 18 Chinese Australian managers and local councillors engaged in various forms of diversity advocacy and practice. By reading their voices via the Chinese philosophy of Daoism, I offer an anti-racist praxis of diversity that bears the potential to disrupt white supremacy through the strength of softness and the power of non-action.
... In part it continues a racialized discourse of submissiveness and infantilization-the good immigrant as obedient Victorian child. The model minority's "straight" conventionality is important: as Diana Yeh (2014Yeh ( : 1199 points out, the image is sustained through emphasis on "insularity and a lack in creativity." Model minorities are thought of as smart and achieving a degree of wealth and respectability: they are, in other words, conservative. ...
This article puts forward a cultural-political formation it terms “model minority authoritarianism.” The idea of the model minority has both been venerated as the virtuous face of immigration and/or nonwhite achievement in the global North and roundly contested and critiqued as a patronizing, divisive, and implicitly racist trope. Yet it is currently embraced by right-wing figures as a route through which the ideology of the opportunity for “upward social mobility” and neoliberal, marketized meritocracy can be promoted; is linked to displays of nationalism, military-style discipline, and centralized control; and presents an image of multicultural progressiveness that is used to give credence to increasingly reactionary policies. This configuration comprises model minority authoritarianism. The article outlines its theorization and analyses its manifestations by considering recent developments in the UK Conservative Party and its wider cultural networks. In particular, it examines the actions of Katharine Birbalsingh, former head of the Social Mobility Commission and “Britain's Strictest Teacher,” alongside policy sources including the “Levelling Up” white paper and the Sewell Report. It argues that model minority authoritarianism needs to be understood as part of a broader right-wing anti-equality agenda that vehemently attacks accounts of structural social inequality and practices seeking to redress it.
... The Shanghainese seamen's self-identification as being hard workers evidently functions as a badge of honor for themselves. It is also noteworthy that such self-identifications, perhaps without the seamen's knowledge, feed into the much-contested model minority discourse emerging around the British Chinese, which is in itself a specific form of contemporary racialization that creates and sustains racial marginality (Kibria, 1998), highlights invisibility in public spheres (Parker & Song, 2007) and everyday lived experiences, such as in youth health and physical cultures (Pang, 2020), as well as reproduces notions of insularity and a lack in creativity (Yeh, 2014(Yeh, , 2020. ...
This article draws on the understudied oral testimonies collected by Guanbao Shen and Ling Li in 1997 and 1998 to discuss the diasporic practices and cultural identifications of Shanghainese seamen in Liverpool, a community that has received less scholarly attention than other overseas Chinese communities. The Shanghainese seafarers are marked by three important characteristics—provenance, profession, and intermarriage, adding to the diversity and uniqueness of their diasporic practices. The discussions revolve around the wider social meanings and purposes of Chinese food-centered practices, return to the home country and negotiation of multiple boundaries among the Shanghainese seafarers. It is argued that the prosaic and festive eating and cooking of Chinese food is employed to (re)create ethnicity, resume the state of relatedness and strengthen the intergenerational bond, and that the return to the origin of birth could potentially disrupt an idealized and imagined conception of the homeland. Shanghainese seamen’s individual and collective negotiation of ethnic boundaries features complicated entanglement and thus permeability and fluidity, which echoes Ien Ang’s call for moving beyond diaspora into hybridity.
... This has led to the emergence of creative projects for a better "social representation of Chinese people" implemented by descendants of Chinese origin: for example, trained for transnationalism (Nyíri 2015), they hardly try to change the image of the Chinese business inherited from their parents in Italy (Merchionne and Liu 2016), Spain (Masdeu Torruella 2020) and France, as well as in China (Wang 2019b). Grown up and more mature, descendants have also changed the social construction of Chineseness by drawing on popular culture (Yeh 2014) and raising awareness of the racism and discrimination against Chinese and, more broadly, Asians in Europe. Militant initiatives have increased both offline, such as demonstrations and legal action, and online: social media, blogs, and Internet chat groups (Parker and Song 2007). ...
Under the changing demographic effects of Chinese migratory waves in Europe and in the global context of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese migratory patterns to Europe as well as the lives of migrants and their descendants in European countries have been renewed since the 2010s, both in material and symbolic or emotional ways. This special issue includes five articles shedding new light on the patterns of Chinese migration to Europe, and on the dynamics of their everyday lives in and beyond the European countries. As the special issue editor, I first argue that Chinese overseas, as an important part of global China, offer a privileged site of study for understanding Chinese society from inside and outside. Then, based on the literature review on Chinese migration to and within Europe from the 1980s to post-2020, I introduce specificities of contemporary Chinese migration to Europe and the Chinese presence in European countries, and highlight four main demographic features: the growth in the population of descendants, the aging of the first-generation migrants, the massive arrival of students and skilled migrants, and the feminization of migration. Thirdly, I provide an overview of the five articles included in this special issue. Finally, I conclude the introduction by underlying the contributions of this volume, the theoretical frameworks that they borrow and consolidate, and new avenues for research opened up by this special issue.
... En definitiva, este resurgir de la sinofobia no sólo pone de manifiesto el olvido de que la comunidad china también estaba siendo afectada por el virus, sino que también supone la anulación de la consideración de la comunidad china como «minoría modelo». Muchos trabajos anteriores sobre la recepción de la migración china en países occidentales habían destacado una buena acogida por valorar su inteligencia, capacidad de trabajo y obediencia (Yeh, 2014;Costigan;Hua;Su, 2010). ...
La pandemia de la covid-19, declarada el 11 de marzo de 2020 por la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), no sólo fue una crisis sanitaria, sino que también desencadenó una oleada racista contra la comunidad china al ser señalada como responsable de la aparición del virus. La OMS prohibió la asociación del virus con un espacio geográfico concreto en junio de 2021, pero en las redes sociales ya se había expandido el discurso de odio, en gran parte por el comportamiento de determinados políticos y la puesta en marcha de bots. Nuestro trabajo de campo, realizado sobre una muestra de 20 personas de origen chino (migrantes, descendientes y estudiantes universitarios) residentes en el área metropolitana de Barcelona, nos permitió identificar que esta comunidad está muy acostumbrada a evitar situaciones que puedan provocar reacciones racistas. En relación al discurso de odio en línea, su presencia provoca normalmente el abandono de la actividad en redes. La juventud, por su mayor actividad digital, es la que tiene más posibilidades de sufrir estos ataques. Además, el trabajo de campo volvió a revelarnos la dificultad de abordar el racismo desde la mirada de las personas afectadas, pues acostumbran a minimizar las agresiones recibidas.
... An increasing number of research studies focused on British Chinese people in the 2000s. These studies presented a panoramic picture of Chinese diasporic communities in the United Kingdom in the areas of education (Francis & Archer, 2005;Francis et al., 2017), gender (Lee et al., 2002;Yuen, 2008), arts (Thorpe & Yeh, 2018;Yeh, 2014), social media (Parker & Song, 2006) and identity (Parker, 1998(Parker, , 2000 and provided a historical approach to their economy and transnationalism (Benton & Gomez, 2008). ...
... Asian-diasporic communities and identities have been widely researched outside of Germany, for example, in African countries (Sun and Sinclair, 2016) and in South American countries (Pan, 1999), but mainly in anglophone countries. This has been the case, for example, in the context of citizenship (Ong, 1999), cultural representation (Chow, 1993;Yeh, 2014;Zuo, 2022), the model-minority-myth (Chou and Feagin, 2015) and gender (Huang, 2022;Mukkamala and Suyemoto, 2018). Publications about the Asian diaspora in Germany mainly focus on different groups of first-generation migrants involved in state-organised labour migration to West Germany since 1957 (Berner and Choi, 2006;Goel, 2019;Kataoka et al., 2012;Lee, 2021) and to East Germany since 1980 (Kocatürk-Schuster et al., 2017). ...
In 2020, anti-Asian racism re-emerged during the coronavirus pandemic in Germany and elsewhere, manifesting in media narratives, and evoking different forms of violence and exclusion, especially in public space. Racialisation as an everyday process creates "coun-ter-frames" by racialised groups. They are constructed in relation to institutionalised interpellation as "the other." Building on Feagin's concept of "white framing" and "coun-ter-framing" and Löw's concept of space, this paper discusses the effects of racialisation, coping and anti-racist resistance strategies as developed by the Asian diaspora. Social change regarding racism will be analysed through Foroutan's concept of "postmigrant society." We based this study on a convenience sample of people with Asian heritage which we conducted in 2020 in Germany. In addition, we included a diary study for which a subset has been sampled. We argue that the pandemic influenced the formation of counter-frames against anti-Asian racism in the specific context of Berlin.
... (Tripadvisor three-star review from a UK-based user) Both reviewers seemed to have racial expectations of people in Chinatown that were not met, as one reviewer bemoaned the lack of 'Orientals' and the other seemed surprised to see 'Indians' in the area. The term 'Oriental', though not commonly used in the USA following Asian American activists raising awareness for its problematic connotations, has continued to be applied even in official settings in the UK (D. Yeh 2014Yeh , 1199. While this potentially explains the choice of words, the overall negative context of the review still alludes to its derogatory intention. ...
Identity formation happens at a crossroads of that which people believe they are and are not. Acknowledgment, reification, or subversion of identity frictions form powerful communicative patterns that I call ‘discourses of tension’. I argue in this dissertation that discourses of tension are foundational to the formation of transcultural identities—positionalities that emerge between or beyond perceived cultural boundaries—because they enable people to identify and express cultural complexities and expectations.
Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork and research in other relevant sites, this argument is supported by my analysis of how Hakka Chinese Mauritians express agency and identity within the affordances and constraints presented by historical relations, ideologies, policies, and sociopolitical developments in postcolonial Mauritius. This small Indian Ocean island state is lauded for its peaceful multicultural society while imposing restrictive ethnic classification into four groups (Hindu, Muslim, Chinese, and ‘General Population’) onto its citizens. Mauritian identity formation is anchored in raciolinguistic ideologies which view language and race as naturally linked. These ideologies produce expectations of people’s language use and identity expression, which often conflict with social realities in Mauritius.
Within this field of tension, Hakka Mauritians often find themselves having to reassert their identities as ‘authentically’ Mauritian, Chinese, or Hakka. This is further complicated by the recent ‘rise’ of China, which promotes Mandarin language education (instead of Hakka) and affects local perceptions of what it means to be ‘Chinese’. I present three key contexts in which discourses of tension become salient for Hakka Mauritian expression:
1. Mauritian discourses of nation-building and ethnolinguistic community formation
2. Shifts from Hakka to Mandarin in Chinese Mauritian heritage language classrooms
3. Ideologies of ‘Chineseness’ in the semiotic landscape of Mauritian Chinatown
My research shows that Hakka Mauritians occupy constant ‘in-between’ spaces and engage in discourses of tension to (re-)examine their identities. My dissertation thus contributes to anthropology an account of individual agency in expressing fluidity and complexity in transcultural identities against the backdrop of discursive tensions.
... The question of the identification and belonging of migrants' children (Glick Schiller and Fouron, 2002;Levitt and Waters, 2002;Somerville, 2008;Friedman and Schultermand, 2011) deserves to be analyzed in detail through a case study of Asian families living in Europe (e.g., Barber, 2015), which remains largely unexamined, unlike in North America (e.g., Kibria, 1997;Louie, 2004;Min, 2002;Zhou, 2009). Among the empirical studies carried out in Europe with Asian families, works on the identification of Chinese descendants have received much attention in Britain (Li, 2011;Yeh, 2014), Italy (Raffaetà, et al., 2015), Spain (Robles-Llana, 2018) and other countries such as France and Germany (Liu and Wang, 2020) through a broader European perspective (Thunø and Li, 2020). The above corpus of studies provides a better understanding of experiences and social trajectories of children with Asian origin in Western European societies. ...
The literature on migrations in the Asia-Europe migration corridor focuses on the migration experiences of the Asian adult migrants who moved in Europe, whereas the viewpoints of their family members remain largely understudied. This tendency highlights the need for studies centered on spouses and children. Moreover, scholarly works mostly concentrate on women’s perspectives, overlooking as a result the viewpoints of men and LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or gender non-conforming and other) migrants. Aware of these lacunas, the present special issue underlines the findings from recently conducted empirical studies in different research fields: migration, family, gender, sexuality and socio-legal studies. It has three principal objectives: first, to compare to one another the migration and family experiences of Asian migrants, citizens and non-citizens in the European context; second, to identify intersecting factors shaping the family dynamics and experiences of these migrants and their family members; and third, to pinpoint the manifold stakes of migration, conjugality, parenthood and childhood.
... Scholars have argued there is a risk that positive stereotypes of Asian people in western societies as being more academically and professionally successful than other ethnic minority groups will ultimately strengthen white hegemony rather than empower Asian people (Chung, 2016;Huang, 2020). These stereotypes disregard the structural inequalities and marginalisation to which Asian people are subject and constrain individualities by governing Asian people's thinking and actions (Wong and Halgin, 2006;Yeh, 2014). Also, categorising Asian people as a homogeneous group and assigning them a certain virtue in itself -whether positive or negative -is a process of othering, emphasising perpetual differences between them and the dominant society (Ang, 1996;Huang, 2020). ...
Previous intersectional research on ethnic minority women has largely focused on inequalities and disadvantages associated with the intersection between their minority gender and ethnic identities. In this study, we challenge the static and dichotomous assumption of the existing intersectionality framework (e.g., privilege versus disadvantage) and adopt Holvino’s intersectional perspective of simultaneity as a theoretical lens through which to demonstrate the importance of understanding intersectionality within various levels of contexts, or contextualising social differences. Interviews with 43 female migrant workers from China, Japan, and Korea living in the UK revealed that these women perceived disadvantage in terms of gender/ethnic stereotyping and discriminatory practices at work. At the same time, however, their accounts provided evidence of contextualised privilege, namely ‘relative privilege’ (privilege in comparison to multiple reference groups), ‘assigned privilege’ (privilege assigned by their employers and the host society), and ‘ambiguous privilege’ (privilege as a double-edged sword). Based on these observations, we suggest that the location of East Asian women is not fixed within the interlocking systems of oppression in the host country; rather, this location is dynamic and fluid within interpersonal, organisational, and societal contexts in the home and host countries, moving back and forth between disadvantage and (limited) privilege.
... … But then the words, concepts become neutralised and appropriated; reworded into other people's stories, domesticated, funded, and you feel angry and sad: all over again. (Ahmed 2014a) The model minority myth designates certain people of color, notably Asians, as so-called 'good' examples who prove that a minority group can overcome structural oppression to be professionally successful and materially prosperous (Chae 2004;Yeh 2014). The goal of this myth is to fracture cross-racial coalitions between communities of color; dangling the illusory promise of inclusion to middle-class Asians while undermining the sustained challenges against white capitalist institutions from Black and Latino groups (Roshanravan 2010). ...
This forum-style paper presents contributions by scholars from the area of Critical University Studies (CUS). It articulates the ways that particular concepts from Sara Ahmed’s scholarship have influenced or been useful in CUS. Across her scholarship, Ahmed offers intersectional perspectives on exclusionary practices and structures that many within CUS have drawn upon. The contributors to this paper hail from and research across a diverse range of fields that include cultural studies, queer studies, education, critical race studies, and organisational studies.
... At times, I feel like I am always stuck in the liminal space of White and Black, West and East-like moving in a "swing." Historically, Asian migrants have been depicted as the "model minority," a group who are supposed to be compliant and quiet with white regimes, and this stereotype is also observed in the UK (Yeh, 2014). I believe this stereotype does explain, to some extent, my silence and hesitation of voicing up when it comes to sensitive subjects-race and racism, which might be uncomfortable to the dominant ethnic (white) group. ...
This article is a multi‐vocal account, a form of writing differently, which captures our changing lives and livelihoods under the present global health crisis. Through the process of writing, we create a safe space to understand how the COVID‐19 pandemic exposes our gendered, intersectional lives. Our writing gives voice to suppressed thoughts and embodied affects as they surface in relation to entrenched structural inequalities where we witness the marginalisation of intersectional difference, in our case women, the feminine, and race in academia and neoliberal society. By rendering visible the structural inequalities that have become amplified during the pandemic, and the ways in which these inequalities have affected our everyday lives, we are able to give witness to intersectional differences. Our multi‐vocal embodied text is offered as an emancipatory, affective mobilisation of our lives, encompassing feelings of grief, loss, fear, anger, frustration, and vulnerability. This collective piece of writing gives rise to solidarity in a crisis‐stricken world where we choose to live with hope.
... In the past, Chinese groups have been depicted as intelligent, hardworking and compliant as part of a diaspora (e.g., Archer, Francis, & Mau, 2010;Costigan, Hua, & Su, 2010). A discourse of 'model minority' was also observed in Britain (Yeh, 2014). However, under the current pandemic, the public perception of Chinese as 'model minority' has been shifted to the 'yellow perils' (Lee, 2020). ...
... In the past, Chinese groups have been depicted as intelligent, hardworking and compliant as part of a diaspora (e.g., Archer, Francis, & Mau, 2010;Costigan, Hua, & Su, 2010). A discourse of 'model minority' was also observed in Britain (Yeh, 2014). However, under the current pandemic, the public perception of Chinese as 'model minority' has been shifted to the 'yellow perils' (Lee, 2020). ...
This article is a personal reflection of how the coronavirus exposes ‘shocking’ levels of racism against us, and our vulnerability as Chinese women living in Britain. By reflecting our experiences of verbal and physical race‐based violence connected to coronavirus, we explore the fluidity of our racial identities, the taken‐for‐granted racial stereotypes and white privilege, and everyday racism in the UK. Can the vulnerable use vulnerability as an agent to shift the moment of helplessness? We contribute to the uncomfortable yet important debate on racism against Chinese women living in the UK through voicing up our embodied vulnerability as invisible and disempowered subjects to this viral anti‐Chinese racism. This is a form of resistance where we care for the racialised and marginalised others. In doing so, we lift the painted veil of pandemic, race and racism to collectively combat racial inequalities.
... Although this research reflects a particular context at a particular time, the 'good Arab' offers an entangled and contradictory concept, rich with analytical value for theorizing minority citizenship and conditional inclusion beyond this particular case. It is closely related to a whole range of similar figures across diverse contexts: 'good Muslims' (Mamdani 1998), 'good immigrants' (Shukla 2016), 'civil citizens' (Elias 2008(Elias [1981), the 'permitted Indian' , or indio permitido (Hale & Millaman 2006), and 'model minorities' (Yeh 2014). Many of these tropes are identity categories within racialized nations and neoliberal regimes that actively recognize a very limited space for indigenous presence and minority citizenship (Hale & Millaman 2006: 284). ...
Dominant majorities often use idealized categories to validate the ‘goodness’ and deservingness of minority citizens. For Palestinian citizens of Israel, this category is the ‘good Arab’. Since its origins in early Jewish settlement of Palestine, it has become a powerful and controversial metaphor in Israeli public discourse. As an experienced condition of limited inclusion, the ‘good Arab’ exemplifies the Palestinian dilemma of accessing socioeconomic opportunities in Jewish Israeli spaces that stigmatize and fend off their ethnonational identity. Combining a historical genealogy of the ‘good Arab’ with ethnographic research among Palestinians in Tel Aviv, this article shows how a historically evolved logic of settler colonial control and indigenous erasure continues to define liberal frameworks of conditional citizenship and inclusion. Theorized through the emerging concept of conditional inclusion , these insights open up new avenues for analysis and comparison in anthropological debates surrounding indigenous struggles, settler colonialism, urban inclusion, and citizenship.
... In Melinda's case, she would have been allowed to see her embodiment as Asian, cis-female, heterosexual and young-looking as inseparably related to her experiences of inequality. The imperialist and patriarchal representation of young straight Asian females as submissive "lotus blossoms" (Sankaran and Chng, 2004;Tajima, 1989;Zhou and Paul, 2016), combined with white supremacist constructs of the introverted and compliant "model minority" (Chae, 2004;Cho, 1997;Yeh, 2014), meant that Melinda was frequently seen as an "easy target" for bullying. The overarching association of entrepreneurship with white masculinity (Bruni, Gherardi and Poggio, 2004;Knight, 2016;Mirchandani, 1999) within white capitalist patriarchy has meant that Melinda is continually discounted in her field. ...
... In health and physical activity, Chinese young people are often represented and positioned differently to other (minority) ethnic groups. For example, in the United Kingdom (UK), Black i young people are often understood as having low academic motivations and aspirations but as 'natural' athletes; in contrast, Chinese young people, seen as the 'model minority' who excel in STEM subjects, are fragile, reserved and disinterested in physical movements (Archer & Francis, 2005;Author;Yeh, 2014). Brooks (2017) noted that while several studies have explored how Asian young people are represented in the UK media, the majority of them have focused on those of Indian and Pakistani descent, and often in relation to Islamophobia. ...
Social media are influential sociocultural forces that construct and transmit information about gender, health and bodies to young people in the digital age. In health and physical activity, Chinese people are often represented and positioned differently to other (minority) ethnic groups. For example, Black young people are often understood as having low academic motivations and aspirations but as ‘natural’ athletes; in contrast, Chinese young people, seen as the ‘model minority’ who excel in STEM subjects, are fragile, reserved and disinterested in physical movements. These public forms of representation may sit in opposition to the young people’s embodied identity. When these misrepresentations are internalised, issues such as micro-aggression and racism may have an impact on Chinese young people’s health and wellbeing. This paper aims to examine how Chinese bodies are gendered and racialised in contemporary social media sites (e.g. Google News, LiveJournal, Medium, Wordpress). Drawing on critical discourse analysis and Foucault’s concepts of normalisation and discursive practice, the paper will problematise the often taken-for-granted gendered and racialised stereotypes related to Chinese physicality and health on social media sites. Implications for developing future research and teaching resources in critical media health literacy for young people on issues related to gender and equity will be provided. The results affect how we understand, represent, and discuss Chinese (young) people on social media sites, thereby how Chinese young people engage, construct, and perform their embodied identities in Western, English speaking societies.
... In particular, I developed an appreciation of how Australian society has historically maintained stereotypes of Asian passivity in part to neutralise their earlier constructions during the height of the White Australian era as a threat and menace to white Australian workers (Ang, 2003). Some leaders have integrated the model minority myth (Cho, 1997;Yeh, 2014) into their identity work, positioning themselves as 'sidekicks' to their white Australian peers in attempts to neutralise their sense of power and authority in their organisations and therefore mitigate their followers' resistance. ...
Although intersectionality emerged in the 1970s through the activism of Black feminists,
its application to organisation studies in recent years has too often been deradicalised as a tool to collate and commodify differences. In this article, I propose that we need to reradicalise intersectional theorising. I offer biography and history as two methodological
tools with which we may fulfil intersectionality’s social justice aims. Biography compels
researchers to align ourselves with the struggles of marginalised subjects. History asks us to locate our subjects in their specific histories of social injustice. It is my hope that through critical, reflexive theorising, we may protect the radical roots of intersectionality and guard against its co-optation into prevailing systems of white imperial power.
... And if we got to know one another a little better at the conference dinner, some ventured to postulate, 'You must have been so brave to tell your parents you wanted to do critical management research'. I wondered if under the white masculinist gaze I could ever be seen as more than a colonial fantasy of the docile and submissive lotus blossom liberated by Western thought (Tajima, 1989;Uchida, 1998;Yeh, 2014). ...
I propose in this chapter that the dominant practice of critical management studies (CMS) is characterised by white masculinity, where theorising tends to assume a white universal norm while commodifying difference. This approach treats diversity as something CMS has, rather than is. In order to disrupt the prevailing practice, I explore how anti-racist feminisms (a term I use here to refer to the diverse movements of postcolonial feminism and feminisms of colour) may shape CMS towards a more reflexive and meaningful engagement with difference. In reflecting on my own performance of white masculinity as an aspiring critical management scholar, I suggest that an anti-racist feminist approach bears the potential to challenge relations of domination within CMS and reinvigorate our pursuits for emancipation. It is my hope that the anti-racist feminist perspective advanced in this chapter may offer an opportunity for critical management scholars to ‘do’ critique differently through a radical inclusion of previously marginalised perspectives.
... We are willing to '忍耐' (rennai Although Wen frames her Chinese identity as having strengthened her professional capabilities, the notion of endurance sustains the fantasy of a deep-rooted Oriental essence lingering within cultural custodians. Such attributes are commonly associated with the construction of Asian people as the so-called 'model minority'; docile and submissive Others who are inherently predisposed to the steady yet sterile pursuit of material prosperity (Parker, 2000;Yeh, 2014). It also resonates with the stereotype of Chinese women, in particular, as oppressed, long-suffering and in need of colonial salvation (Tajima, 1989;Uchida, 1998). ...
This article analyses the ethno-cultural identities of Chinese Australian professionals through a postcolonial lens. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 21 participants, it explores how they engaged in self-Orientalism; casting themselves as exotic commodities for the benefit of white people and institutions. In particular, they enacted Chinese stereotypes through ‘mythtapping’ and ‘mythkeeping’ in order to secure recognition under the white gaze. As mythtappers, professionals presented themselves as custodians of an ancient and mysterious culture that offered organizational wisdoms for ‘the West.’ As mythkeepers, the professionals allayed white anxieties by surrendering themselves to white Australians as pathways into their communities. However, the professionals’ Orientalized identities are not passively determined, but are in some cases tactically and strategically resisted through ‘mythbusting.’ The article contributes to postcolonial theorizing by demonstrating how imperialist ideologies constrain the lives of people beyond the colonizer/colonized dichotomy and by illuminating the potential for their resistance against Orientalization.
Current racial discourses surrounding Chinese athletes signify that they not only lack the physical tools to succeed but also are socialized with cultural values that demonstrate their perceived negativity and resistance towards sport and physical culture. However, in today's society where increasing Chinese athletes are commended for their triumphs and excellence in international sporting arenas, such a racialized understanding demonstrates a mismatch to the Chinese athletes’ holistic viewpoints. Based on interview data collected from n = 24 male provincial professional and university badminton athletes from China, I articulate that Chinese sportsmen are seen to identify strictly with collective Sinicized ideals, termed as “Chineseness,” in constructing their racial consciousness, which arises from their physical and cultural inter-group differences and/or intra-group similarities.
What role does food play in the construction of social identity? The research outlined in this chapter aims to explore whether and to what extent Chinese cultural food influences the social and health dynamics of the Chinese in the UK. The chapter draws on ethnographic fieldwork to explore how food shapes the social identity of British Chinese. The healthy diet and food culture departing from traditional beliefs were found to be heavily influential to the Chinese communities in constructing social identities. Findings in the forms of interviews and observational data reveal an intertwined relationship between the understanding of food and health decisions. A commonly shared belief among the respondents is that they simply do not need to engage as much in the British health system due to a superior lifestyle centralised around the Chinese diet compared to the rest of the UK population. Healthier Chinese eating behaviour based on steamed rather than fried food is considered by the Chinese in the UK to be more advanced than the food in the host UK society. The processual development of Chinese cuisine to gain popularity in UK society since the 1980s formulated an escape point for the Chinese to challenge the power structures enforced by their migration experience. The continuous existence of Chinese takeaway shops developed a sense of group charisma among the Chinese in the UK over time. This chapter provides evidence for the social power of food consumption, diet and cuisine of the Chinese culture in balancing the power differences faced by the ethnic minority. Despite being considered a less socially interactive ethnic minority, findings show that the British Chinese use food as leverage to construct social confidence in the host society.
The spread of COVID-19 was accompanied by news reports of surging racism, xenophobia, and hate crime all over the Global North targeting individuals of East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) descent. However, little empirical research has documented the impacts of COVID-19 on child and adolescent ESEAs. We describe and analyse the mental health experiences of young ESEA Londoners during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We purposively recruited 23 young people (aged 9–20) of ESEA heritage through social media and existing ESEA networks and analysed transcripts using thematic analysis. Participants experienced distress from being exposed to multiple forms of racism ranging from strangers on the street avoiding or harassing them to classmates at school or university making racist ‘jokes’, comments or ‘banter’. Participants worried about hate crimes reported in news media and experienced anxiety from seeing pervasive racist content in online social media. Some participants responded by physically isolating themselves at home for long periods, whilst others chose to participate in activism, providing a sense of agency. Action by parents and school authorities was reported to help prevent further bullying, but respondents did not always feel able to approach these for help. Our findings put into focus the strain on young ESEA Londoners’ mental health caused by COVID-related racism and jar against simplified depictions of metropolitan places, such as London, as centres of cosmopolitanism and tolerance. To promote the emotional wellbeing of young ESEAs, future policy should facilitate action by schools and universities against anti-ESEA racism and support ESEA community-building efforts to enhance resilience in the face of racism.
This chapter examines the role of phenotype in the way Chineseness as an identity is constructed both in the public and private sphere. Essentialised constructions of Chineseness are contrasted with hybridised constructions of Chineseness. The chapter problematises the homogeneity of Chineseness yet recognises that stereotypes and ethnic group categories persist and inform our everyday lives. Framed around Rogers Brubaker’s Ethnicity without groups and Fredrik Barth’s Ethnic groups and boundaries, this chapter explores how bounded ethnic groups continue to be treated as entities and, at the same time, recognises that such ethnic boundaries are permeable. Phenotype or physical features are perpetuated and reinforced as markers of ethnic identity among Australian-born Chinese through the racialisation of identity, the perceived stigma of being Chinese, the fostering of stereotypes and being perceived as a perpetual outsider. How the individual reacts to the essentialisation of ethnic identity depends upon the intersectionality of a range of conditions and this chapter considers the various outcomes of ethnic identity construction.
Based on a social action research, this article discusses the collective action taken by inhabitants of Chinese and South-East Asian origin in a north-eastern suburb of Paris: targeted by violent attacks, these residents occupied the public space at the base of their residences and demanded the intervention of public authorities. In recounting the different steps of the mobilisation, this article demonstrates how an ethnocentric dynamic was created around security issues and how an ethno-spatial minority was formed within the neighbourhood and the city. It also shows in what conditions this ethno-security action transforms itself into an associative and citizen commitment within the neighbourhood and the city and modifies the perceptions of the actors, their capacity for action and their relations with the neighbourhood and with politics. At the intersection of several fields of research, including the sociology of migration, urban sociology and political sociology, the article shows how ordinary inhabitants of Chinese and South-East Asian origin participate in their neighbourhood's local civic life.
In 2020, anti-Asian racism re-emerged during the coronavirus pandemic in Germany and elsewhere, manifesting in media narratives, and evoking different forms of violence and exclusion, especially in public space. Racialisation as an everyday process creates “counter-frames” by racialised groups. They are constructed in relation to institutionalised interpellation as “the other.” Building on Feagin's concept of “white framing” and “counter-framing” and Löw's concept of space, this paper discusses the effects of racialisation, coping and anti-racist resistance strategies as developed by the Asian diaspora. Social change regarding racism will be analysed through Foroutan's concept of “postmigrant society.” We based this study on a convenience sample of people with Asian heritage which we conducted in 2020 in Germany. In addition, we included a diary study for which a subset has been sampled. We argue that the pandemic influenced the formation of counter-frames against anti-Asian racism in the specific context of Berlin.
In this paper, we examine how young adults who are consumers of K-Pop in three culturally diverse cities (Paris, Philadel-phia, and Manchester) reshape their symbolic boundaries to face social challenges. Analyzing data from 132 interviews, we show how young adults mainly confront social exclusion in Paris, fight racism in Philadelphia and deal with xenopho-bia in Manchester. Although K-Pop adds to the dynamics of exclusion due to being perceived as culturally foreign, our participants use K-Pop as a resource to reshape social boundaries towards new forms of inclusion. They do this by relying on K-Pop as a cultural product that promotes inclusion , and on their affiliation with the K-Pop community on a local and global level.
Covid-19 has shed light on the Sino-Italian communities, usually perceived as a “minority model”, based on their being considered as integrated, hard-working and silent. The media narratives about the relation between the spreading of the virus and the consumption of food framed as “disgusting” have neutralised the color-blindness usually applied to Asian migrants in Italy. The latent racism has been reinforced by a process of distinction focused on the disgust for an “abject” food. The reframing of the Sino-Italians as folk devils through the spread of gastro-panic has yet triggered processes of subjectivation, pushing them to make their voices heard on a public level. By the standpoint of 12 “Asian” restaurant owners in the city of Genoa, we explore the frame in which such dynamics have unfolded.
Historically, Australianness has been defined in contradistinction to its location – a British bastion in the Asia-Pacific region.A fear of being swamped by the Chinese – the ‘yellow peril’ – prompted federation, and a restrictive migration policy aimed at making Australia white. Thus, sinophobia has been significant in the national imaginary. This paper discusses how contemporary representations of Chineseness may be echoing this historic narrative of fear about being overrun. This is explored in the context of China’s shifting global significance and Australia’s growing economic relationship with China.
This introduction provides a presentation of the articles in this special issue by framing the contributions in the context of new dynamics related to Chinese migration studies and the ongoing discussions of the impact of China’s powerful economic position. The articles offer new empirical insights to develop new understandings of recent migration and mobilities between China and Europe. By focusing on the changing socio‐economic composition of Chinese migrants in Europe towards highly skilled professionals and investors, changes in Chinese entrepreneurship, increasing Chinese political engagement and activism, and new migration from Europe to China by Chinese descendants, these contributions reflect the importance of developing new theories to better grasp the causes and effects of China’s new global economic and political position for Chinese migration. The selected articles identify promising directions for future work on the global discussions of the impact of China as a diaspora state and ensuing policy implications.
Growing rates of interracial unions in multi-ethnic societies such as Britain are notable, and point to significant changes in the blurring and possibly shifting nature of ethnic and racial boundaries. Asian Americans who partner with White Americans are assumed to engage in ‘whitening’ – both in terms of their aspirations and their social consequences. Yet little is still known about the aftermath of intermarriage, even in the USA. Drawing on this US literature, this paper considers the whitening thesis in relation to multiracial people in Britain, with a particular focus on Asian/White multiracial people. I draw upon the findings of two British studies – one of multiracial young people in higher education (Aspinall, Peter, and Miri Song. 2013. Mixed Race Identities. London: Palgrave Macmillan), and another of multiracial people who are parents (Song, Miri. 2017. Multiracial Parents: Mixed Race Families, Generational Change and the Future of Race. New York: NYU Press) – to explore these questions. I argue that conceptualizations of part Asian people (in the USA) as leaning toward their White heritages are often unsubstantiated, and deduced primarily from one key factor: their high rates of intermarriage with White spouses. Little attention has been given to part Asian people who try to maintain ties with their Asian ancestries. We must consider the ambivalence, tensions, and contextually variable identifications and practices adopted by multiracial Asian people.
This chapter maps the terrain of existing research on British Chinese culture, positioning it in relation to work on Chinese and Asian diasporas globally and on British multiculture. It briefly charts emerging debates on British Chinese culture in the 1990s and its marginalization in academic work. It reflects on challenges of knowledge production on British Chineseness within the context of institutions that may support, if not, reproduce racial inequalities. Finally it situates British Chinese cultural politics within the specific historical context of British multiculturalism, particularly in its neoliberal forms, from the 1980s through to present-day discussions of the ordinary multiculture of postcolonial Britain.
In this chapter, Diana Yeh discusses the institutionalization of the ‘British Chinese’ category in the 1990s. In doing so, she interrogates the discourse of the cultural invisibility of the ‘British Chinese’ as a literal absence and one that can be explained in ethnic terms. Instead, she argues that it is connected to a specific form of racialization as a ‘model minority’ experienced by those perceived to fall into the racialized category ‘Chinese’, which includes East and Southeast Asians more widely, and which works in conjunction with the racialization of other groups. Yeh highlights the legacies of empire in the precarious positioning of ‘Chinese’ and ‘British Chinese’ within the categories ‘British’, ‘Black’, and ‘Asian’ in British discourse. She further argues that the uses of ‘Chinese’ and ‘British Chinese’, especially in the context of the commodification of difference and the rise of China, have further contributed to this invisibility. Finally, she posits that despite marginalization, ‘Chinese’ and ‘British Chinese’ cultural practices have become hegemonic over others, leading to alternative mobilizations around British East Asian identities. The chapter argues that acknowledging the specific positioning of ‘Chinese’, ‘British Chinese’, ‘East Asian’, and ‘Southeast Asian’—and the myriad of differences within them—in relation to ‘British’, ‘Black’, and ‘Asian’ provides an opportunity to reflect on how far cultural institutions must go to reflect the ordinary multiculture of postcolonial Britain.
British Chinese films have struggled to find a significant presence in the writings of British cinema history, even within debates on minority cinemas, such as Black British or British Asian cinema, which have since the 1980s established a canon of margins of sorts. This chapter argues for an inclusive historiography that places British Chinese filmmaking within these wider debates, through the analysis of films such as Ping Pong (1986), Soursweet (1988), Peggy Su (1997), and Cut Sleeve Boys (2006), which not only intersect with issues of representation and various film funding initiatives that have encouraged new voices but also highlight questions of distribution and exhibition for small films in the construction of national cinemas.
Historically, Australianness has been defined in contradistinction to its location – a British bastion in the Asia-Pacific region.A fear of being swamped by the Chinese – the ‘yellow peril’ – prompted federation, and a restrictive migration policy aimed at making Australia white. Thus, sinophobia has been significant in the national imaginary. This paper discusses how contemporary representations of Chineseness may be echoing this historic narrative of fear about being overrun. This is explored in the context of China’s shifting global significance and Australia’s growing economic relationship with China.
This chapter draws on a project on so-called ‘British Chinese’/‘Oriental’ 1 youth cultures to examine new forms of mobility among young people who have grown up as children of migrants. It traces changing mobility patterns, from the migration and settlement patterns of the parental generation to the physical and virtual mobilities of the next generation. Children of migrants move locally to participate in activities with ethnic and racial co-peers, take transnational trips and engage virtually as global youth. As the editors to this volume suggest, examining the short-term and the micro-movements of children and young people within major migration fluxes brings to light experiences that are pres ently invisible and undertheorized. By using the concept of ‘mobility-in-migration’, they capture new complex, changing forms of movement that occur in response to migration and global economic and social change. By discussing how the mobilities of children of migrants are shaped by family transnational migrations, this chapter illustrates how shifts from childhood to youth intersect with migration trajectories However, by tracing the ways in which young people also craft their own forms of movement, it considers how their present mobilities, shaped by processes of racialization, relate specifically to a localized global youth culture shared with both migrant and nonmigrant co-racial youth and thus transcend pathways forged by familial and ethnonational ties.
The young British-born Vietnamese are a largely unrecognised group in society and are generally not considered part of multiethnic Britain. A key characteristic of their racial positioning has been the very specific forms of hegemonic gendered labelling shaped by discourses of Orientalism. These Orientalist discourses subject Vietnamese men to pernicious stereotyping linked to ‘passive’ and effeminising forms of ‘subordinate’ masculinity. The ethnic and gendered dimensions of male Vietnamese youth experience are further compounded by the intersecting processes of social class and urban geographies which provide a distinct range of identity outcomes; these are particularly acute for working-class men living in highly urbanised areas. This article explores how young Vietnamese men subvert Oriental labels and stereotypes by using a range of unexpected, creative and ‘spectacular’ manipulations of hair, dress, style and comportment. I argue that Vietnamese men negotiate and perform ethnic masculinities through conscious and strategic forms of agency which entail everyday mundane forms of ‘risk’. The article draws upon primary data from in-depth, narrative interviews and participant observation.
The young British-born Vietnamese are a relatively invisible group in ‘super-diverse’ London who are often misidentified in their everyday encounters. Eluding more straightforward processes of ethnic or racial assignment, the young Vietnamese ‘pass’ in various different ways as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai or ‘Oriental’. Drawing upon primary interview data and participant observation, this article traces ‘passive’ and ‘deliberate’ forms of passing to highlight how intersecting processes of class, gender and place enable/engender different kinds of passing. It is argued that Vietnamese-passing challenges more ‘celebratory’ readings of (super-) diversity by concealing (and depoliticising) difference and erasing Vietnamese voices rather than allowing for their proliferation. It is suggested that practices of passing may become more common in super-diverse societies, as markers of visible difference become increasingly complex and less determinable, especially among newer, non-colonial migrant groups who are more ambiguously positioned within existing identity regimes.
This article explores websites developed to express the interests and experiences of young Chinese people in Britain. Drawing on content analysis of site discussions and dialogues with site users, we argue these new communicative practices are best understood through a reworking of the social capital problematic. First, by recognizing the irreducibility of Internet-mediated connections to the calculative instrumentalism underlying many applications of social capital theory. Second, by providing a more differentiated account of social capital. The interactions we explore comprise a specifically ‘second generation’ form of social capital, cutting across the binary of bonding and bridging social capital. Third, judgement on the social capital consequences of Internet interactions must await a longer-term assessment of whether British Chinese institutions emerge to engage with the wider polity.
In this paper I review and examine the assumed link between intermarriage and integration. I focus primarily on literature from the US and Britain. Intermarriage is said to signal a significant lessening of 'social distance' between a minority group and the White majority, enabling unions between groups which would previously have been taboo. It is often assumed that intermarriage for ethnic minorities is the ultimate litmus test of integration, but is it? And if there is a link between intermarriage and integration, what is the nature and extent of 'integration' achieved by minority groups and by the minority partner? I argue that the link between intermarriage and integration is both more tenuous and more complex than many social scientists have argued, and needs a critical reappraisal, especially in multiethnic societies which are witnessing unprecedented levels of diversity, both across and within their ethnic minority groups.
Previous work has drawn attention to the relative absence of British Chinese voices in
public culture. No one is more aware of this invisibility than British-born Chinese people
themselves. Since 2000 the emergence of Internet discussion sites produced by British
Chinese young people has provided an important forum for many of them to grapple
with questions concerning their identities, experiences and status in Britain. In this paper
we explore the ways in which Internet usage by British-born Chinese people has
facilitated forms of self-expression, collective identity production and social and political
action. This examination of British Chinese websites raises important questions about
inclusion and exclusion, citizenship, participation and the development of a sense of
belonging in Britain, issues which are usually overlooked in relation to a group which
appears to be well integrated and successful in higher education.
“Try Something Different. Something Really Chinese“ The Happy Hsiungs recovers the lost histories of Shih-I and Dymia Hsiung, two once highly visible, but now largely forgotten Chinese writers in Britain, who sought to represent China and Chineseness to the rest of the world. Shih-I shot to worldwide fame with his play Lady Precious Stream in the 1930s and became known as the first Chinese director to work in the West End and on Broadway. Dymia was the first Chinese woman in Britain to publish a fictional autobiography in English. Diana Yeh traces the Hsiungs’ lives from their childhood in Qing dynasty China and youth amid the radical May Fourth era to Britain and the USA, where they rubbed shoulders with George Bernard Shaw, James M. Barrie, H. G. Wells, Pearl Buck, Lin Yutang, Anna May Wong and Paul Robeson. In recounting the Hsiungs’ rise to fame, Yeh focuses on the challenges they faced in becoming accepted as modern subjects, as knowledge of China and the Chinese was persistently framed by colonial legacies and Orientalist discourses, which often determined how their works were shaped and understood. She also shows how Shih-I and Dymia, in negotiating acceptance, “'performed” not only specific forms of Chineseness but identities that conformed to modern ideals of class, gender and sexuality, defined by the heteronormative nuclear family. Though fêted as ‘The Happy Hsiungs', their lives ultimately highlight a bitter struggle in attempts to become modern.
In this article we analyse the emergence of Internet activity addressing the experiences of young people in two British communities: South Asian and Chinese. We focus on two web sites: http://www.barficulture.com and http://www.britishbornchinese.org.uk, drawing on interviews with site editors, content analysis of the discussion forums, and E-mail exchanges with site users.
Our analysis of these two web sites shows how collective identities still matter, being redefined rather than erased by online interaction. We understand the site content through the notion of reflexive racialisation. We use this term to modify the stress given to individualisation in accounts of reflexive modernisation. In addition we question the allocation of racialised meaning from above implied by the concept of racialisation. Internet discussion forums can act as witnesses to social inequalities and through sharing experiences of racism and marginalisation, an oppositional social perspective may develop.
The online exchanges have had offline consequences: social gatherings, charitable donations and campaigns against adverse media representations. These web sites have begun to change the terms of engagement between these ethnic groups and the wider society, and they have considerable potential to develop new forms of social action.
Stuart Hall's observation that '… identity is formed at that point where the unspeakable stories of subjectivity meet the narratives of history, of a culture …' (Hall 1987, 'Minimal Selves', in Identity: The Real Me, ICA, London, p. 44) has inspired much of our previous exploration of the lives of second generation Chinese young people in Britain. In this work we have drawn attention to the relative absence of British Chinese voices in public culture. Since 1999 the emergence of Internet discussion sites produced by British Chinese young people has provided forums for many of their previously “unspeakable stories” to circulate. In this paper we re-examine Stuart Hall's influential discussions of identity in the light of the Internet's role in transmitting the discourses he regards as formative, rather than expressive, of identities. The everyday interchanges of the Internet provide more spontaneous representations than the artistic practices prompting Hall's discussion of 'new ethnicities' 20 years ago. Accordingly, the online discussion forums we discuss in this paper address a number of issues often overlooked in appropriations of the new ethnicities terminology. In addition to ongoing debates about the 'place' and experiences of British Chinese people, we examine the growing off-line mobilizations engendered by online engagements.
This article examines the social exclusion experienced by Chinese people in Britain. It challenges the view that the problem is caused by the cultural characteristics of the Chinese community. It shows that the main cause lies in their way of seeking social integration through market participation. The necessity for many Chinese families to secure their market position not only keeps them at a distance from mainstream society but also from their own ethnic community. While they are not outsiders in either of these groups, they only have one foot in each of them.
This article explores the contested meanings of the ‘Asian American’ concept in the US today. Since its emergence in the late 1960s, ‘Asian American’ has been defined by pan-Asian groups and organizations in the US as a collectivity bound by shared racial interests. Contemporary conditions have sharpened and highlighted the inherent contradictions and ambiguities of this conception of ‘Asian American’ as a racial interest group. Especially important have been the shifts in the composition of the Asian American population that followed the immigration reforms of 1965. Contestations of ‘Asian American’ also reflect larger uncertainties about the meaning of race in the US today, in particular, the nature of racial boundaries and racial disadvantage.
1. Introduction. Making urban nightscapes Part I - Understanding Nightlife Processes and Spaces, Producing, Regulating and Consuming Urban Nightscapes 2. Producing nightlife: Corporatisation, branding and market segmentation in the urban entertainment economy 3. Regulating nightlife: Profit, fun and (dis)order 4. Consuming nightlife: Youth cultural identities, transitions and lifestyle divisions Part II - Urban Nightlife Stories. Experiencing Mainstream, Residual and Alternative Spaces 5. Pleasure, profit and youth in the corporate playground: Branding and gentrification in mainstream nightlife 6. Selling nightlife in studentland 7. Sexing the mainstream: Young women and gay cultures in the night 8. Residual Youth Nightlife: Community, tradition and social exclusion 9. 'You've gotta fight for your right to party'. Alternative nightlife on the margins 10. Nightlife visions. Beyond the corporate nightlife machine
The high achievement of British–Chinese pupils in the British education system is established in the official literature, but few studies have asked British–Chinese pupils or parents about the factors contributing to their success. This paper explores value of education as a possible contributory aspect. It investigates the extent to which British–Chinese pupils and their parents value education, and the rationale behind their constructions in this regard. Cultural issues in the transmission of values are also explored. The findings demonstrate that British–Chinese pupils and their parents place an extremely high value on education, irrespective of social class and gender. However, pupils and parents do not necessarily provide the same explanations for this value. There is evidence, though, that the discourse of ‘value of education’ is mobilised as part of a cultural construction of racialised boundaries relating to the diasporic habitus of the Chinese in Britain. The paper discusses the benefits, costs and consequences for Chinese parents and pupils of their elevation and prioritisation of education.
Little research has examined constructions of gender among young British-Chinese. This paper seeks to further understanding in this area, particularly in relation to notions of ‘laddism’ currently deployed in educational policy discourse around gender and achievement. As a group British-Chinese boys tend to very high achievement in the British Education system. The notion of ‘laddish behaviour’ as an explanation for boys’ apparent underachievement in comparison to girls at GCSE level was discussed with British-Chinese pupils. An overwhelming majority of British-Chinese pupils supported this explanation, and a majority of these pupils applied notions of ‘laddish behaviour’ to British-Chinese boys, to some extent contesting stereotypes of the Chinese as uniformly ‘good pupils’. However, the discourses of ‘the good Chinese pupil’ and ‘Chinese value of education’ were frequently drawn on by pupil respondents, with the result that the pupils often presented British-Chinese manifestations of ‘laddism’ as mild versions in comparison with pernicious ‘others’. The paper discusses different presentations of laddism among some of the male respondents. It concludes by analysing the impact of ‘raced’ and gendered discourses on British-Chinese constructions of masculinity. British-Chinese boys may be able to adopt versions of masculinity which do not impede their learning, but this tended to result in their masculinity being problematised in teacher discourse.
Race equality as a matter of governance has gained momentum in most Western countries and is reflected in race/ethnicity data collection in administrative systems and the attention accorded to terminology by census agencies. However, the vocabulary of health care--both in its literature and the language of officialdom--has proved resistant to the use of this lexicon of acceptable terms, as exemplified by the portrayal of peoples as 'Oriental' and 'Negro'. What makes such language racist is the historical legacy it carries--that is, its symbolic importance. Survey evidence shows that the majority of those so described find the terms offensive. Countries have dealt with these linguistic issues in a variety of ways, including the use of the legislature and action by library associations and professional bodies in the USA. In Britain it has fallen upon the judiciary and universities to prohibit such terms. Given the momentum currently being achieved by public authorities in their response to race equality legislation, it is now time for health care to purge its language of these epithets.
Language Matters: The Vocabulary of Racism in Healthcare The London Riots: On Consumerism Coming Home to Roost
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The Chinese Takeaway and the Diasporic Habitus: Space, Time and Power Geometries
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New Ethnicities and the Internet: Belonging and the Negotiation of Difference in Multicultural Britain Identity Politics and the New Genetics: Re-Creating Categories of Difference and Belonging
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Why Aren't the Chinese Black in Britain? Some Thoughts on 'Integration' and 'Social Exclusion
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The Happy Hsiungs: Performing China and the Struggle for Modernity DIANA YEH is associate lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College and in the School of Law and Social Sciences at the University of East London
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Yeh, D. Forthcoming. The Happy Hsiungs: Performing China and the Struggle for Modernity. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. DIANA YEH is associate lecturer in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College and in the School of Law and Social Sciences at the University of East London. ADDRESS: Department of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London, 30 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DT, UK / School of Law and Social Sciences (LSS), University of East London, Docklands Campus, University Way, London E16 2RD, UK. Email: d.yeh@bbk.ac.uk / d.yeh@uel.ac.uk
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