Global spaces of Chinese culture:A transnational comparison of diasporic Chinese communities in the United States and Germany

[摘要] A Overseas Chinese draw upon three strategies to articulate their identities as diasporic subjects: (1) being more American, (2) being more Chinese, and (3) hybridizing and commodifying Chinese culture through trans-cultural performances. Through these performances, overseas Chinese are fundamentally reshaping Chinese culture, creating new transnational linkages, and fostering the circulation of the Chinese transnational imaginary. These three strategies are not mutually exclusive, and they often intersect and supplement each other in unexpected ways. Binary models of identity are no longer effective in analyzing diasporic Chinese cultures. Instead, theories which take into account the complexities of uprooted and deterritorialized subjectivies are better suited to the study of new Chinese cosmopolitanisms. Close attention to both global and local contexts, and especially to how the everyday lives of overseas Chinese connect with these factors, is essential in tracking the Chinese transnational imaginary.

[发布机构] Rice University

[效力级别] anthropology