The Chinese Face in Australia - Multi-generational Ethnicity among Australian-born Chinese

The book explains how multi-generational Australian-born Chinese (ABC) negotiate the balance of two cultures. It explores both the philosophical and theoretical levels, focusing on deconstructing and re-evaluating the concept of 'Chineseness.' At a social and experiential level, it concentrates on how successive generations of early migrants experience, negotiate and express their Chinese identity.
The diasporic literature has taken up the idea of hybrid identity construction largely in relation to first- and second-generation migrants and to the sojourner's sense of roots in a diasporic setting somewhat lost in the debate over Chinese diasporas and identities are the experiences of long-term migrant communities. Their experiences are usually discussed in terms of the melting-pot concepts of assimilation and integration that assume ethnic identification decreases and eventually disappears over successive generations. Based on ethnography, fieldwork and participant observation on multi-generational Australian-born Chinese whose families have resided in Australia from three to six generations, this study reveals a contrasting picture of ethnic identification.

List of contents

Introduction: Chineseness and The Chinese Diaspora.- Constructing and Doing Chineseness.- Authenticity and Physicality: Chineseness Through Cultural and Racial Discourses.- Identity and Identification: Portraits of Multi-generational Australian-born Chinese .- Chineseness through the Life Course.- Hybridity: The Ambivalence of Chineseness as Identity.- Conclusion.

About the author

Chan Kwok-bun is Chair Professor of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University. He was former President, Hong Kong Sociological Association; former Head, Department of Sociology, and former Director, David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. Between 2005 and 2008, Professor Chan has published seven books, and since 2005 has been the Editor of Social Transformations in Chinese Societies (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers), the official journal of The Hong Kong Sociological Association. His current research interests are in families in Chinese societies, Chinese business networks and Chinese capitalism; Chinese ethnic identities; migration, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, and diasporas.

Summary

The book explains how multi-generational Australian-born Chinese (ABC) negotiate the balance of two cultures. It explores both the philosophical and theoretical levels, focusing on deconstructing and re-evaluating the concept of ‘Chineseness.’ At a social and experiential level, it concentrates on how successive generations of early migrants experience, negotiate and express their Chinese identity.
The diasporic literature has taken up the idea of hybrid identity construction largely in relation to first- and second-generation migrants and to the sojourner’s sense of roots in a diasporic setting somewhat lost in the debate over Chinese diasporas and identities are the experiences of long-term migrant communities. Their experiences are usually discussed in terms of the melting-pot concepts of assimilation and integration that assume ethnic identification decreases and eventually disappears over successive generations. Based on ethnography, fieldwork and participant observation on multi-generational Australian-born Chinese whose families have resided in Australia from three to six generations, this study reveals a contrasting picture of ethnic identification.

Additional text

From the reviews:
“Ngan (Univ. of Hong Kong) and Chan (Hong Kong Baptist Univ.) skillfully engage the postmodernist elusiveness of race theory while contesting the essentialist assumptions that presuppose ethnicity and culture in this timely contribution to the complex project of examining the methodological and analytical strategies for understanding identity politics. … An important addition to migration studies and ethnic studies scholarship. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” (A. Cho, Choice, Vol. 50 (5), January, 2013)
"...The Chinese Face in Australia...an excellent job of portraying and analyzing the challenges of "doing Chinese" in Australia and elsewhere, it clarifies key issues which surround the present sociological conceptions of ethnicity and social identities...The Chinese Face in Australia represents a real step forward in the consideration of ethnic identity....the book expresses the cautious hope that what its authors have to say about ethnicity goes further than addressing the case of the identified Australian-born Chinese."
May S. Partridge, Independent Scholar
Journal of Chinese Overseas, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014
"The book has offered a rare and nuanced analysis of the psychology and sociology of Chinese men and women in a changing Australia. Apart from enriching our understanding of multi-generation identities among Chinese men and women born in Australia, the book has ably captured issues of race, ethnicity, and gender in Australia from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, including the important post-World War II experiments with mass immigration and ensuing assimilation, integration and multicultural approaches to managing cultural diversity."
Pookong Kee, The University of Melbourne
Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2014

Report

From the reviews:
"Ngan (Univ. of Hong Kong) and Chan (Hong Kong Baptist Univ.) skillfully engage the postmodernist elusiveness of race theory while contesting the essentialist assumptions that presuppose ethnicity and culture in this timely contribution to the complex project of examining the methodological and analytical strategies for understanding identity politics. ... An important addition to migration studies and ethnic studies scholarship. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." (A. Cho, Choice, Vol. 50 (5), January, 2013)
"...The Chinese Face in Australia...an excellent job of portraying and analyzing the challenges of "doing Chinese" in Australia and elsewhere, it clarifies key issues which surround the present sociological conceptions of ethnicity and social identities...The Chinese Face in Australia represents a real step forward in the consideration of ethnic identity....the book expresses the cautious hope that what its authors have to say about ethnicity goes further than addressing the case of the identified Australian-born Chinese."
May S. Partridge, Independent Scholar
Journal of Chinese Overseas, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014
"The book has offered a rare and nuanced analysis of the psychology and sociology of Chinese men and women in a changing Australia. Apart from enriching our understanding of multi-generation identities among Chinese men and women born in Australia, the book has ably captured issues of race, ethnicity, and gender in Australia from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, including the important post-World War II experiments with mass immigration and ensuing assimilation, integration and multicultural approaches to managing cultural diversity."
Pookong Kee, The University of Melbourne
Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2, 2014

Product details

• Authors: Kwok-Bun Chan, Chan Kwok-bun, Lucille Lok Ngan, Lucille Lok-Su Ngan, Lucille Lok-Sun Ngan
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.06.2012
• EAN: 9781461421306
• ISBN: 978-1-4614-2130-6
• No. of pages: 220
• Weight: 508 g
• Illustrations: XXIV, 220 p.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories