Belonging to the Nation Generational Change, Identity and the Chinese Diaspora [Hardcover]

This study reviews developments in the ethnic and national identity of the descendants of migrants, taking ethnic Chinese as a case study. Our core question is why, in spite of debates worldwide about identity, exclusion and rights, do minority communities continue to suffer discrimination and attacks? This question is asked in view of the growing incidence in recent years of racial conflicts between majority and minority communities and among minorities, in both developed and developing countries. The study examines national identity from the perspective of migrants descendants, whose national identity may be more rooted than is often thought. Concepts such as new ethnicities, cultural fluidity, and new and multiple identities feature in this examination. These concepts highlight identity changes across generations and the need to challenge and reinterpret the meaning of nation and to review problems with policy initiatives designed to promote nation-building in multi-ethnic societies.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

1. Belonging to the nation: generational change, identity and the Chinese diaspora Gregor Benton and Edmund Terence Gomez

2. Segmented assimilation and socio-economic integration of Chinese immigrant children in the USA Min Zhou

3. Beyond Chinese groupism: Chinese Australians between assimilation, multiculturalism and diaspora Ien Ang

4. Contesting the model minority: racialization, youth culture and British Chinese/Oriental nights Diana Yeh

5. After the break: re-conceptualizing ethnicity, national identity and Malaysian-Chinese identities Sharmani Patricia Gabriel

6. Beyond co-ethnicity: the politics of differentiating and integrating new immigrants in Singapore Liu Hong

7. Chinese descl“7