Josephine Khu
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520223400
- eISBN:
- 9780520924918
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520223400.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This is an anthology of autobiographical essays of the Chinese diaspora. Written by ethnic Chinese who were born or raised outside of China, these pieces, full of the details of everyday life, ...
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This is an anthology of autobiographical essays of the Chinese diaspora. Written by ethnic Chinese who were born or raised outside of China, these pieces, full of the details of everyday life, describe the experience of growing up as a visible minority and the subsequent journey each author made to China. The authors—whose diverse backgrounds in countries such as New Zealand, Denmark, Sri Lanka, England, Indonesia, and the United States mirror the complex global scope of the Chinese diaspora—describe in particular how their journey to the country of their ancestors transformed their sense of what it means to be Chinese. The collection as a whole provides important insights into what ethnic identity has come to mean in our transnational era. Among the pieces is Brad Wong's discussion of his visit to his grandfather's poverty-stricken village in China's southern Guangdong province. Wong describes working with a few of the peasants tilling vegetables and compares life in the village with his middle-class upbringing in a San Francisco suburb. In another essay, Milan Lin-Rodrigo tells of her life in Sri Lanka and of the trip she made to China as an adult. She describes the difficult and sometimes humorous cultural differences she experienced when she met her Chinese half-sister and her father's first wife. Josephine Khu's afterword provides background information on the Chinese diaspora and gives a theoretical framework for understanding the issues raised in the essays.Less
This is an anthology of autobiographical essays of the Chinese diaspora. Written by ethnic Chinese who were born or raised outside of China, these pieces, full of the details of everyday life, describe the experience of growing up as a visible minority and the subsequent journey each author made to China. The authors—whose diverse backgrounds in countries such as New Zealand, Denmark, Sri Lanka, England, Indonesia, and the United States mirror the complex global scope of the Chinese diaspora—describe in particular how their journey to the country of their ancestors transformed their sense of what it means to be Chinese. The collection as a whole provides important insights into what ethnic identity has come to mean in our transnational era. Among the pieces is Brad Wong's discussion of his visit to his grandfather's poverty-stricken village in China's southern Guangdong province. Wong describes working with a few of the peasants tilling vegetables and compares life in the village with his middle-class upbringing in a San Francisco suburb. In another essay, Milan Lin-Rodrigo tells of her life in Sri Lanka and of the trip she made to China as an adult. She describes the difficult and sometimes humorous cultural differences she experienced when she met her Chinese half-sister and her father's first wife. Josephine Khu's afterword provides background information on the Chinese diaspora and gives a theoretical framework for understanding the issues raised in the essays.
Martin Dusinberre
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835248
- eISBN:
- 9780824871819
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835248.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter argues that the significance of Kaminoseki's transnational era was not merely institutional—the demographic effects of emigration spread across two or sometimes three generations. ...
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This chapter argues that the significance of Kaminoseki's transnational era was not merely institutional—the demographic effects of emigration spread across two or sometimes three generations. Furthermore, thanks to the “success” of their overseas compatriots and the pride engendered thereby, those villagers who stayed at home would also have been aware of the impact of the Japanese diaspora in the social and economic routines of their daily lives. The shrines and temples at which they gathered, the schools, the two-story houses around the town: these are just some of the transnational legacies of the Kaminoseki diaspora, and to study them is to understand an important and often ignored everyday aspect of Japan's modern transformations.Less
This chapter argues that the significance of Kaminoseki's transnational era was not merely institutional—the demographic effects of emigration spread across two or sometimes three generations. Furthermore, thanks to the “success” of their overseas compatriots and the pride engendered thereby, those villagers who stayed at home would also have been aware of the impact of the Japanese diaspora in the social and economic routines of their daily lives. The shrines and temples at which they gathered, the schools, the two-story houses around the town: these are just some of the transnational legacies of the Kaminoseki diaspora, and to study them is to understand an important and often ignored everyday aspect of Japan's modern transformations.
Martin Dusinberre
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835248
- eISBN:
- 9780824871819
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835248.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter studies one of the most extraordinary, yet least studied, aspects of Kaminoseki's modern history: overseas migration. From the late nineteenth century onward, hundreds of men and women ...
More
This chapter studies one of the most extraordinary, yet least studied, aspects of Kaminoseki's modern history: overseas migration. From the late nineteenth century onward, hundreds of men and women left the town to earn money abroad. Today, however, only the remnants of Kaminoseki's transnational era remain—objects such as Matsubara Daikichi's monument to his ancestors, erected in 1917 under Iwaishima's Thousand-Year Pine. The chapter uses the rediscovered Murotsu documents to provide a more detailed analysis of some of the causes of Japan's overseas diaspora, particularly by linking the origin of the overseas migrants to the Edo period administrative division of both Murotsu and Kaminoseki villages into port and inland areas. This longer perspective allows for a more accurate measurement of the economic decline of the straits communities in quantitative and qualitative terms.Less
This chapter studies one of the most extraordinary, yet least studied, aspects of Kaminoseki's modern history: overseas migration. From the late nineteenth century onward, hundreds of men and women left the town to earn money abroad. Today, however, only the remnants of Kaminoseki's transnational era remain—objects such as Matsubara Daikichi's monument to his ancestors, erected in 1917 under Iwaishima's Thousand-Year Pine. The chapter uses the rediscovered Murotsu documents to provide a more detailed analysis of some of the causes of Japan's overseas diaspora, particularly by linking the origin of the overseas migrants to the Edo period administrative division of both Murotsu and Kaminoseki villages into port and inland areas. This longer perspective allows for a more accurate measurement of the economic decline of the straits communities in quantitative and qualitative terms.
