PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 6 –Grounding belonging in leisure spaceThis experience helped me to realise that Taiwanese expatriates‘ comfort and ability tofeel at ease in gatherings is largely associated with the environment and atmosphere thatare filled with familiar visuals and soundscapes that remind them of home and /orhomeland. A feeling of belonging is easily fostered by the sense of being understoodand the acceptance that they experience in these venues, as Clarke explained:I quite like coming here ‗cos, since our backgrounds, lives, work experience and social andeconomic statuses are similar, I feel that it is easy to communicate with others and alsowhat I say is easily understood. That makes me feel very comfortable, and not excluded.As it is very hard to keep in touch with friends in Taiwan and also to make new friendswith whom you can share everything here, it is helpful to join different meetings.Otherwise, my friend circle will be getting smaller and smaller.Participating in a gathering as a leisure activity is also differently experienced by myrespondents, which reveals the diversity of experiences of Taiwanese people in the YRD.Taiwanese people who migrate to the China for business purposes include successfulbusiness people, those who fail in business ventures (some of which are categorised astai liu 49 ) and those who fall in between. As such, my respondents‘ feeling of belongingas constituted by their socialising and participating in a variety of Taiwanese gatherings,is related not only to the sense of togetherness and companionship they can attain there,but also to their ability to perform certain identities (e.g. their social and economicstatus) and fit into norms of different gatherings. To express this in another way,Taiwanese expatriates‘ practices of belonging is largely associated with their embodied49 The term is used by Taiwanese to refer to those who relocate to China to do business, but end updeclaring bankruptcy or losing their jobs. As it is thought to be a matter of losing face in Taiwan, some donot have courage to go back to Taiwan and therefore end up living in idleness or becoming rascals whodefraud people in the Taiwanese community.232