Tilburg University Chineseness as a Moving Target Li Jinling

The changing nature of Chinese diasporas 15
By 1990, the number of Chinese living outside the PRC and ROC had been
estimated approximately 37 million (Fan, 2003; Poston, Mao & Yu, 1994). Among
them, the majority, 32.3 million, lived in Asia. In non-Asia countries, the United States
(US) has the largest number of Chinese immigrants, making the country the home to
the biggest Chinese community outside of Asia. More recent studies show the number
of Chinese overseas increasing to over 50 million. In the book on the Chinese diaspora
edited by Ma and Cartier (2003), scholars working in various parts of the world trace
the Chinese diaspora everywhere it had become a significant force, from Southeast Asia
to Oceania, North America, Latin America, and Europe. The authors describe the sharp
difference between sojourning Chinese prior to the 1960s and the transnational
Chinese of the current era. Early Chinese emigration coincides with the turbulent final
days of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the first Sino-Japanese war (1884-1885), and the
1911 Revolution, which made an end to imperial China and turned it into a Republic.
This was a time of extreme civil unrest and disorder and to a large part explains why so
many Chinese with access to the sea were ready to leave their country behind in search
for a better life overseas. It predates however, by several generations, the split of China
into two systems as an outcome of the Chinese civil war (1927-1948): the People’s
Republic of China ruled by the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing and the Republic of
China ruled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) in Taipei on the Island of
Taiwan.
In the US, California has the largest number of Chinese diasporas, and the San
Francisco Bay Area, along with the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas, have
one of the highest urban concentrations of Chinese in the country. Li Wei (1998, 1999)
conducted research in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles. On the basis of historical
records, census data, and interviews, she showed how the Chinese community within
this region in particular, has evolved from densely populated downtown Chinatowns to
more geographically spread out regions in an ethnic suburb. Li Wei argues that the
Chinese ethnic suburbs originated from the new immigrants’ desire for suburban living
and have taken on a new ‘global economy outpost’ function, by serving residential and
services needs of new immigrants whose economic and social networks are more
international in scope than those of the older immigrants. According to Li Wei
(1999:18), ‘the San Gabriel Valley ethnoburb had become by 1990 a more important
Chinese residential area than Chinatown.’ She explains how the ethnoburb offers more
opportunities when compared to a Chinatown, as there are additional economic
benefits through business opportunities when catering towards the regional cultural
identity. She further shows differences between an ethnoburb and Chinatown in that
the composition of the populations varies in terms of age, socioeconomic level, and
time since their immigration. Within a Chinatown, the population is mainly
‘immigrants of Chinese descendants from mainland China and Southeast Asia, with a
much older age structure and longer duration of residence… [and] the socio-economic
status of its residents is lower’ (Li Wei, 1999:21). In contrast, although culturally an
ethnoburb may appear to cater towards a specific ethnic group, these regional areas
tend to include a more ethnically diverse population which is composed of a greater
variety of age groups with a higher socioeconomic status. In addition, a higher level of
education is more common within an ethnoburb when compared to a Chinatown, thus