The Chinese in Britain, 1800-Present: Economy, Transnationalism, Identity

by Gregor Benton

This study points up the complex and intricate interplay of ethnic and national identities in the lives of Chinese in Britain. A constant thread across two hundred years of Chinese presence has been the vigour of British national identity among migrants' descendants. This study argues that transnational studies reinforce essentialist conceptions of identity and of cultural authenticity in diasporic communities, and thus frustrate the promotion of ethnic co-existence and social cohesion in multi-ethnic societies.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China

485 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2007

About the author

Gregor Benton is emeritus professor of Chinese history at Cardiff University and research associate in diaspora studies, NTU, Singapore.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘They and their problems are nobody’s priority: indeed, their existence may be hardly noticed’.

This study offers a comprehensive account of Chinese diaspora formations in Britain from the arrival of seafarers to Liverpool and London in the early 19th century. :)

The soap suds of laundrettes are replaced by takeaways. Community dispersal is integral, avoided the focussed racism against visible community but isolated and exposed. Awareness of empire and Hong Kong, we see ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors of migration. Avoids homogenising a diverse community, considers people from Malaya and Singapore.

Chinatown is examined as a place of fanciful belonging. Roots British racist attitudes in the ‘yellow peril’, as well as associations with criminality and opium use, in the old Limehouse Chinatown. These fantasies were riddled with hypocrisy; the British had forced China to import the drug at the point of a bayonet.

‘While racism and attacks may have occurred on an individual level, the Chinese community escaped relatively unscathed in these volatile decades'. Hmm. Takeaway owners were visited by racist thugs and drunks, isolated, reluctant to report, children faced bullying and racism in schools.

One of my favourite post-punk bands, Siouxse and the Banshees first song in 1978 was about their local takeaway, written in response to local racists going in and harassing the British Chinese workers.

‘People who saw other migrant groups as childish, lazy, temperamental… saw Chinese resilience and resolution as sinister.’ There was no winning. The idea of the ‘model minority’, the other side of the racist coin, threateningly efficient.

Don’t be off-put by the reference to 1800 - this book’s main focus is on contemporary issues!