Chinese identities: official representations and new ethnicities

Chan, Wun Fung (2003). Chinese identities: official representations and new ethnicities. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis is a critique of official representations of Chinese identities, with particular reference to the City of Birmingham. The basis of the critique stems from a consideration of Stuart Hall’s new ethnicities thesis and follows the trajectory of his thesis to the ideas and methods surrounding deconstruction. Through unfolding this critique, the course of the thesis considers (a) the terms that delimit the emergence of Chinese identity in the local government archive and (b) a number of governmental propositions as well as their constitutive outside. The propositions that are decentred include: the Post World War II claims to the natural order of city life that I counter pose with the elision of immigration, a Chinese presence that is offered to the authenticate Birmingham’s Chinese Quarter that I counter pose through showing the regulative role of writing, a notion of community as a cohesive, uniform entity that I counter pose through showing the necessity of a co-existing state and, finally, the centring of a Chinese philanthropic entrepreneur that I counter pose by showing the borders of the City’s gift-giving. Despite the apparent fragmented nature of the above arguments, the research repeatedly encounters numerous claims to the sovereignty of Chinese identity. These claims run through and conjoin each chapter. However, the thesis also shows that such claims are partial thus marking a selective appropriation of cultural difference and the lack of a settled relationship between the Chinese population and the City of Birmingham. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the City’s hospitality.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):