Diasporic Chineseness after the Rise of China

Book excerpt: As China rose to its position of global superpower, Chinese groups in the West watched with anticipation and trepidation. For members of China’s diasporic community, the rise of China created ripples of change, influencing communities, culture, and communication, and even challenging the very concept of diaspora. Diasporic Chineseness after the Rise of China examines how artists, writers, filmmakers, and intellectuals from the Chinese diaspora responded to China’s ascendancy by representing it to global audiences with a new-found vitality and self-assurance. The chapters, often personal in nature, cover locations as varied as Australia, North America, and Tibet. And yet, the focus of each is the nexus between the political and economic rise of China and the cultural products this period produced, a place where new ideas of nation, identity, and diaspora were forged.