Chinese, Japanese or ‘Oriental’?: Vietnamese-passing in ‘super-diverse’ London

Abstract

The young British-born Vietnamese are a relatively invisible group in ‘super-diverse’ London who are often misidentified in their everyday encounters. Eluding more straightforward processes of ethnic or racial assignment, the young Vietnamese ‘pass’ in various different ways as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai or ‘Oriental’. Drawing upon primary interview data and participant observation, this article traces ‘passive’ and ‘deliberate’ forms of passing to highlight how intersecting processes of class, gender and place enable/engender different kinds of passing. It is argued that Vietnamese-passing challenges more ‘celebratory’ readings of (super-) diversity by concealing (and depoliticising) difference and erasing Vietnamese voices rather than allowing for their proliferation. It is suggested that practices of passing may become more common in super-diverse societies, as markers of visible difference become increasingly complex and less determinable, especially among newer, non-colonial migrant groups who are more ambiguously positioned within existing identity regimes.

Keywords:

• passing
• British-born Vietnamese
• British East/Southeast Asians
• orientalism
• ‘super-diversity’
• intersectionality

Notes

1. This is based on those who ‘wrote-in’ as ethnic Vietnamese. This extends previous estimates which placed the population between 55,000–65,000 in the UK (IOM 2006).

2. All interviews were taped with consent and fully transcribed by the author and research participants were given pseudonyms to protect their identity and ensure data confidentiality.

3. The relationship between the Vietnamese and Chinese population is complex, with some of the Vietnamese population having ethnic Chinese origins. Yet, none of the participants listed below who passed as Chinese identified as ethnic Chinese.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamsin Barber

TAMSIN BARBER is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Department of Social Science at Oxford Brookes University.