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ABSTRACT
This study aims at investigating the role of the expanding overseas Chinese state in the construction of ‘Chineseness’ among Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Ghana. It focuses especially on the manifestation of the ideology of Chinese nationalism in the migrants’ living experience. Data analyzed in this study are primarily drawn from extensive interviews with private entrepreneurs, employees of Chinese state-owned enterprises and Chinese Embassy officials in Ghana. Besides, this study is supplemented by a content analysis of archive data collected from media reports, policy documents, online forums and social media. This study reveals that as an unintended consequence, private entrepreneurs enjoy tangible benefits from the expanding presence of overseas Chinese state in Ghana. Strategies and policies implemented by the Chinese government and its overseas representatives aiming at engaging Chinese diasporas also contribute to spreading nationalism and building a deterritorial Chinese identity.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Skeldon, “Migration from china”; and Xiang, “The making of mobile subjects”; “Predatory princes and princely peddlers.”
2. Smith, National Identity, 73.
3. See Zhao, A nation-state by construction; Duara, “Rescuing history,” “Ungrounded Empires”; Zheng, Discovering Chinese Nationalism; and Barabantseva, “Trans-nationalizing Chineseness”; “Overseas Chinese”; and Sun, “Leaving China.”
4. See Zhao, “A nation-state by construction.”
5. See Zheng, “Discovering Chinese Nationalism”; and Barabantseva, “Trans-nationalizing Chineseness,” “Overseas Chinese.”
6. Zhao, A nation-state by construction, 21.
7. Ibid, 227.
8. Zheng, Discovering Chinese Nationalism, xii.
9. Zhao, A nation-state by construction, 18.
10. See Guo, “Cultural nationalism.”
11. Guo, “The revival of Chinese cultural nationalism.”
12. Guo, “Cultural nationalism,” 143.
13. Siu, “Cultural identity,” 20.
14. Siu, “Socialist peddlers and princes.”
15. Zheng, Discovering Chinese Nationalism, 15.
16. See Duara, “Rescuing history,” “Ungrounded Empires”; Zheng, Discovering Chinese Nationalism; and Barabantseva, “Trans-nationalizing Chineseness,” “Overseas Chinese.”
17. Zhao, A nation-state by construction, 29.
18. See Zheng, “Discovering Chinese Nationalism.”
19. See above 11.
20. Zhao, A nation-state by construction, 23; “A state-led nationalism”; and Guo, “Patriotic villains.”
21. Zhao, A nation-state by construction, 31.
22. See Guo, “The revival of Chinese cultural nationalism”, “Cultural nationalism.”
23. See above 4.
24. See Barabantseva, “Trans-nationalizing Chineseness”; Chan, “Imagining the homeland”; Kuehn et .al, “Diasporic Chineseness”; Townsend, “Chinese nationalism”; and Sun, Leaving China.
25. Kuehn et.al, “Diasporic Chineseness,” 4–5.
26. See Chan, “Imagining the homeland”; and Sun, Leaving China.
27. Sun, Leaving China, 11.
28. Barabantseva, “Trans-nationalizing Chineseness.”
29. Appadurai, Modernity at large, 177.
30. See Sun, Leaving China.
31. Chan, “Imagining the homeland.”
32. Reid, “Chinese unbound.”
33. Rosenblum, “Moving beyond the policy”; Massey, “International migration at the dawn”; and Green and Liu, “A transnational middle man minority.”
34. Cornelius and Rosenblum, “Immigration and politics.”
35. Rodriguez, Migrants for Export; Ortiga, ”Educating for Export.”
36. Green, ”Outbound China”;and Huynh, ‘Faces of China’.
37. Huynh, ”Faces of China,” 286.
38. Ibid., 290.
39. Nyíri, ”From class enemies to patriots”; Xiang, ”The making of mobile subjects.”
40. Ma Mung, ”Chinese migration and China’s foreign policy in Africa.”
41. See Barabantseva, “Trans-nationalizing Chineseness”; ”Overseas Chinese”; and Zhao, A nation-state by construction.
42. Vice-premier Qian Qichen, FBIS, 6 January 2001. Cited by Barabantseva, ”Trans-nationalizing Chineseness.”
43. Duara, “Nationalism and Transnationalism,” 140.
44. See above 28.
45. Sun, Leaving China, 9–11.
46. See above 28.
47. Duora, “Nationalist among transnationals,” 42; and Nyíri, ”Investors, managers.”
48. See Barabantseva, “Trans-nationalizing Chineseness”;and Sun, Leaving China.
49. Sun, Leaving China.
50. Ibid, and see also Anderson, “Imagined communities.”
51. Barabantseva, “Trans-nationalizing Chineseness“; Ma Mung, “Chinese migration and China’s foreign policy in Africa”; Nyíri, “Chinese organizations in Hungary”; “New Chinese migrants in Europe”; and Zhuang, “Post-1978 Chinese government’s attitude.”
52. See above 40.
53. Nyíri, “Investors, managers.”
54. Green and Liu, “A transnational middle man minority.”
55. Gu et.al, “Chinese state capitalism.”
56. See Chow, Y. F. and de Kloet, J., “Blowing in the China wind”; Hung, “Performing “Chineseness”’; Wilcox, “Han-tang”; Yao, “Toward a prehistory”; Gorfinkel, “Ideology and the performance”; Metzger, “Incorporating: Chineseness”; and Yeh, Cross-cultural readings of Chineseness.
57. Dahles & Ter Horst, “Institutionalizing Chineseness”; Nyíri, “Investors, managers”; and Verver, “Templates of “Chineseness’.“
58. Chang, “Rewriting Singapore”; Lee, “Managing Chineseness”; and Montsion, “Patrolling Chineseness.“
59. Chua, “Defining Indonesian Chineseness.”
60. Meerwald, “Chineseness at the crossroads.”
61. Skyrme, “Being Chinese.”
62. Tu, “Cultural China”; Nyíri, “Investors, managers”; Verver, “Templates of “Chineseness”’; Chang, “Rewriting Singapore”; Chua, “Defining Indonesian Chineseness”; Meerwald, “Chineseness at the crossroads”;and Skyrme, “Being Chinese.”
63. Mu, “Chinese Australian’s chineseness”;and Montsion, “Patrolling Chineseness.”
64. Bourdieu, Outline of a theory of practice, 86.
65. Zhao, A nation-state by construction, 72.
66. Yao, “Toward a prehistory.”
67. Mu, “Chinese Australian’s chineseness.”
68. Chun, “Fuck Chineseness.”
69. Chun, Forget Chineseness, x.
70. See Chun, Forget Chineseness; Montsion, ”Patrolling Chineseness”;and Wickberg, “Global Chinese migrants.”
71. See above 53.
72. See above 32.
73. Ho, “The ‘doing and ‘undoing’”;and “Living in liminality.”
74. Ibid.
75. Amanor & Chichava, “South-south cooperation.”
76. Ho, “Living in liminality.”
77. Interview, Zhang, Accra, 4 June 2016; Liu, Accra, 7 July 2016; and Hao, Tema, 7 July 2016.
78. Interview, Xie, Accra, 6 June 2016.
79. Ibid, and Hao, Tema, 7 July 2016.
80. Interview, Yan, Accra, 12 June 2016; Interview, Xie, Accra, 6 June 2016; Interview, Zhuang, Accra, 17 July 2016; Interview, Cai, Accra, 22 July 2016.
81. Interview, Wang and Zhuang, Accra, 1 July 2018.
82. See above 76.
83. Glaser and Strauss, ‘A discovery of grounded theory’.
84. See Nyíri, ‘Chinese entrepreneurs’; and Mung, ‘Chinese migration’.
85. Lin, ‘Big Fish in a Small Pond’.
86. Ibid.
87. Interview, Zhang, Accra, 4 June 2016.
88. Interview, Chen, Accra, 14 June 2016.
89. Nyíri, ‘Chinese entrepreneurs’, 148.
90. Gu.et.al, ‘Chinese state capitalism?’.
91. Interview, Yan, Accra, 11 July 2016.
92. Interview, Wang, Tema, 7 June 2016.
93. Interview, Sun, Accra, 2 August 2016; Shi, Accra, 14 July 2016;and Yang, Accra, 10 August 2016.
94. Ibid.
95. Li et.al, “Difference or indifference.”
96. Interview, Zhu, Accra, 5 July 2016.
97. Ibid.
98. Interview, Cheng, Accra, 18 June 2016; Jiang, Kumasi, 22 August 2016; Shen, Cape Coast, 4 August 2016; Ai, Accra, 9 August 2016;and Han, Ho, 24 June 2016.
99. Interview, Xu, Accra, 1 August 2016; Xu, Accra, 13 August 2016; Han, Ho, 24 June 2016; Sun, Accra, 2 August 2016.
100. See above 29.
101. See Billig, Banal Nationalism.
102. See above 49.
103. Berlin, “The bent twig.”
104. See Bhabha, The location of culture; Ho, “Living in liminality”; Meerwald, “Chineseness at the crossroads”; Naficy, “The making of exile cultures”; and Turner, The ritual process.
105. Turner, The ritual process, 95.
106. Bhabha, The location of culture, 28.
107. See above 60.
108. See Appadurai, “Modernity at large.”
109. Yan, “The Chinese path to individualization.”
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Jinpu Wang
Jinpu Wang is a doctoral student at Department of Sociology, Syracuse University. His research interests include international migration, social stratification, education and family change. His ongoing dissertation project explores the links between the experiences of Chinese diaspora communities in West Africa and China’s internal social transition.
Ning Zhan
Ning Zhan is a doctoral student at Department of Sociology, Syracuse University. His main academic interests include political and historical sociology, sociological theory, and cultural studies, focusing on the questions of social inequality, ‘anomie’, and mental lives in contemporary China.