Hybrid diaspora and identity-laundering: a study of the return overseas Chinese Vietnamese in Vietnam

Abstract Among the overseas Vietnamese around the world, many are Chinese Vietnamese. They fled from Vietnam for different political and economic reasons during the 1970s and the 1980s. Many of them have returned to Vietnam since the 1990s to work, invest or retire. What is interesting about these returned Chinese Vietnamese migrants is the fact that when they left Vietnam they were called by the Vietnamese the Hoa (華, Chinese) or Hoa kiều (華僑, overseas Chinese) by the Vietnamese. This identity was actually one of the reasons for their escape. When they returned, they were lumped together with all other returnees into the category of Việt kiều (越僑, overseas Vietnamese) and enjoyed the special rights offered by the Việt kiều policy of the Vietnamese government, which was aimed at boosting the national economy. Although their 'Chinese' identity had once made them to risk their lives by sailing out on the roaring sea, their 'Vietnamese' identity brought them back to Vietnam at other turning points in their lives. The shifting identity of these Hoa kiều-turned-Việt kiều has produced an interesting migration story and an intriguing category of 'hybrid diaspora.' Keywords: hybrid diasporaChinese/Vietnamese diasporaidentity-scapeidentity-laundering Notes 1. This article is an outcome of part of my ongoing research project on the Chinese and Vietnamese diaspora since 2008. Part of the research funding is supported by a CCK (Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation) research grant. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 'International Workshop on Global Displacements and Emplacement: The Forced Exile and Resettlement Experiences of Ethnic Chinese Refugees', co-organized by National University of Singapore and the University of British Columbia in October 2012 and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund (Tier 1) and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Migration Research Cluster at the National University of Singapore. I express my special thanks to Prof. Tan Chee-beng and Prof. Glen Peterson for their encouraging feedback and the two anonymous reviewers for their sharp comments. 2. Amer, "Boat People Crisis of 1978–79." 3. Vertovec, Transnationalism. 4. Braziel and Mannur, "Nation, Migration, Globalization," 8. 5. Chivallon, Black Diaspora of the Americas. 6. Gilroy, The Black Atlantic. 7. Gilroy, "Diaspora and the Detours of Identity," 335. 8. Chan and Tran, "Recycling Migration and Changing Nationalisms." 9. King, Return Migration; Gmelch, "Return Migration." 10. Singh, "Remittances as a Currency of Care"; Seol and Skrentny "Ethnic Return Migration and Hierarchical Nationhood"; Vertovec, Transnationalism, 119; Christou, "Deciphering Diaspora – Translating Transnationalism; Potter, "Young, Gifted and Back"; and Tsuda, Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland. 11. Chan, "Vietnamese or Chinese." 12. Ibid, 220. 13. Castles and Miller, The Age of Migration, 12. 14. Haines, "Rethinking the Vietnamese Exodus." 15. Chan, "Caritas-Hong Kong and the Vietnamese Refugees," 29. 16. Tran, "Analysis of Population Study," 60. 17. Li, "Vietnam." 18. Chen, The Strategic Triangle, 141. 19. Amer, The Ethnic Chinese, 56. 20. Amer, "Boat People Crisis of 1978–79," 36. 21. Chen, The Strategic Triangle, 143. 22. Amer, "Boat People Crisis of 1978–79," 40. 23. Chen, China's War with Vietnam; Ross, The Indochina Tangle. 24. XHSJZ, "What are the Reasons," 112. 25. Amer, "Boat People Crisis of 1978–79." 26. Haines, "Rethinking the Vietnamese Exodus," 22. 27. Robinson, cited in Haines, "Rethinking the Vietnamese Exodus," 22. 28. Ho, "'Refugee' or 'Returnee'?" 29. Chan, "Revisiting the Vietnamese Refugee Era," 8. 30. Tran, "Analysis of Population Study," 59. 31. TCTK, "The Number". 32. Le, "Top 20 Largest Overseas Vietnamese Communities." 33. UBVNVNONN, The Overseas Vietnamese Community, 7. 34. See note 32. 35. By taking references from official statistical offices and academic research, Le has estimated the population size of the Vietnamese migrants in different countries as follows: Cambodia (735,085) France (300,000), China (280,000), Taiwan (190,000), Australia (188,000), Canada (180,130), Germany (125,000), Thailand (119,000) and South Korea (90,931). 36. See note 8. 37. Ibid; Small, "Embodied Economies." 38. VNA, "Overseas Vietnamese Contribute to Economic Development." 39. See note 8. 40. Ibid. 41. Pham, "The Returning Diaspora," 6. 42. NVONN, "Campaigning for the Return of Overseas Vietnamese." 43. Chan, "Revisiting the Vietnamese Refugee Era," 7. 44. In Vietnam, besides the Chinese Việt kiều Business Association, there are at least three more business associations associated with ethnic Chinese. They include 'Hong Kong Business Association Vietnam', 'China Business Association', and 'Taiwan Business Association'. 45. All the interviews of the cases took place in Vietnam. 46. All the names of the informants in this article are pseudonyms. 47. Many Hong Kong Chinese, especially the indigenous people from the New Territories of Hong Kong, had emigrated to UK or other parts of Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. Their typical career was running Chinese restaurants or working in them. 48. Wang, A Short History. 49. Tran, "Analysis of Population Study," 59. 50. Tan, Chinese Overseas. 51. Gosling, "Changing Chinese Identities in Southeast Asia," 2. 52. Ibid, 3. 53. Tan, Chinese Overseas, 27. 54. Yeung, Chinese Capitalism; Jomo and Folk, Ethnic Business; Hamilton, "Overseas Chinese Capitalism"; and Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism. 55. Bhabha, "Interview with Homi Bhabha," 220.

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