Interpreting the Chinese diaspora: Identity, socialisation, and resilience according to Pierre Bourdieu (Routledge Studies on Asia in the World)

Globalisation and migration have created a vibrant yet dysphoric world fraught with different, and sometimes competing, practices and discourses. The emergent properties of the modern world inevitably complicate the being, doing, and thinking of Chinese diasporic populations living in predominantly White, English-speaking societies. This raises questions of what "Chineseness" is. The gradual transfer of power from the West to the East shuffles the relative cultural weights within these societies. How do the global power shifts and local cultural vibrancies come to shape the social dispositions and positions of the Chinese diaspora, and how does the Chinese diaspora respond to these changes? How does primary pedagogic work through family upbringing and secondary pedagogic work through educational socialisation complicate, obfuscate, and enrich Chineseness? Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology on relative and relational sociocultural positions, Mu and Pang assess how historical, contemporary, and ongoing changes across social spaces of family, school, and community come to shape the intergenerational educational, cultural, and social reproduction of Chinese diasporic populations. The two authors engage in an in-depth analysis of the identity work, educational socialisation, and resilience building of young Chinese Australians and Chinese Canadians in the ever-changing lived world. The authors look particularly at the tensions and dynamics around the participants’ life and educational choices; the meaning making out of their Chinese bodies in relation to gender, race, and language; and the sociological process of resilience that enculturates them into a system of dispositions and positions required to bounce back from structural constraints. Reviews This is a highly ambitious book, aiming to develop a critical sociology of Chinese diaspora by applying, for the first time, Bourdieu’s influential reflexive sociology to understanding the social experiences and practices of diasporic Chinese communities in the West. Drawing on a wealth of empirical research – both quantitative and qualitative – among young Chinese in Canada and Australia, the book places these young people’s identity work, educational trajectories, and resilience building in response to structural societal constraints (such as racism) in a broad sociological framework which transcends macro perspectives on diaspora and micro perspectives on the formation of Chinese subjectivities through Bourdieu’s conceptual apparatus of capital, field, and habitus. In this way the book develops pertinent new insights into the contradictory meanings and experiences shared by many among Chinese diasporic subjects, such as ‘looking Chinese but not speaking Chinese’, the entrapments of inhabiting gendered and racialised bodies, family pressure in schooling, and their responses to racist stereotypes of Chineseness. Ien Ang Distinguished Professor, Western Sydney University What binds us together and what walls us apart across borders, generations and geographies? In an era of increasingly shrill nationalism and geopolitical conflict, understanding diasporic community, identity, and position is more crucial than ever. This new volume is a major sociological contribution to our understanding of 'overseas' Chinese communities. Allan Luke Emeritus Professor, Queensland University of Technology The bold collaboration of two exciting scholars provides convincing evidence of the relevance of Bourdieu to an emerging area of study on diasporic Chinese youth. Mu and Pang draw on diverse studies in Australia and Canada to enrich our understanding of family, community, and resilience in the Chinese diaspora. Their important book makes a significant contribution to wider debates on identity, legitimate knowledge, and transnationalism in the fields of education and applied linguistics. Bonny Norton (FRSC) Professor & Distinguished University Scholar, University of British Colombia Drawing on the work of Bourdieu and his notions of field, habitus, and capital, this book provides a theoretically informed and empirically rich examination of Chinese diasporic youth in Australia and Canada. With a particular focus on educational contexts, Mu and Pang shed new light on questions of racialisation, identification, and resilience demonstrating the heterogeneity of the Chinese diaspora and the importance of countering the cultural essentialism that often colours their popular representation. With the rise of China and the continuing spread of Chinese diasporas, this book makes an important contribution towards understanding these phenomena especially in relation to the experiences of young people proving a valuable text for the sociologies of youth, health, and education. Megan Watkins Associate Professor of Education, Western Sydney University

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