The Chinese Overseas

From Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy
Erscheinungsjahr 2002
ISBN: 978-0-674-00986-8
Verlag: Harvard University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 7, 160 Seiten, Format (B × H): 189 mm x 119 mm, Gewicht: 168 g

Reihe: The Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures

The Chinese overseas now number 25 to 30 million, yet the 2,000-year history of Chinese attempts to venture abroad and the underlying values affecting that migration have never before been presented in a broad overview. Despite centuries of prohibition against leaving the land and traveling and settling overseas, the "earthbound" Chinese--first traders, then peasants and workers--eventually found new sources of livelihood abroad. The practice of sojourning, being always temporarily away from home, was the answer the Chinese overseas found to deal with imperial and orthodox concerns. Today their challenge is to find an alternative to either returning or assimilating by seeking a new kind of autonomy in a world that will come to acknowledge the ideal of multicultural states. In pursuing this story, international scholar Wang Gungwu uncovers some major themes of global history: the coming together of Asian and European civilizations, the ambiguities of ethnicity and diasporic consciousness, and the tension between maintaining one's culture and assimilation.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wang, Gungwu

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Über Autor(innen)

Wang, Gungwu
Wang Gungwu is Director, East Asian Institute, and Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. His most recent publication is China and Southeast Asia: Myths, Threats, and Culture.