Chinese diaspora identity is being redefined in racial rather than civic terms

Evidence

Chinese identity comes to be defined in racial terms. Chinese are those of the same “race, blood, and culture,” as one PRC scholar put it. In the mid-1990s, this theme was increasingly heard from governmental and private Chinese sources. For Chinese and those of Chinese descent living in non-Chinese societies, the “mirror test” thus becomes the test of who they are: “Go look in the mirror,” is the admonition of Beijing-oriented Chinese to those of Chinese descent trying to assimilate into foreign societies. Chinese of the diaspora, that is, huaren or people of Chinese origin, as distinguished from zhongguoren or people of the Chinese state, have increasingly articulated the concept of “cultural China” as a manifestation of their gonshi or common awareness. Chinese identity, subject to so many onslaughts from the West in the twentieth century, is now being reformulated in terms of the continuing elements of Chinese culture. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 458

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the huaren vs zhongguoren distinction and ‘cultural China’ as markers of diaspora identity.
• XREF: Relates to the modern ethnic-nationalism literature and to debates about civic vs ethnic nationalism in The Namesake’s diaspora themes.