Page 90 - On Not Speaking Chinese Living Between Asia and the West

UNDOING DIASPORA

But the strengthening of global Chinese identification goes far beyond the level
of economic cooperation and trade connections: it is a transnational cultural
movement involving many ethnic Chinese whose concerns are mainly of a personal-
political nature, dealing with basic issues of identity and belonging. An example
of this is one of the most well-known popular Chinese diaspora institutions
in recent years, the website Huaren (www.huaren.org). As I have discussed in
Chapter 3, this organization, which presents itself explicitly as a grassroots
movement independent from the official overseas Chinese organizations, gained
some international notoriety when it galvanized an unprecedented level of diasporic
Chinese militancy in response to what came to be known worldwide as the anti-
Chinese riots in Indonesia in May 1998. More generally, the site’s main stated
objective is ‘to promote kinship and understanding among all Overseas Chinese’
– a task hugely facilitated by the quintessential technology of contemporary
transnationalism: the Internet. The site’s Homepage depicts the Chinese diasporic
experience specifically in terms of loss of identity, and the need and opportunity
to restore it through the electronic assertion of a proto-familial, ethnic/racial
community:

Chinese diaspora had existed for many centuries and spread far and
wide. Early mistreatments had caused many descendants to feel confused,
indifferent, or ambivalent toward their heritage. With modern commu-
nication technology, this is the right time to bring us together and to
promote the sense of kinship.
(www.huaren.org Homepage)
They contine:

Chinese are estimated to be living in over 136 different countries, making
it perhaps the most widespread ethnic group in the world. Such diversity
is indeed awe-inspiring. Yet, it is the same diversity which creates gulfs
among peoples. We often encounter Chinese-Americans or Chinese-
Canadians who know or care little of their counterparts elsewhere. Such
ignorance and indifference should be corrected.
(www.huaren.org About Us)

Put briefly, then, Huaren’s activist desire is to unite the Chinese Diaspora (it is not
insignificant that the word diaspora is generally capitalized in Huaren’s editorial
statements). They wish to counter the fragmenting effects of centuries-long spatial
scattering through a reaffirmation of historical continuity and perpetuity of a
proto-familial blood connection which crosses geographical borders and dividing
lines imposed by nation–states. Unlike the business networks, which can be said to
have instrumental reasons to capitalize on co-ethnic identification (i.e. economic
opportunity), for Huaren, the affirmation of Chinese identity is an end in itself: in
this sense, it practises pure identity politics on a global scale. Naturalized notions

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