Page 92 - On Not Speaking Chinese Living Between Asia and the West

UNDOING DIASPORA

the fact that the committed, activist and militant diasporists rarely form
more than a small percentage of old ethnic or new immigrant dispersions
now emerging as diasporas does not prevent them from claiming the
now-valorized ‘diaspora’ label for the social formation in whose name
they strive to speak to dominant groups.
(Tölölyan 1996: 19)

In short, the re-description of a dispersed people as a diaspora is not an innocent
act of name-change but a transformative political move – a move which Tölölyan
himself cautions against celebrating too uncritically. What, then, are its pitfalls?
Wang Gungwu, the great doyen of overseas Chinese historical scholarship, has
recently expressed his disquiet about the use of the term diaspora, especially
in relation to overseas Chinese. His reservations are not theoretical but primarily
political and ultimately existential.

The more I think about it, the unhappier I am that the term has come to
be applied to the Chinese. I have used the term with great reluctance and
regret, and I still believe that it carries the wrong connotation and that,
unless it is used carefully to avoid projecting the image of a single Chinese
diaspora, will eventually bring tragedy to the Chinese overseas.
(Wang 1999: 15)

A transnational nationalism
Wang’s sense of foreboding, which he expressed with the recent difficulties faced
by Chinese-Indonesians in mind, is informed by a profound knowledge of overseas
Chinese history and an awareness of the problems raised by earlier manifestations
of Chinese diaspora politics, even if that term was not used as such. Specifically,
Wang’s concern is induced by the controversial historical role played by the
ambiguous term huaqiao (Chinese sojourner) in the production of the Chinese
diaspora. The term emerged in China in the 1890s and came into general use
to describe all overseas Chinese after the Revolution of 1911 (Wang 1992). It
remained prevalent until well into the 1950s, when its use ran into trouble as newly
independent postcolonial nation–states began to assert control over the Chinese
minority populations within their borders. Huaqiao carried strong political and
emotive connotations, implying the unity of overseas Chinese communities as one
people and their unbroken ties with the Chinese homeland. This is how Wang
sums up the problematic political career of the term:

From China’s point of view, huaqiao was a powerful name for a single
body of overseas Chinese. It was openly used to bring about ethnic if not
nationalist or racist binding of all Chinese at home and abroad. In the
countries which have large Chinese minorities, the term had become a

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