Chapter 4

Becoming Chinese

Chapter 4 explores the participants’ conceptions of the collective sense of self. The investigation addresses category-bound features that are tied to the participants’ references to Chinese cultural groups. Chinese immigrants’ perception of being Chinese is indicative of their recognition of the knowledge and values, positive or negative, attached to various Chinese cultural groups In the contemporary Chinese diaspora discourse, conceptions of collective identities, such as being a Chinese national, Chinese immigrant or Chinese person living overseas, are most prominent instances of situational and emergent constructs which are subject to negotiation in social encounters. The scrutiny of the interactional and conceptual resources reveals how the participants negotiate the meanings of Chineseness in the context of various socio-cultural collectives in the reflexive activities of social exchange.