The book explains how multi-generational Australian-born Chinese (ABC)
negotiate the balance of two cultures. It explores both the
philosophical and theoretical levels, focusing on deconstructing and
re-evaluating the concept of 'Chineseness.' At a social and experiential
level, it concentrates on how successive generations of early migrants
experience, negotiate and express their Chinese identity.
The diasporic literature has taken up the idea of hybrid identity
construction largely in relation to first- and second-generation
migrants and to the sojourner's sense of roots in a diasporic setting
somewhat lost in the debate over Chinese diasporas and identities are
the experiences of long-term migrant communities. Their experiences are
usually discussed in terms of the melting-pot concepts of assimilation
and integration that assume ethnic identification decreases and
eventually disappears over successive generations. Based on ethnography,
fieldwork and participant observation on multi-generational
Australian-born Chinese whose families have resided in Australia from
three to six generations, this study reveals a contrasting picture of
ethnic identification.