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DIASPORIC HISTORIES: Cultural Archives of Chinese Transnationalism. Edited by Andrea Riemenschnitter and Deborah L. Madsen. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009. xii, 285 pp. (Coloured photos., illus.) US$24.95, paper. ISBN 978-962-209-080-4.
In the plethora of publications on Chinese diaspora and transnationalism, Diasporic Histories stands out in two important respects. Andrea Riemenschnitter and Deborah L. Madsen's collection, as its full title implies, is concerned not merely with a transnational present, but an archive of experiences of displacement, diaspora and exile that have been crucial in the historical formation of Chinese identities. In addition, the collection is innovative in bringing Swiss or Switzerland-based scholars, many of whom write in a historicist framework, into dialogue with scholars of Chinese migrant histories and cultural production from Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and the United States.
After an introductory chapter, the collection is divided into three sections. The first, entitled "Diasporic Negotiations," looks largely at cultural production and class formation from the second half of the twentieth century onwards. Particularly interesting here are essays by two intellectuals who have played important roles in Hong Kong and Asian American studies respectively, Ping-kwan Leung and Sau-ling C. Wong. Leung explores the writings of Chinese migrants...