Chinese Migration in Germany: Making Home in Transnational Space (review)
Chinese Migration in Germany: Making Home in Transnational Space (review)
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DOI：
10.1163/179325405788639111
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发表时间：
2007-05
影响因子：
0.3
通讯作者：
M. Thunø
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Thunø
直到最近，关于中国移民德国的学术研究还非常有限；因此，Maggi Leung的研究是一项受欢迎的贡献。基于1999年至2002年对德国中国移民进行的民族志田野调查，作者挑战了中国移民作为一个连贯群体的传统观点。然而，这本书的主要焦点是致力于“家”的含义和“家”（作者使用的术语）在德国的中国移民的多种方式。在探讨中国人对“家”的看法时，作者质疑了“家”与流行的学术概念“散居”和“跨国主义”之间的定义方式。作者对从中国到德国的历史移民的描述主要基于二手资料，但她在讨论中国人在汉堡的早期存在时也使用了一些有趣的口述历史资料。然而，这短短的一章只有十几页，并没有为整个研究提供足够的背景信息，但它确实在一定程度上解释了早期中国移民的广泛职业和社会地位的差异。以下章节关于个体移民对“家”概念的变化，是基于对主要来自汉堡、法兰克福、曼海姆、波恩和德塞尔多夫等大城市的各种中国移民进行的68次访谈的实证结果。从访谈中收集的数据证实，无论移民在哪里定居，“家”都是被创造和再创造的，无论它是否与中国的特定地理位置有关。此外，“自制”过程似乎与个人选择和喜欢没有直接的联系。作者用几个例子说明了社会排斥等外部环境如何限制个人在德国构建归属感的尝试。根据前一章关于德国华人以多样性为特征的线索，梁在第四章中指出，中国移民的身份认同与许多地方有关，也与单一国家/民族国家有关。
SCHOLARLY RESEARCH ON CHINESE MIGRATION TO GERMANY has until recently been very limited; Maggi Leung’s study is hence a welcome contribution. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted during 1999 and 2002 among Chinese migrants in Germany, the author challenges the conventional view of the Chinese migrants as a coherent group. The main focus of this book, however, is devoted to the meanings of “home” and the multiple ways of “home-making” (term as used by author) among Chinese migrants in Germany. In the exploration of the Chinese perceptions of “home,” the author questions the ways in which “home” is defined in relation to the popular academic concepts of “diaspora” and “transnationalism.” The author’s account of the historical migration from China to Germany is based mainly on secondary sources, but some interesting oral history sources have also been used in her discussion of the early presence of the Chinese in Hamburg. This short chapter of a dozen pages, however, does not provide sufficient background information to set the scene for the entire study, but it does explain to some extent the wide range of occupations and differences in social status among the early Chinese migrants. The following chapters on the individual migrants’ changing notions of “home” are based on empirical findings from 68 interviews conducted with a variety of Chinese migrants mainly in the large cities of Hamburg, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Bonn and Düsseldorf. The data gathered from the interviews confirm that “home” is created and recreated wherever the migrants settle, whether or not it is related to a specific geographical location in China. Moreover, the “homemaking” process does not seem to have a straightforward correlation with individual choice and liking. The author shows with a few examples how external circumstances such as social exclusion constrain an individual’s attempts at constructing a place of belonging in Germany. Taking up the thread from a previous chapter that the Chinese in Germany are characterized by diversity, Leung makes the point in Chapter 4 that identifications of the Chinese migrants are with a number of places, as well as with a single country/nation-state. Her informants have a close identification with their countries of origin (the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Indonesia or Taiwan), although they also respond to collective mobilization across national identities based on a perceived overarching Chinese identity. Identification with one’s country of origin is furthermore reinforced by support, especially from the PRC and Taiwan, for various community associations, Chinese-language schools, and Chinese New Year celebrations.