Wang, D; (2017) Imagining China and the Chinese: Cultural Identities of British Chinese Young People in and around London. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis explores the cultural identities of young British Chinese Londoners aged between thirteen and eighteen years of age, using data from their reflective narratives and lived experiences. The theoretical framework of this study conceptualizes cultural identity as a changing process constructed through discourse and social practice. The analysis of cultural identities starts from examining the situated identifications adopted by individuals within a specific time and place. This mixed-method study focuses on three themes. The first examines young British Chinese people’s relationship with their ethnic origins and family cultural heritage. Analysis of this theme considers how these young people construct the contested meanings of terms such as ‘China’, ‘Chinese people’ and ‘Chinese culture’ through the lens of their present experiences. The second theme investigates the experiences and meanings of being young British Chinese people through the patterns of their media consumption, their learning experiences and social interactions with peers in both mainstream and Chinese complementary schools in Britain. It also examines the ways in which individuals, seen as active agents operating within structural constraints, position themselves through strategic practices and negotiations within varied and powerful fields of discourse. The third theme considers how the positioning of young British Chinese – as perceived by themselves and others – produces potential prospects as well as problems. This thesis challenges the essentialized and unchanging understanding of culture and identity and presents a view of multiple possibilities for the realization of British Chinese cultural identities. Meanwhile, it also demonstrates that the emergence of a British Chinese identity is subject to a number of structural constraints such as gender, age and socio-economic status; and shaped by international political and economic relations and increasingly hybridized global cultural flows. The findings provide a complex, relational and heterogenized picture of the lives and cultural identities of young British Chinese in London.

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