Diasporic Chinese Voluntary Associations in Transition

Recent studies of Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have attempted to highlight the theoretical significance of CVAs for understandings of community (re)making. However, the power dynamics inherent in community (re)making have rarely been expounded. In recognition of this, this book weaves together case studies across countries in the Asia Pacific to explore the complex power relations played out in and through the transformation of CVAs. Collectively, CVAs are understood as ever-changing, heterogeneous ancestral communities composed of common ancestral ties, be it origin, locality, surname, religion or language. Contributions to this book focus on CVAs in three ways: (1) by foregrounding CVAs as sites of power relations through unpacking ethnic relations and gender hierarchies; (2) by illuminating Chinese diaspora transnationalism beyond political-economic perspectives; and (3) by examining the contemporaneous transformation of ethnic Chinese communities in shifting times, including amidst China's ‘rise’ as a global power. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Ningning Chen is Associate Professor at the School of Geography and Urban Planning and Research Fellow at the Institute of International and Regional Studies, Sun Yat-Sen University. Her research interests span Chinese diaspora, transnationalism and rural-urban development.

Emily Hertzman is a Research Associate in the department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is a sociocultural anthropologist focusing on mobilities, identities, religious practices, and politics amongst Chinese Indonesians. She is one of the editors of ConoAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age.

Sylvia Ang is Lecturer in Sociology at Monash University, Melbourne Australia. Her interdisciplinary work focuses on migration, ethnic relations and social inequalities. She is the author of Contesting Chineseness: Nationality, Class, Gender and New Chinese migrants.