Becoming “Chinese” in Southeast Asia1

Re‐encountering the familiar other: Contesting ‘re‐Sinicization’ in Thailand

“…Re‐Sinicization in this cultural and linguistic sense has occurred across much of Southeast Asia. As Hau points out, this phenomenon entails the ‘increasing visibility, acceptability, and self‐assertiveness of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia and elsewhere’, a departure from the past when ‘Southeast Asian “Chinese” were viewed and treated as economically dominant, culturally different, and politically disloyal Others to be “de‐sinicized” through nation‐building discourses and policies’ (Hau, 2012a: 176). However, this re‐Sinicization has introduced additional layers of complication for many Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.…”

“…For Southeast Asia particularly, many Chinese cultural mediums such as songs and movies that dominated within the region's overseas Chinese community almost exclusively came from these localities, and also in different dialects/languages of either Cantonese or Taiwanese Mandarin (Chu & Leung, 2013). This situation led Hau to state that ‘in practice, no single political entity/regime embodies or exercises ultimate authority on “China”, “Chinese”, and “Chineseness”’ (Hau, 2012a: 192). And indeed, she also noted that the ‘economic rise of China and the market‐driven Mandarinization of “Chineseness”’ have not ‘substantially reduced or simplified the multi‐sited claims and belongings exercised by the ethnic “Chinese” in Southeast Asia’ (Hau, 2012a: 193).…”

“…This situation led Hau to state that ‘in practice, no single political entity/regime embodies or exercises ultimate authority on “China”, “Chinese”, and “Chineseness”’ (Hau, 2012a: 192). And indeed, she also noted that the ‘economic rise of China and the market‐driven Mandarinization of “Chineseness”’ have not ‘substantially reduced or simplified the multi‐sited claims and belongings exercised by the ethnic “Chinese” in Southeast Asia’ (Hau, 2012a: 193).…”

“…Here Sinosphere is defined loosely as countries/territories/people in East and Southeast Asia that are part of China's cultural sphere of inference, yet with different levels of political relations with contemporary mainland China (Wu & Riemenschnitter, 2018). Hau once defined re‐Sinicization as ‘the revival of hitherto devalued, occluded, or repressed “Chineseness”, and more generally to the phenomenon of increasing visibility, acceptability, and self‐assertiveness of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia and elsewhere’ (Hau, 2012a: 176). However, for Hau, Sinicization and re‐Sinicization should not be understood as a singular ‘mainland [China] state‐centered and driven process of remaking the world in its own image’, but rather [as] multiple sites where different actors have ‘created, reinvented, and transformed received meanings associated with “China”, “Chinese”, and “Chineseness”’ (Hau, 2012a: 176).…”

“…Hau once defined re‐Sinicization as ‘the revival of hitherto devalued, occluded, or repressed “Chineseness”, and more generally to the phenomenon of increasing visibility, acceptability, and self‐assertiveness of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia and elsewhere’ (Hau, 2012a: 176). However, for Hau, Sinicization and re‐Sinicization should not be understood as a singular ‘mainland [China] state‐centered and driven process of remaking the world in its own image’, but rather [as] multiple sites where different actors have ‘created, reinvented, and transformed received meanings associated with “China”, “Chinese”, and “Chineseness”’ (Hau, 2012a: 176). Thus, Hau finds multiple ‘Chinas’ and a loosely defined Sinosphere of Hong Kong and Taiwan that projects a different conceptualization of the meaning to be ‘Chinese’.…”