Making and remaking Tibetan diasporic identities

Houston, Serin D.; Wright, Richard

doi:10.1080/14649360309062

Cited by 54 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It resonates with Houston and Wright's (2003) appeal for attention to the performative nature of Tibetan identities. In the case of Han drifters, the symbolic consumption of Tibetanness enables them to critically reflect on the effects of capitalist economic development in China.…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%

“Drifting” in Lhasa: Cultural Encounter, Contested Modernity, and the Negotiation of Tibetanness

Hong

Qian

2014

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the past decade, thousands of Han Chinese have migrated to Lhasa, the capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region, to pursue a slow-paced and leisurely lifestyle in a land in which they have invested both fantasies and emotional attachment. These lifestyle migrants constitute a culturally unique group dubbed, by themselves and in folk discourse alike, "drifters in Tibet." This group puts into question the positions and identities of the socially and economically advantaged Han, by hybridizing with and adopting what they assume to be authentic Tibetan values and worldviews. This article takes Han Chinese's "drifting in Lhasa" as a point of entry to inquiry of the ongoing negotiation of Tibetanness. Drifters mobilize Tibetanness as a repository of representational, discursive, and experiential resources to critically reflect on recent modernization and economic development in the interior of China. Yet, in embracing Tibetanness to problematize the privileged position of the Han in Tibet, the drifters have not distanced themselves from an essentialized conception of Tibetanness. They uncritically celebrate the state's economic subsidies as a means for preserving what they think of as "authentic" Tibetan lifestyles. Tibetans, on the other hand, contest the rigid binary opposition between Han developmentalism and the perceived economic inertia of Tibetans, a regime of identity regulation implicated in uneven power. In particular, Tibetans respond to the drifters' representations by configuring alternative, but nonetheless "modernized," conceptions of ethnicity and indigenous identity. Key Words: contact zone, difference, hybridity, place politics, Tibetanness. 过去十年来，成千上万的中国汉人移居至藏族自治区的首都拉萨，在这片他们投注了想像与情感依恋的土地上，追逐步调缓慢与悠閒的生活风格。这些追求生活风格的移民者，组成了一群特殊的文化群体，并被自身及相关民间论述称为 "藏漂族"。此一群体，透过混合并接受其所认定的西藏本真价值及世界观，质疑具有社会及经济优势的汉人的位置及身份认同。本文将以中国汉人的 "藏漂" 为起始点，探问不断协商的西藏性。藏漂族运用西藏性做为再现、论述与经验的资源库，藉此批判性地反思中国内陆晚近的现代化与经济发展。但拥抱西藏性以质问汉人在西藏的优势地位之时，藏漂族却未能远离其对西藏性的本质化概念。他们未加批判地颂扬国家的经济补贴，做为保存其所认为的 "真实" 西藏生活风格之方法。反之，藏人质问汉人的发展主义与其所理解的藏人经济停滞之间的坚实二元对立--而这是一个关乎权力不均的身份认同规范体制。藏人特别透过构组另类但仍然是 "现代化" 的族裔概念与原住民认同，藉此回应藏漂族的再现。关键词：接触地带，差异，混合，地方的政治，西藏性。 Durante la d ecada anterior, han migrado miles de chinos Han a Lhasa, la ciudad capital de la Regi on Aut onoma del T ıbet, en b usqueda de un estilo de vida lento y reposado, en una tierra en la que han invertido fantas ıas y apego emocional. Estos migrantes con motivaciones de estilo de vida constituyen un grupo culturalmente unico calificado, por ellos mismos y en el argot folcl orico, como "vagabundos del T ıbet." Este grupo cuestiona las posiciones e identidades de los Han mejor dotados econ omica y socialmente, hibridiz andose con lo que ellos presumen son los valores y visiones del mundo aut enticamente tibetanos, y adopt andolos. Este art ıculo toma el "vagabundeo en Lhasa" de los chinos Han como punto de partida para investigar la corriente negociaci on de la tibetanidad. Los vagabundos movilizan la tibetanidad como un repositorio de recursos representacionales, discursivos y experienciales par...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 89%

“Drifting” in Lhasa: Cultural Encounter, Contested Modernity, and the Negotiation of Tibetanness

Hong

Qian

2014

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The majority of studies that employ the transnational framework focus on economic links maintained by migrants with their countries of origin (Bailey, Wright, Mountz, & Miyares, 2002;Conway & Cohen, 1998) and issues of citizenship and national identity (Houston & Wright, 2003;Kong, 1999). With some notable exceptions (e.g., Waters, 2002), few studies examine the effect of transnational status on the everyday experience and quality of life at the place of temporary residence of migrants.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Transnationalism, Leisure, and Chinese Graduate Students in the United States

Stodolska

2006

Leisure Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Despite all the efforts put forward by the Tibetan Government in Exile and the older generation of Tibetans "to hold on tightly to certain formulations of Tibetanness" (164), Falcone and Wangchuk conclude that there is an increasingly sense of "fluidity of citizenship, home, native and stranger through the experience of the displaced Tibetan community of India" (164). As Serin Houston and Richard Wright (2010) have also asserted, there is a dearth of individual voices emerging from the Tibetan diaspora that "shows how Tibetan diasporic identities are contested, complex and embedded in not one but multiple narratives of struggle" (217). Notions like 'tradition', 'ethnicity', and 'nation', as we know, are constantly shifting and Tibetans in exile continuously negotiate and re-adjust their sense of identity and belonging, perhaps learning to feel more at home in the world, as exilic subjects are expected to do.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

54 | 2018

2018

AnnOr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Making and remaking Tibetan diasporic identities

Cited by 54 publications

References 7 publications

“Drifting” in Lhasa: Cultural Encounter, Contested Modernity, and the Negotiation of Tibetanness

“Drifting” in Lhasa: Cultural Encounter, Contested Modernity, and the Negotiation of Tibetanness

Transnationalism, Leisure, and Chinese Graduate Students in the United States

54 | 2018

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About