Being Chinese, becoming Chinese-American: The transformation of Chinese identity in the United States, 1910-1928

Chinese identity in the twentieth century has been a preoccupation among scholars of Chinese studies. While searching for a modern China, Chinese both in the homeland and overseas debated the essence of "Chineseness." Modernization in China involved adaptation of traditional Chinese culture and absorption of outside, especially western, influence. Although we know quite a lot about how Chinese in China struggled with the balance between their traditional culture and external influence, we know very little about how Chinese in the United States debated over a modern sense of Chineseness--what it meant to be Chinese.; This study takes a transpacific approach to the question of the transformation of identity of Chinese in the United States. Based on several Chinese language daily newspapers published by and circulating among Chinese in the United States, it argues that in the period between 1910 and 1928, the identity of these Chinese changed from a tradition-based sense of Chineseness to a distinctive Chinese American definition. This shift occurred in a diasporic environment characterized by American democracy, capitalism, and individualism on the one hand and anti-Chinese prejudice and discrimination on the other. The transformation took place in the context of debates over monarchism versus republicanism in China, efforts for territorial integrity and international equality, denials of Chinese culture and tradition, and attempts at socialism and communism.; The development of a Chinese American identity in the period between 1910 and 1928 demonstrates that the meaning of being Chinese was fluid and that it was possible to identify oneself as a Chinese without physical residence in the geographical center of Chinese civilization or political allegiance to the government in China. Living across the Pacific and among non-Chinese, American Chinese idealized traditional Chinese culture. Free from radical nationalist politics and cultural iconoclasm in China, American Chinese kept traditional cultural practices in the reconstruction of Chinese identity. In the reconstruction process, American Chinese also demonstrated their willingness to make accommodations to the norms of American mainstream society.; In their efforts to envision and to help build a modern China, American Chinese demonstrated a new understanding of the meaning of being Chinese. Although they still identified themselves as Chinese, their new identity was the result of a blending of traditional Chinese culture and American culture. The complex interactions between their sense of Chineseness and the American influence they absorbed shed light on a better understanding of identity transformation among immigrant groups in the United States.