CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland
Trade Diasporas and Identity Construction
Session organisers: Daniela de Carvalho and
John Wilks
de Carvalho, Daniela (Universidade
Portucalense, Portugal) and Wilks, John (University of London, United Kingdom)
PASSING THE PORT: THE WINE-SHIPPING COMMUNITY IN OPORTO
The focus of this study is upon the British community of Oporto considered as a
trade diaspora, in the sense that it was, and is, constituted by a community of
merchants in exile. It examines the history and present-day social structure of
the British wine-shipping community of Oporto, and in particular its own sense
of collective identity formed in its continuous relationship with the host
society. Although the British have constituted, through their imperial history,
one of the largest diasporic groups, this community is not, strictly speaking, a
vestige of empire having its origins specifically in the seventeenth century
trade of Port wine between two sovereign states. It is possible that the
"British colony" of Oporto may have had in the past imperial
attributes originating in its commercial hegemony, social exclusivity and the
symbolic cachet of the product by which it earns its living. However, the
community has been undergoing social and cultural changes and in the process
shedding its elitist attitudes whilst at the same time attempting to maintain
some sense of ethnic cohesiveness. It is now a community in transition-
possibly, even in dissolution- under the impact of global economic imperatives
and the deconstruction of British identity as a whole.
Ghosh, Develeena and Muecke, Stephen
(University of Technology, Sydney, Australia) THE INDIAN OCEAN: CROSSROADS OF
CULTURE AND COMMERCE
The Indian Ocean, in the pre-colonial period, is an historical model of
transnational cultural commerce. Prior to Vasco da Gama, there was considerable
traffic, over many centuries, between the Gujarati coast of India, East Africa,
and the Middle East. Madagascar was settled by people from the Indonesian
archipelago, Ming Chinese traveled the ocean in the fifteenth century and
earlier. Our thesis is that culture and commerce were always imbricated in the
precolonial period, and that European imperialism did not usher in such radical
changes to the ways in which trade and culture (always) involved translation and
negotiating of meanings, and the forging of new cultures across in between
spaces. Our 'postcolonial' gesture is to displace the importance of colonial
stories as defining ones for the region; other stories have not only been
circulating for a long time, but involve local/global concerns similar in some
ways to the transnational ones being voiced today. Talking about culture with
commerce, in historical depth, will contest the tendency to uniformity in
European modernization narratives in their application to the East.
Ka Yee, Janice, Wong (The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, China) THE DISTANCE BETWEEN HONG KONG AND CHINA:
SELF-PERCEPTION AND IDENTITY AMONGST THE PEOPLE OF HONG KONG
The objective of this study is to investigate the social identity of Hong Kong
following the Chinese takeover. It conceptualizes identity as a spatial distance
between the people of Hong Kong and the mainland Chinese, and hence the study
measures how the former perceive their own cultural differences in relation to
the later. It also gauges the Honk Kong public's degree of local identification
by measuring their affective attitudes towards various local and national icons.
A telephone survey was conducted in Honk Kong in September 1999 with 553
representative samples. This study revealed that some respondents still
identified themselves as 'Hong Kong Chinese' and showed resistance to the
Chinese label even after 1997. People's experience with China affected their
perception towards Hong Kong icons. Hong Kong people are characterized as having
traditional, liberal and capitalist values. People who self ranked high on
capitalist values tended to identify with those icons, indicating that they have
a sense of pride and positive affect and little sense of uneasiness towards
local icons.
Urano, Edson and Yamamoto, Lucia (Tohoku
University, Sendai, Japan) ETHNIC MEDIA AND BUSINESS IN THE CASE OF
JAPANESE-BRAZILIANS IN JAPAN
International migration results in the formation of networks, in a wide flow of
goods, services and capital. One element of this structure is the ethnic media.
In the first part of this paper we will look into the ethnic media as a linkage
point of other networks that constitute this process such as labour force
brokers, migrant families and ethnic business. The main purpose of this work is
to analyse the specific role played by the ethnic media in the formation and
continuation of the migration process of Japanese descendants in transition from
Latin America to Japan, through the case study of International Press newspaper.
Another main focus is to examine the continuing process of media reinvention
especially in relation to managerial structure and newspaper contents, and how
it reflects changes in the ethnic community population. Finally, we will try to
outline the some possible ways forward for the International Press in the
future, facing socioeconomic changes within the Latin American community living
in Japan. In the second part of the paper, we analyse the role of migrant women
in the formation and maintenance of ethnic businesses in Oizumi, Japan. Studies
conducted on the Brazilian community in Japan indicate that a proportion of
Japanese-Brazilian shopkeepers who migrated to Japan in the beginning of the 90s
set up such ethnic businesses with capital accumulated by working in Japanese
factories. The growth of the Brazilian community and hence in demand for
Brazilian products encouraged migrants who had commercial know-how to begin new
businesses in Japan. Following these first businessmen, employees who acquired
their initial experience working with such trade pioneers themselves set up in
business. As the study indicates, most of these businesses are family scale (mom
and pop shops), managed by husband and with wives (and in some cases sons)
constituting the labour force. In the research we analyse first the role of
migrant women in the creation and maintenance of ethnic businesses specifically
in case of the family scale business. Second, we analyse whether and in what
manner the formation of ethnic businesses have contributed to the absorption of
the female labour force available within the ethnic community in Japan.
Pyykkönen, Miikka (University of
Jyväskylä, Finland) DIASPORIC COMMUNITIES AND THEIR LOCAL VOLUNTARY
ASSOCIATIONS IN FINLAND
There are over 91 000 immigrants living in Finland at the moment. They represent
over 60 nationalities and almost 100 different ethnic groups. They have formed
both informal and formal networks in civil society to process their cultural
identities and to fight for their rights in diaspora. The most common forms of
civic action are voluntary associations. Associations are used as spaces and
instruments for producing, representing and negotiating citizenship and identity
amongst immigrants. For diasporic communities associations offer a context for
ethno-political mobilisation in new socio-cultural environment and
circumstances. For immigrants associations are the space for internal
communication within their cultures. By means of formal organisations and
networks people with the same ethnic background can produce and change shared
meanings, maintain traditions, cherish common habits and keep their languages
alive. Associations are also channels to assert social and cultural identity in
relation to the majority. Thus, associations are used as instruments for
politicizing questions of integration. They constitute a space for negotiating
legitimacy and recognition as citizens of Finland on the one hand, whilst
retaining cultural autonomy on the other. Furthermore associations are crucial
safety networks for individuals living in diaspora. Safety networks provide
means for organising education, hobbies, employment, help networks and the
learning of everyday civil skills. In the presentation I examine how association
activists and Finnish authorities represent immigrants associations; how
different actors see their functions and principles; and how they represent
themselves and each other as partners in their interaction.
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