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.