Chinese Migration to Britain and the Impact of the Cultural identity on the British East Asian Theatr

Abstract

Cultural identification has a long history that dates back to colonial times. As globalization increased the frequency of cross-national encounters during the 1950s, researchers became more concerned with the question of cultural identity. Globalization had a significant influence on third-world culture in the late 1990s, therefore most researchers paid increasing attention to the question of national culture and national identity. The topic of cultural identity first arose in Britain in the nineteenth century. As a colonist, Britain improved its native culture, while weakening its foreign culture. The emphasis on British national pride in education for all countries distinguishes between internal and exterior cultures. According to Liu (2021), the issue of accepting mainstream culture while rejecting alien culture has entered the ambit of British cultural identity inquiry due to the increase of Chinese immigration to Britain. The history of the Chinese in Britain, the waves of immigration, their identity transitions over time, and numerous related subjects, including the economic and social position of the Chinese in Britain, have affected the new Chinese identity as being exposed in the British East Asian Theatre (BEAs). The aim of this study is to link the development of the British East Asian Theatre with the impact of the changes that happened to the cultural identity of the Chinese migrants in Britain throughout history since the 1880s. The researchers conclude that the various generations of Chinese migration to Britain from the early nineteenth century to the present have gone through many cultural changes. These changes affected their Chinese identity and resulted in a cultural conflict in terms of acculturation and loss of heritage. This is what the British East Asian playwrights try to expose in their theater.