Introduction: Diasporic Memories and Identities

Abstract

As the Chinese diasporic communities expanded throughout the world with the settling down of migrants as permanent residents or citizens of the nation state, a sojourner’s mentality soon gives way to a sense of permanence, marking the transition from migrant to becoming a fully fledged member of the host society. In this sense, Georg Simmel’s stranger finds home, fashioned from two worlds, similar yet disparate. As such, the diasporic communities take root in a land away from the original home. The extent to which the diasporic communities become fully integrated into the host society will allow us to understand the process — and success — of nation-building and citizenship development in a world where nation states are becoming increasingly multicultural and pluralistic in orientation. It is also a world where multiculturalism is becoming progressively more problematic as cultural identities confront the dictates of the nation state and dominant social groups. The presence of diasporic communities thus reveals the intense interchange of community and nation.