Chinese Pride? Searching Between Gendered Diasporas and Multicultural States by Yao Xiao B.A., Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, 2009 M.A., University of Calgary, 2011 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Educational Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2017 © Yao Xiao, 2017 Abstract This research of pride is necessarily from but not limited to my own personal searching, as a Cantonese/Chinese migrant across (Northern Guangdong) mountains, (Pearl River) delta, and (East Pacific) waterfronts. To explore what (Chinese) pride means in context, who needs it, and how it relates to the learning of empowerment, privilege, and diversity, I deploy a multi-biographical method to explore the mixed productions and expressions of pride. These multi-biographical sources include: audio life history interviews with thirteen community activists in the East Pacific port of Greater Vancouver and specifically in Richmond where significant streams of Chinese diasporas locate, five autobiographical accounts in a national Chinese-Canadian online project, and audio-video clips of two Chinese-Canadian stories in a transnational Chinese television/online program. Searching and researching these life stories, I find (Chinese) pride articulable on two journeys. A journey of diaspora emphasizes the flux of pride, expressible in a trio of gendered stories from women’s heritage to both women and men in migration and further to queer and nonqueer immigrant youth collaboration. A journey of state emphasizes the stability of pride, expressible in a trio of multicultural stories from nation-state citizenship to local citizenship and further to a global state of mind. While this mix of life journey/storytelling speaks in its own way towards more soul-searching and politically-sensitive projects of learning, my conclusion is more modestly about bringing four small elements to cultural studies of education: namely, extramural education as collaborative praxis, aspirational learning in political literacy, critical education with place-based and mobile cultures, and a reflexive take on why (and in what ways) cultural studies of education matters to me. With all these tissues of pride alive, I hope primarily and modestly to create openings in what could be done between/with you and me. ii Lay Summary Writing as a Cantonese/Chinese migrant in Greater Vancouver, I brought together different Chinese-Canadian life stories to show how pride was expressed, produced and used: from folks who organized identity-based and culture-based projects in local grassroots activism, to folks who took leadership positions in the institutional representative space of government and non-governmental organizations, and further to folks featured in transnational media representations. At once valuing and questioning what it meant to become proudly Chinese or otherwise, this research identified old and new ways to stand and represent amidst variously rising, mixed feelings of Chinese power. Beyond traditional conceptions of pride rooted in psychological measurement and Eurocentric political philosophy, this research pushed the fight of pride into the contemporary politics of Chinese migrations and settlements. By bringing educators, artists, activists, and myself into conversations, this narrative research broadens the understanding of education in terms of community activism, cross-generation communication, and cross-cultural learning. iii Preface This dissertation is an original, intellectual product of the author, Yao Xiao. A shorter version of section 2.3 in Chapter Two has been published. Xiao, Y. (2015). Radical feelings in the ‘liberation zone’: Active Chinese Canadian citizenship in Richmond, B.C. Citizenship Education Research Journal, 4 (1), 13-28. The field research of conducting interviews was approved by the Behavioural Research Ethics Board at The University of British Columbia on August 5, 2014. Approval number: H14-01576. iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................... iii Preface ...........................................................................................................................................iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... v List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... ix 1 Where Am I? ........................................................................................................................... 1 2 Searching for Pride: A Literature Review (with A Theoretical Guide) .......................... 20 2.1 The abnormality of pride: questions of minority self-esteem and social psychology .......... 20 2.2 The normativity of pride: questions of eurocentric governance and political science ......... 23 2.3 Towards a deconstruction of pride: turning to cultural studies ............................................. 28 2.3.1 How do I make a case for doing cultural studies of pride? a theoretical orientation ....... 36 3 Researching Pride: A Multi-Biographical Method ........................................................... 44 3.1 Critical theory and narrative inquiry ..................................................................................... 46 3.1.1 Life history as narrative inquiry ....................................................................................... 47 3.2 Data collection ...................................................................................................................... 50 3.2.1 Life history interview with 13 Chinese Canadian activists ............................................. 52 3.2.2 Written voices in a Canada-based media project on Asian Canadian pride .................... 54 3.2.3 Biographical videos in a China-based media project on overseas Chinese pride ............ 55 3.3 Data analysis ......................................................................................................................... 56 3.3.1 Arranging different texts .................................................................................................. 56 3.3.2 Coding, triangulating, and synthesizing into themes ....................................................... 57 3.3.3 The nature and presentation of findings ........................................................................... 60 3.3.4 A conceptual map prepared for the journey ..................................................................... 61 4 Pride in Gendered Diasporas ............................................................................................... 65 4.1 Grandmother-granddaughter crosscurrent: translating memories of home .......................... 65 4.1.1 Kathryn Gwun-Yeen Lennon: my Cantonese grandma from Cheung Chau island ......... 69 4.1.2 Claudia Kelly Li: my culture of strong Hakka women .................................................... 74 v 4.2 Migrant man–migrant woman crosscurrent: making home .................................................. 78 4.2.1 Hwa: love struggles .......................................................................................................... 82 4.2.2 Daughters and sons: migrant teenagers in small British Columbia towns ....................... 87 4.3 Queer-nonqueer youth crosscurrent: a different home is possible? ...................................... 90 4.3.1 阿風: building my own house .......................................................................................... 93 4.3.2 Tse: becoming a progressive Chinese Christian .............................................................. 96 4.4 A temporary landing ........................................................................................................... 101 5 Pride in Multicultural States ............................................................................................. 102 5.1 Colony-nation crossroads: British Hong Kong-Chinese becoming proudly Canadian? .... 102 5.1.1 Looking forward to Canadianness? ............................................................................... 107 5.1.2 Looking forward to Chineseness? .................................................................................. 109 5.2 Ethnicity-city crossroads: Richmond in a state of development ......................................... 112 5.2.1 The power of local ethnic markets? ............................................................................... 115 5.2.2 A city councillor speaks ................................................................................................. 121 5.3 Migration-communication crossroads: Sinophone messages in a global state of mind ..... 124 5.3.1 Creating a common space through Chinese drama? ...................................................... 128 5.3.2 Moving Sinophone poetry into global knowledge? ....................................................... 131 5.4 A temporary landing ..........................................................................................................