Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
11-2020
Abstract
International migration profoundly reshapes the urban landscape in sending and receiving countries. Compared to ethnic enclaves in migrant-receiving metropolises and remittance houses in sending communities, we know little about systematic urban changes led by emigration states. In this article, based on three months of fieldwork in a migrant hometown in China, I argue that the dispersion of emigrants per se does not make its urban space inherently ‘diasporic’. Rather, a ‘diasporic place’ can be strategically constructed by local sociopolitical actors, a process I conceptualise as ‘diasporic placemaking’. To create an international city branding and boost the consumption-based urban economy, the local state promotes Western architectural forms and imagines globalisation as a new way of life. To understand how migrants and local residents make sense of diasporic placemaking, I analyse deep-running tensions between their diverse self-perceptions and state construction. Instead of an innocent project, diasporic placemaking is replete with ambitions, achievements, and anxieties in post-socialist China’s march towards modernity, progress, and prosperity. To advance the constructivist momentum in diaspora studies, I explore how diaspora construction is realized and contested in urban transformations while shedding light on how migrant spaces are valorised and performed by local actors for economic and symbolic purposes.
Keywords
Diasporic placemaking, migrant hometown, China, urban changes, international city
Discipline
Asian Studies | Demography, Population, and Ecology | Race and Ethnicity | Urban Studies and Planning
Research Areas
Sociology
Publication
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Volume
48
Issue
1
First Page
209
Last Page
227
ISSN
1369-183X
Identifier
10.1080/1369183X.2020.1860741
Publisher
Taylor and Francis
Citation
LIU, Jiaqi M..(2020). Diasporic placemaking: the internationalisation of a migrant hometown in post-socialist China. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(1), 209-227.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3847
Copyright Owner and License
Publisher
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1860741
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons