Place, affect, and transnationalism through the voices of Hong Kong immigrants to Canada

Abstract

The emergence of a significant transnational community of immigrants from Hong Kong to Canada, and their Canadian-born children, during the 1990s can be understood through the experience of the affect of place, which gives meaning to the emotional experiences of community members. In contrast to theories that treat affect as a preconscious attribute, we treat affect as an emergent, socially constructed, and contextual capacity for individual emotional experiences in place. Affect is a discursive product of, and is produced by, the experiences of people situated in place. The affects of suburban residential communities of concentrated Hong Kong immigrants and their children in Vancouver and Toronto are expressed through a narrative of a ‘natural’ and wholesome Canadian lifestyle that is situated in spacious suburban houses that contain close-knit family relations. For these participants, the wholesome suburban lifestyle contrasts with the unwholesome, and unnatural, urban lifestyle of Hong Kong.