Cosmopolitanization and localization

Abstract

In the interest of contributing to the study of the Chinese diaspora as well as identity formation in Pacific societies, this article examines the historical transformation of Chinese identification in a French colony that has been turned into a French Overseas Territory. Identification consists in individual positioning within a field that is shaped by the changing configuration of global relations. I explain how this leads to a differential structuring of Chinese identifications between a `local' and a `cosmopolitan' pole. Instead of assuming that the descendants of Chinese migrants constitute a homogeneous entity, it is their differing identifications that are brought to the fore. I examine the conditions of possibility that might account for the sense of belonging to a `Chinese diaspora', and its relation to the maintenance of the ethnic Chinese category in French Polynesia. I stress the importance of observing the role ethnic categorization plays in this longue durée persistence.