The West has voiced their support for Hong Kong protestors, but many overseas Chinese are sitting on the fence. Identity politics means that this battle is being waged on domestic soil.
The Hong Kong protestors have endured a long six months. Since April, demonstrators have organized in marches across the city to fight a proposed extradition bill — in a movement characterized by reports of violence and police brutality. But it was only recently that the West joined the cause, after numerous attempts by the Chinese government to suppress HK support overseas (see the NBA, Blizzard, and Apple).
It’s not a stretch to say that most people in the West are on the HK protestors’ side. But not everyone is. And not for the reasons you’d expect.
Many overseas Chinese are ambivalent about HK. I’m not talking about first generation immigrants straight from the motherland. I’m talking about people like me — the large populations of Chinese Americans, Australians, and Brits who were raised on diets of Cheerios, reruns of Friends and the freedoms of Western democracies. People like actress Yiu Lifei, star of Disney’s upcoming live-action Mulan remake, who spent a large part of her childhood in New York City and who faced backlash last August for expressing her support for the HK police.
There is a case to be made that ignorance is the reason why overseas Chinese can disregard the CCP’s oppressive policies, while enjoying the liberties offered by democratic governments. But most overseas Chinese are aware of this contradiction and remain ambivalent. That’s because the Chinese diaspora’s position on HK isn’t the result of an overseas ideological battle. Instead it is a symptom of a phenomenon closer to home — identity politics.
For the Chinese diaspora, to hear the recent attacks against China brings back painful childhood memories. Chinese people who grew up in the West share tales of being called “ching chongs” by classmates who mocked us for our oriental eyes and surnames. It’s a formative experience that isn’t easily forgotten. While the Western media is careful to aim its criticism at the Chinese government, this level of nuance is absent in many broader conversations, especially among those who see the news as an excuse to vocalize a ‘f*** China’ mentality.
The result — an overseas Chinese identity that is as much about celebrating Chinese culture, as it is about defending all things Chinese.
I remember being in elementary school in Australia when it was announced that Beijing would host the 2008 Summer Olympics. The news had a ripple effect on Chinese communities around the world. My parents unpacked Chinese ornaments from the garage and decorated our home with objects of their heritage. Our house became a beacon of red among the muted hues of Western suburbia. That weekend we went to our city’s Chinatown where we ate food and celebrated with other Chinese people. For the first time in a long time, being Chinese was something to be proud of.
And then I remember being in school one morning, waiting for class to begin. Another student who I didn’t know very well, came up to me. He tapped my shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said, “you’re a cheater.” I was confused. I asked him what he meant. He explained, “China is cheating at the Olympics. Ching chong, that means you.”
He was referring to allegations that China had faked documents to enter underage gymnasts into competition. I guess my classmate had heard the news from his parents or from TV. Soon other kids were calling me ‘ching chong cheater.’ I was told to ‘go-back-to-where-I-came-from,’ even though 11-year-old me had never even set foot in the motherland.
I don’t blame my classmates for conflating the Chinese government with people of Chinese heritage. Children don’t have the rationality or empathy to understand this nuance. But as a consequence I was hurt. Discrimination instilled in me a strong tribal mentality. From that moment on, it was me and China against the world.
That’s the problem. The media has framed the HK protests as a battle between China and the West. It creates an ‘us-vs-them’ narrative — the kind that breeds toxic identity politics and forces people to choose sides rather than engage in more considered discussions. Overseas Chinese are conflicted in this debate. To side with China is to risk social exclusion. To side with the West is to renounce our Chinese identity and forget the xenophobia encountered in our lives.
The relationship between the Chinese diaspora and the motherland is complex. When China achieves something great, like the engineering feats of its Olympic stadiums, we flaunt our cultural identity and celebrate Chinese work ethic. But when China comes under scrutiny, for its suppression of free speech abroad or the human rights violations in its ethnic detention camps, then it forces the Chinese diaspora to reconsider the extent of its ancestral connection.
There are two possibilities. The first is of the self-hating Chinese. Preempting attacks on their ethnic identities, many overseas Chinese try to cast away all connections to their heritage. You get Chinese-American kids who hate Chinese food, hate the Chinese language, and participate in the masochistic practice of discriminating against other Chinese people. Criticisms against China are irrelevant to them — there is no one who hates those ‘damn chinks’ more. They hope that by aligning themselves with the politics of Western nationalism, they can evade their own victimization.
The second possibility is of the defensive Chinese. After the self-hating Chinese realizes that despite their best efforts, they will never completely shred their ethnic label, they reclaim their Chinese identity. Except now they are practiced in the divisive rhetoric used by uninformed classmates, or by deliberate acts of racism in larger society. And so they fight back by defending China, no matter the issue, because they are defending-themselves-by-proxy.
This phenomenon is not too different to what happened to the Muslim diaspora post-9/11. Islamophobia in Western countries yielded a similar effect — creating a reactionary Muslim identity that was ambivalent to Western causes. In his article ‘The Political Attitudes of Muslims Studying at British Universities in the Post-9/11 World,’ Michael Appleton interviewed members of the British Muslim community about the West’s war on terror. He found that “whilst the vast majority of respondents and interviewees wrote or spoke of militant ‘Islamic’ groups with utter disdain, they eschewed ‘siding’ with the British and American states.”
For the Chinese diaspora there is one other possibility. In an ideal world we should be able to celebrate our heritage while remaining objective about events outside our control. We should be able to recognize that criticism against the Chinese government is not a criticism against all Chinese people. After all is said and done, I am willing to bet that most overseas Chinese stand with the HK protestors. It is time to construct a healthier Chinese identity and forgive (but not forget) the discriminative experiences that cloud our rational thinking.
And on the part of those who create and consume media, it is time to approach issues with greater empathy. Divisiveness begets more divisiveness. We must focus on solving problems and rectifying injustice in a way that doesn’t frame them as combative narratives. Otherwise we risk creating our own enemies.
