Introduction

Abstract

This extract captures one of the central concerns of this book which relates to how and where can one belong as part of the ‘Oriental’ population in Britain. Although today we talk about the existence of ‘super-diversity’ within our major towns and cities (Vertovec 2007), there is a need to explore what this actually means for the everyday experience of different groups as well as to what extent this term captures the lived embodied experiences of people and communities. In particular, do we still see evidence of the old power paradigms and hierarchies (as indicated in the extract above) mixed in with new forms of diversity and difference? And in what ways does the presence of new minorities challenge our understanding of difference and how does it shape the way in which they are perceived? In responding to these questions and recent calls to understanding a greater range of experiences and identifications associated with disparate ethnic minority groups in ‘super-diverse’ urban settings, this book addresses the experience of the British-born Vietnamese as an under researched and overlooked minority ‘Oriental’ population in London.

When you think of an Oriental person, they are nothing compared to a black and white person, you know every kind of binary is black and white it never joins in an Oriental person. […] It is almost seen as like below, because you don’t really care about them.

(Matthew, 20, East London, North Vietnamese)