Look Who’s Talking: Migrating Narratives and Identity Construction

Abstract

Although it is commonly iterated that the twenty-first century putatively belongs to China¹ in terms of its dynamic economic growth and political role it plays on the international stage, China has already enjoyed millennia of a colourful and rich history. Possessing one of the longest recorded histories, China and ‘Chineseness’ seem eternal, unquestionable and unquestioned. With a vast territory clearly demarcated on the map, and a large concentration of people clustered in cities as well as scattering throughout its rural regions, China has long served as an anchor to root Chinese to a common heritage. The history, the culture, the now uniform language and writing script, all seem to coalesce into a collective feeling of a people united as a single cultural entity.