South African Chinese Community Under the Microscope

by Russell on August 22nd, 2008

Yoon Jung Park The South African-born Chinese community is a tiny one, consisting of 10,000 to 12,000 members in a population of approximately 45 million. Throughout much of the history of this most race-conscious of countries, the community has been ignored or neglected, its members officially classed as Coloureds (people of mixed race) or with Indians in that peculiarly South African category, “Asiatic”.

More recently, as China’s aid to, trade with and investment in Africa grow and large numbers of new Chinese immigrants stream into South Africa and other African states, Chinese South Africans are beginning to receive both media and scholarly attention. For this reason it is timely to focus on the only resident community of Chinese on the continent. Yoon Jung Park’s A Matter of Honour: Being Chinese in South Africa fits the bill in exemplary fashion.

the book, based on a PhD thesis, focuses on Chinese South Africans by examining their shifting social, ethnic, racial and national identities over time. Using concepts of identity, ethnicity, race, nationalism, and transnationalism, and drawing on comparisons with other overseas Chinese communities, it explores the multi-layered identities of the South African group and analyses the ways in which their identities have changed over time and with each generation.

As the book makes clear, Chinese identities in South Africa have been shaped by both external and internal forces. As regards external factors, the state – both that of China and of South Africa – played a key role in establishing the parameters of identity construction. Over time the weight of this influence changed, as a result of international political events, internal racial policies, and external trade and political relations. At the same time, individual and community agency, and the force of the ‘China myth’, played important parts in the construction of Chinese South African identity

About the author

Dr Yoon Park graduated in 2005 from the University of the Witwatersrand with a PhD. She teaches at the University of Johannesburg.

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