The Traveling Entrepreneur: Understanding the Role of Chinese People in Modern Human Civilization
"The Yokohama Chinatown is the biggest Chinatown in Japan and by far the safest Chinatown in any part of the world..." The nonchalant, robotic announcement coming over the tourist bus in Yokohama blasted to an equally nonchalant and robotic domestic crowd lazily looking outside the window as the bus passed by one Chinese restaurant after the other. The announcement cannot help but bring a little smirk over my face. Yep, certainly nothing racist there, just uttering the truth, as anyone who has been to Chinatowns across the world knows so well.
And going to Chinatowns I have. From the overtly tourist ones like San Francisco and Sydney to more hidden and functional ones like the ones in Seoul and Calgary, I have seen perhaps every major Chinese population center outside the Sinosphere. At first glance, every Chinatown seems the same. The restaurants, the shops selling imported Chinese goods, and street vendors ruthlessly gawking at every passerby, the spirit of commercialism is never missing at any street corner.
Yokohama is no different. Sure, being "safe," it perhaps does not have a local branch of the Triads in operations, but behind the beautifully maintained facades, the bitter stories of illegal immigration, starting businesses from scratch, and succeeding in foreign countries with foreign cultures and tongues is no different here in Yokohama as they are in any other Chinatown anywhere in the world. The ability of every Chinese individual to survive and prosper despite continued adversity can be felt in every gawk by every young Chinese worker.
It is this power of "survivability" that is the greatest source of Chinese pride for me and many other overseas Chinese. Sure, certain actions of the Chinese government has lead to overseas Chinese being perceived rather negatively in recent years, but as no country is no longer willing to put up stiff opposition to Chinese presence, the power and confidence of the Chinese diaspora has only grown throughout the world.
Armed with increased capital and large number of goods produced by their increasingly wealthy home country, the Chinese has again stepped up economic assault on the rest of the world, and new Chinatowns in random places such as Lagos and Mumbai has emerged to eclipse the traditional influence of older ones such as Yokohama and Boston. The collective economic power displayed by the Chinese has forced the local community to take them seriously, and accept the constant presence despite hidden complaints.
Furthermore, increasingly, the influence of the overseas Chinese in the foreign lands are no longer limited to the economic fields. By actively taking up foreign citizenships, yet refusing to completely assimilate into the local culture, the Chinese diaspora is creating unique "Sino-foreign" fusion cultures across the world. The differing menus of localized Chinese foods serves as the best examples of how the Chinese is shaping up local cultures in thorough ways.
People around the world say the Chinese is a "traveling race." Much like other races with worldwide business presences (Jews, Nigerians, Indians, just to name a few), they have established their own hybrid communities, both isolated and interacting with their host countries' dominant cultures, to base further demographic and geographic expansions. With nearly endless supplies of people and capital from back home in China, the entrepreneurial charge on a global scale, while centuries old, is only at a beginning.
Yokohama Chinatown, along with the global community of 40 million (and rapidly increasing) overseas Chinese, has once again reminded every Chinese what role they need and will play in the changing human civilization. By never being satisfied with the mediocre reality and heading into the unconquered unknown, the Chinese will show the world what it really means to be a "global race," both from an economic and cultural standpoint. If the Japanese, and anyone, consider this quiet revolution simply as "safe," then, well, they perhaps need to wake up to a much harsher reality...
And going to Chinatowns I have. From the overtly tourist ones like San Francisco and Sydney to more hidden and functional ones like the ones in Seoul and Calgary, I have seen perhaps every major Chinese population center outside the Sinosphere. At first glance, every Chinatown seems the same. The restaurants, the shops selling imported Chinese goods, and street vendors ruthlessly gawking at every passerby, the spirit of commercialism is never missing at any street corner.
Yokohama is no different. Sure, being "safe," it perhaps does not have a local branch of the Triads in operations, but behind the beautifully maintained facades, the bitter stories of illegal immigration, starting businesses from scratch, and succeeding in foreign countries with foreign cultures and tongues is no different here in Yokohama as they are in any other Chinatown anywhere in the world. The ability of every Chinese individual to survive and prosper despite continued adversity can be felt in every gawk by every young Chinese worker.
It is this power of "survivability" that is the greatest source of Chinese pride for me and many other overseas Chinese. Sure, certain actions of the Chinese government has lead to overseas Chinese being perceived rather negatively in recent years, but as no country is no longer willing to put up stiff opposition to Chinese presence, the power and confidence of the Chinese diaspora has only grown throughout the world.
Armed with increased capital and large number of goods produced by their increasingly wealthy home country, the Chinese has again stepped up economic assault on the rest of the world, and new Chinatowns in random places such as Lagos and Mumbai has emerged to eclipse the traditional influence of older ones such as Yokohama and Boston. The collective economic power displayed by the Chinese has forced the local community to take them seriously, and accept the constant presence despite hidden complaints.
Furthermore, increasingly, the influence of the overseas Chinese in the foreign lands are no longer limited to the economic fields. By actively taking up foreign citizenships, yet refusing to completely assimilate into the local culture, the Chinese diaspora is creating unique "Sino-foreign" fusion cultures across the world. The differing menus of localized Chinese foods serves as the best examples of how the Chinese is shaping up local cultures in thorough ways.
People around the world say the Chinese is a "traveling race." Much like other races with worldwide business presences (Jews, Nigerians, Indians, just to name a few), they have established their own hybrid communities, both isolated and interacting with their host countries' dominant cultures, to base further demographic and geographic expansions. With nearly endless supplies of people and capital from back home in China, the entrepreneurial charge on a global scale, while centuries old, is only at a beginning.
Yokohama Chinatown, along with the global community of 40 million (and rapidly increasing) overseas Chinese, has once again reminded every Chinese what role they need and will play in the changing human civilization. By never being satisfied with the mediocre reality and heading into the unconquered unknown, the Chinese will show the world what it really means to be a "global race," both from an economic and cultural standpoint. If the Japanese, and anyone, consider this quiet revolution simply as "safe," then, well, they perhaps need to wake up to a much harsher reality...
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