Overseas Chinese in the PeopleÆs Republic of China

Economy, Politics and Transnationality in China is about the experiences of a group of persons known officially and collectively in the post-war People#xE2;#xAC;"s Republic of China as "domestic Overseas Chinese". They#xE3;#xAC;#xAC;included family members of overseas migrants who remained in China, former migrants who had "returned" permanently to the People#xE2;#xAC;"s Republic and ethnic Chinese youth who "returned" to China in order to pursue higher education and to serve their motherland. The book has three main objectives: first, to understand the nature of the official state project by which "domestic Overseas Chinese" were incorporated into the economic, political and social structures of the People#xE2;#xAC;"s Republic of China in the 1950s; second, to examine the multiple and contradictory meanings associated with being "domestic Overseas Chinese;" and third, to explore how "domestic Overseas Chineseness" as political category shaped the social experiences and identity formations of those who were compelled to wear this label. This book will fill an important gap in the literature on Chinese migration and Chinese transnationalism and will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of these subjects, as well as Chinese history more generally.

Glen Peterson is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia, Canada.