This is the first text to address British Chinese culture. It explores British Chinese cultural politics in terms of national and international debates on the Chinese diaspora, race, multiculture, identity and belonging, and transnational ‘Chineseness’. Collectively, the essays look at how notions of ‘British Chinese culture’ have been constructed and challenged in the visual arts, theatre and performance, and film, since the mid-1980s. They contest British Chinese invisibility, showing how practice is not only heterogeneous, but is forged through shifting historical and political contexts; continued racialization, the currency of Orientalist stereotypes and the possibility of their subversion; the policies of institutions and their funding strategies; and dynamic relationships with transnationalisms. The book brings a fresh perspective that makes both an empirical and theoretical contribution to the study of race and cultural production, whilst critically interrogating the very notion of British Chineseness.

Global London on screen presents a mélange of films by directors from the Global South and North, portraying everyday life to the more fantastical, odious, or extraordinary in terms of circumstances as captured cinematically in this superdiverse city. This book portrays a segment of such superdiversity by historicising and theorising various cinematic reproductions of London by filmmakers coming to this megacity from abroad. As visitors, cosmopolitans, or even migrant filmmakers, their treatment of London’s zonal locations as both foreign and familiar is fascinating; their narratives and visualisations of London’s spatial and architectural uniqueness is given a sojourners’ touch; while other foreign filmmakers showcase and sometimes problematise London’s socio-cultural globality and locality as both British and a city open (and sometimes closed off) to the world.

This book examines the artistic practices of a range of British-based artists of East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese) heritage to consider the social, political and cultural effects of migration or diaspora on their creative production. Beccy Kennedy-Schtyk demonstrates three themes: the multiplicity and expansive contemporaneity of these artists’ visual oeuvres; the physical impact or interpretation of migratory circumstances on their artistic practices; and the necessity to continue to evolve ways of thinking about migration, race and border crossings in the current political climate of the 21st century. The book will be of interest to scholars studying art history, Asian studies, British studies, migration and diaspora studies, and cultural studies.

An emerging interest in a British East and Southeast Asian identity after decades of political and social exclusion has coincided with periods of economic and political challenges in the UK. In Migration and Identity in British East and Southeast Asian Cinema, Leung Wing-Fai argues that this explosive context has created rich and diverse forms of storytelling and an accented cinematic language. By offering close readings of key contemporary films and positioning them in a wider slate of releases by British East and Southeast Asian filmmakers alongside Anglophone film histories in the Global North, this book sheds light on a developing field and engenders new ways of understanding British cinema and society. The author explores changing representational politics in contemporary cinema and argues for the cinematic visibility of a hitherto silenced community. Drawing on theoretical frames from sociological, film and cultural studies to critically engage with the textual and visual language of the case studies, Leung claims the place of British East and Southeast Asian Cinema as a film and cultural movement. Highlighting diversity among the British East and Southeast Asian community, pushing boundaries in its intersectional approach to ethnicity, race, gender and sexuality, and proposing a critical framework for academic studies on diasporic film-making in the UK, this nuanced and innovative study will interest researchers, teachers and students in a range of Humanities and Liberal Arts subjects, including Film and Media Studies, Regional/Area Studies (Asia), and arts, cultural and creative productions from the East and Southeast Asian diaspora.

First collection of full-length plays from British East Asian playwrights Playwrights: Yang Mai Ooi, Jeremy Tiang, Lucy Chai Lai-Tuen, Amy Ng, Stephen Hoo, Joel Tan and Daniel York Loh. Selected and Edited: Cheryl Robson, Dr Amanda Rogers and Dr Ashley Thorpe. With an introduction: Dr Amanda Rogers and Dr Ashley Thorpe A landmark collection of contemporary full-length plays by British East Asian writers. Exploring subjects such as cultural identity, the fragmentation of communities, tradition, invisibility and discrimination, these plays are ideal to perform. With an introduction by academics Dr Amanda Rogers and Dr Ashley Thorpe which sets the plays into context and explores the hidden history of theatre from BEA theatre-makers. This is a timely collection, being published within months of the opening of three plays by British East Asian playwrights in the UK, and a growing awareness in the mainstream press that that East Asians in British theatre are under-represented. As Daniel York Loh writes: “British East Asians were effectively side-lined in any debate on diversity in theatre where the general establishment view tends towards a binary black/white... which seems to exclude large swathes of the Asian continent.” As Kumiko Mendl of Yellow Earth theatre writes: "There is an abundance of talent and experience to be found in the UK, and it's time that the rest of Britain woke up to the diversity of artists and practitioners around them – those that know their Kuan Han-ching as well as their Shakespeare." The seven plays in the anthology are: Bound Feet Blues by Yang Mai Ooi The Last Days of Limehouse by Jeremy Tiang Conversations with my Unknown Mother by Lucy Chai Lai-Tuen Special Occasions by Amy Ng Jamaica Boy by Stephen Hoo Tango by Joel Tan The Fu Manchu Complex by Daniel York Loh "Ooi has some unsettling examples of how, even today in the West, daintiness in a woman is often celebrated and a `beauty is pain' culture still exists." --The Stage "The Last Days of Limehouse is a finely balanced, well-written and superbly acted play that's well worth seeing." **** - --everything theatre "...a devilishly ironic spin on Sax Rohmer's classic novel that will leave you in hysterics...wildly satirical and steeped in sexual innuendo... the atmosphere created on stage is alluring." - --The Upcoming

This study reviews developments in the ethnic and national identity of the descendants of migrants, taking ethnic Chinese as a case study. Our core question is why, in spite of debates worldwide about identity, exclusion and rights, do minority communities continue to suffer discrimination and attacks? This question is asked in view of the growing incidence in recent years of ‘racial’ conflicts between majority and minority communities and among minorities, in both developed and developing countries. The study examines national identity from the perspective of migrants’ descendants, whose national identity may be more rooted than is often thought. Concepts such as ‘new ethnicities’, ‘cultural fluidity’, and ‘new’ and ‘multiple’ identities feature in this examination. These concepts highlight identity changes across generations and the need to challenge and reinterpret the meaning of ‘nation’ and to review problems with policy initiatives designed to promote nation-building in multi-ethnic societies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Headline: The Globe and Mail: Legal challenge halts Canadian, U.S. and U.K. release of book critical of Chinese Communist Party by Robert Fife That said it all. The hands of the Chinese Communist Party were going on the offence. The 48 Group Club a China friendly group of former UK ambassadors and Prime Ministers were embarrassed by their connections to a Club founded by key members of the Chinese Communist Party of Britain who's chair Stephen Perry suggested that China's approach to world order and rule was superior to democracy and the UK should embrace them. Asked if he believed the lawsuit was an effort by the Chinese government to stop the publication of his book, Mr. Hamilton said: “I have no evidence of that, although it should be noted that the Chinese government has used lawfare in the past.” Lawfare is the use of legal action as part of a campaign against a target. Governments around the world are in the early stages of a repositioning of power, as China rises and the United States is drawn into direct competition. However, some are beginning to wonder whether, for all of the economic benefits, engaging with China carries unseen dangers. The Chinese Communist Party is now determined to reshape the world in its image. The party is not interested in democracy. It divides the world into those who can be won over and enemies. They have already lured many leaders to their corner; others are weighing up a devil's bargain. Through its exercise of ‘sharp power,’ the party is weakening global institutions, aggressively targeting individual corporations, and threatening freedom of expression from the arts to academia. At the same time, security services are increasingly worried about incursions into our communications infrastructure. Indeed, the vaunted Great Firewall is a temporary measure, only necessary until the party has transformed the global conversation. In December 2019, the CCP's obsession with social control led it to suppress expert warnings about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. Most alarming for the West was the active collaboration of the WHO in spreading the CCP's version of events. It was a shocking example of the widespread co-optation of global institutions by the CCP, as described in Hidden Hand. As soon as Beijing thought it had the virus under control, it began a global propaganda blitz, presenting China's authoritarian system as a model for the rest of the world. Western media and pundits soon began echoing the Party line. Hidden Hand is a detailed and devastating expose of Chinese Communist Party influence in the West, including Canada. It could not arrive at a better time in Canada, with relations between Ottawa and Beijing reaching breaking point after two years of mounting tension. China's bullying behaviour, and the mobilising of people loyal to the Chinese Communist Party on the streets of Canada's cities, has caused deep disquiet among Canadians. But the government seems paralyzed. Hidden Hand shows how Canada's political, business, academic and cultural elites have over many years been co-opted by the Chinese Communist Party and its agencies. They are confused about what is in Canada's national interests and frequently do Beijing's bidding. Hidden Hand shows how the Chinese Communist Party represents a profound threat to Western democracy. It's vital reading for Canadians who want to understand what is really happening, and points to a way of carving out a new diplomatic course with China. But the question remains: Does the government have the will to stand up to Beijing and its proxies in Canada or is it too late?