Scholarly studies of Chinese culture, history and society, both within and outside of China, generally pay little attention to leisure, entertainment and amusement, though it has long been known that this aspect of life gives a deep understanding of the psyche and soul, and the hopes and fears, of a person. Leisure is a less coerced-upon, mandatory human conduct than work; certainly leisurely conduct is more voluntary, expressive and creative. But when seen as human behaviour, leisure and entertainment cannot be separated from history, heritage, ethnicity, the community, family and kin, rituals and customs thus a collective activity and its constraints on the person.

This book examines a variety of genre of Chinese entertainment, from singing clubs, Cantonese opera and film, to Chinese rock and tourism. Though formally voluntary, Chinese entertainment, when entangled with ethnicity, heritage and history, is ironically a site of both enjoyment and struggle, both pleasure and suffering.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Visual Anthropology.

Hybrid Hong Kong attempts to attract and excite the intellectual, cultural, economic and political elites as well as the intelligent laymen of Hong Kong - hopefully enough for them to take a closer look at their society - while engendering a public discourse on the city's identity, its past, present and future. Hong Kong is at its crossroads. With a colonial past and having been handed over, and back, to China in 1997, the city has since been going through a process of re-sinification and re-integration (not entirely wanted) into the Pearl River Delta region of mainland China, all of which have far-reaching consequences for identity politics, culture, loyalty and attachment, and everyday livelihood. The hybridity concept offers an in-between space, and time, to narrate, describe and make sense of the many layers of entanglement of cultural, anthropological, economic and political forces that impinge, impact, sometimes confuse, even disturb, the everyday lives of the Hongkongers who have decided to call the city home. The book probes a range of sites and locales of a Hongkonger's natural habitat, including film and television, ethnicity, popular music videos, gay identities, fashion, art, theatre, Cantopop electronic dance music, museum, visual arts, the Muslim youth, food and cuisine, and Chinese and western medicines. Based on ethnography, fieldwork and participant observation, Hybrid Hong Kong intends to display and explain hybridity as it is performed in the public as well as private spheres of city life. This book was originally published as a special issue of Visual Anthropology.

This book brings together a group of scholars from diverse disciplines to interrogate everyday life events in various interpersonal and organizational contexts so as to answer an age-old question: what happens when (carriers of) cultures meet, or, when East meets West? The contributors to this volume argue that, rather than assume clashes of civilizations, assimilation, conversion and essentialism to be the expected outcomes of cultural encounters, we should focus our analytical attention on processes rather than outcomes; on emergence, dialectics, contradictions, ironies and paradoxes, and complexity. We should focus on attempting to learn and grow, to synthesize and integrate, to create and innovate, to change and transform, at personal, micro, macro and global levels. Or, in one word: hybridity. Contexts of cultural encounters analyzed in this book range from business organizations, through individual travels, to personal philosophies, and from mechanical models to complex systems as social imaginaries. This book is based on a special issue of World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution.

Scholarly studies of Chinese culture, history and society, both within and outside of China, generally pay little attention to leisure, entertainment and amusement, though it has long been known that this aspect of life gives a deep understanding of the psyche and soul, and the hopes and fears, of a person. Leisure is a less coerced-upon, mandatory human conduct than work; certainly leisurely conduct is more voluntary, expressive and creative. But when seen as human behaviour, leisure and entertainment cannot be separated from history, heritage, ethnicity, the community, family and kin, rituals and customs - thus a collective activity and its constraints on the person. This book examines a variety of genre of Chinese entertainment, from singing clubs, Cantonese opera and film, to Chinese rock and tourism. Though formally voluntary, Chinese entertainment, when entangled with ethnicity, heritage and history, is ironically a site of both enjoyment and struggle, both pleasure and suffering. This book was originally published as a special issue of Visual Anthropology.

Incorporating research carried out over the last twenty years, this book documents the personal and collective responses of Chinese migrants and refugees to the prejudice and discrimination they have experienced. Using case studies of Chinese communities in Canada, Chan explores the different defence mechanisms Chinese migrants have created in order to escape the systemic and institutionalized discrimination they face. In particular, the book analyzes Chinese entrepreneurship, arguing that it is a collective response to blocked opportunities in host societies. Drawing upon empirical and theoretical literature on the sociology of race and ethnic relations, the book stresses the variety in Chinese culture and its ability to exploit an emergent ethnicity as individuals, groups and communities.

Drawing upon wide-ranging case study material, the book explores the ever-changing personal and cultural identity of Chinese migrants and the diverse cosmopolitan communities they create. The various models of newly-forged communities are examined with the added dimension of personal identity and the individual's place in society.

With particular emphasis on the changing face of Chinese ethnicity in a range of established places of convergence, Chan draws on extensive experience and knowledge in the field to bring the reader a fresh, fascinating and ultimately very human analysis of migration, culture, identity and the self.

Incorporating research carried out over the last twenty years, this book documents the personal and collective responses of Chinese migrants and refugees to the prejudice and discrimination they have experienced. Using case studies of Chinese communities in Canada, Chan explores the different defence mechanisms Chinese migrants have created in order to escape the systemic and institutionalized discrimination they face. In particular, the book analyzes Chinese entrepreneurship, arguing that it is a collective response to blocked opportunities in host societies.

Drawing upon empirical and theoretical literature on the sociology of race and ethnic relations, the book stresses the variety in Chinese culture and its ability to exploit an emergent ethnicity as individuals, groups and communities.

"Chinese Identities, Ethnicity and Cosmopolitanism "explores the ever-changing personal and cultural identity of Chinese migrants and the diverse cosmopolitan communities they create. Within these communities migrants face a fight between departure and destination cultures. This book considers the consequences of this conflict of identity and the numerous possible outcomes from cultural assimilation to the emergence of mutually developed hybrid cultures.
Using extensive case study material, various models of newly-forged communities are examined. The book analyses the individual's place in society, as well as the conflict between personal ethnic identity, and migration, integration and cultural conversion. Chan highlights the point that communities are not homogenous but composed of an array of motives, aims and degrees of receptivity.
"Chinese Identities, Ethnicity and Cosmopolitanism "emphasizes the changing face of Chinese ethnicity.

This book brings together a group of scholars from diverse disciplines to interrogate everyday life events in various interpersonal and organizational contexts so as to answer an age-old question: what happens when (carriers of) cultures meet, or, when East meets West? The contributors to this volume argue that, rather than assume clashes of civilizations, assimilation, conversion and essentialism to be the expected outcomes of cultural encounters, we should focus our analytical attention on processes rather than outcomes; on emergence, dialectics, contradictions, ironies and paradoxes, and complexity. We should focus on attempting to learn and grow, to synthesize and integrate, to create and innovate, to change and transform, at personal, micro, macro and global levels. Or, in one word: hybridity. Contexts of cultural encounters analyzed in this book range from business organizations, through individual travels, to personal philosophies, and from mechanical models to complex systems as social imaginaries. This book is based on a special issue of World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution.

Hybrid Hong Kong attempts to attract and excite the intellectual, cultural, economic and political elites as well as the intelligent laymen of Hong Kong - hopefully enough for them to take a closer look at their society - while engendering a public discourse on the city's identity, its past, present and future. Hong Kong is at its crossroads. With a colonial past and having been handed over, and back, to China in 1997, the city has since been going through a process of re-sinification and re-integration (not entirely wanted) into the Pearl River Delta region of mainland China, all of which have far-reaching consequences for identity politics, culture, loyalty and attachment, and everyday livelihood.

The hybridity concept offers an in-between space, and time, to narrate, describe and make sense of the many layers of entanglement of cultural, anthropological, economic and political forces that impinge, impact, sometimes confuse, even disturb, the everyday lives of the Hongkongers who have decided to call the city home. The book probes a range of sites and locales of a Hongkonger's natural habitat, including film and television, ethnicity, popular music videos, gay identities, fashion, art, theatre, Cantopop electronic dance music, museum, visual arts, the Muslim youth, food and cuisine, and Chinese and western medicines. Based on ethnography, fieldwork and participant observation, Hybrid Hong Kong intends to display and explain hybridity as it is performed in the public as well as private spheres of city life.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Visual Anthropology.

This insightful volume explores the experiences of ethnic migrants returning to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Israel. Return migrants who were exposed to the western culture and society undergo personal transformations that significantly impact their views on values such as gender, individualism, democracy, tradition, and individual autonomy. To evaluate how well these individuals are able to reintegrate back into their native countries, the authors conducted a thorough comparative study between returnees in the three research sites through in-depth interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, and analyses of government policies. Among the topics discussed: Family as a strategic middle ground between the individual and society The social psychology of coping and adaptation Public, outer historical, and macro forces that shape returnees' experiences Comparisons and contrasts between two primarily Chinese societies, along with one racially and culturally different Western society Cost-and-benefit analyses of decision-making in migration Return Migrants in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Israel is a compelling new perspective on the migrant experience drawn from in-depth research on returnees across three countries and a variety of circumstances.

This insightful volume explores the experiences of ethnic migrants returning to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Israel. Return migrants who were exposed to the western culture and society undergo personal transformations that significantly impact their views on values such as gender, individualism, democracy, tradition, and individual autonomy. To evaluate how well these individuals are able to reintegrate back into their native countries, the authors conducted a thorough comparative study between returnees in the three research sites through in-depth interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, and analyses of government policies. Among the topics discussed: Family as a strategic middle ground between the individual and society The social psychology of coping and adaptation Public, outer historical, and macro forces that shape returnees' experiences Comparisons and contrasts between two primarily Chinese societies, along with one racially and culturally different Western society Cost-and-benefit analyses of decision-making in migration Return Migrants in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Israel is a compelling new perspective on the migrant experience drawn from in-depth research on returnees across three countries and a variety of circumstances.

Based on a study using online ethnography as the major research method, this book explains why and how men in Hong Kong use QQ—an online instant messenger—to “chase” women in mainland China, especially in the neighboring city of Shenzhen. Chasing women through QQ is a reciprocal exchange process during which the resources to be exchanged in the interaction are not negotiated. Rather, the men provide resources to the women, hoping for rewards in return that are not guaranteed. This characteristic of the exchange makes men who chase women through QQ very strategic in their action. They try to maximize the rewards and minimize the costs by adopting myriad strategies, such as constructing an attractive online identity by strategic self-presentation. The role of emotions in the exchange process is also examined. Men learn the emotional norms through the online forum, but sometimes it is difficult for them to control their emotions; some men fall in love when they are not supposed to. As it happens, they have failed to calculate the costs and rewards rationally in that they may provide too many resources to the women without getting enough rewards in return. This book provides original insights into the thought processes, motivations, desires, anxieties and risks of Hong Kong men seeking short-term sexual relations with women on the mainland. These insights are highly relevant to our understanding of the quickly evolving use of social media, a phenomenon of worldwide importance and deep implications.

Based on a study using online ethnography as the major research method, this book explains why and how men in Hong Kong use QQ an online instant messenger to chase women in mainland China, especially in the neighboring city of Shenzhen. Chasing women through QQ is a reciprocal exchange process during which the resources to be exchanged in the interaction are not negotiated. Rather, the men provide resources to the women, hoping for rewards in return that are not guaranteed. This characteristic of the exchange makes men who chase women through QQ very strategic in their action. They try to maximize the rewards and minimize the costs by adopting myriad strategies, such as constructing an attractive online identity by strategic self-presentation. The role of emotions in the exchange process is also examined. Men learn the emotional norms through the online forum, but sometimes it is difficult for them to control their emotions; some men fall in love when they are not supposed to. As it happens, they have failed to calculate the costs and rewards rationally in that they may provide too many resources to the girls without getting enough rewards in return.

This book provides original insights into the thought processes, motivations, gratifications, desires and risks of Hong Kong men seeking short-term sexual relations with women on the mainland. These insights are highly relevant to our understanding of the quickly evolving use of social media, a phenomenon of worldwide importance and deep implications.

Mobile Chinese Entrepreneurs draws extensively on the narratives of sixteen small-to-medium business owners, born on the mainland, who have immigrated to Hong Kong and returned to their ancestral hometowns in China to establish their enterprises. For these executives, business and social life alike are marked by constant interplay of identities, such as individual identity/group membership and ancestral/immigrant identity. Yet as often as this juggling of multiple "selves" can be beneficial in the economic sphere, it can also lead to feelings of rootlessness and alienation. Writing with rare sensitivity, the two authors synthesize insights from economic sociology, psychology, ethnic relations, emotions, and social networks, creating an exploration of social capital and social identity comparable to similar groups of businessmen and -women in other parts of the world.