Title: Oriental identities in super-diverse Britain : young Vietnamese in London /
Authors: Barber, Tamsin, 1977-
Year: 2015
Subjects: Vietnamese England London Ethnic identity.; Vietnamese Cultural assimilation England London.; Stereotypes (Social psychology); Orientalism.; Vietnamese England London Interviews.; Children of immigrants England London.; Young adults England London Attitudes.; Children of immigrants; Orientalism; Race relations; Stereotypes (Social psychology); Vietnamese.; Vietnamese Cultural assimilation.; Vietnamese Ethnic identity.; Young adults Attitudes; Black & Asian studies United Kingdom, Great Britain Vietnam.; Children of immigrants.; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies United Kingdom, Great Britain Vietnam.; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies United Kingdom, Great Britain Vietnam.; Ethnic studies United Kingdom, Great Britain Vietnam.; Migration, immigration & emigration United Kingdom, Great Britain Vietnam.; Migration, immigration & emigration United Kingdom, Great Britain Vietnam.; Orientalism.; Race relations.; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Minority Studies; Society.; Stereotypes (Social psychology); Vietnamese Cultural assimilation.; Vietnamese Ethnic identity.; Vietnamese.; Young adults Attitudes.; London (England) Race relations.; England London
Abstract: This timely book addresses the experience of the British-born Vietnamese as an overlooked minority population in 'super-diverse' London. Responding to calls for understanding a greater range of experiences and identifications associated with disparate ethnic minority groups in 'super-diverse' urban settings, this empirical research explores a culturally and politically marginalized minority to develop theorizations of less visible minorities. Contributing to the sociology of identity, 'race', ethnicity and migration, Tamsin Barber asks what it means to be Vietnamese in Britain today and how belonging is understood amongst young British-born Vietnamese. Individual experiences, tensions and opportunities of being both invisible and racially visible are explored through rich, detailed extracts from narrative interviews with the British-born Vietnamese. Oriental Identities in Super-Diverse Britain provides a unique opportunity to theorize the complex ways in which the Vietnamese actively manage identities within the context of coercive Orientalisms and public invisibility in British multiculturalism. Themes of Orientalism, fluidity, agency and resistance are woven together to illustrate how the British-born Vietnamese negotiate a range of shifting and at times contradictory identities in multi-ethnic settings.
Contents: 1. The British Vietnamese diaspora -- 2. Orientalism, counter-orientalism and identity in multicultural Britain -- d. "Is it because I am yellow?": categorisation and difference among the "second generation" in Britain --4. Black-British, White-British, Oriental-British? -- 5. Counter-orientalisms and the politics of hair, clubbing and dating -- 6. Navigating "the Vietnamese community": local and transnational belongings -- 7. British Vietnamese identities, orientalism and super-diverse futures?