Rise of a Japanese Chinatown: Yokohama, 1894-1972

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Han, Eric. Rise of a Japanese Chinatown: Yokohama, 1894-1972. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center, 2014

Main points:

-ch. 5 – (title: A town divided: the Cold War in Yokohama Chinatown, 1945-72) – Yokohama Chinatown experienced enormous social, cultural, and economic transformations in the three decades from the end of the Asia-pacific war to the normalization of relation with PRC in 1972.(157)

- during these decades, the popularity of multi-cultural gastronomy allowed Yokohama Chinese to join with administrator in Yokohama city and Kanagawa prefecture to promote Chinatown’s restaurants as a premier tourist attraction.(160)

- the localism emerged from an era that also saw the universalization of the ethnic nation as an individual’s final identification. The years after 1945 witnessed national identity surging after decolonization. Japan lost is multiethnic empire and turned instead toward a mono-ethnic national identity. (160)

Jus sanguinis nationality laws continued to define formal citizenship and enacted social closures according to shared descent – an ethnic people (minzoku) in both popular understanding and government policy. (160) For Chinese resident of Japan, this historical transition meant their position within Japan would be ethnically marked but socially accept resident aliens. But they were not alone in this regard. (161)

- this chapter examines the way the Yokohama Chinatown community mediated their national and local identities in the three decades after the end of the Asia-pacific war. It deals first with the ideology of Japanese mono-ethnicity, and its congruence with efforts by the two China regimes to maintain Chinese patriotism in Yokohama. (162)

- in March 1946, the China mission in Tokyo representing the ROC ordained the Yokohama Chinese Association as an official node of its worldwide network of huaqiao associations. As allied nationals, huaqiao carried economic benefits. Advantages made the pre-1952 the economic ‘golden years’ for the huaqiao in japan. (163)

- after Chiang Kai-shek lost the Chinese civil war, Japan continued to regard his regime as the legitimate government of China until 1972. (164) During this period the ROC sought to quash leftist inclination among Chinese in Japan through its dominance of huaqiao institutions. (168)

- in 1952, the Chinese Mission peremptorily installed a new principal from Tokyo at a local Chinese school. Thus began the so-called school incident that would bifurcate Yokohama Chinese institution into two fractions. Teachers, students and parents object to the new principal as interference by the state. In short, the desire for local autonomy was prominent. (170) The movement opposing the China Mission went door-to-door to advocate self-determination. (170)

-one could no longer passively remain in huaqiao society without taking a position within the political map of the community, a situation that threatened to run any collective activity into a political contest. (173)

- across Japan, huaqiao status became an economic liability after May 1952, when the San Francisco peace treaty came into effect and ended the Allied occupation of Japan. Chinese in Japan lost their special advantages as allied nationals. (175)

- the Yokohama Chinese turned to their restaurant for economic survival which proved to be the most resilient sector of the Chinatown economy. (177) Chukagai became the accepted name for Chinatown, replacing Nankinmachi. This change of name dislodged the public’s long-held perception of Chinatown as filthy and dangerous. (179) Chinatown- both its Chinese and Japanese residents – had in the 1950s adopted a model of economic development focused on Chinese cuisine and tourism, and by the 1960s yielding results. (180)

-in sum, the events following the normalization of ties with the PRC suggested a continuation of self-destructive rivalry between the two political foes; neither could claim credibly to be the representative authority. (184) At the same time, cooperative commercial development was legitimating a different conception of community. The YDA was eminently positioned to represent this local community. (184) Since the 1970s the YDA took a leadership role in the community. (185)

- amid the economic and institutional developments, the meaning of Chinese identity in Yokohama began to shift once again. A Japanese wide survey of huaqiao in 1966 confirmed that an overwhelming majority showed deep concern for the homeland. (187) Another survey of the 1960s suggested that the diasporic orientation Chinese identity was gradually being superseded by what might be best described as a minority orientation. (187)

- the widespread acculturation of the Chinese in Yokohama meant that their commonly assumed Chinese was not the aggregation of cultural traits shared, but was defined by markers of difference from the Japanese. A 1967 survey of graduates of the pro-ROC school indicated that 61.7 percent of their household, Japanese was the primary language. Most had also adopted Japanese-style funerals, primarily ate Chinese food at home. (188)

- the integrity of the Yokohama community, therefore, derived less from intrinsic Chinese-ness then their position of otherness within Japanese society. In that sense, the Chinese ethnicity approached the ethnicity of American usage, defined by marginality and otherness as well as people-hood. (189)

Yokohama Chinatown now became more in common with the Chinatowns of San Francisco and NY where scholars had noted that Chinese minority identity had been determined more by ethnic discrimination form outside than cultural unity or economic solidarity.  The markers that mattered were not language and ritual observances etc. as the preference toward Chinese food was one of the clearest markers that distinguished the Chinese form the Japanese. (189)

- but more importantly, the status was entirely local in scope. The pull of local society made these Chinese more ready to identify as Yokohama-ites; this identification did not imply belonging to the Japanese nation, as many still maintained Chinese nationality. (189)

- by the 1970s some zainichi Koreans were advocating identity that moved beyond diaspora by rejecting homeland politics, emphasizing permanent settlement. (190) At the end of the decade, the concept of a minority status for zainichi Koreans was given forceful, controversial expression by the concept of a “third way” between diaspora and assimilation, that is, “living as ethnic Koreans and, at the same time, as citizens of japan”.(190)

- the zainichi Korean third way differed somewhat form Yokohama Chinese identity in both content and effects. Zainichi Korean activism possessed national clout (influence) as former colonial subject whereas Chines in Yokohama found refuge in profitable economic niche. (190)

- chapter conclusion – Chinese-ness was thus reconstituted not through substantive political, culture, or ethnic ties with the homeland, but as a minority status defined in relation to the Japanese majority. Chinese were no longer unified by political loyalty to a homeland. Tie of blood were weakened, many children were Chinese-Japanese parentage. (191) Naturalization did not necessarily reduce the subjective sense of Chinese identity among Yokohama Chinese; many of the leaders of the pro-ROC Chinese association had naturalized but keep separate business cards for their Chinese and Japanese names. (192) Thus over time the objective determinant of Chinese-ness became fewer in comparison to the many contextual and subjective links with Japanese society. (191)-Yokohama Chinatown thus provided an example of how Chinese culture could be construed as cultural foreignness from a national perspective but simultaneously incorporated into Yokohama’s cosmopolitan local identity (192) The local identity was more than a mere economic instrument since it continued to encompass social, cultural and political dimensions. Yokohama Chinese had become minority in Yokohama society. (192)

(to be continued)