‘I don't say I have a business in Chinatown’: Chinese sub-ethnic relations in Toronto's Chinatown West
2008; Routledge; Volume: 31; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01419870701342379
ISSN1466-4356
Autores Tópico(s)Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
ResumoAbstract Since the late 1980s, there has been a steady increase in Sino-Vietnamese (ethnic Chinese from Vietnam) businesses moving into Chinatown West, Toronto. This paper explores the relationship between Sino-Vietnamese and other Chinese in this Chinatown context. Using several surveys of economic activity, we show that Chinatown is undergoing an ethnic succession as Hong Kong businesses move out and are replaced by Sino-Vietnamese businesses. Interview data show that in competitive environments like Chinatown, the Sino-Vietnamese have networks that are both facilitated and constrained by sub-ethnic differences. For the Sino-Vietnamese businesses studied, their multilingualism in English, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin aids customer and supplier relations. These business networks are diverse, linking Hong Kong suppliers, Sino-Vietnamese retailers, Mainland Chinese and Vietnamese employees and customers. Nevertheless, the competitive nature of Chinatown constrains cooperation and collective action by similar businesses. Keywords: Sub-ethnicityChinatownethnic economysocial networksmultilingualismSino-Vietnamese Acknowledgements A version of this paper was presented at the ‘Conference on Subethnicity in the Chinese Diaspora’, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, 12–13 September 2003. Special thanks to Janet Salaff, Frank Pieke, Raymond Breton, Garry Gray, Jennifer Kayahara, and ERS reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions. Notes 1. We were not able to contact all stores, therefore a few may have been excluded in the enumeration which contain only Chinese and/or English signage and staff but are (Sino- and ethnic) Vietnamese owned. In one instance, the business is managed and staffed by a Sino-Vietnamese, but the legal owner is a Hong Kong investor. We identified this as Sino-Vietnamese because the legal owner is largely absent from the daily operations of the business and interested only in fulfilling immigration requirements as an investor. 2. Since ethnic Vietnamese names cannot be easily distinguished from Sino-Vietnamese names, we could not differentiate between these two groups for the years 1983 to 1997 if the business had different owners from 2003. Therefore, when assessing trends, we can only talk about Vietnamese (both ethnic and Sino-Vietnamese) businesses compared to Hong Kong. Additional informationNotes on contributorsMai B. Phan Mai B. Phan is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent at Canterbury Chiu M. Luk Chiu M. Luk is Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto
Referência(s)