Contradictory Politics of Chinese Immigrants and What We Can Learn from Area Studies

As part of a bigger project that aims to connect Area Studies and Ethnic Studies in examining Chinese immigrants’ politics, this presentation focuses on one case of social activism of Chinese Immigrants in the United States in 2016. Around the conviction of Peter Liang, a New York police officer who killed an unarmed Black man Akai Gurley, Chinese Americans divided into two groups with one protesting against the conviction and the other supporting the sentence. Drawing on interviews with activists from both groups, this presentation analyzes their different motivations, the tactics they deployed, and the culturally embedded narratives and emotions that they evoke in their campaigns. I propose in the end of the presentation that a study of dominant discourses in the reform China and the Chinese state’s efforts in constructing a global Chinese identity can make sense and bridge these two oppositional politics.