Transnational Cultural Flows within the Collaborative Chinese Cultural Basin : Heritage, Memory and Identity (Routledge Contemporary China Series)

Kuah advances the “Collaborative Cultural Basin” framework to analyze the transnational flow of Chinese cultural elements – such as religion, popular culture, food, museum exhibits, and educational knowledge – within the global Chinese Diaspora and mainland China. The book highlights how these cultural elements are increasingly utilized as tools of cultural power and diplomacy, fostering local and transnational sociocultural networks among various agencies within this collaborative space. The shared, differentiated, and hybridized nature of these cultural elements, which are circulated within the Diaspora Chinese and mainland China universes, enables individuals and social groups to derive social meanings and memories. It also uses rich empirical data to explore how Diaspora Chinese communities engage with these cultural elements to interact with local communities and mainland Chinese, articulating their version of Chinese culture, identity, social memories, and sense of belonging and identity. A valuable book for researchers and scholars of Chinese Studies, Migration and Diaspora Studies, Asian Studies, and Social Sciences, offers insights into the dynamics of cultural interaction and identity formation within the global Chinese context.