Since the late 1970s, China has gradually risen as a global power, which culminates in the present moment when large-scale geopolitical and economic ventures such as the Belt and Road Initiative have generated diversified cross-border connections. This is most forcefully felt in the Chinese diaspora, and particularly those in Southeast Asia since the region is home to the largest and most diverse diasporic Chinese population. Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs), as crucial social institutions in the Chinese diaspora, are actively engaging with China’s rise and responding to the (trans) regional political-economic and socio-cultural changes. In this introduction of the special section, we open up a collection of five research articles and one commentary that discuss the ambivalences and tensions in CVAs’ engagement with China’s rise. We conceptualize CVAs as ever-evolving ancestral communities which actively (re)position themselves in relation to complex configurations of power dynamics taking place between actors in China and the Chinese diaspora. Ancestral communities evolve through a constant mediation of the two mutually-constitutive processes of transnationalization and localization, which take on dual-facing and double-embedded orientations. This special section also highlights the continuing significance and renewed engagement of CVAs and potential tensions and conflicts generated in changing geopolitical and domestic environment.
From ARI Workshop on “Forging Theoretical Agendas in the Study of Chinese Voluntary Associations”, 3-4 March 2022.
