Moving beyond survivalism? Youth perspectives on non‐Mandarin Chinese languages in the study of Chinese voluntary associations in Singapore and Vancouver

Bibliographic Data

ID12582197
AuthorsJean Michel Montsion (0000-0003-2382-5788, York University 2275 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, ON M4N 3M6 Canada, corresponding author), Junjia Ye (0000-0001-9496-0704, Nanyang Technological University 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 Singapore), Justin P Kwan (0000-0002-4271-2634, Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada 680‐1066 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 3X2 Canada)
Year2023
Volume64
Issue3
Pages317-328
Publication date2023-07-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsia Pacific Viewpoint (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-7456 • E-ISSN: 1467-8373
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/apv.12382
OpenAlexW4383912831
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited27

The contributions of Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have often been viewed through a survivalist lens. As a process by which the activities of such organisations are interpreted through a rigid sense of what a Chinese community association is and should be, survivalist tendencies in academic scholarship must be re‐thought to fully assess the functions of several types of CVAs, including amid the cultural rise of the People's Republic of China. In light of Sara Ahmed's notion of ‘orientation’, we offer a vantage point from which to rethink the roles of such associations. We do so by illuminating the contributions of key organisations involved in efforts to revitalise Chinese languages other than Mandarin in two locales outside of China, namely the Siong Leng Musical Association and Viriya Community Services in Singapore, and Wongs' Benevolent Association and Youth Collaborative for Chinatown in Vancouver. By focusing on these four voluntary associations in Singapore and Vancouver and, more specifically, on the perspectives of their youth members, we show the similar dialectical nature of their activities, which are caught in the dynamic interplays between local and global cultural forces and between intergenerational perspectives on language use

Association (psychology · China · Chinatown · Dialectic · Epistemology · Linguistics · Mandarin Chinese · Media studies · Political science · Public relations · Scholarship · Sociology · Voluntary association · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Socioeconomic Development in Asia