Identity politics in state-sponsored youth camps for Chinese overseas

Abstract

China’s relations with communities of Chinese overseas and its attempts to improve these relations are challenged by the weakening ties between younger generations of Chinese overseas and China. This article examines Chinese government-sponsored camps which were developed to counteract the estrangement of Chinese overseas youth through exposure to Chinese culture, language, history and society. Drawing on a historical account of the programme and fieldwork performed among Chinese-Filipino youth in Xiamen, it argues that China’s youth camps programme is more than a top–down, transnational initiative aimed at influencing the ethnic and cultural identities of these youths. Instead, these camps embody a convergence of national, institutional and personal agendas (e.g. the long-standing Beijing–Taipei rivalry, the self-defined agendas of Chinese overseas, and local officials’ desires to garner political credit from upper-level authorities). This study also argues that the programme has made substantial contributions to Chinese language learning and to a relatively positive image of China among Chinese-Filipino participants and that its influence on the cultural and ethnic orientations of Chinese-Filipino youth has been stronger than its impact on their political identity.