Presenting Diversity and Negotiating Identity: Narratives of the Chinese in Newfoundland

This article investigates the personal narratives and other supporting discourses of Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Newfoundland, Canada, in order to understand how individuals in this diasporic group use narratives to present their differing and sometimes conflicting senses of Chineseness. The diasporic identity is emergent in the interplay between "traditional" Chinese culture (there) and vernacular experience in Newfoundland (here). This diasporic identity is creolized, multiple, temporal, and fluid, and it is reinforced by new traditions and cultural traits developed in the diaspora.