Nationalism and Diaspora: Chinese Jamaicans in the Wake of Independence

FAIN: HR-20407-02

Timothy Chin
California State University, Dominguez Hills (Carson, CA 90747-0001)

No project description available

Associated Products

Notes on Reggae Music, Diaspora Aesthetics, and Chinese Jamaican Transmigrancy: The Case of VP Records (Article)
Title: Notes on Reggae Music, Diaspora Aesthetics, and Chinese Jamaican Transmigrancy: The Case of VP Records
Author: Timothy Chin
Abstract: The essay investigates the effects of diasporic movement on the aesthetics, politics, and economics of reggae. Focusing on the involvement of Chinese Jamaicans in the development of reggae, the essay advances the argument that the social and historical factors that condition Chinese Jamaican migration also determine the nature of their impact on reggae. The significant numbers of Chinese Jamaicans who have served as producers, sound system owners, band managers, and distributors reflect the roles that Chinese Jamaicans play as merchants and middlemen in Jamaican society as well as the high degree of transnational mobility and effective familial networks they have developed. A series of videotaped interviews with the Chinese Jamaican family that started and currently runs VP Records, a major international distributor of reggae music, serves as the case study from which the main conclusions of the essay are extrapolated.
Year: 2006
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Social and Economic Studies
Publisher: Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, University of the West Indies, Jamaica

Behind the Counter: Teaching Chinese Jamaican Texts in the Caribbean Literature Course (Book Section)
Title: Behind the Counter: Teaching Chinese Jamaican Texts in the Caribbean Literature Course
Author: Timothy Chin
Editor: Supriya Nair
Abstract: This essay argues that the Chinese shop is a key economic and social structure for understanding the Chinese Caribbean experience. The essay also argues that the shop is a particularly apt metaphor for the kinds of cultural encounters that define Chinese Caribbean identity and experience. For example, the counter—which is, in many ways, the focal point and central feature of the shop—functions both as a border that separates and distinguishes one culture from another as well as a mechanism which facilitates cultural and economic exchanges. The essay examines the representation of the Chinese shop as it appears in a range of literary texts, including the poetry of Easton Lee and The Pagoda by Patricia Powell.
Year: 2011
Publisher: Modern Language Association
Book Title: Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literature (Options for Teaching Series)

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