Abstract

Literature on the British Chinese holds that this group’s geographic dispersion and internal diversity have contributed to a weak sense of collective identity, restricting their capacity to contest dominant representations of themselves. This chapter examines how a group of British Chinese individuals actively contested prevailing constructions of ‘Chineseness’ by creating a mediated space where a shared ethnic identity could begin to form through the processes of questioning, negotiating, and (re)defining the hegemonic discourse on ‘Chineseness’ in the UK.

Drawing on an analysis of the content of Brushstrokes: A Collection of British Chinese Writing and Drawing, an ethnic minority magazine published in Liverpool between 1995 and 2004, this chapter studies the narratives of British Chinese individuals as they questioned the labels imposed on them and searched, more or less successfully, for a shared identity and community, locally and later nationally. Contributing to academic debates on ethnicity, British Chinese, and ethnic minority media, this chapter argues that ethnic minority media operate as sites of identity formation, where dominant narratives are simultaneously contested and, at times, reaffirmed.