Identity Politics in American Chinatowns: Museum Narratives

This text deals with ethnopolitical identities as presented to visitors to Chinese enclaves by their inhabitants themselves in museums of Chinese enclaves in the United States. We focus on three locations: San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. The text briefly introduces the history of Chinese immigration and the establishment of the Chinese as a minority within the Ameri-can nation. It focuses on the content of the permanent exhibitions, it describes and analyzes the forms of representing Chinese identities in these museums. At a theoretical level, we draw on the concept of identity politics. We apply a syntagmatic approach, using a method of narrative analysis of the exhibitions, comparing the sequential development of the museum narrative in the order it is intended to be presented to museum visitors. We identify the various elements of the design of the exhibitions and the themes presented. Our research was conducted during field trips of the authors between 2013-2019. The exhibitions come with a so-called canonical narrative that is linearly conceived and introduces the "harmony" of Chinese and American identities. The canonical narrative is coherently and logically conceived, the presented themes support the whole narrative. The canonical narrative illuminates the presence of Chinese immigrants as a journey from exclusion to full emancipation and recognition of their equality, with reference to cultural specifics of Chinese sociocultural identities.