Introduction
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia was engaged in hot debate in the context of decolonisation, anticommunism, and local ethnonationalism. The central focus of these debates revolved around the meanings and position of “Chineseness” in Southeast Asia. Scholars working in Sinophone studies tend to reject the notion of Chineseness, which they believe imposes a Sinocentric view upon hybridised/localised overseas communities (Chow 1998; Ang 2001; Shih 2010). However, as Shelly Chan (2015: 121) acutely points out, the more serious problem is that as scholars “attack the diasporas for essentializing the Chinese elsewhere, they essentialize China instead, ignoring how issues of identity and culture at the centre are far from case closed, but subject to constant reworking.” Echoing Chan, this article aims to unpack the complex ways of constructing and contesting Chineseness in the “bifurcated homelands” represented by the nationalist ...