Natascha Gentz
Biography
Natascha Gentz studied in Germany at Heidelberg University, where she took her MA (1994) and PhD (1998) degrees. Her studies included residences at Fudan University, Shanghai (1988-1990), People’s University, Beijing (1995-6), and Tokyo University (1997). After her PhD she was engaged in various funded research projects and in teaching in the Chinese Departments at Heidelberg and Göttingen University. In 2002 she became Junior Professor at Frankfurt University, from where she came to Edinburgh. Her publications include a monograph on the history of Chinese journalism and two edited volumes, on transcultural knowledge transfer in Late Qing China, and on how global media are shaping cultural identities. She has also published a book on contemporary Chinese historical drama as well as dozens of articles on Late Qing and contemporary Chinese drama, literature and media. She has also translated a novel and two volumes of short stories by the Chinese nobel laureate Gao Xingjian.
Title of Paper
Early Chinese Student Migration and the Politics of Maintaining Boundaries
Abstract
Politics of identification remains the core problem in studies of migration, transnationalism and diaspora. Key features of the migration experience, as exile and nostalgia and the triadic relationship between the boundaries of diaspora, the homeland and hostland are expected to produce new forms of consciousness, collectivity and individual identity in an ever ongoing process. The triadic dimension of the migration experience is not confined to the state of migration itself, but has a continuous impact on the homeland through the steady return of migrants. China makes an appropriate case study. It has not only developed one of the largest student migrations across the world, but also produced very controversial debates about the local agency of returned students. While international experience is commonly accepted as a positive asset in individual biographies, students returning to China are confronted with negative stereotypes, the emergence of which can be traced back to the beginning of the past century. Ironically, the students themselves often contributed to the formation of negative images about returned students in their polemics among themselves. While they might display a cosmopolitan habitus on the international stage, personal identifications after their return are very much restricted by or related to boundaries of their host country. The paper will look at this formation of local discourses among the returnees from the beginning of large scale student movements in the late 19th and early 20th century and analyse the stereotypes produced about the foreign countries and their students, as well as their repercussions on the positioning of these countries within a “new” world hierarchy. Overall, the debates also point towards potentially different perceptions and/or alternative approaches to processes of globalisation.