Autoethnography of Three Generations of Chinese Diaspora in Japan

My father was born in Heilongjiang Province, China, lived through the Manchukuo Period, the Sino-Japanese War, fled to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War, later immigrated to Japan in 1950’s, and turned 103 years old in 2024.

In 1972, Japan normalized diplomatic relations with China. My family lived in Japan with Republic of China (Taiwan) citizenship were asked to choose either Japanese or People's Republic of China citizenship. They could not bring themselves to choose due to memories of the war with Japan and ideological differences with the Chinese Communist Party. The whole family became stateless.

As a second-generation overseas Chinese born and raised in Yokohama Chinatown, I lived as a stateless person for three decades. This autoethnography looks at a family history in Yokohama’s Chinatown to reconsider the meaning of homeness and homelessness, exploring tensions between the individual and the state experienced by three generations of Chinese Diaspora- my father, myself, and my son.