Beyond Black and White : Cosmopolitan Experiences As Identity Ressource for the Second Generation Chinese Youth in Europe

Based on a series interviews of young second generation Chinese living in European cities (Paris and Budapest), this paper will analyze how these youth's cosmopolitan experiences linked with China's transformation in the last thirty years shape their narrative of belonging and citizenship. The first part of the paper presents their common trajectories. Growing up in migrant entrepreneurial families, they tend to consider travelling, studying or even working in China as a necessary passage. Without necessarily considering China as their own "home", their positive experiences render the country a desirable place and thus a sense of pride as being a Chinese overseas. The second part of the paper will then analyze how these cosmopolitan experiences contribute to their claims of "double identity" or "double belonging". By illustrating various pratices of citizenship or collective actions - anti-discrimination campagne, cultural production, protests, etc., I argue that their positive perception of being "Chinese" encourages them to challenge conventional citizenship paradigme in their respective countries. I'll conclude my presentation by pointing out their personal struggles of belonging, especially the trade-off between the ideology of development and democracy value, which usually manifests in their negotiation between familial expectation and desire of individual freedom in various personal choices. Whereas their cosmopolitan experiences allow them to subvert the seemingly exclusive citizenship paradigme in their country of residence, the value of individual liberty inherent to European education also pushes them to quest the norms in Chinese society and what China's economic growth implies to personal life.