Abstract
In this well-crafted book, Shu-Yi Huang examines the post-emigration adjustment and motherhood practices of 38 first-generation Chinese immigrant women in the Netherlands. This text de-centers the male-centered storyline of Chinese migratory history and contributes to our understanding of Chinese mothering as a contested site of migration patterns, state politics, and economic development.
In the first three chapters, Huang details the theoretical contribution and feminist methodology of this project. She criticizes that the existent literature about Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands, which focuses primarily on the life experiences of men and perpetuates a patriarchal, “Greater Chinese Studies” discourse, despite the fact that Chinese migrant women have outnumbered men since 1975. By contrast, the 38 Chinese immigrant women in this book include those who emigrated to Netherlands after the 1980s, when mainland China adopted the Open and Reform policy. It also includes the generation who risked their lives to escape the political turmoil of Communist China between the 1960s and 1970s and who sojourned in Hong Kong, where they then found opportunities to emigrate to Netherlands through quick arrangements of marriage.
Starting from chapter four, Huang focuses on five theme-based, data-analytical chapters. In chapter four, she documents the day-to-day, motherhood practices and experiences of 10 working-class, Chinese migrant women who emigrated to the Netherlands before the 1980s. Growing up in Mao’s Communist China, this generation of Chinese women has a higher rate of labor participation and maintains a financial relationship with their natal families. In being a worker and a mother at the same time, their motherhood experience is featured by an arrangement Huang calls “running a restaurant downstairs and raising children upstairs” (p. 94).
Chapter five is devoted to a discussion of the burdens and impacts of language acquisition (Dutch) and education (Mandarin) on Chinese migrant mothers. Huang states that for working-class mothers, learning Dutch is imperative for earning a living, whereas for middle-class mothers, Dutch is more important for their social integration. Both groups of mothers are aware of the rising economic and political power of China and the Chinese cultural knowledge embodied in the Chinese language. Therefore, teaching second-generation Mandarin becomes a significant task for these mothers. It is important to note that, unlike in the United States, Chinese language schools are not institutionalized and are hardly accessible in the Netherlands. At the same time, a rising Dutch nationalism gives these first-generation Chinese mothers extra burden to convince their Dutch husband and/or their (Dutch) children of the importance of Mandarin. At the end of the chapter, some mothers eventually gave up forcing their children to continue studying Mandarin and excused themselves from doing so.
Chapter six is titled “Too Much Rice, No Potato,” a quotation from one of the interviewees’ Dutch mother-in-law who scorned rice (an ethnic staple food) for its seeming lack of nutrition (p. 165). Huang aptly describes the denial of racism in Dutch society based on the historical, moral burden after World War II. She uses detailed interview data to reveal that Chinese migrant mothers who encounter gendered racism on a daily basis choose to put their children’s self-esteem on a higher moral plane as an indirect way to deal with everyday racism. They constantly teach their children to pity people who make racist comments because of their narrow-minded worldview. This is reminiscent of Michelle Obama’s powerful motto, “When they go low, we go high.”
Chapter eight examines the opinions on home, roots, and diaspora of these Chinese migrant women. Huang argues that their narratives defy the male-centered, Chinese nation-state-oriented, hegemonic discourse. Inspired by Ien Ang’s (2001) concept of a “nomadic diaspora subject,” Huang notices that emigration itself is a process of becoming and living as a nomadic self, experiencing being uprooted from Chinese culture, and gradually making a living in a Western city.
Academics who are interested in Asian migrant mothers and the application of diaspora feminist methodology will find this book informative. However, this book is quite fragmented and the current version resembles a dissertation. For instance, chapter seven is extremely short, and does not contribute substantially to the overall book. Some of the literature reviews about Chinese history (e.g., hukou system, the adoption of Mandarin as the official language) and Dutch society (e.g., allochtoon and autochtoon) might be helpful for students who are not familiar with the two cultures. However, if readers are looking for more contemporary, theoretical analyses of transitional Asian and Asian American mothering, they might find this book lacking. Nevertheless, the book powerfully links (Western) theories to the rich, empirical data of Asia. The author’s personal experience also serves as a great testimony.