About this event
Did you know that the Chinese diaspora in Britain is one of the country's longest-established and fastest-growing racially minoritised communities?
In recent decades, a growing body of research has challenged essentialised and homogenised portrayals of this vibrant and diverse group.
This panel continues the "Contemporary China Centre Conference Deconstructed" series, featuring three early-career researchers who will share their latest work on underrepresented aspects of 20th-century British Chinese history. Their presentations will explore themes of agency, grassroots activism, and state intervention, offering fresh insights into this multifaceted and evolving history.
Location
This is an online event.
A Zoom link will be provided to all those who register before 5 March 2025.
More information
Chinese Student Responses to Yellow Peril Fears and Sinophobia in Early Twentieth-Century Britain
Dr Willem Pauw
In early twentieth-century Britain, particularly in the East End of London, the Chinese community became a target of moral panics and Yellow Peril discourses, especially during the First World War. As a result, Chinese immigrants were demonised in both the British media and popular culture. Much of the existing scholarship on this topic has focused on British perspectives and sources, often marginalising Chinese voices. Consequently, Chinese immigrants have been depicted as passive victims, powerless in the face of larger social and political forces. However, by examining the writings and publications of Chinese students, I argue that these individuals actively challenged harmful stereotypes and misconceptions, subverting the passive victim narrative and asserting their agency in a broader cultural context.
Unrest and Unity: The 1967 Leftist Riots, Cultural Revolution, and the Rise of Agency in Britain’s Ethnic Chinese Community
Dr Dalton Rawcliffe
The 1967 Leftist Riots and the Cultural Revolution were pivotal events that significantly altered the socio-political landscape of Britain’s ethnic Chinese community, exposing the long-standing neglect of this group by both the British and Hong Kong governments. These events, alongside escalating unrest in Britain’s Chinatowns, prompted the Hong Kong Government Office (HKGO) in London to expand welfare services and increase engagement with the diaspora in an effort to counter the influence of the PRC’s Chinese Mission. This renewed focus, however, also helped lay the groundwork for grassroots activism, as ethnic Chinese communities began to organise, advocate, and assume responsibility for cultural preservation and integration within British society. Over time, these efforts fostered a growing sense of agency and belonging, while maintaining robust transnational connections with Hong Kong. This talk explores the complex interplay between grassroots activism, trans-imperial networks, and state intervention in reshaping the identity and legacy of Britain’s ethnic Chinese community throughout the twentieth century.
The Chinese Community in Britain (1985) Report and Subsequent Responses from the British Chinese Community
Dr Sha Zhou
In 1985, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee published a three-volume report on the Chinese population in the UK. While this report has been extensively cited by subsequent generations of social scientists, it has largely been overlooked by historians. This paper argues that the state’s mid-1980s investigation into the domestic Chinese population represented a significant departure from its 1960s predecessor. The resulting report called for increased institutional support for the Chinese community, but the response within the community itself was mixed. This paper examines broader patterns of state engagement with ethnic minority groups and suggests that Chinese grassroots activism during this period was characterised by a reactive response to the evolving state policies.
About the panel
Chair: Dr Xiao Ma
Discussant: Dr Anne Witchard
Dr Willem Pauw
Dr Willem Pauw recently completed his PhD in History at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the experiences and activities of Chinese students and their associations in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century. He is particularly interested in how these students navigated the challenges of studying in a foreign environment, including racial prejudice, oversight from the Chinese government, and internal ideological differences. In 2024, he was a joint winner of the Jeremiah Dalziel Prize in British History.
Dr Dalton Rawcliffe
Dr Dalton Rawcliffe is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Nottingham. He earned his doctorate in History from York University, Canada, specialising in the British Empire, Modern China, and the Cold War. His dissertation, currently under contract for publication as a monograph, explores the impact of the 1967 Hong Kong Leftist Riots on Britain’s ethnic Chinese population and the responses of the British and Hong Kong governments to improve their welfare.
Dalton has published on topics including the Heung Yee Kuk’s 1968 tour of Britain and the collaboration between the Information Research Department (IRD) and the United States Information Agency (USIA) in analysing the Cultural Revolution’s influence on Overseas Chinese. He has also worked with non-academic organisations to promote the history of Hong Kong in public discourse and has taught history courses at universities in both Britain and Canada.
Dr Sha Zhou
Dr Sha Zhou is a research associate at the Manchester China Institute, University of Manchester working on Chinese political activism in twentieth century urban Britain. Prior to this, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Academy of Overseas Chinese Studies/School of International Studies, Jinan University (2022–2024). She holds a PhD in Contemporary British History with a thesis on the migration of Chinese women to post-war Britain and has published book reviews and journal articles on Cultural and Social History, Women’s History Review, Global China Review [Haiwai Huaren Yanjiu] and Modern British History.
