著者

張 玉玲 Zhang Yuling

出版者

Graduate School of International Development. Nagoya University

雑誌

Forum of International Development Studies (ISSN:13413732)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.23, pp.223-242, 2003-03 (Released:2006-03-28)

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This paper discusses the creation of Chinese culture in Japan through the historical development of“lion dance”among the Chinese community in Yokohama. The lion dance we see today, which is regarded as one of the traditional Chinese entertainments, was started by Cantonese immigrants as a dance dedicated to the Guandi god. However, Chinese culture including the lion dance was suppressed in Japan during the WW II. Through a renaissance, the younger generation has molded their national identity while transcending the boundaries of their local culture. Since the 1960s, two graduate associations of local Chinese schools have taken major roles in the succession of the lion dance among the community, until it eventually became a cultural symbol of Chinese tradition in the 1980s. Through cultural exchange with overseas Chinese, especially in Southeast Asia since the 1990s, they identified themselves as local Chinese in Yokohama as well as a part of the global Chinese community. At the same time, the tensions between Chinese and Taiwanese in Yokohama have decreased. Chinese in Yokohama are currently creating their own culture, which has been referred to by Japanese as Chinese culture, and is named by themselves“Huaqiao wenhua”(overseas-Chinese culture). Thus the meaning of being Chinese in Japan itself is changing today. The historical transformation of cultural activities like the lion dance performed by Chinese in Yokohama represents its unique and dynamic nature.