ABSTRACT
Aims This essentially ethnographical study explores three significant areas: 1) transnationalization in East Asia; 2) ethnic and cultural roots; and 3) negotiations for betterment among the “powerless”. First, the generations of zanryū-hōjin families have constituted an important type of actor in the long process of East Asian transnationalization. These people were hindered by Japanese military-operated migration activities, but their situation has now been eased in the context of China’s modernization and Japan’s late capitalism. Second, the concept of ethnic roots has been manipulated in both Japanese and Chinese societies, manifested through the processes of zanryū-hōjin’s repatriation and emigration to Japan. However, these migrants should no longer be seen as passive beings suffering from the loss of national identity, as zanryū-hōjin themselves actively exploit the idea of ethnicity to maximize their opportunities. Third, these migrant families have negotiated for favorable positions in the Sino-Japanese transnational market situation in a space within and between rural China and cosmopolitan Japan, where the control by the two nation-states is blurred – a space that provides zanryū-hōjin with a mixture of rules/resources, barriers/strategies, and freedom/uncertainties.
