Speaking or being Chinese: The case of South Africanborn Chinese

Apartheid South Africa established race as the primary determinant of identity politically, economically, and socially. This racial identity in many cases reinforced ethnic groupings of those who share common ancestral experiences, homeland, cultural practices, and language, among other things. The Chinese in South Africa are no exception. Subject to discrimination and spatial segregation over the course of the twentieth century, the Chinese in the country exemplify an immigrant community's struggle to negotiate competing identities and demands for different language usage. In this chapter we trace the shifts in identity and language affiliations in the lived experiences of four South African-born Chinese (SABC). 2 The chapter draws on qualitative interview data from a study of Chinese communities in Pretoria, South Africa. Although the participants are all second-generation immigrants, their experiences extend over a lengthy historical period that includes the transformation of the South African apartheid context, and illuminate why Chinese identity and language ability may or may not have shifted during this time. We explore the relationship between language and identity through these shifts and their driving factors.