海外侨胞与中华民族多维空间的拓展

Overseas Chinese and the Expansion of the Chinese Nation in Multidimensional Space

跨越几千年的历史,在“近百年来中国和西方列强对抗中”,中华民族从“自在”转变为“自觉”民族实体,形成多层次、多维度的共同体结构。海外有形和无形的侨社,作为“华夏文化圈”中的“边缘”地带始终与“核心”维持着一种动态关系,海外侨胞通过经济、文化以及社会等不同维度的通道不断拓展中华民族空间的范围。通过对19世纪50年代之前、19世纪中期至20世纪中期及20世纪80年代以来三个阶段的梳理,本文考察海外侨胞在中华民族多维空间拓展中的作用。我们认为,海外侨胞在族群认同、文化认同、经济联系和社会网络等不同维度维持程度不同的中华民族空间连结或参与民族家园建设;海外侨胞民族共同体意识体现在对祖籍国的情感、多维的认同和义利观,呈现多元和共识交织的特征;由于移民时间和代际关系、地理距离和网络空间可及性、祖籍国政策和跨国互动等因素影响程度的差异,海外侨胞不同群体与中华民族多维空间“核心”之间呈现亲疏不同的“差异格局”;海外侨胞是中华民族多维立体空间的拓展者、桥梁和纽带。

Over the past thousands of years,and amid “China’s confrontation with western powers in modern times for nearly a hundred years ”,the Chinese nation has transformed from an “in-itself ” national entity into a “for-itself ” one,and formed a multilayered and multidimensional structure of community. As the “fringe”of “Chinese cultural sphere”,the visible and invisible overseas Chinese associations actually keep a dynamic relation with “the core”;therefore,overseas Chinese are actually expanding the spatial boundary of the Chinese nation along cultural,economic and societal dimensions.By collating materials of three stages,namely,before 1850s,from mid-19th century to mid | 20th century and since 1980s,this article evaluates the role that overseas Chinese played on expanding space for the Chinese nation. We argue that: 1) overseas Chinese preserve different levels of spatial connections with Chinese nation or participate in the construction of national homes in various dimensions including ethnic identification,cultural identification, economic connection, and social network;2) their sense of community for the Chinese nation is embodied in their affection for their homeland,their multidimensional identification with China,and their pursuits of the greater good and shared interests,which shows the feature of diversity in commonality;3) due to the differences in factors including their immigration time, intergenerational relations,geographic distance, cyberspace accessibility, policy of the country of origin, and transnational interaction,different groups of overseas Chinese show “different levels of sincerity”with “the core”of the Chinese nation;4) overseas Chinese are the pioneer,bridge and tie of multidimensional space for the Chinese nation.