Paper short abstract:

The experiences of Chinese migrants in Japan are constituted by conflicting desires and imaginaries that cannot necessarily be consolidated with one another. This shows how the experience of mobile subjects is often fractured and paradoxical. However, migrants also negotiate their subjectivities creating new cultural forms and life projects.

Paper long abstract:

Chinese migrants in Japan now constitute the largest group of registered "foreigners" with over 600,000 documented in 2009. This is the result of a government-sponsored drive for educational and economic success in China; Japan's flexible student visa system; and Japan's image as a culturally and linguistically proximal hub for global capital.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork amongst Chinese migrants in North-West Tokyo, this paper will demonstrate how the experiences of Chinese people in Japan are constituted by conflicting desires and imaginaries that cannot necessarily be consolidated with one another. They are torn between two national institutional frameworks, cosmopolitan and patriotic desires, and feel the tensions of individual success and personal familial sentiments. This shows how the experience of mobile subjects is often fractured and paradoxical. Finally, I will explore how people make sense of their divided subjectivities creating new cultural forms and life projects.