Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2021 Tiffany Wang. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. For all other uses, please contact the copyright holder.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

History Department

First Advisor

Diego Armus

Abstract

The first arrival of Chinese migrants to Peru was documented over 170 years ago; today, third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation Peruvians of Chinese and Japanese descent have carved a space for themselves in Peruvian society, celebrating both their Peruvian identity and Chinese or Japanese heritage. My thesis discusses the process of identity formation among third- and fourth-generation Peruvians of Chinese and Japanese descent through retellings of family histories and personal experiences living in Peru and abroad. I center my work on seven people, three who speak to their Japanese heritage and four to their Chinese heritage. I think through how events that play out on a national scale and physical manifestations of Chinese and Japanese presence push Peruvians of Chinese and Japanese descent to identify themselves, as well as how they, in turn, have shaped Peruvian culture. Using these historical and cultural touchpoints, I argue that, for my subjects, being Peruvian is not a negation of their Chinese or Japanese heritage, and acknowledging and resonating with Tusán, Nikkei, Chinese, or Japanese heritage does not diminish but rather enhances Peruvian identity. Finally, I look to how white supremacy and transnational migration beyond Peru has shaped Chinese and Japanese identity within a Peruvian racial hierarchy.

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