The Economist.
Whenever China's in the news, whether it's a story about COVID fallout,
potential war with Taiwan, or even the latest TikTok trend, China-maxing,
it shapes the way the outside world views China.
But for the wider community of Chinese people living outside China,
and for their children and grandchildren, these headlines land differently.
As the world's perception of China shifts, so do the harder, more personal questions:
Who am I?
Where do I belong?
And what do I carry forward?
Few people have thought more deeply about the question "What does it mean to be Chinese?"
than historian and sinologist Wang Gungwu.
There are so many layers to this question that I don't know where to begin.
English flattens all of that complexity into two words: "Overseas Chinese."
But in the Chinese language, there are in fact multiple terms,
each denoting a different relationship to the homeland.
You have to distinguish between the Huaqiao and the Huayi, Huaren, and all the other terms
because they are different stages of Chineseness, you might say.
I'm Jiehao Chen, The Economist's China researcher,
and this week I'm joined by Sue-Lin Wong, our Asia correspondent,