Abacus and Mah Jong: Sino-Mauritian Settlement and Economic Consolidation (European Expansion and Indigenous Response, V. 1)

This work aims to engage with the complexities surrounding evaluations of ethnic and national identity - a focus of recent interest by scholars from a range of disciplines including political science, anthropology and economics - through a case study of Chinese migration to and settlement in Mauritius. The book investigates the complex mechanisms and processes involved in the transplantation of groups of people within the colonial context, and in particular seeks to create a tableau within which the construction of a mythology of migration is set against the realities of negotiation and communication with the wider society. "This work aims to engage with the complexities surrounding evaluations of ethnic and national identity - a focus of recent interest by scholars from a range of disciplines including political science, anthropology and economics - through a case study of Chinese migration to and settlement in Mauritius. The book investigates the complex mechanisms and processes involved in the transplantation of groups of people within the colonial context, and in particular seeks to create a tableau within which the construction of a mythology of migration is set against the realities of negotiation and communication with the wider society."-- Back cover This case study of Chinese settlement in Mauritius investigates the complexities of colonial diasporas and sets the construction of a mythology of migration against the realities of the processes of negotiation and communication with the larger society.