Stateless

by Tienshi Lara Chen, Louis Carlet (Translator)

Overview

A captivating auto-ethnography and study of statelessness.

"In the springtime of the year that I was twenty-one, I found myself stuck at the border between two familiar countries, unable to enter either. I had never felt my statelessness so keenly.”

Japan’s 1971 termination of diplomatic ties with the Republic of China left 9,200 Chinese residents stateless. Tienshi “Lara” Chen was one of them, born to Chinese parents in Yokohama’s Chinatown. What does it mean to be stateless? What does it feel like?

To answer, Stateless presents Chen’s engaging autobiographical account of her bi-cultural upbringing and Japanese education. She reflects on her experience of statelessness eventually led her into a career spanning academia and activism, and she analyzes the contradictions inherent in the concepts of nationality, nation-state, and citizenship, in a world where individual nationality, identity, and experience are increasingly complex. She concludes that the current system of regulating individuals with citizenship is unworkable in the long run.

Blending life writing, auto-ethnography, and a study of stateless communities around Asia, this book unpacks the idea of citizenship by showing the hidden everyday narratives and lived experiences of stateless persons who have no legal ties to any nation-state. Originally published in Japanese, this adapted and updated English edition critically engages with questions of borders, mobility, belonging, and identity.


 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789813252325
Publisher:	Nus Press Pte Ltd
Publication date:	12/12/2023
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tienshi 'Lara' Chen is a professor at the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University.


Louis Carlet is a translator, interpreter, and the founder of Tozen, a union representing both Japanese and migrant workers in Japan. 

Table of Contents

Prologue
Chapter 1: Lara of Chinatown
Chapter 2: Living in the Crevasse between Two Countries
Chapter 3: Assimilating into Japanese Society
Chapter 4: Venturing into the World, Learning about the World
Chapter 5: Off to Hong Kong, Off to America
Chapter 6: Learning about Statelessness
Chapter 7: Asians and Statelessness
Chapter 8: Applying for Naturalization
Chapter 9: Statelessness in other Countries
Chapter 10: Launching NGO Stateless Network
Chapter 11: Not Someone Else’s Problem
Chapter 12: State-Engendered Conceptual Boundaries: Nationality, IDs, Xenophobia and COVID-19
Epilogue
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

One of the book’s main strengths is that it amplifies the voices of stateless populations not only in Japan but also in other parts of the world. Thus, apart from leading her own family story as a stateless ethnic Chinese in Japan, the author introduces other key stateless populations in Japan and in some other countries such as Brunei Darussalam, the Philippines, as well as Middle Eastern countries like Syria and Lebanon…. It is particularly interesting for practitioners and scholars who want to understand the Japanese landscape on statelessness, including real-life situations of some major stateless populations and the potential causes and loopholes that render people stateless in the Japanese context. Through learning someone else’s lived experiences, this book will also be a valuable inspiration to stateless people who are fighting their own battle in the world to understand that they are not alone.

The Statelessness & Citizenship Review

The book is a remarkable work of auto-ethnography. It is a very important addition to the existing literature about statelessness and stateless people…. Another important contribution of the book is the question of the nation-state, nationality, and citizenship.

Rising Asia Journal