Games Identities Play


Speaker


Abstract

How Taiwanese businesspeople, entrepreneurs and students based in London, UK, use their identities as Taiwanese, as transnational individuals and as professionals to facilitiate cross-border social network development? The flexible nature of identity was used not just to network with coethnics, but to extend networks to other people and groups. Taiwanese businesspeople saw themselves as distinct from mainland Chinese, but used points of similarity, shared culture, language etc. to build connections with mainland Chinese or Sino-British businesses while simultaneously remaining distinct. Chinese enough, but…Taiwanese businesspeople would build connections with other, non-Taiwanese groups through shared aspects of their identity, such as language, profession, common culture, food or shared institutional membership; these networks are used to share knowledge and pursue business opportunities in diverse and complicated ways.