Frances S. Chiang

Chinese Immigrant Women Entrepreneurship: the Intersection of Class, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Migration Frances S. Chiang

Chinese women in Canada have long suffered from invisibility in academic research and misrepresentation in society; and more specifically, innovative research on Chinese women entrepreneurs as a unique group is virtually non-existent. To fill this gap, this study attempts to bring a group of Hong Kong Chinese immigrant women entrepreneurs to the centre of analysis by exploring the complexity and diversity of their entrepreneurial experiences in terms of the intersection of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and migration. Drawing from their personal narratives, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of these women's projects by detailing the processes from immigration to business start-ups and the operation of these businesses. This analysis documents how these women's projects are rooted in history and attests to the contradictory and diverse impact of racialization, ethnicization, gendering, and class- ification on these women's entrepreneurial pursuits. Taking a provocative approach, this research represents a much needed contribution to entrepreneurship and adds to the literature on race/ethnic relations and women's studies.