GREGOR BENTON  has affiliations with Cardiff University, the University of Malaya and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His publications include Mountain Fires: The Red Army's Three-Year War in South China, 1934-1938, Diasporic Chinese Ventures: The Life and Work of Wang Gungwu, New Fourth Army: Communist Resistance along the Yangtze and the Huai, 1938-1941 and The Chinese in Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 1997).

EDMUND TERENCE GOMEZ is Professor at the Faculty of Economics & Administration, University of Malaya. His publications include Malaysia's Political Economy, Chinese Business in Malaysia, Political Business in East Asia and Chinese Enterprise, Transnationalism and Identity.

Preface Introduction Migration and Settlement The Chinese Economy in Britain Institutions and Divisions Transnationalism British Racism and the Shaping of the Chinese Community Ethnic Culture and Identity Conclusions Appendices: Companies Owned by British Chinese

This study points up the complex interplay of ethnic and national identities in the lives of Chinese in Britain, arguing that transnational studies reinforce essentialist conceptions of identity and cultural authenticity in diasporic communities, and thus frustrate the promotion of ethnic co-existence and social cohesion in multi-ethnic societies.