The concept of nostalgia implies a level of romanticization of a place or time period, a selective “remembering” of a place held in the imagination of an individual or group of people. These imaginings produce a narrative that both extends place attachments to other community members, and potentially create shared myths of place. We use the Mongolian Kazakh population as a case study of how, over time, strong place attachments evolve into place-based narratives of home and identity for diasporic communities. We argue that strong place attachments are the foundation of place-based narratives, but these narratives are nostalgic as well, highlighting key ethnic and cultural practices that reinforce ethno-cultural unity and create idyllic images of place to help maintain a collective place valuing despite residence far away.

怀旧的概念意味着一个地方或时间段的浪漫化程度，选择性地“记住”一个人或一群人想象中的地方。这些想象产生了一种叙事，既可以将地方依恋扩展到其他社区成员，也可能会创造出共享的地方神话。我们使用蒙古哈萨克人口作为案例研究，随着时间的推移，强烈的地方依恋如何演变为散居社区的基于地方的家庭和身份叙事。我们认为强烈的地方依恋是基于地方的叙事的基础，但这些叙事也是怀旧的，突出了关键的民族和文化实践，这些实践加强了民族文化的统一，并创造了田园诗般的地方形象，以帮助维持一个集体地方价值，尽管有居住地离这很远。