repressed minority

It sh0uld be understood as a part of a badly written sentence, which i suspect was not written by a native speaker of English. It would read more coherently if the past participle "oppressed" were used. In addition, "feeling its roots" is awkward and very nearly nonsensical in English. A more common expression would be "finding its roots."

Once an oppressed minority ...



What part of speech a Part of Speech is is determined by how it is used in a sentence. 'oppressed', used as Setanta suggests, is an adjective, NOT a past participle.

I think repressed means 'to be held back' in this instance and in my opinion, it's a fine usage.

In terms of roots - 'feeling' could mean that the dispossessed Chinese of southeast Asia are finding strength in their own recognition of foundation or base of origin and this is inspiring renewed action or movement.