A Virtual Chinatown Chinese Overseas
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A Virtual Chinatown Chinese Overseas History, Literature, and Society Chief Editor Wang Gungwu Subject Editors Evelyn Hu-DeHart, David Der-wei Wang, Wong Siu-lun Editorial Board Ien Ang, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Liu Hong, Frank Pieke, Elizabeth Sinn, Jing Tsu VOLUME 7 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/cho A Virtual Chinatown The Diasporic Mediasphere of Chinese Migrants in New Zealand By Phoebe H. Li LEIDEN • boston 2013 Cover illustration: Illusion of stepping into Chinatown. Photograph provided by Phoebe H. Li. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Li, Phoebe H. A virtual Chinatown : the diasporic mediasphere of Chinese migrants in New Zealand / by Phoebe H. Li. pages cm. — (Chinese overseas : history, literature, and society, ISSN 1876-3847 ; volume 7) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-25863-1 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-25862-4 (e-book) 1. Chinese—New Zealand. 2. Chinese—New Zealand—Communication. 3. Mass media—China. 4. Mass media and culture—China. 5. Immigrants—New Zealand. 6. New Zealand—Race relations. I. Title. DU424.5.C5L5 2013 305.895’1093—dc23 2013025563 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1876-3847 ISBN 978-90-04-25863-1 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25862-4 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................... vii List of Charts .................................................................................................... ix List of Tables .................................................................................................... xi Foreword ........................................................................................................... xiii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ xv Chapter One Introduction ........................................................................ 1 China’s New Wave of International Migration .................................. 1 New Zealand Local Contexts .................................................................. 5 New People, New Approach ................................................................... 9 Diasporic Chinese Media beyond New Zealand .............................. 11 Chapter Two Conceptualising New Zealand Chinese Media ........ 15 Central Concepts ........................................................................................ 16 Towards an Analytical Framework ....................................................... 30 Chapter Three Revisiting the History of New Zealand Chinese and Early Chinese Newspapers ............................................................. 41 Chinese Immigration: From Sojourners to Settlers ......................... 41 Early Chinese Newspapers ...................................................................... 48 Rethinking Early Chinese Newspapers ................................................ 57 Chapter Four New Chinese Immigrants and Contemporary New Zealand Chinese Media ................................................................. 63 A New Wave of Chinese Immigration ................................................. 63 Making a PRC Chinese Community ..................................................... 66 Prc Chinese and Others’ Settlement .................................................. 73 Evolution of New Chinese Media ......................................................... 82 The New Chinese Community in their Own Media ....................... 87 Chapter Five Ethnic Chinese Media during the 2005 New Zealand General Election ........................................................................ 93 Research Design and Background Information ................................ 94 Phase 1: New Zealand Election in Chinese Media .......................... 102 Phase 2: Relationship between Chinese Media and Migrants .... 122 vi contents Phase 3: A Perspective from Media Personnel ................................ 132 Summary ....................................................................................................... 135 Chapter Six Recent PRC Migrants in the Diasporic Mediasphere ................................................................................................ 137 New Zealand Politics in Ethnic Chinese Media ............................... 137 Recent PRC Migrants’ Affinity with Conservative Parties ............. 148 Patriotic Sentiment Towards China ...................................................... 158 Chapter Seven Conclusions ...................................................................... 165 New Insight into the Chinese in New Zealand ................................. 165 Expansion of China’s ‘Soft Power’ ......................................................... 169 Chinese Media as an ‘Imagined Chinatown’ ..................................... 172 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 181 Index ................................................................................................................... 193 List OF FIGURES 2.1. An analytical framework for examining New Zealand Chinese media ...................................................................................... 38 3.1. Cover pages of four early Chinese newspapers ......................... 50 3.2. Lessons 1 and 2 of the ‘Movement for Chinese Literacy’ ....... 58 3.3. Advertisements in early Chinese newspapers ........................... 60 4.1. A Malaysian Chinese lion dancing troupe .................................. 64 4.2. An annual Chinese book fair ........................................................... 75 4.3. A Chinese restaurant run by recent PRC migrants .................. 81 5.1. Advertisement for Kenneth Wang in the New Zealand Chinese Herald ....................................................................................... 113 5.2. Congratulatory messages in the New Zealand Chinese Herald ...................................................................................................... 117 6.1. ACT 2005 election billboard ........................................................... 144 6.2. ACT’s advertisement in the Chinese Times .................................. 146 7.1. Auckland Lantern Festival ................................................................ 175 LIST OF CHARTS 4.1. Top seven source countries for residence approvals, 1992–2001 ................................................................................................. 65 4.2. Top four source countries for residence approvals, 1997–2008 ................................................................................................ 67 4.3. Composition of the New Zealand Chinese population in 2006 ........................................................................................................... 68 4.4. Migration from the PRC to New Zealand, 1986–2006 ............... 70 4.5. Top six source countries for student permits, 1997–2006 ........ 71 4.6. PRC Chinese business immigrants to New Zealand, 2000–2006 ............................................................................................... 73 4.7. Streams of PRC immigrants to New Zealand, 1997–2009 ......... 74 5.1. A breakdown of I Love New Zealand on 936AM .......................... 106 5.2. New Zealand local news in Chinese media ................................... 107 5.3. Opinions of political parties expressed on Chinese talkback radio ......................................................................................... 109 5.4. Chinese internet viewers’ interests in New Zealand local news ................................................................................................. 119 5.5. Activities on www.chinese.net.nz ..................................................... 120 6.1. New Zealand GDP growth in comparison with other OECD countries, 1995–2005 ............................................................................ 160 List OF TABLES 2.1. Three concepts for the analysis of immigrant adaptation ....... 18 3.1. Chinese population in New Zealand, 1867–1971 census ........... 45 4.1. A selective list of new Chinese media in New Zealand, 1989–2008 ................................................................................................ 84 5.1. Political parties in the 2005 New Zealand general election .... 99 5.2. Result of the New Zealand 2005 general election .....................