Chinese Women and The Global Village: An Australian Site (review)

This book investigates the diversity and complexity of the "Chinese diaspora" in Australia today, with special emphasis on female migrants during the decade of the 1990s. On the basis of literature reviews, census reports, and interviews of 50 women, the book discusses a variety of gender, ethnic, generational, and cultural identities among the female Chinese in Australia.

Since the Australian government abandoned the "White Australian" policy in the mid-1970s, Chinese as legal immigrants have begun to be admitted in large numbers under a single "racial" label of "Chinese." They come from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan. Between 1982 and 1995, some 25,000 to 60,000 were admitted each year. As detailed in the book, the new Chinese migrants came from diverse national, cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds. They had higher education qualifications than the average "White" Australian, and came equipped with professional experiences. This study makes the important revelation of a provincial mentality of the Australians that subjects Asian immigrants, women in particular, to continued political insults, discrimination, and segregation in social life.

In the Introduction, the author criticizes the "old migration paradigm" of the past, while glorifying a new "global" approach to understanding recent Chinese immigrants in Australia. Recent works in North American anthropology and cultural studies are cited to emphasize the new multinational character of Asian diasporas. Chapter One elaborates on the significance of the new global orientation in Chinese migrant studies and in transnational comparisons. It explains the complexity of the modern-day "Chinese diaspora," using the different voices of female migrants from different countries of origin as testimony. A review of the Australian immigration policy reveals its persistent, archaic, and male-dominated worldview as well as its ignorance of the fact that the Chinese community is in reality multi-national and multi-cultural. A few tables of census and citations of demographic profiles also provide useful information about the new immigrants.

Chapter Two examines the demands of Chinese families upon the women migrants as Chinese tradition continues to be a powerful influence in the Australian Chinese community. This chapter also deals with the new issues in marriage and family relations facing female immigrants. Focusing on cultural and national identities, Chapters Three and Four discuss gender- and ethnicity-related questions confronting Chinese women (comprising the new arrivals and the Australian-born). The writing highlights adjustment problems which they encounter, such as discrimination in the workplace and segregation in their social life. Finally, Chapter Five investigates the historical development and changes in the Chinese associations in several cities and affirms that male domination continues to characterize politics in both the new clubs and traditional types of associations.

This book adds an Australian chapter to the existing works on the global situation of the Chinese diaspora in the late twentieth century. Its profile of the female immigrant makes a unique contribution to the study of world migration. However, the research and analysis rely too heavily on a basic sociological approach which includes the use of interviews to get superficial answers, rather than making an in-depth study of the histories of the individuals and the communities. There is no answer in this volume, for example, to the questions of whether the Cantonese-speaking women in Sydney and the Minnan-speaking women from Taiwan form the same community or belong to separate communities; whether the Chinese from Southeast Asia and those from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong belong to similar or different social classes; and whether there is — or is not — a pan-Chinese identity that finds expression in any national forum. Simple answers given by the migrant interviewees do not satisfy scholarly curiosity regarding their motivations and shed little light on the meanings of gender, culture, and ethnicity.

Criticisms aside, this volume is a useful, up-to-date resource on the history and profile of Chinese females in Australia.