Chinese occupation of foreign countries

This is a good point; if you live in Sydney you would probably doubt the '3%'; it seems that there are Chinese faces everywhere. I had no trouble speaking Chinese every day, or at least listening in to conversations in Chinese on the train. :)

Our universities have Chinese enrolments way above this %. But the 3% is an average for the whole country. And I am not sure if the 'people who identify as Chinese' statistic picks up these university students who command a big share of the Chinese population. Also, not all the 'Chinese' faces are Chinese; although Chinese is the biggest Asian group in Australia.

Another good point; there are different waves of migration of Chinese in Australia. Eg. The old families who came out first in the middle of the 1800s (gold rush), then those that came after 1979, and now the students since then many of whom stay. The last group would definitely identify with the PRC. But Chinese people in Darwin are more 'seasoned' than you would imagine. Because it is so young, they have been there since the earliest days of the city.

That timeline is just about precisely the same as the American one.

Bodawei

Just curious, does Australia like the US have any particular period of shame regarding its Chinese immigrants? I'm thinking of course all the Chinese being lured to America being promised roads paved with gold, only to find out that they would be working in near slave conditions on railroad construction or other undesirable work.

Indeed, our main period of shame was the White Australia Policy - although I am sure our treatment of the Chinese who came was another cause for shame.

From Wikipaedia: The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 led to an influx of immigrants from all around the world. Over the next 20 years, 40,000 Chinese men and over 9,000 women (mostly Cantonese) migrated to the goldfields seeking prosperity. Competition on the goldfields led to significant violent conflict between groups.

It wasn't only Chinese; we also had black migration from the Pacific (called kanaks) brought in to work on the canefields in Qld.

But ironically the Chinese migration played an important part in introducing the 'white Australia' policy in 1901; there were changes made liberalising immigration from 1947 but it was not finally repealed until 1975 with the Racial Discrimination Act. (Hence the distinct waves of migration.) I read that one of the causes of stress was that the Chinese refused to join trade unions!

Hi bodawei

Wow, I didn't know at all that the history of Chinese immigrants in Australia was that long. 看样子世界上到处都是华人啊，呵呵！

Hmmm, I don't know if it is true in America that the "seasoned" Chinese usually don't have much interest in politics. Roughly speaking, Chinese Americans whose family spans back several generations are very likely to think of themselves as Americans who have Chinese ancestry. Recent arrivals, however, often come to America to enjoy the perceived better services, the lack of intense competition and in general a better life, not because of any deep feeling that they are "American". It takes them a while to actually feel a part of the society, or at the least their roots are more in America than China. I have noticed some older Chinese American immigrants who have come back to China to work their remaining years and then retire. I have yet to find an ABC that is doing the same. My point is, participating politically usually involves a sense that one is concerned for one's community. I have no statistics, but I think that the more settled Chinese are more likely to get involved in politics. Please prove me wrong if I am wrong.

Looks like the situation is more complicated than I thought. Thanks for your explanation.

At least for America, I would agree with a general statement that says "Chinese Americans have yet to become strongly involved politically as a whole." I have read a few articles on this. While many Chinese Americans consider themselves American, that doesn't mean they necessarily like America. Some of the "seasoned" Chinese still harbor ill-will at how Chinese were treated in the past, and of course being a minority in just about any country causes some friction. So the result is, some Chinese want to be involved, some are apathetic, some are antagonistic to the system and of course some of their hearts still lie in China. Out of the group that is politically involved, most of them lean toward the Democrats, but not overwhelming so. They are already a relatively small portion of American society, and when their political sentiments are divided in so many ways, it means that their impact on American politics is sadly negligible. Thus, they generally appear politically invisible. I would suspect that isn't always the case in California and Hawaii, though.

'The more settled Chinese are more likely to get involved in politics'

The situation Xiaophil describes in America would be true in Australia as well, I think. Old Chinese families, rather than newcomers, have been successful politically at local, State and national levels. Newcomers in Australia are apparently less interested in politics. But in 2008 they did engage (in large numbers) in pro-China protests about the Torch Relay - for many this would have been their first experience of political protest.

But there are exceptions! Currently our most famous 'Chinese' politician is 黃英賢 Huáng Yīnxián (Penny Wong) - she sits in Federal Cabinet. This means that she is a senior Minister in Australia's national Government. She is actually a 'newcomer', not from an old Chinese family. She was born in Malaysia to a 客家 (Hakka) father; they migrated when she was 8 years old. She is also the first openly gay person to sit in Cabinet.

Jen,

Oooh, thanks. I will put it on my reading list.

By the way, one of my Mandarin teachers told me how a lot of Chinese thought that Gary would be easier for the Chinese government to deal with, but then... they discovered they were totally wrong. If my teacher's impression is right, he very skillfully used his ancestry to further America's interests. Don't know how accurate that is, though.

In California, home of the U.S.' largest Asian population and past home of its most virulent anti-Asian discrimination, there are quite a few successful Asian-American politicians at the State level, primarily Japanese and Chinese. Of course, the term "Asian" conceals numerous ethnic groups.

Also, since California has no ethnic majority, political success depends upon appealing to people outside your ethnic group... Californian politicians learned this way before Obama.

Another great book on this subject is Strangers From A Different Shore by Ronald Takaki which discusses immigration to the US thru Angel Island rather than Ellis Island, and has much on the history of Hawaii. Sadly I am only half way thru reading this book, as I accidentally left my copy in the US.

Interestingly, when I googled the title of the book to make sure I remembered it correctly and get the author's name, Amazon listed a book on California politics in the related reading section.

Hi duibudui

Thanks very much for that - that is new to me; I had not associated the Chinese with North Queensland! You are right - I do have a skewed view of the settlement of our country, at least that part of the country. I was aware of the Italian and Kanak influence up north, but didn't realise that the Chinese settled there. But that could in some ways explain the presence of Chinese restaurants in every little country town? I am more familiar with the Northern Territory where I lived for some years; the Chinese have been there for so long that in places like Pine Creek for example they 'own' the place.