Chinese occupation of foreign countries

bodawei
May 27, 2010, 09:28 AM posted in General Discussion

If you look at the top 20 overseas Chinese populations (ie. people who identify as Chinese) - leaving aside Singapore where the Chinese are a majority - it is kind of surprising.  Very rough figures off Wikipaedia and without a calculator, the biggest populations are not surprising: Malaysia (around 22%) and Thailand (10%).  Then the surprises: Indonesia and Australia are about on par at roughly 3%, Indonesia I think about 3.3%.  The Chinese are about 1.2% of total population in the United States, and then the others are significantly smaller shares of the total population.  The surprise for me is the significant portion of the Australian population who identify as Chinese.  I am guessing that the most 'Chinese' cities are Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne in that order.  Someone might look it up to correct me.  

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xiaophil
May 27, 2010, 10:54 AM

I have heard that Cantonese is the third most widely spoken language in America.  I wonder far away Mandarin is from catching up to Cantonese.  (I guess I can probably find the answer real quickly if I just did a google search.)

To tell you the truth, I have heard a lot of Aussies talk about how many Chinese there are in Australia.  I'm a little surprised the number isn't significantly higher than 3%.

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bodawei

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.

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changye
May 27, 2010, 01:30 PM

Overseas Chinese in east Asian countries are rather "seasoned", in other word, they are already deeply rooted in local societies. On the other hand, I guess that the Chinese people in Australia are "newcomers", who still keep a close relationship, politically or sentimentally, with the PRC. The same is true for Chinese people living in Japan.

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bodawei

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.

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xiaophil

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

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xiaophil

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.

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bodawei

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!

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changye

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!

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changye
May 28, 2010, 03:00 AM

I hear "seasoned overseas Chinese" traditionally don't have much interest in politics, because they are too busy making money, or at least, they try to keep themselves in the background to save the face of local ethnic majority. On the other hand, "newcomers" seems to be more interested in local politics, of course, it's not a bad thing, provided that they are free from influence of mainland government.

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xiaophil

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.

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changye

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

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xiaophil

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.

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bodawei

'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.

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jen_not_jenny
May 28, 2010, 03:57 AM

It is indeed a complex situation. Current US Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, is an example of an ABC thoroughly involved in the political scene, although, of course, he is extremely rare...the only Chinese-American to have ever served as a state governor, according to wikipedia.

A really interesting book documenting the (extremely distinct) waves of Chinese immigration to the States is The Chinese in America:A Narrative History by Iris Chang.

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xiaophil

Jen,

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

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xiaophil

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.

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tvan

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.

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orangina

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.

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duibudui
May 28, 2010, 11:08 AM

The definitive book explaining the 'real' pioneers of Australia is Henry Reynold's book, North of Capricorn.

A direct quote from his book explains:

The Chinese had been in Cairns from the time of its foundation in 1877, having moved to the coast from the Palmer River goldfield and then established themselves in the rural areas that had been subsequently opened to settlement.

 

By the time of the Queensland census in 1886 their importance in the agricultural districts was quiet apparent. They made up almost half of the population in the Cairns hinterland, a third in both Innisfail and the Barron Valley and three- quarters in the country around Port Douglas.

'North of Capricorn' puts a lie to the understanding that most Australians have about the settlement and development of their country. It goes into great detail about the physical, financial, and cultural influence that succesive generations of Chinese settlers had on the Australian economy and culture. Anybody interested in Chinese Immigration influence should read this book.

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bodawei

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.