Chinese-ish: A tale of two diasporas

Chinese-ish unpicks the experiences of young Chinese-Australians in today’s Australia. Source: Joanna Hu

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In an age of increasing globalisation and increasingly tense geopolitics, how does the Chinese-Australian experience compare to the Chinese-American one? Find out on this episode of Chinese-ish, with special guests Ella Shi and Dr Rennie Lee.

You’d think that growing up as a Chinese migrant would be a pretty similar experience between Australia and the United States.

Finding that balance between maintaining your heritage versus fitting in, learning English while trying to preserve a mother tongue, and being questioned on your background or true loyalties even though you haven’t been to China in years — these experiences are indeed pretty universal.

But community organiser Ella Shi believes the history of the two countries makes the diasporas more complex.

She says, “A lot of the awakening into organising amongst Asian communities in the US came about throughout the 20th century. There were a lot of imperialist wars, like the Vietnam War, and perhaps that was a unifying…reason to get behind a particular identity.

“Whereas I think in Australia…there hasn't been this unifying reason for us to all identify as Asian or behind a particular phrase as a source of political power.”

In this episode of Chinese-ish

What are the differences between Chinese-Australian and Chinese-American communities?
How does each community talk about and understand themselves in relation to the wider society? And how do new migrants, like international students, fit into existing diasporic communities?
What challenges do the Chinese diaspora face when it comes to loyalty and cultural heritage. For example, discussions around American-born Chinese athletes like Eileen Gu at the Winter Olympics?
What (if anything) can we learn from Chinese-Americans about race and racism?

Dr Rennie Lee, a sociologist at the University of Queensland, also points to different emphases in how our two countries understand migration.

She says, “I was born in the US to immigrant parents, and we commonly refer to this population as the second generation, but one thing that I found that was interesting when moving to Australia was not seeing that emphasis on this second generation.

“I think a lot of the emphasis is on new immigration and new migrants, like international students [instead].”

So even as Asian-Americans organise and mobilise their communities, a clear Chinese-Australian identity remains difficult to articulate.

Listen to the episode below or by clicking the image at the top of this article.

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