CRITICAL MEDIA STUDIES INSTITUTIONS, POLITICS, AND CULTURE Series Editor: Andrew Calabrese, University of Colorado Advisory Board Patricia Aufderheide, American University • Jean-Claude Burgelman, Free University of Brussels • Simone Chambers, University of Colorado • Nicholas Garnham, University of Westminster • Hanno Hardt, University of Iowa • Gay Hawkins, The University of New South Wales • Maria Heller, Eötvös Loránd University • Robert Horwitz, University of California at San Diego • Douglas Kellner, University of California at Los Angeles • Gary Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology • Toby Miller, New York University • Vincent Mosco, Carleton University • Janice Peck, University of Colorado • Manjunath Pendakur, University of Western Ontario • Arvind Rajagopal, New York University • Kevin Robins, Goldsmiths College • Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago • Colin Sparks, University of Westminster • Slavko Splichal, University of Ljubljana • Thomas Streeter, University of Vermont • Liesbet van Zoonen, University of Amsterdam • Janet Wasko, University of Oregon Recent Titles in the Series Redeveloping Communication for Social Change: Theory, Practice, and Power, edited by Karin Gwinn Wilkins The Information Society in Europe: Work and Life in an Age of Globalization, edited by Ken Ducatel, Juliet Webster, and Werner Herrmann Tabloid Tales: Global Debates over Media Standards, edited by Colin Sparks and John Tulloch Ferdinand Tönnies on Public Opinion: Selections and Analyses, edited, introduced, and translated by Hanno Hardt and Slavko Splichal Deliberation, Democracy, and the Media, edited by Simone Chambers and Anne Costain Deregulating Telecommunications: U.S. and Canadian Telecommunications, 1840–1997, by Kevin G. Wilson Social Theories of the Press: Constituents of Communication Research, 1840s to 1920s, Second Edition, by Hanno Hardt Floating Lives: The Media and Asian Diasporas, edited by Stuart Cunningham and John Sinclair Forthcoming in the Series Global Media Governance: A Beginner’s Guide, by Seán Ó Siochrú and W. Bruce Girard Continental Order? Integrating North America for Cybercapitalism, edited by Vincent Mosco and Dan Schiller The Global and the National: Media and Communications in Post-Communist Russia, by Terhi Rantanen From Newspaper Guild to Multimedia Union: A Study in Labor Convergence, by Catherine McKercher The Eclipse of Freedom: From the Principle of Publicity to the Freedom of the Press, by Slavko Splichal Elusive Autonomy: Brazilian Communications Policy in an Age of Globalization and Technical Change, by Sergio Euclides de Souza Floating Lives Floating Lives The Media and Asian Diasporas Edited by Stuart Cunningham and John Sinclair ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com 12 Hid’s Copse Road, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ, England Copyright © 2001 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Originally published in 2000 by University of Queensland Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Floating Lives : the media and Asian diasporas / edited by Stuart Cunningham and John Sinclair. p. cm—(Critical Media Studies) Originally published: St. Lucia, Queensland : University of Queensland Press, 2000. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 978-0-7425-1136-1 1. Ethnic mass media—Australia. 2. Mass media and minorities—Australia. 3. Asians—Services for —Australia. 4. Asians—Australia—Social life and customs. I. Cunningham, Stuart. II. Sinclair, John, 1944-III. Series. P94.5 .M552 A 837 2001 302.23'089'95094—dc21 2001019391 Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Contents Figures and Appendixes Contributors Acknowledgments 1 Diasporas and the Media John Sinclair and Stuart Cunningham Shifting Ground Delineating Diaspora Constructing a Research Object Australia as a Situated Research Field Public “Sphericules” and Policy Scenarios 2 Chinese Cosmopolitanism and Media Use John Sinclair, Audrey Yue, Gay Hawkins, Kee Pookong, and Josephine Fox The Chinese in Australia: Global Diaspora in Microcosm Narrowcast Institutions: SBS and New World Distribution of Chinese-language Video and Film in Australia Results of Household Interviews (Survey Phase) Results of Household Interviews (Ethnographic Phase) Floating Lives 3 Popular Media of the Vietnamese Diaspora Stuart Cunningham and Tina Nguyen Basic Demography “Structured in Dominance”: The Vietnamese Media Diet “The New York of the East”: Hong Kong Attractions Vietnamese Diasporic Video Conclusion 4 Bollywood Down Under: Fiji Indian Cultural History and Popular Assertion Manas Ray Different Diasporic Indias Demography of Fiji Indians in Australia Media and Identity Politics Indenture and Beyond From the Ramayan to Bollywood Fiji Indian Cultural Ecology in Australia Intercommunal Discord and Cultural Assertion Fiji Indian Youth Culture and Post-Zee Bollywood Diasporising Bollywood Conclusion 5 Mi Arai Mai Mai Mai? Thai–Australian Video Ways Glen Lewis and Chalinee Hirano Thai–Australian Connections Thai Community Use of Broadcast TV, Radio and the Press Ethnic Videos and Thai Urban Culture Thai Video Stores: A Product or a Community Service? Thai Community Video Use and Cultural Representation Thai–Australian Media Use and Cultural Identification Conclusion Select Bibliography Index Figures and Appendixes Figures 2.1 Flowchart of distribution of Hong Kong film, TV and video in Melbourne 2.2 Number of English-language television programs named (all types) 2.3 Households regularly watching SBS Chinese-language services 2.4 English-language films and videos named as being watched 5.1 English-language videos and Thai videos watched last month Appendixes 3.1 The Main Production Companies’ Output 3.2 Selected Song Lyrics Contributors Stuart Cunningham is Professor and Head, School of Media and Journalism, Queensland University of Technology. He is an author or editor of several books and monographs on topics such as Australian media, cultural policy, global television and “borderless” education, the most recent of which are New Patterns in Global Television (with John Sinclair and Elizabeth Jacka, Oxford University Press), Australian Television and International Mediascapes (with Elizabeth Jacka, Cambridge University Press) and The Media in Australia: Industries, Texts, Audiences (with Graeme Turner, Allen & Unwin). He is a Deputy Director of the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy. Josephine Fox has extensive fieldwork experience in China, where she has been completing her PhD in History. Gay Hawkins is Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of New South Wales, Sydney. She has published a book on the invocation of “community” in arts policy, From Nimbin to Mardi Gras: Constructing Community Arts (Allen & Unwin), as well as numerous papers on television, value and difference, and transformations in public service broadcasting. Chalinee Hirano is a PhD candidate in Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra. Kee Pookong is Director of the Centre for Asia–Pacific Studies, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne. Glen Lewis is Associate Professor in International Communication at the University of Canberra and Professor in the Graduate School of Bangkok University. He is also adjunct Professor in the School of Communication at UNITEC Institute of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand. He is co-author of Critical Communication and Communication Traditions in 20th Century Australia. Tina Nguyen is a postgraduate student in the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. Manas Ray is a Fellow of Sociology and Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. While a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, during 1996–98, he researched Indian diasporas in Australia. He has authored several articles and book chapters on Indian media, cultural theory and ethics and is currently researching the making of postcolonial democracy in India. John Sinclair is Professor in the Department of Communication, Language and Cultural Studies at Victoria University of Technology in Melbourne. His research on the internationalisation of the television and advertising industries, with particular attention to Latin America and Asia, has been published widely. His most recent books are Latin American Television: A Global View (Oxford, 1999) and New Patterns in Global Television: Peripheral Vision, co-edited with Elizabeth Jacka and Stuart Cunningham (Oxford, 1996). Audrey Yue is Lecturer in Cultural Studies, Department of English with Cultural Studies, University of Melbourne, Melbourne. Her PhD was on postcolonial Hong Kong cinema and her current research areas include Asian media, new technology, queer theory and diaspora cultures. She has published in the Asian Journal of Communication, Meanjin, Journal of Homosexuality and New Formations.