Contesting Chineseness

Nearly eleven million Chinese migrants live outside of China. While many of these faces of China’s globalization headed for the popular Western destinations of the United States, Australia and Canada, others have been lured by the booming Asian economies. Compared with pre-1949 Chinese migrants, most are wealthier, motivated by a variety of concerns beyond economic survival and loyal to the communist regime. The reception of new Chinese migrants, however, has been less than warm in some places. In Singapore, tensions between Singaporean-Chinese and new Chinese arrivals present a puzzle: why are there tensions between ethnic Chinese settlers and new Chinese arrivals despite similarities in phenotype, ancestry and customs? Drawing on rich empirical data from ethnography and digital ethnography, Contesting Chineseness investigates this puzzle and details how ethnic Chinese subjects negotiate their identities in an age of contemporary Chinese migration and China’s ascent.

What makes an optimal delivery for PrEP against HIV: A qualitative study in MSM

Background Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective means of HIV prevention for men who have sex with men (MSM), a key population whose engagement is crucial for achieving effective public health outcomes. An optimal service model would be important in planning the implementation of PrEP in places where such service has not been established. Methods A qualitative study was conducted to delineate the attributes of an optimal PrEP service model for MSM in Hong Kong, a city where no formal PrEP programs existed. Twenty purposively sampled MSM who were enrollees of two pilot PrEP projects participated in the semi-structured interviews promoting story-telling. The coded data were thematically analyzed following Grounded Theory approach, focusing on uncovering a typology of the essential attributes of an optimal PrEP service model, and the reasons for such preferences. Results Participating MSM were all ethnic Chinese and aged 26 to 52 years. All had received PrEP from pilot projects in conjunction with periodic screening of sexually transmitted infections (STI), HIV antibody, and plasma creatinine. Four major themes emerged as regards the attributes of a preferred PrEP service: (i) comprehensiveness of HIV/STI and safety monitoring; (ii) convenient unitary service; (iii) stigma-free PrEP access and protecting confidentiality; and (iv) affordable price. Whereas regular provision of PrEP was acceptable to MSM, unaffordability and related stigma were the anticipated challenges for potential service providers. Conclusions The qualitative assessment of MSM’s preference for PrEP service delivery has yielded important information on the many facets of a desirable service model.

Membangun Teologi Alteritas Heteronom: Upaya Mengentaskan Sisa-Sisa Stigma Anti-Tionghoa di Indonesia

This study aims to build a theological construction that can help erase anti-Chinese stigma in Indonesia post-1998, so religious people, especially Christians, become more sensitive about ethnic discrimination. The discrimination against ethnic Chinese in Indonesia has occurred for a long time, usually because of their capability to control the market and business. Their success in business impacts hatred and racism and turns into an anti-Chinese stigma. The research uses qualitative study on the philosophy of heteronomous alterity, and builds a theological framework on the theory of heteronomous alterity in positivistic philosophy. The theological framework will remove the anti-Chinese stigma in Indonesia. This study concludes that the theology of heteronomous alterity can help decrease anti-Chinese stigma by appreciating trinitarian relations and accepting the other as they are.Abstrak. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk membangun konstruksi teologi yang dapat membantu menghapus stigma anti-Tionghoa di Indonesia pasca 1998, sehingga umat beragama khususnya Kristen menjadi lebih peka mengenai diskrimasi etnis. Sudah sejak lama, masalah diskriminasi terhadap etnis Tionghoa di Indonesia terjadi, yang biasanya karena kelihaian mereka menguasai pasar dan bisnis. Hal ini berdampak pada kebencian yang bersifat rasialis dan menubuh ke dalam stigma anti-Tionghoa. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah studi kualitatif yang berbasis pada analisis filosofi alteritas heteronom. Teori alteritas heteronom dalam filsafat positivistik dijadikan sebagai kerangka berpikir teologis untuk melepas stigma anti-Tionghoa di Indonesia. Melalui kajian ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa teologi alteritas heteronom dapat membantu menghapus stigma anti-Tionghoa melalui penghayatan relasi trinitarian dan penerimaan orang selain dirinya sebagaimana adanya.

Campaign: A Content Analysis of the New Zealand-based Chinese Language Ethnic Media’s Coverage of the 2008, 2011 and 2014 New Zealand General Elections

<p>New Zealand’s ethnic Chinese population has grown significantly since the selection criteria of immigrants shifted from being defined by ethnic or national origin to personal merit in 1987. The ease with which non-citizens can vote in New Zealand, and the potential of New Zealand’s Mixed Member Proportional electoral system to amplify the political impact of minority groups means that informing this growing demographic is crucially important. Many recent migrants are prevented by language barriers from accessing English language news. Consequently, the Chinese language ethnic media constitute the key source of political information for many ethnic Chinese voters. Because of this, these media are expected to provide a civic forum for pluralistic debate enabling those with the right to vote to do so in a way that is congruent with their political and social preferences. Despite their importance, the ethnic Chinese language ethnic media in New Zealand have been the subject of few studies. In response, this thesis utilises the method of content analysis to examine civic forums provided by the Chinese Herald, Home Voice, and the New Zealand Messenger during the 2008, 2011 and 2014 general election campaigns. The findings indicate that political coverage deviated from the normative expectations of the civic forum in a number of ways, including a strong incumbency bias – particularly when the National Party was in power; high levels of favourable coverage towards the ACT Party and the consequent marginalisation of many other parties. In addition, National Party candidate Yang Jian occupied a position of unique visibility during the 2014 election campaign while New Zealand First were subject to high levels of negative coverage. These normative deviations, possibly stemming from the resource constraints that the newspapers operate within and coupled with their role as ethnic media outlets serving and advocating for minority groups, can hamper the readership’s capacity for meaningful electoral participation.</p>

Campaign: A Content Analysis of the New Zealand-based Chinese Language Ethnic Media’s Coverage of the 2008, 2011 and 2014 New Zealand General Elections

<p>New Zealand’s ethnic Chinese population has grown significantly since the selection criteria of immigrants shifted from being defined by ethnic or national origin to personal merit in 1987. The ease with which non-citizens can vote in New Zealand, and the potential of New Zealand’s Mixed Member Proportional electoral system to amplify the political impact of minority groups means that informing this growing demographic is crucially important. Many recent migrants are prevented by language barriers from accessing English language news. Consequently, the Chinese language ethnic media constitute the key source of political information for many ethnic Chinese voters. Because of this, these media are expected to provide a civic forum for pluralistic debate enabling those with the right to vote to do so in a way that is congruent with their political and social preferences. Despite their importance, the ethnic Chinese language ethnic media in New Zealand have been the subject of few studies. In response, this thesis utilises the method of content analysis to examine civic forums provided by the Chinese Herald, Home Voice, and the New Zealand Messenger during the 2008, 2011 and 2014 general election campaigns. The findings indicate that political coverage deviated from the normative expectations of the civic forum in a number of ways, including a strong incumbency bias – particularly when the National Party was in power; high levels of favourable coverage towards the ACT Party and the consequent marginalisation of many other parties. In addition, National Party candidate Yang Jian occupied a position of unique visibility during the 2014 election campaign while New Zealand First were subject to high levels of negative coverage. These normative deviations, possibly stemming from the resource constraints that the newspapers operate within and coupled with their role as ethnic media outlets serving and advocating for minority groups, can hamper the readership’s capacity for meaningful electoral participation.</p>

Framing variation and intersectional identities within Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese minority

Variationist researchers are increasingly adopting intersectionality approaches to analyse identity-linked practice. However, the field of sociolinguistic variation is yet to embrace the full ramifications of intersectionality as an analytical framework. The current paper offers a new method for integrating intersectional approaches into variationist studies by operationalising Blommaert, Jan & Anna De Fina. 2017. Chronotopic identities: On the timespace organization of who we are. In Anna De Fina & Jeremy Wegner (eds.), Diversity and super-diversity, 1–14. Washington: Georgetown University Press chronotopic frame theory. This method is used to examine how the intersectionality of ethnic, national, and peer-group identities is structured and reproduced in different ways through Chinese Indonesian youths’ selection of multilingual variants of an agreement marker in their peer-to-peer interactions at educational institutions in Pontianak city, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The results illustrate how chronotopic frame approaches to studying identity-linked variation heed calls for integrations of intersectionality to move beyond accounting for intracategorical complexity and instead examine the dynamic mutual constitution of social categories that better represents marginalised people’s lived experiences.