| 英文摘要 |
Abstract
This article examines narratives of “Huaqiao” in Australia to trace how
identity was preserved through new political alliances and nationalism. It
argues that urbanization, the White Australia policy, and Chinese nationalism
all constributed to Chinese-Australian identity in the early twentieth century.
For Chinese-Australians, the term “Huaqiao” was adopted following the
growth in hostility towards Chinese around 1904 and 1905. Urban Chinese
specifically adopted the term “Huaqiao” as a self-reflexive label that located
them in an international Chinese diasporic network, and at the same time
offered a vantage point for pressing particular national claims in Australia.
Chinese-language newspapers introduced styles of rhetoric and narrative that
fed directly into processes of social mobilization and identity transformation
under way in Federation Australia.
Mobilizing in the name of the Chinese “Huaqiao” diaspora began to
make sense as an alternative form of community politics and cultural
nationalism after 1909. Politics provided a compelling language for
imagining Chinese-Australian social networks, identities, and imageries, and
for wider dreams of dignity, peace, and prosperity. Political rhetoric and
narratives thus contributed to the uniting of Chinese-Australians. The
alliance of the “Young China League” in 1911 on the eve of the Xinhai
Revolution demonstrated that a consciouness of modernity and Australian
experiences was constituting the historical consciousness ofChinese-Australians. This article thus shows that Chinese-Australian
identity in the White-Australian period was more than merely a refinement of
native kinship practices and inherited identities. The style of
Chinese-Australian nationalism proclaimed in the local Chinese press was
rooted in new historical narratives and modern models of political
community. |
