Asian Identities in Australia
Orientalism
The most important theorist for this topic is probably Edward Said, who defined the concept of "Orientalism". According to his theory, elite Arab culture and Society was forever changed by French, British and American colonists, because the ruling classes internalised colonial ways of understanding and living in the Arab world. This could vary from a romanticised image of desert warriors and harems full of women ripe for exploitation, to the current image of Arabs as terrorists. As well as ignoring the individual aspects of different Arab cultures, these images also create Arabs in relation to Europeans - an Other who represents everything that Europeans are not: exotic, wild, irrational, superstitious, devious etc. Whether these attributes are celebrated (as they were by artists and writers during the C19th) or used to validate increasingly authoritarian policies based on fear (as is currently happening), these constructions deny Arabs the opportunity to create their own identities. In this way, Western societies are seen to be continuing their colonisation of the Middle East in a way that benefits Western society (esp. as regards economic and military policies).
Although his theories were constructed to explain the European construction of Middle Eastern identity, these concepts can be transferred to explain colonial attitudes regarding other cultures, including the perception and representations of Asian-Australians. You can read the intro and chapter 1 of Said's book here and the whole book here. or listen to Edward Said discussing the construction of Arabs as terrorists on this Youtube clip.
Although his theories were constructed to explain the European construction of Middle Eastern identity, these concepts can be transferred to explain colonial attitudes regarding other cultures, including the perception and representations of Asian-Australians. You can read the intro and chapter 1 of Said's book here and the whole book here. or listen to Edward Said discussing the construction of Arabs as terrorists on this Youtube clip.
Identity Development Models
The counselling industry has come up with a range of identity development models for use with clients. These models may be of use you to you in developing and analysing your subjects' racial identities (esp in formulating questions for interviews and questionnaires). Florida State University, Racial equity tools and this powerpoint have a useful overview of these theories. The powerpoint is especially useful in giving some of the identity development models (eg Erikson and Marcia) on which racial identity models were built. I haven't organised or been selective about this stuff yet.
Sue and Sue's Minority Development Model .
Minority Identity Development model .
William Cross's Racial Identity Development model is summarised in this infographic
White Racial Identity Ego Statuses .
Development of Asian American Identity: An Exploratory Study of Japanese American Women and Processes of Asian American identity development : a study of Japanese American women ' s perceptions of their struggle to achieve positive identities as Americans of Asian ancestry are the studies of Japanese American women that led Kim to come up the the Asian-American Identity Development model. (short, easy over view here)
How do all these models work in real life? PACT's Point of View [https://www.pactadopt.org/app/servlet/documentapp.DisplayDocument?DocID=146] tells is straight! START HERE!
Doug Greenlea has tried to sythesis the available models. I was especially interested in the list of types of white consciousness. this would be great fopr discussing your own identity as a researcher.....
Sue and Sue's Minority Development Model .
Minority Identity Development model .
William Cross's Racial Identity Development model is summarised in this infographic
White Racial Identity Ego Statuses .
Development of Asian American Identity: An Exploratory Study of Japanese American Women and Processes of Asian American identity development : a study of Japanese American women ' s perceptions of their struggle to achieve positive identities as Americans of Asian ancestry are the studies of Japanese American women that led Kim to come up the the Asian-American Identity Development model. (short, easy over view here)
How do all these models work in real life? PACT's Point of View [https://www.pactadopt.org/app/servlet/documentapp.DisplayDocument?DocID=146] tells is straight! START HERE!
Doug Greenlea has tried to sythesis the available models. I was especially interested in the list of types of white consciousness. this would be great fopr discussing your own identity as a researcher.....
Asian Identity
- Navigating Mixedness: The Information Behaviours and Experiences of Biracial Youth in Australia Is an honours thesis about Biracial Auisian australian idenity construction - she has a great bibliography that's worth exploring.
Asia and Australia
The Asianisation of Australia? is an important speech that
Economics
the changing face of Australia's nation idenity.
Education
Exploring representations of Asian identities in films for the Australian Curriculum includes historical background on the development of the push for including asian perspective in the national curriculum
Immigration
One Nation Policies on Chinese Immigration.
Changing Dynamics of the Australia/Asia-Pacific Immigration system.
Asian Australina Popular Culture
Creative Australia and the dispersal of Multiculturalism identifies key elements of the political shift from "Multiculturalism" to "Diversity" and how these terms might intesect with notions of citizenship and identity..
Social Media
Praisin the Asian Selfie Campaign.
Film and TV
Portrayals Of Cultural Diversity In Australian Television Commercials: A Benchmark Study.
Crazy Rich Asians.
Asian-Australian playwright Michelle Law discusses the need for Asian representation on Australian screens.
Challenging Asian American Misrepresentation in entertainment.
Literature
Representations of Belonging in Asian Australian writing - read the conclusion for some key elements of racial analysis
Random uncategorised stuff
The Curse of the Smile: Ambivalence and the 'Asia' woman in Australian Society [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/fr.1996.5] looks at the way Asian women are represented and posited in Australian Society. Although much has improved in terms of racism against Asians, to what extent are they allocated an equal space to develop agency?
Global Identities: Crafting identities in Interracial families [http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/136787790364001] looks at the processes of "how ‘passing’, ‘crossing’ and ‘estrangements’ constitute transformational mobilities and movement in identity formation" in Indo-Asian families.
Influence of Culture on Intergenerational Conflict : A Comparative Study of Burmese Adolescents, Immigrant Burmese Adolescents, and AngloAustralian Adolescents
Explaining Asian Americans’ academic advantage over whites
The Friendship Dilemma: Competition and Emotional Isolation explores the effect of competition between freinds in Chinese classrooms
journal articles to follow up
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1367877915573763