04/2022
04/2022
04/2021
01/2021
01/2021
12/2020
Third Space and the Formation of Chinese Canadian Identity
Chevonne Xue
During the process of community formation, what was the mode of information exchange between people? How did they obtain information and what difficulties did they encounter? The purpose of this paper is to analyze how immigrant communities in a multicultural country have resolved conflicts between local and homeland cultures through a study of the development of media in Chinese communities in Canada through newspapers, radio, television and the Internet. In today's digital world, people not only need to complete immigration physically, but also in their own cyberspace. In the process of digital migration, what problems do immigrants encounter when facing the conflict between their home culture and immigrant culture? Can they have the same rights as the local mainstream people in the local online community?
In 1912, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and the Republic of China was established. But what followed was not stability, but division and chaos that lasted for years. This also affected the Chinese community in Canada. Each major party propagated its own revolutionary ideology in the newspapers that it controlled, and often engaged in polemics among themselves. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Kuomintang still strived for overseas propaganda fronts. During this period, the Chinese media was dominated by the Hongmen Zhi Gong Tang and the KMT party-run newspapers. Until the 1980s, the Chinese press in Canada mainly reported news about the local Chinese community, while other mainstream social news was translated from English newspapers, which lacked timeliness.(Huang., Xu, 2010)
In 1973, the first Chinese radio station in Canada, CHMB, was launched and became the pioneer of Chinese broadcasting in Canada. At the beginning, the station had only one hour of Chinese programming. Now it has developed into a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week station that features Cantonese and Mandarin programs, as well as programs in 13 other ethnic languages.(CHMB AM1320, 2021)
The influx of Hong Kong immigrants into Canada since the 1980s has changed the structure of the Chinese community, which is dominated by people from Guangdong. The demand for information from thousands of Hong Kong immigrants attracted Hong Kong newspaper groups to enter Canada. Sing Tao Daily and Ming Pao, which catered to the tastes of Hong Kong immigrants, entered Canada first. With the increase of immigrants from Taiwan, Taiwanese newspaper groups also followed the example of Hong Kong media to enter Canada, and the World Journal of Taiwan United Press landed in Canada to compete with Hong Kong media.(Huang., Xu, 2010) With their professionalism in journalism, strong capital, sound management, abundant resources and the latest technology, they revolutionized the mode of operation of the Chinese media in Canada and soon replaced the local Chinese media as the mainstream of the Chinese media in Canada, bringing news and entertainment from Hong Kong to the Chinese in Canada. Chinese radio and television stations during this period were also heavily influenced by Taiwan and Hong Kong, mainly broadcasting programs produced by both.
Since the 1990s, new immigrants from mainland China, mainly professional and technical immigrants, have become the main force of new immigrants to Canada, and these new immigrants have gradually become the audience of the Chinese media in Canada. The changing demographics of the Chinese community has created higher demands on the media. The Chinese language media in Canada is gradually moving away from the "Hong Kong-Taiwan complex". In addition, in recent years, a large number of new immigrants from China with journalistic experience have established Chinese language media in major Canadian cities, bringing the Chinese language media in Canada into a new era of blossoming and diversified development. .(Huang., Xu, 2010)
With the popularization of computers and the improvement of Internet technology, the number of people reading news on the Internet is increasing. In Canada, there are many Chinese who use the Internet to obtain news and entertainment information. Chinese websites that provide news, information and entertainment services for Chinese people on the Internet have been growing rapidly and are still gaining momentum. Canadian Chinese websites are divided into four main categories: news, information, forums, and professional. Since then, with the advent of the web 2.0 era and China's unique national conditions and firewall system, a large number of Chinese unique social networking platforms, including WeChat, Weibo, etc., have emerged. And with the influx of students from mainland China, Chinese media are gradually turning to social media. Both traditional paper media, such as Sing Tao Daily, and large portals, such as 51.ca and yorkbbs, have chosen to create social media accounts such as Weibo and WeChat.
Such a complete information network can provide new immigrants with all the information resources, including food, clothing, housing and transportation, saving and investment, health, buying a house and car, etc., in a language and search method that they are familiar with. Such a way of information exchange can make new immigrants feel safer and more secure, while not experiencing anxiety and pain. At the same time, with the development of the Internet and the popularity of mobile devices. The media also has a higher reach to the users. In fact, putting aside the concept of ethnicity as an identity, the major communities are also implementing community services electronically under the trend of electronization, like the e-village in Blacksburg, where all community services can be implemented in digital form.(Silver, 2000) But the electronicization of information in Chinese communities is a more complex system.
However, we can see that local community news, Canadian national news, and "Chinese" news have always been the major segments of Chinese community media in Canada. Their proportion has changed with the changing times and the influx of new immigrants. For example, during the revolutionary period, newspapers focused mainly on the revolution within China and some business news from the local community. (Chinese Times newspaper, 1914) But with the end of the revolution, the establishment of the new China, and the lack of new immigrants to join. Local Chinese publications gradually introduced coverage of "Chinese" affairs, focusing instead on the local community. Other mainstream social news was translated from English newspapers, which lacked timeliness.
Thus, the arrival of new immigrants has had a significant impact on the development of the media and the redistribution of content, whether from Hong Kong or Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s. The influx of immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s and the massive influx of immigrants from mainland China at the beginning of the 21st century have had an impact on the form, content and language of the media in the local Chinese community in Canada. Mainland China, as well as international students, entered Canada. In the midst of the information revolution, this new group of immigrants has also gradually changed their means of accessing information, moving from paper to electronic media. They started to set up websites and focused more on information related to mainland China rather than Taiwan or Hong Kong. At the same time, the "old" media established in the 1980s also began to set up Mandarin-language reports and programs for this new group of immigrants.
Media in immigrant communities are more likely to serve new immigrants who have just landed, as well as some marginalized groups who are unable to access or unlock mainstream media platforms for cultural or language reasons. For new immigrants, while entering a new country and living in a new environment, they still want to keep in touch with their homeland. On the other hand, due to language barriers and other social and cultural factors, immigrants are not very familiar with the mainstream media and seek information from them at the early stage of immigration. Mainstream media and social platforms are dominated by privileged groups, which makes it difficult for marginalized people to access them.
It is better to help new immigrants adapt to the local culture and smoothly go through the transition period, while protecting some culturally disadvantaged groups. Therefore the content and type of media will change with the region and type of the newest immigrant population. In addition, immigrant groups will gradually turn to local information as they spend more time in Canada, and their interest in information about their hometown will gradually decrease.
Shuyu Kong proposes the concept of a "third space" through his study of Chinese-language television programs produced in Canada. (Kong, 2013) This concept of third space prevents Asians from falling into the dichotomy of "standard" and "other" mentioned above. They gradually find a new cultural space in the "home country" and the "host country". In this space, new immigrants can choose information according to their own cultural background and needs. In addition, the one-way media communication is gradually changed by the two-way and multiple communication of Internet media. People can even be encouraged to express their own opinions and views.
Shuyu Kong suggests that the "third space" opened up by ethnic media shows a sense of belonging to multiple regions, a new "localness" that transcends the polarized perceptions of birthplace and residence. Overseas Chinese media have created a cultural strategy to cope with capital accumulation, namely "mobile citizenship. " They are also guiding new immigrants to break away from old socio-cultural habits and adapt to new value standards. (Kong, 2013) In the face of the cultural barriers erected by the mainstream media, local Chinese-language media create an opportunity and space for new citizens to actively participate in the discussion of local public issues, to make their voices heard, and to express their identification with multicultural citizenship in this safe space.
However, this minority information space is still marginalized in terms of voice and influence, except for the small impact it can have on the community, and remains marginalized in the larger mainstream discourse. In addition, both local news and homeland news are translated and selected when they are introduced into the "third space". This makes it easier to create bias and misunderstanding.
Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiaotong argues in The Pluralistic Pattern of the Chinese Nation that "the Chinese nation as a self-conscious ethnic entity emerged from the confrontation between China and the Western powers in recent centuries." (Fei, 1989) In other words, the Chinese nation is not a nation in traditional China, but a national group that emerged through "national self-consciousness" after the establishment of a modern sovereign state in China. He also argues that over the past three millennia, a nucleus of several ethnic groups converged and gradually integrated in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, known as the Huaxia, which snowballed and grew, absorbing the surrounding alien peoples into this nucleus. After he possessed the Yellow River and the East Asian plains in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, he was known to other ethnic groups as the Han. The Han people continued to grow by absorbing other ethnic groups and penetrated into the settlements of other ethnic groups, forming a network that served as a cohesive and connected network, laying the foundation for an indivisible unity of many ethnic groups united in this territory and becoming a self-contained ethnic entity that became the Chinese nation through national consciousness. The Chinese nation is a collective term used to refer to a group of ethnic groups that have resided in China from ancient times to the present, and in modern times can be understood as the Greater China region, and have had a deeper level of mutual exchange, integration, and even assimilation.(Fei, 1989)
Therefore, there are changes in the Chinese community in Canada in terms of the identity of Chinese people. The media has a profound significance in constructing people's imagination and identity, and in the creation of “imaging communities''. Today, the Chinese community is actually home to a variety of different identities, including descendants of early Chinese immigrants, Hong Kong immigrants and descendants of Hong Kong immigrants, immigrants from Taiwan, and immigrants from mainland China, including some ethnic minorities who are not Han Chinese. So the concept of Canadia Chineseness is very complex.
The first Chinese language newspaper in Canada was founded by Liang Qichao to promote his ideas of the Restoration. The vast majority of newspapers published since then have also been the mouthpieces of various political parties. Interestingly, most media companies have now chosen to use WeChat and Weibo as new media development fronts, but this means being restricted by mainland China's own laws and regulations and political attitudes. Media content is influenced by the political attributes of the medium itself.
In addition, due to the PRC's network peculiarities, including firewalls and its unique internal Internet structure, has created a completely separate system compared to the rest of the world. Therefore, there are two separate systems here, and it is a very big challenge for Chinese immigrants to switch from one system to the other. This kind of migration in the online world is called digital migration.
In general, immigrants face difficulties in accessing mainstream media when entering a new country, and may be marginalized due to differences in language and customs. Chinese community media provides a third space for newly arrived Chinese immigrants to avoid the dichotomy of "standard" and "others".
By finding a third space between "Homeland" and "Host Country", they are able to understand and discuss local affairs in their own familiar way and language, and further integrate into the local culture. It provides a good transition space for new immigrants. But at the same time, this space is still a minority information space, both in terms of discourse and influence, and is still marginalized in the overall mainstream discourse environment, except for some small influence on the community
Reference
- Breton, R. (1964). Institutional completeness of ethnic communities and the personal relations of immigrants. American Journal of Sociology, 70(2), 193-205.
- Canada, Library and Archives. “History of Canada's Early Chinese Immigrants.” Library and Archives Canada, 19 Apr. 2017, www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/history-ethnic-cultural/early-chinese-canadians/Pages/history.aspx.
-
“CHMB AM1320; 華僑之聲廣播電台.” Omeka RSS,www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/MinorityMedia/items/show/1293.
- Daniels, J. (2013). Race and racism in Internet studies: A review and critique. New Media & Society, 15(5), 695-719.
- De Beauvoir, S. (2010). The second sex. Knopf.
- 费孝通. "中华民族的多元一体格局." 北京大学学报: 哲学社会科学版 4 (1989): 1-19.
- Nakamura, L. (2000). Where do you want to go today? Cybernetic tourism, the Internet, and transnationality. Race in cyberspace, 15-26.
- Silver, D. (2000). Margins in the wires: looking for race, gender, and sexuality in the Blacksburg electronic village.
- 石晓宁. "从革命到建设: 辛亥革命前后海外华人政治心态的蜕变——以《 大汉公报》 及崔通约为例." 社会科学辑刊 6 (2014).
- 徐 新漢, and 黃 運榮. “加拿大華文傳媒發展綜述 - 加華作協 希望文坊.” Udn部落格, blog.udn.com/cwacan/3788974.