In-Person Panel PS4.3

Migration and Identity: Asian Experiences in Multicultural Societies

“Australia” Rhymes with “Failure”: How Conceptions of Time Can Help Vietnamese Refugees with Loss of Place, Status and Memory. 

Kim Huynh 

This paper examines the challenges, methods and cultural value in writing a story about an elderly Vietnamese Australian refugee who has survived a stroke and is living with dementia. The narrator is the man’s middle-aged son. After encountering a series of work and life failures, the son returns home to help care for him. The family goes through stages of shock, adaptation and acceptance. Throughout these stages, the son records his father’s accounts of what it is like to lose his homeland after the 1975 Fall of Saigon and to establish a new but never settled life in Australia. He also diarises his own fears and insights into ethics of care and migration. This semi-autobiographical project examines and disrupts linear constructions of time, ideologies of progress, model migrant and happiest refugee stereotypes and top-down conceptions of care. It proposes cyclical notions of time from the Asia-Pacific and ever-present notions of time from Indigenous belief systems as ways to for forced migrants, their descendants and the societies in which they live to move from trauma and dislocation to healing and belonging.

The Making of Chinese-Australian: the Role of Churches in Shaping Chinese Migrants in a Multicultural Society 

Him Chung 

This research addresses a pertinent issue of migrants' adaptation within a multicultural society. It investigates the role of Christian churches in shaping immigrants' adaptation process in Perth, Western Australia. This is not a new research area, but conventional studies have paid little attention to Chinese migrants. This research specifically focuses on the first-generation Chinese migrants who were born overseas and relocated to Perth at different stages of life. Drawing on the conceptualisation of place by human geographers, the church is considered a dynamic assemblage of people and their socio-cultural environment. Churches are, therefore, networks of relationships both between their members and between the members and the wider community. Such a network allows immigrants to understand, to connect and to develop tactics for engagement in the receiving society. A survey was conducted in major Chinese churches in Perth during the past few months to find out how migrants have connected to mainstream society through church ministries and activities. Initial results have demonstrated interesting patterns and relationships between migrants and churches. These findings have shed light on the ongoing quest to rethink and reconceptualise the notion of multiculturalism.

Transcultural Perspectives: The Rise of Asian Migrants in Melbourne's Food Discourses 

Iori  Hamada 

Melbourne, self-claimed as Australia's 'food capital’ with more than 3,500 restaurants and serves up cuisines from mother than 70 countries (Visit Victoria n.d.), owes much of its culinary vibrancy to its Asian migrant population, constituting the majority of newcomers in the city. This research examines their significant sociocultural and economic impact, primarily within the restaurant industry—an arena offering opportunities for migrants with both professional expertise and entry-level skills to secure employment while expressing their diverse cultures. 

Through the lenses of 'gastrodiplomacy' and 'gastronationalism'—strategies increasingly employed by state governments and municipalities to foster social cohesion, drive economic growth and bolster their global presence—this research poses a question: How does Melbourne navigate its evolving gastronomic terrain while concurrently utilising food as a key element in shaping its local and national identity? 

Using a mixed-method approach that combines ethnographic studies and a survey of Melbourne's municipal engagements with culinary diversity, the research aims to address the disparity between claims of culinary authenticity and the evolving food scene within Melbourne's restaurant industry. This paper argues that embracing transcultural approaches, rather than traditional top-down multiculturalism, empowers individuals, communities and institutions to leverage restaurants as accessible avenues for fostering migrant communities’ inclusion, supporting their economic practices and enhancing interactions and cooperation between recent migrants and well-established local communities.

Situating Reflexive Performance in Decolonial Studies: Performing Indigeneity, Culture, and Identity 

Bryan Lee Celeste 

This paper pushes forward on the concept of reflexive performance in decolonial studies which can contribute to the process of indigenizing performance by providing an in-depth understanding of the cultural configurations from the Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences. I focus on one of the indigenous cultural communities in the Southern Philippines, the Manobo-Pulanguiyén. Focusing on their cultural performances, I highlight how Indigenous peoples perform and recalibrate their indigeneity, culture, and identity amidst ruptures (open moments) such as colonialism, capitalism, modernization, development aggression, ecological transformations, and technological advancements. I defined reflexive performance in three facets: 1) the ability or capacity of indigenous peoples to reconfigure their performances while remaining true to their cultural integrity, 2) strategic response to various open moments, and 3) subjugated to risks and opportunities (Celeste, forthcoming). Whilst some members of the Tribal Council of Elders have opposing views on their cultural and sacred performances performed in public and digital spaces, this reflexive act opens opportunities to reposition their cultural heritage amidst open moments. Overall, I argue that reflexive performance in decolonial studies offers a new insight into Indigenous performances through their lived experiences through time and space.