From Survivalism to Rooted Cosmopolitanism: Transformations of a Chinese Voluntary Association in New Zealand

Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, this paper investigates the response of a Chinese voluntary association in New Zealand to demographic changes in the national Chinese community since the 1990s. The Chinese Community Association developed from the closed-off and inward-facing Chinese community of New Zealand–the “old Chinese” whose ancestors arrived from rural Cantonese-speaking counties in Guangdong in the 1860s. Immigration law changes in 1989 brought new communities speaking different languages, with different political, social and economic backgrounds into New Zealand, creating new diversification to what it means to be a Chinese New Zealander. This paper investigates how this “old Chinese” association has adapted to “new” Chinese groups. We argue that a unique “rooted cosmopolitanism” has developed in this association, where local practices and resources have enabled it to manage potential tensions and growing pains of serving diverse groups in the current multi-ethnic context of New Zealand.

Duke Scholars

Author Keping Wu DKU Faculty