In the Face of Diversity: A history of Chinese Australian community organisations 1970s2020s
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
In the Face of Diversity: A history of Chinese Australian community organisations 1970s2020s
By (Author) Nathan D. Gardner Molina
Sydney University Press
Sydney University Press
1st May 2025
Australia
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Ethnic groups and multicultural studies
Physical Properties
Paperback
Width 148mm, Height 210mm
Description
Has a united or singular "Chinese Australian community" ever actually existed If so, would a united community be a means to an end or an end in itself And where would this community sit in contemporary multicultural Australia
In the Face of Diversity offers answers to these questions with the history of more than a dozen Chinese Australian community organisations from across the country, drawing on the English- and Chinese-language materials produced by these organisations, as well as interviews with past and present leaders. Instead of a single community, the evidence demonstrates the existence of many diverse Chinese Australian communities.
Familiar and fascinating moments of recent Australian history are treated with new and evocative perspectives in relation to Chinese Australian communities, from the official turn away from the White Australia policy and embrace of multiculturalism in the 1970s to the debate about China's influence upon Australian politics and society, beginning in the 2010s and continuing into the present.
In the Face of Diversity advances that "unity" has only ever been momentarily or partially grasped by Chinese Australian community organisations but that it has nonetheless produced real-world outcomes, the most prominent being a highly participatory style of Australian multiculturalism. Gardner Molina dismantles the myth of a single Chinese Australian community and rebuilds a solid understanding of many diverse communities instead; each with their own aims, needs and participatory capacities.
Author Bio
Dr Nathan D. Gardner Molina is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Melbourne taking part in an ARC Discovery Project to produce a history of Australias community sponsorship programs for refugee resettlement. As a historian of Australias immigration and ethnic diversity, Nathan delivered the 2024 Hancock Lecture for Australian Academy of Humanities, What Makes a Multicultural Nation
