505363

earch-article2013
NMS0010.1177/1461444813505363new media & societyYin

Article

new media & society

2015, Vol. 17(4) 556­–572
Chinese-language Cyberspace, © The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/1461444813505363
media: A contested space for nms.sagepub.com

being Chinese

Hang Yin
University of Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract
This article investigates how the Chinese-language Cyberspace influences the identity
construction of migrant netizens. Two dimensions of the Chinese-language Cyberspace
are identified – homeland media and ethnic media. While ethnic media has been
researched extensively, online homeland media is largely overlooked in academic
research. Using Chinese migrants in New Zealand as a case study and combining the
analyses of empirical data derived from interviews and online texts, this research
argues that online homeland media is a potent factor in the construction of migrant
identity and deserves more academic attention. It reinforces a sense of being ‘authentic
Chinese’ among migrant netizens. Simultaneously yet in contrast, online ethnic media
helps to reconstruct ‘being Chinese’ – as migrants and as an ethnic minority in the host
country. The deterritorialised Chinese-language Cyberspace provides a virtual space
where migrant identity is constantly negotiated between various factors of acquired
Kiwiness and inherited and reconstructed Chineseness.

Keywords
Chinese-language cyberspace, ethnic media, homeland media, identity, Internet, migrant

Introduction
Media have long been recognised as a potent factor in national and cultural identity con-
struction. According to Anderson (1983), print capitalism unified people in the ‘imag-
ined community’ of the nation-state, forging a sense of nationhood and a collective
national identity. A common public and mass culture is critical in the construction of

Corresponding author:
Hang Yin, School of Asian Studies, University of Auckland, Room 418, Arts 2 Building, 18 Symonds Street,
Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
Email: hyin018@aucklanduni.ac.nz
Yin 557

national identity, and the public system of education and mass media are recognised as
agencies of popular socialisation (Smith, 1991: 11). With the intensified process of glo-
balisation started in the late 20th century, media play an important role in the reconfigu-
ration of the imagination of the nation-state and the cultural and national identity
(Appadurai, 1997; Fernandes, 2000; Kellner, 1995; Morley and Robins, 1995; Tomlinson,
1999). The advancement in communications and transportation technologies has not
only ushered in a significantly increased trans-border flow of capital and cultural prod-
ucts, but also the massive and unprecedented transnational movement of people (Glick
Schiller et al., 1992; Levitt, 2003; Portes, 1996; Vertovec, 2002). These transnational
migrants carry with them a collective memory of their homeland to the host country
(Sun, 2002). What is more, while ‘settling down’ in their new home, migrants maintain
their ties with the homeland through transnational economic, social, cultural and political
participations enabled by the new information and communications technologies (ICTs)
ranging from more traditional telephony to satellite TV, and most recently, the Internet
(Bernal, 2005; Hiller and Franz, 2004; Parham, 2004; Sinclair and Cunningham, 2000;
Sun, 2002; Vertovec, 2004). In this phenomenon, transnational media – the content as
well as the consumption of them – have become powerful forces in the construction of
the identity of transnational migrants.
The transnational phenomenon has again brought forth questions about the relation-
ship between place/territory and cultural identity of migrants, especially with regard to
the Cyberspace as a ‘deterritorialising’ force. Deterritorialisation, as a key concept in the
influence of globalisation on culture, emphasises territory losing its significance in cul-
tural experiences and identity construction (Tomlinson, 1999). The concept involves the
notion, as Morley and Robins provocatively claim, that territory/places ‘are no longer the
clear supports of our identity’ (Morley and Robins, 1995: 87) in the current era of
globalisation.
When migrants meet online media, their identity construction should be investigated
through a ‘cyber-lens’ and in a more nuanced manner. The following questions have thus
become central to this research. What elements do online media add to and/or detract
from migrant identity? How do migrant netizens interact with online media, and how is
identity manifested and negotiated in the Cyberspace? Do the digital media, as com-
monly assumed, render locality insignificant in the identity construction of migrants that
is characterised by hybridity and fluidity and manifested as hyphenated identity labels,
that is, Chinese-New Zealander or New Zealand-Chinese?
Using the experience of Chinese migrant netizens in New Zealand, this article situates
the analysis of transnational migrants and transnational media in the context of cultural
globalisation. Most of the existing research on online media and migrant identity focuses
on two approaches. One treats the Cyberspace as a ‘deterritorialised’, single and all-
inclusive subject; the other looks only at ethnic media and explores how they influence
migrant identity. Instead of taking one of these two paths, I propose that a more nuanced
research approach is needed to better understand the influence of the Chinese-language
online media on the identity construction of migrants. The Chinese-language Cyberspace
should be explored from two different dimensions, namely online homeland media and
online ethnic media – both are concepts based on locality. The two, although interwoven
in many ways, play essentially different roles in the identity construction of Chinese
558 new media & society 17(4)

migrant netizens. What is more, despite the fact that transnational digital media provides
new possibilities for deterritorialised migrant identity, territory has a great impact on the
identity construction of transnational migrants.

Identity construction of immigrants: The role of ethnic

media
One way to explore the identity construction of migrants is to look at their ethnic media
in the host country, which has long been the focus of scholars researching the migrant
population. Ethnic media is defined as media by and for ethnics in a host country with
content in ethnic languages (Georgiou, 2001; Jeffres, 1999; Johnson, 2000; Shi, 2009;
Viswanath and Arora, 2000).1 It is assumed to be produced by ‘ethnic communities in the
host country to serve ethnics’ cultural, political, economic and everyday needs’ (Shi,
2009: 599). As such, ethnic media seem to accentuate the deterritorialisation of migrant
identity – interweaving the local with the transnational. This is because the influence of
ethnic media is two-fold.
On the one hand, ethnic media seem to have its root in the host country, fostering an
identity that is embedded in the local experience specific to a migrant’s physical location.
As Lin and Song (2006: 364) rightfully point out, since globalisation is experienced in the
local context, in order to illustrate the roles of ethnic media researchers need to focus on
‘geo-ethnic stories’ that can produce culturally relevant and locally vital information to
immigrants in the host society. Empirical research has provided evidence to support this
location-specific perspective. Zhou and Cai (2002) point out that ethnic media connect
migrants to the host society, keep migrants informed about the local events, and provide
migrants with a detailed roadmap for them to ‘navigate unknown and foreign territories’.
Ethnic news media are found to have an ‘assimilatory function’, reporting more on
involvement of migrants in the host country politics (Viswanath and Arora, 2000).
On the other hand, ethnic media also play an essentially deterritorialising role, pre-
serving ethnic culture and identity lifted out of the locality (Jeffres, 1999; Johnson, 2000;
Zhang and Hao, 1999). Johnson (2000) finds that a notable amount of content in the US
Latina magazines helps preserve ethnic culture and identity – promoting ethnic pride,
presenting symbolic ethnicity and unifying subgroups (Johnson, 2000: 246).
With the development of transnational electronic media, the ‘mediascape’ (Appadurai,
1997) of migrants has become more complex, especially since the early 1990s, since
when migrants have been able to maintain their ties to the home country more easily than
their predecessors due to the technological development in communications (Viswanath
and Arora, 2000: 41). As a consequence, media scholars call for a nuanced analysis of
ethnic media given the media’s heterogeneous nature of places of origin, location-
specific content and distribution pattern, as well as ownership status (Georgiou, 2001;
Jeffres, 1999; Lin and Song, 2006; Shi, 2009; Zhou and Cai, 2002). The main argument
points to the duality of online ethnic media – they foster migrant integration into the host
society and simultaneously preserve ethnic culture and identity. This perspective is fur-
ther supported by empirical studies. For instance, Zhang and Hao (1999) find that online
Chinese-language publications, while helping migrants assimilate into the mainstream
host society, make it possible for migrants to keep their cultural traits, retaining cultural
Yin 559

roots and ethnic identity. Melkote and Liu (2000) also find that Chinese ethnic Internet
use creates a ‘pluralistic integration’ for Chinese students and scholars in the US – they
integrate into the host society in terms of their behaviours, but sustain their Chinese cul-
tural values. Ethnic media in this sense accentuate the ambiguous lived experience
(Tomlinson, 1999) of migrants in the globalised world.

The increasingly relevant online homeland media

It is important to point out that most of the existing research has neglected to address the
role of ‘online homeland media’ – produced in the home country without specifically
targeting, yet easily accessible to, overseas migrants, especially when societies and peo-
ples are increasingly ‘wired’ through the Internet. This largely under-researched area is
most likely caused by the fact that the homeland media, until recently, had not been able
to exert timely and direct influence on migrants and their communities.
Before the advent of electronic media, the transnational information flow suffered
greatly from barriers set by the physical distance between the homeland and the host
country. Only a small amount of information from the homeland was able to reach its
diasporic audiences, and it often took a long time. The transmission was usually done
through newsletters or back issues of publications brought to the host country by newly
arrived migrants (Ip, 2006). Hence, the homeland information that the diasporic audi-
ences received was fragmented and inconsistent. Satellite TV manifested some capabil-
ity of bringing homeland media to diasporic audiences. However, most of the content
from homeland TV is acquired through locally operated ethnic television, which only
transmits selected programmes rather than the whole channel (Sinclair and Cunningham,
2000). In addition, accessibility of satellite TV is usually constrained by the financial
means of migrants (Sun, 2006). Most importantly, satellite TV lacks the interactivity and
simultaneity that the Internet has to offer. Therefore, in the pre-digital era, homeland
media was not able to exert continuous and consistent influence on migrant
communities.
Migrants nowadays have increasingly easy access through the Internet to the unadul-
terated and unedited ‘pure’ homeland media.2 If the locally produced ethnic media con-
tent is considered not full enough, migrants will simply choose to access homegrown
materials on the Internet (Ip, 2006). Most importantly, while ethnic media are location
specific, catering for the needs of migrants of a particular host country, homeland media
are the mainstream in their own country. As such, these China-based mainstream media
outlets do not position themselves as services catering for diasporic audiences, but none-
theless have the great potential to, borrowing Tomlinson’s assumption (1999: 106), fun-
damentally transform the relationship between the places immigrants inhabit and their
cultural practices, experiences and identities, when access to these online media is just a
click away on the computer.

Research methods
The study adopts a qualitative approach, synthesising in-depth interview with online
texts. Instead of studying media content and media users separately, this research
560 new media & society 17(4)

combines the two sets of data – media text (including both institution- and user- gener-
ated text) and interviewees’ discourses to illustrate the interaction between Chinese-
language online media and migrant netizens.
Textual data are collected from both ethnic and homeland online media. Skykiwi,
New Zealand’s number one Chinese-language website, is chosen as the sample of online
ethnic media.3 It has over 160,000 registered members, attracts 60,000 unique IP visits
and 700,000 daily page views.4 The website provides a variety of services, such as news,
online forums, trading platforms and a Facebook-style social networking service called
iHome. Textual data of China-based online homeland media are collected from major
portals, that is, Sina.com (Sina), Sohu.com (Sohu), QQ.com (Tencent) and 163.com
(NetEase).
The target group of the research is the new immigrants from the People’s Republic of
China (PRC) arriving since the late 1980s. New Zealand adopted a new immigrant policy
in 1987 that turned from immigrant selection based on criteria of race and country of
origin to those based on criteria of personal merit (Ip, 1995; Lidgard et al., 1998). Since
then, the number of Chinese migrants from PRC has increased significantly. According
to the 2006 census, the population of PRC-born Chinese reached 77,157, accounting for
52.3% of the total Chinese population in New Zealand.5 This cohort of Chinese migrants
is largely different from their predecessors who immigrated to New Zealand in the late
19th and early 20th centuries. Emotionally, their recent immigration means that their
memory of the previous homeland is still vivid and fresh (Sun, 2002). Pragmatically, in
contrast to their ‘sojourner’ and ‘settler’ predecessors, the new PRC migrants are largely
transnationals, travelling back and forth in between China and New Zealand, and keep-
ing strong ties with the previous homeland (Ip and Friesen, 2001). As such, this mostly
young and tech-savvy cohort makes a relevant and very important research subject in the
investigation of migrant identity formation.
The group of migrant netizens in this research is defined as immigrants who have
lived in New Zealand for at least 12 months and have access to the Internet at the place
they live. A total of 18 interviews with Chinese migrant netizens were conducted in
Auckland in the second half of 2011. The Auckland region is the largest of the 16 regions
in New Zealand with a population over 1.3 million, 4.1% of which are PRC-born immi-
grants.6 The participants include international students, work visa holders, PRC citizens
with New Zealand permanent residency and New Zealand citizens.7 They are mostly in
their early-20s to mid-40s, with three in their 50s, and are of various educational back-
grounds and English language skills. Their annual incomes range from 0 to NZD 60,000.
During the semi-structured interview, participants were asked about their Internet usage
patterns (frequency, preference and participation) and their identity. They were also asked
to provide their subjective explanations for developing these usage patterns and their iden-
tity. Participants were also given opportunities to share their reflections on how Internet use
influences their life as migrants, especially with regard to their identity construction.
The narratives and discourses of the online media outlets as well as the user-generated
content are analysed together with the subjective reflections of the interview partici-
pants. By doing so, the research intends to put the analysis into the dynamic media-
migrants context with the aim of providing a better understanding of the interaction
between the two.
Yin 561

Online homeland media: Reinforcing the sense of being

‘authentic Chinese’
For migrant netizens who frequent the online homeland media, three factors contribute
to their sense of being ‘authentic Chinese’. Among the 18 interviewees, 16 admit that
they frequent China-based online media, most of which are mainstream portal web ser-
vices. The frequent use of online homeland media immerses them in the homeland main-
stream media discourse. A strong ‘genuine Chineseness’ is reinforced through three
aspects in online homeland media – the undifferentiated Chinese identity narratives, the
original Chinese culture reservoir and the uniform political discourses.

Mainstream identity narratives: Feeling included

Homeland media can merge diasporic netizens into their mainstream discourses and give
migrants a sense of being an integral part of the Chinese nation. The homeland media
frequented by diasporic netizens are mostly mainstream portal websites such as Sina.
com, Sohu.com, QQ.com and 163.com (NetEase).8 As exemplified in their visions and
mission statements, these online media are inherently different from ethnic media in
various host countries because they do not differentiate their audiences particularly as
Chinese in China or Chinese migrants overseas.
For instance, Sohu describes itself as constructing ‘China’s premier online brand’,
which becomes ‘indispensable to the daily life of millions of Chinese nationals (Zhongguo
renmin)’.9 163.com (NetEase) claims itself to be ‘the pioneer of China’s portal web-
sites…endeavour to advance the digital life experience for Chinese nationals’.10
QQ.com’s (Tencent’s) ‘about us’ page reads ‘Vision – To be the most respected Internet
company; Mission – To enhance people’s quality of life through Internet services’.11
As shown above, China-based mainstream websites assume that China is their primary
market and their audiences are treated as a homogeneous ‘Chinese people’. Accessing
these mainstream outlets instils users with a natural sense of belonging to this homogene-
ous Chinese group; it infers strong in-group identification among all Chinese users with
no differentiation between homeland nationals and diasporic transnationals. In these
homeland media, there is an assumption of loyalty to China, unifying all Chinese and
treating them as the ‘sons of the Yellow Emperor’, the mythical ancestor of all Chinese.
The influence of the narratives in these mainstream homeland media on migrants can be
exemplified by the terms that diasporic netizens use to describe non-Chinese people. Many
Chinese migrants pick up the labels used in homeland media discourses, drawing a clear
line between the Chinese ‘us’ and foreigners ‘them’, regardless of their physical location.
Frances (PR 26 F) accesses China-based online services almost exclusively; she finds her-
self using the labels that frequently appear in the online homeland media: ‘I want to know
what is happening in China; … most of my friends here in New Zealand are Chinese. We
talk about China when we hang out; we wouldn’t talk about foreign (laowai) news.’
Residing in the host country, many diasporic netizens like Frances still use the word
Laowai (foreigners) or Waiguo ren (foreign people or person) – frequently used terms in
the media discourses in China – to describe non-Chinese, particularly New Zealanders of
European descent. This ‘locals seen as foreigners’ comment reveals a locality–identity
562 new media & society 17(4)

paradox that many migrant netizens constantly face – their reinforced sense of belonging
to China acquired from the inclusive narratives in homeland media and their status as
migrants residing physically in the host country.
Frequenting homeland online media, the Chinese migrant netizens tend to root their
identity in their distant homeland rather than their immediate physical location. On the
one hand, the homeland media discourses provide migrants with a natural and comfort-
able way of sticking to their pre-migration identity of being Chinese. It is natural because
the discourses contain no delineation of overseas Chinese and Chinese in China – every
user is treated as equal, simply ‘Chinese’. It is comfortable because homeland media
does not require the migrant netizen to make a conscious adjustment in their identity to
be just another Chinese Internet user. These factors play an important role in reinforcing
the Chinese element in migrant identity. On the other hand, the evidence also shows that
their identity is lifted out of their physical location. Physically residing in New Zealand
does not seem to do much to anchor their identity to the host country. There is still a
demarcation between us and them.
For many diasporic netizens who frequent China-based online services, the physical
boundaries between the homeland and the host country are significantly weakened. Kate
(PR 23 F) migrated to New Zealand when she was only 15. She explains how her choice
of visiting China-based websites is linked to her sense of belonging:

[Accessing China-based websites] gives me a sense of belonging. For example, I don’t feel any
gap (gehe) between me and my 16-year-old cousin from China who visited New Zealand this
year. They are surprised that I know all the popular phrases used by Chinese netizens [in China].
I have all the characteristics that Chinese young netizens have. I’m very Chinese in this aspect.
I can discuss popular topics in China with them… and I watch the same Chinese entertainment
shows online, just like them.

In fact, not only the affinity with netizens in China is instilled, but also the affiliation
with the homeland is reinforced through the daily consumption of homeland media. Peng
(WK 36 M) comments on his use of China-based online services:

I feel not that far away from China now. As soon as I get onto these websites, I feel the intimacy.
It feels like…though I’m not physically in China, I can still access things in the country. I’m not
cut off from China.

In the above examples, China-based homeland media, enabled by the Internet, have
transcended geographical boundaries in between the home and the host countries. They
act as a potent factor in building and maintaining the affinity and affiliation with the
people of China and the home country itself among migrant netizens. The deterritorial-
ised cyberspace provides the Chinese migrant netizens with an identity that is deeply
rooted in a territory, China.

Culture reservoir: Being authentic Chinese

Online homeland media are also powerful in reinforcing the sense of being Chinese
among these migrants by providing an original, authentic culture reservoir. Before
Yin 563

migrating to another country, people in China rarely think about their identity of being
Chinese; their locality makes them take their identity for granted. When asked what
‘being Chinese’ means to her, Jing (WK 36 F) responded, ‘I didn’t even think about it
when I was back in China. Everyone around me is Chinese. I was just another person
(instead of another Chinese person).’
However, the sense of being Chinese can become conscious either through internal
efforts of the subject, and/or through repetitive external stimuli. All the respondents in
this research, at some stage during the interviews, used terms such as ‘ethnic minority’
and ‘ethnic Chinese (huaren)’ that clearly illustrate their consciousness of being an eth-
nic minority in the host society. This consciousness of changed identity will be discussed
in detail later in the article.
While host society experience may remind migrants of their minority and/or migrant
status, frequenting homeland media can imbue migrant netizens with a preconsciousness
of being Chinese through common language, myths and history, sometimes even aes-
thetic and in-jokes that are readily comprehensible to Chinese. Kate’s comment about her
preference of homeland media websites is ‘Chinese websites are far better designed and
more beautiful than New Zealand ones. Laowai (foreigners’) websites don’t appeal to
me. Chinese websites are simply more interesting, more beautiful and more fun.’
For migrants like Kate, the aesthetic perception reflects their cultural preference and the
Chineseness in their identity. Migrant netizens find homeland media content more interest-
ing and fun because the content is within their cultural repertoire. Therefore, the familiarity
with the cultural context affects their capacity of understanding the content, and satisfac-
tion acquired by consuming it. Most significantly, frequenting homeland websites enables
migrant netizens to maintain such cultural familiarity without any disjunction.

Mainstream political discourse and agenda: Thinking alike

Interviews suggest that the participants are up-to-date with current affairs about China.
All were able to give examples of major events in China’s mainstream media at the time
of the interview, many of which were covered only briefly in the host country media, if
at all. For instance, several interviewees commented on the high-speed rail crash in
Zhejiang Province, China, in July 2011, which is not covered in detail in New Zealand
mainstream media. As a result, they followed the news on homeland media – portal web-
sites and microblogs. By doing so, migrant netizens pick up the frame and agenda set by
homeland media, as shown in the following examples.
Similar to his counterparts in China, Yang (IS 29 M) expressed his anger towards
those who were responsible and his sympathy towards the victims, ‘I left some com-
ments online. First, my anger; second, to hold the government accountable, and third, my
sympathy towards Chinese people.’
Samantha (NZ 49 F) commented: ‘I think [the development of China] is too fast. It
should be slower, steadier, and that’s the better advancement. Too fast, many things can
go wrong.’
Jessica (NZ 51 F) reads news on Sina and Sohu every night. Her comment is milder
and more in-line with the Chinese official mainstream discourse.
564 new media & society 17(4)

It’s maybe a blessing in disguise. [China’s] development is too fast, and other systems
are yet to catch up and safeguard such a fast development. Now there’s this incident, and
[the supervision] becomes stricter. Though many people died in this incident, it is a good
thing …

The three comments above, among many others from the interviewees, are very simi-
lar to the discourses in the homeland mainstream media – expressing anger towards the
avoidable incident, holding the government accountable, suggesting a slower and steady
development, and sometimes seeing the incident as a ‘blessing in disguise’ in the course
of China’s development.
What is important is that, like their counterparts in China, these migrant netizens sel-
dom jump out of the news frame in the heavily censored homeland media and discuss the
subject matter from another point of view. For instance, there was no questioning of the
corruption and lack of supervision caused by the single-party political system, and no
challenging of the Communist Party’s ruling – all these are strictly censored in China’s
media. The comments also indicate the interviewees’ concern over the homeland, be it
critical remarks or optimistic predictions.
The points presented in this section show that being a daily routine of these migrants,
the consumption of online homeland media helps the Chinese migrant netizens to foster
a strong in-group feeling of being an authentic Chinese. To a great extent, online home-
land media fosters what Billig calls ‘banal nationalism’ among these migrant netizens, an
unobtrusive ideology based on an imagined nationhood that is banally expressed in peo-
ple’s mundane practices and mass media through a ‘routine deixis’ pointing to the home-
land and ‘unwaved flags’ indicating the nationhood (Billig, 1995). As shown in the
findings, the identity labels used, the culture preference and familiarity, and the align-
ment with China’s mainstream political discourse help the migrant netizens to differenti-
ate a Chinese ‘us’ from a local ‘them’. However, unlike what Billig suggests, that having
a national identity means being situated physically in a homeland, the implied together-
ness among the migrants and their compatriots in China does not require physical prox-
imity. Thanks to the Internet, China is re-embedded in the identity of these Chinese
migrant netizens through the consumption of online homeland media. Interestingly, the
deterritorialised cyberspace has in this case reinforced territory as the anchor to migrant
identity, and seems to provide more clarity than ambiguity to migrant identity through a
collective Chinese imagination.

Online ethnic media and the reconstruction of being

Chinese
While similar to traditional ethnic media in facilitating adaptation and integration, online
ethnic media manifest new functions in the formation of migrant identity. Different lay-
ers of migrant identity (being Chinese, Kiwi, cosmopolitan, etc.) are at the same time
manifested, fostered and negotiated in online ethnic media. Although they help instil a
sense of being Chinese into migrant netizens’ identity, that sense of Chinese is recon-
structed carries a new meaning.
Yin 565

Reinforcing Chinese elements

Online ethnic media, similar to their traditional counterparts, help to maintain the Chinese
elements in migrant netizens’ identity. What is new about online ethnic media is that they
are able to provide immediate and intimate connections with the homeland through
China-based social networking sites (SNSs) starting from only a couple of years ago.
Given its recency and tremendous implication on migrant identity construction, I shall
first focus on this new feature of online ethnic media.
If reading China news and celebrating ethnic cultural events online indicates a sym-
bolic connection with the homeland for migrant netizens, then the emerging China-based
SNS platforms increasingly exploited by the online ethnic media accentuate such links
and make the connections ‘more real’ between the diaspora and the homeland. Since
2011, many online ethnic media have noticed the rising momentum of SNSs in dissemi-
nating information and building communities. They started to offer ‘sharing’ buttons
under each of their news items, allowing users to share news on various China-based
SNS platforms such as Sina Weibo, Netease Weibo, Tencent Weibo, Sohu Weibo, Renren
and Douban.12
This is a significant move towards an immediate and seamless connection with the
homeland. Now the link is not only an imagination created by migrant netizens when
reading homeland news, but a conscious action of making the connection by clicking the
sharing button. Firstly, to share news items requires the user to be a registered member of
those China-based SNSs. Although the membership registration is usually a simple pro-
cess, it signifies a sense of in-group belonging to (and an identification with) China and
Chinese. Given the fact that these China-based SNSs are usually substitutions of interna-
tional platforms banned in China (e.g. Twitter and Facebook), the target group are Chinese
users. Setting up one’s network on these SNSs literally means signing into a network with
Chinese peers. Thus, using the SNS does not only represent being a member of the online
community, but more importantly, a registered member of ‘Cyber China’. As pointed out
by the interviewees who are users of these China-based SNS, all their ‘friends’ and ‘fol-
lowers’ are Chinese, either in China, New Zealand or other Chinese diasporas.
What is more, the sharing action is a conscious choice that emphasises the building
and/or strengthening of the connection between migrant netizens and the homeland.
Through sharing information within one’s network, old ties with Chinese peers are main-
tained, and new ties are built with those who are also interested in the information shared.
One interviewee, Ien (PR 24 M) said that when he shared news through Sina Weibo
about a tornado in Auckland in May 2011, the posting drew attention from his friends in
China. Caring words appeared in the replies to his posting, which made him feel ‘warm
and comfortable when away from home’. This suggests that the seemingly simple func-
tion of sharing news on ethnic media over China-based SNS platforms strengthens the
ties between migrant netizens and their homeland counterparts.
Arguably, such ties highlight the interactive engagement of migrant netizens with the
homeland. These ties seem to add more weight to the authentic Chinese identity that
homeland online media already foster. However, a more nuanced analysis suggests that
other factors of online ethnic media have fundamentally changed what being Chinese
means to these migrant netizens.
566 new media & society 17(4)

Creating new meanings of being Chinese

A new sense of ‘being Chinese’ is in the making as manifested on the ethnic websites.
First and foremost, through the discourse of a homogenous Chinese group, online ethnic
media present to diasporic audiences an all-encompassing pan-Chinese identity. The
seemingly simple but arguably most compelling example is the frequently used term
‘huaren’ or ‘huayi’. Literally translated, the term huaren means ‘ethnic Chinese’, and
huayi means ‘Chinese descendant’. Both terms, when used without any modifier, carry a
connotation of a homogenous group, including all ethnic Chinese without any acknowl-
edgement of their differences in culture and country of origin. The reason that the Chinese
phonetic transcripts are used here is that translating these terms into ‘Chinese’ would be
problematic because the word ‘Chinese’, for most of PRC people, connotes ‘people of
China’ or ‘China-Chinese’ (zhongguo ren).
Similar to Aihwa Ong’s analysis of the use of cyberspace by overseas Chinese based
on Huaren.org (Ong, 2008),13 online ethnic media, by using the term huaren, present to
their audiences an essentialised idea that emphasises biological similarity and covers
every single ethnic Chinese under its umbrella without considering their differences.
For many migrant netizens, the all-inclusive concept of huaren has already taken root.
Jing has come to New Zealand for about three years, and due to her limited English lan-
guage skills, her information about local events are exclusively from ethnic media –
websites and radio. In August 2010, a Hong Konger carrying a poster appeared on
Auckland’s Queen Street. The poster carried derogatory remarks such as ‘zhongguo ren
are pigs.’ Jing commented after she read about it on Skykiwi. ‘Discrimination against
huaren already exists in the Western world. Now a huaren swears at his own group?! I’m
furious at this.’ Obviously, Jing has already learned to pick up the term huaren frequently
used in her newly adopted media environment. She is also aware of the inclusive nature
of the term, automatically put herself and the Hong Konger into one homogenous pan-
Chinese group.
The term huaren is used frequently by the interviewees to describe themselves, sug-
gesting that for many of them, being Chinese has changed – from being a member of
China to a member of a larger Chinese group. Most importantly, this changed meaning
of being Chinese is constantly reminded by online ethnic media in the host country.
Another additive in the reconstruction of being Chinese is the racial and social labels
that online ethnic media stamp on their audiences. Online ethnic media’s potential to
facilitate the identification to China is put into challenge by its very own content. Similar
to their traditional counterparts, online ethnic media pick up identity labels prescribed by
the host country mainstream and pass them on to their audiences (Shi, 2009: 606).
‘Asians’, ‘minority’, ‘ethnic minority’ and ‘immigrant’ appear frequently when referring
to Chinese in their news reports.
These identity labels are essential in the construction of diasporic identity in that most
migrant netizens did not encounter such identity reminders in China before they migrated
to New Zealand. For them being Chinese was an accepted fact that is natural, and that
there is no need to articulate. However, after they came to New Zealand, being Chinese
becomes a differentiating and articulated identity label. More importantly, this identity
label of being Chinese does not appear alone, usually presented with a modifier such as
Yin 567

‘minority’ or ‘immigrant’. Phrases such as ‘huaren immigrants’ and ‘huaren as ethnic

minority’ are commonly used on these ethnic websites, confronting in every sense the
meaning of being Chinese that had long been developed among these Chinese netizens
pre-migration.
The adoption of mainstream labels is an important process and is powerful in the
construction of migrant identity in the host land. Even for those who have already devel-
oped an attachment to New Zealand, the terms help to build a wall preventing a total
sense of inclusion. One of the interviewees expresses her opinion on whether Chinese
could consider themselves as equal to other people in New Zealand:

It’s stupid to think that we are sheltered under their roof and thus we need to take it
(discrimination) all in without raising our voice. When we come here, this place becomes
home, and we are part of this place… as ethnic minority, we may need political leaders,
representatives to fight for our rights…the laws here won’t discriminate against us simply
because we’re huaren. (Helen NZ 50 F)

Helen gives a realistic assessment of her position as ethnic minority in the host coun-
try. For many migrants like her, New Zealand is already home, but the identity has yet to
change from being a Chinese to being a rightful New Zealander. Host country social
reality and media discourses have helped these migrants to perpetuate their sense of
being Chinese. However, as for Helen, the meaning of being Chinese as a Cantonese in
Guangzhou city (where she is originally from) has changed to being Chinese as huaren
and minority who need to fight for equal rights in the host country.
Jessica’s comments reflect a similar shift in the meaning of being Chinese but with
even less attachment to the host country. ‘I think that huaren migrants lack the active will
to communicate with the mainstream society. That is why there is a feeling of being dis-
criminated upon.’ Unlike Helen’s ‘ethnic minority Chinese’, Jessica’s term, huaren
migrants, indicates a sense of being outsiders of the host society, because being a migrant
suggests that one is away and separated from the place of origin and infers that one is less
attached to the host country.
Be it minority or migrant Chinese, the meaning of being Chinese has changed after
migration to New Zealand. The labels in the media, among other migrant experiences,
have significant influences on how the migrant netizens perceive themselves vis-à-vis
the home and host countries. ‘Migrant huaren’ and ‘ethnic minority huaren’ remind the
migrant netizens of their status of being migrant Chinese outside the homeland, and
being ethnic minority Chinese in the host country. As such, the migrant netizens continue
to consider themselves as Chinese, but as migrant, ethnic Chinese; and ethnic media
never let them forget the new meaning by crystallising the labels in their discourses.

Contesting Kiwiness
Reminders of being Chinese also emerge from the interactions among migrant netizens
themselves. In the news comments and forum postings on Skykiwi.com, exchanges
among participants sometimes present contention against the articulation of Kiwiness or
the sense of belonging to the host country.
568 new media & society 17(4)

From 2009 to 2012, a Shanghai-based Chinese company proposed to buy 16 New

Zealand farms known as the Crafar Farms. News items on the deal attracted a large
amount of participation from Chinese migrant netizens on Skykiwi.com. The central
issue was whether to sell the farms to a Chinese company, given the perceived bad food
safety record and rampant corruption in China. Some migrant netizens disapproved of
the deal and argued that such a Chinese ownership would impact negatively on New
Zealand’s dairy industry. In the argument, a few manifested a sense of belonging to the
host country and became defensive of New Zealand’s national interest.
Their view was contested then by other migrant netizens who not only approve of the
sale but also see the ‘disapproving group’ as putting shame on their homeland. Some
argued that defending New Zealand’s national interest showed an unrealistic attachment
to the host country. One posting stated, ‘their government will take consideration of their
people from an economic point of view. No fucking use that you second class citizen
bark here…’ (IP: 125.237.89.*)
Others accuse them of forgetting their ancestral root and bringing shame to China and
Chinese people. One posting read ‘don’t learn to be anti-China. That’s the place where
your ancestors are from… A strong China is a good thing for you, for all the huaren…’
(IP: 222.153.68.*) Another posting said, ‘whenever this kind of topics appears, there are
always some “banana” coming out and defame their own brothers and sisters…’ (IP:
202.169.203.*)
The exchanges can usually become very nasty with participants swearing at each
other and accusing the ‘disapproving group’ as hanjian (Chinese traitors). The salient
point of the seemingly uncivilised rumpus is that the comments try to persuade the ‘dis-
approving group’ out of the ‘unrealistic’ attachment to the host country, and to re-instil
their Chinese identity. Terms such as ‘their government’ and ‘their people’ draw a clear
line between ‘Chinese us’ and ‘Kiwi them’; notions of ‘second class citizens’, ‘banana’
and ‘ancestral China’ suggest their status in the host country, their identity of being inau-
thentic Chinese and their irrevocable biological connections to the ancestral homeland as
perceived by some of the in-group peers.
To sum up, online ethnic media are potent in the reconstruction of being Chinese for
migrant netizens. The locality remains essential of their identity. Given their connection
to China and lived experience in New Zealand, these migrant netizens will never be the
same type of Chinese as they used to be before migration – they are now part of the
homogenous huaren group in the world, and migrant and ethnic Chinese in New Zealand,
and even if they migrate back to China, they would be ‘returned overseas Chinese’ (hai-
gui). Online ethnic media in this sense present migrant netizens with serious challenges
to their original Chinese identity shaped by online homeland media.

Conclusion
This article sets out to investigate the influence of the Chinese-language Cyberspace on
the identity construction of Chinese migrant netizens in New Zealand. More specifically,
the Chinese-language Cyberspace is further divided into two realms based on locality
–online homeland media and online ethnic media. While the transnational nature high-
lights the Cyberspace’s deterritorialising power, such location-based delineation allows
Yin 569

this research to provide a nuanced understanding of how the two types of Chinese-
language media provide unique influences for the identity (re-)formation among migrant
netizens. Findings in this research challenge the popular view that with the rise of deter-
ritorialised online digital media, migrant identity is no longer rooted in places and is
characterised by hybridity manifested in hyphenated forms in the current era of
globalisation.
Based and produced in China, online homeland media are found to be the source of
an authentic Chinese identity for migrant netizens. Frequenting online homeland media
as a mundane practice has enabled transnational subjects to join the collective imagina-
tion of the homeland and the nationhood fostered by these mainstream media in China,
who treat their audiences as a homogenous group and do not differentiate Chinese over-
seas and Chinese in China. The sense of being authentic Chinese is thus maintained and
reinforced among migrant netizens when togetherness is implied through common lan-
guage, culture and political perspectives manifested as the little words, the images, the
turns of phrase, the aesthetics and the banal narratives of identity in the media. The banal
deixis means the constant presence of the homeland as the origin of migrant identity, and
accentuates the ‘ease with which it can be taken for granted’ (Billig, 1995: 144). Adding
to this ‘natural’ way of reinforcing an authentic Chinese identity through online home-
land media, online ethnic media, by applying ‘share’ buttons over China-based SNS
platforms, provide a conscious choice for migrant netizens to enjoy the togetherness with
their compatriots in China. The evidence suggests that the Chinese-language Cyberspace
does not dissolve location-based identity, but on the contrary may reinforce it by anchor-
ing migrant identity to China.
While China remains the anchor in these migrant netizens’ identity, the host country
serves as an important reference point in the reconstruction of the meaning of being
Chinese. Here, the physical location presents its power in identity politics. Online ethnic
media challenge the authentic Chinese identity fostered by homeland media. Migrant
netizens are imbued with new identity labels such as the homogeneous ‘huaren’, and the
minority ‘migrant and ethnic Chinese’, to the extent that they will never be the same
Chinese as they used to be before migration. With their Chinese identity renewed and
reinforced, many migrant netizens found themselves confronted and criticised for the
occasional expressions of attachment to the host country by others in online ethnic
media. This is local identity politics writ large, but not so much in the sense that host
country identity is taking root in migrant netizens; rather, it is their identity of being
Chinese fundamentally reconfigured due to their physical location and their lived experi-
ence in the host country. The Chinese-language Cyberspace is a tool of the ‘reconfigura-
tion of existing understandings’ (Elden, 2005: 8). Taking Kivisto’s notion that ‘even in
transnational spaces, place continues to count’ (Kivisto, 2001: 571) one step further, we
can conclude that even in the deterritorialised Chinese-language Cyberspace, locality
provides very important anchors and reference points for migrant netizens to reconfigure
their understanding of being Chinese.
It is important to point out, however, that the conclusion does not treat the strength-
ened and reconstructed Chinese identity as the only cement in the identity construction
of diasporic netizens. Although it is suggested that migrant netizens manifest a strong
Chinese identity rather than a hyphenated form, that is, Chinese-Kiwi or Kiwi-Chinese,
570 new media & society 17(4)

there is manifestation of attachment to the host society in online ethnic media. Further
research is required to investigate how such attachment may subsequently influence
migrant identity in this digital and ‘alternative space for the Chinese community to define
itself’ (Voci, 2006).
As Wanning Sun, a media scholar and migrant herself, says, ‘confronted with endless
media choices, my dilemma is not whether I can continue to be Chinese in another coun-
try; rather, it is how Chinese or what kind of Chinese I want to be.’ (Sun, 2006: 3). The
Chinese-language Cyberspace – homeland and ethnic included – provides a virtual terri-
tory where migrant identity based on locations is constantly negotiated among various
factors of acquired Kiwiness and inherited and reconstructed Chineseness.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or
not-for-profit sectors.

Notes
  1. Some scholars do not see ethnic language as the necessity for ethnic media. Based on her
study of English-language and bilingual Latina magazines published in the US, Johnson
argues that language should be omitted as a focus in the study of ethnic media because ethnic
media can thrive without the native language (see Johnson, 2000).
  2. Apart from major Chinese news websites such as Sina.com and Sohu.com, Chinese immi-
grants around the world can now access the digital version of all the major newspapers in
China. In addition, through CNTV’s (China Network Television) desktop application and
mobile apps, CNTV-CBox, immigrants can watch all the satellite channels in China, both
state and provincial, in real time. Radio stations in China also offer live cast on their websites.
  3. According to Alexa, the web information company, Skykiwi is the number one Chinese-
language website in terms of traffic, and ranks 56 in all New Zealand websites, higher than
Blogger.com and MSN.com (as at February 2012).
  4. See Skykiwi, about us: http://em.skykiwi.com/english.html.
  5. Statistics New Zealand, unpublished 2006 census data.
  6. Data are generated from publicly available figures and tables on the Statistics New Zealand
website. See http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2006CensusHomePage/QuickStats/About
APlace/SnapShot.aspx?type=region&ParentID=1000002&tab=PopulationDwellings
&id=1000002.
  7. In this article, pseudonyms are used for interviewees followed by a code indicating their
gender, age and visa status. WK for Work visa holders, IS for International Student, PR for
Permanent Resident with PRC citizenship, and NZ for New Zealand citizen. For instance,
Jing (WK 36 F) indicates that the interviewee is a Work Visa holder, 36 years old and female.
  8. Sina.com, apart from its main website in mainland China (sina.com.cn), has three localised
websites in Hong Kong (sina.com.hk), Taiwan (sina.com.tw) and North America (home.sina.
com). The participants in this research, when talking about Sina, refer to the website based in
mainland China rather than the other three location-specific Sina websites.
  9. See http://corp.sohu.com/s2011/name/. Original in Chinese, author’s translation. Translation
notes: the difference between zhongguo ren (people of China) and zhongguo renmin (Chinese
nationals) – Zhongguo renmin is more state/nation oriented while zhongguo ren is more at the
individual level.
10. See http://gb.corp.163.com/gb/about/overview.html.
Yin 571

11. See http://www.tencent.com/en-us/index.shtml.

12. Different websites provide different sharing platforms. For instance, Skykiwi allows sharing
over Sina and Netease Weibo, and Renren, while another website, NZChinese provides shar-
ing over Sina, Renren and Douban. These websites also allow sharing over internationally
popular platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
13. Huaren.org is an English website set up by a group of overseas Chinese called the World
Huaren Federation during the attacks directed at ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. Different from
huaren.org, the ethnic media in this research are set up by new Chinese immigrants, who are
mostly from PRC, and they are Chinese-language websites.

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Author biography
Hang Yin is a PhD candidate at the School of Asian Studies, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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