2017/07/03 by Jen Tsen Kwok · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Australian History and Society #Commonwealth, Australian Politics and Federalism #Philippine History and Culture
paper · doi:10.1080/14443058.2017.1346696
openalex publication_date 2017/07/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
This article explores the contested public uses of the phrase “Asian Australian” and the relationship between Asia and Australia through the lens of local community associations, their objectives, publications and activities. It examines the historical context in which these associations were established, according to three distinctive postwar historical periods; it examines the cultural milieu in which the phrase Asian Australian has assembled meaning; and it locates the role of the term as both an identity marker and as a basis for intra-ethnic mobilisation. The article finds that iterations of the combination of Asia and Australia—as either adjectives or nouns—have consistently delineated between identity and nation, nation and belonging, belonging and territoriality. Through the embodied passions and politics of associational life, this article investigates the figurative boundary between Asia and Australia and shows how the paired use of these terms has often reflected profoundly if not epistemologically divergent worldviews.