Chinese Women and the Global Village: An Australian Site

Jan Ryan's Chinese Women and the Global Village: An Australian Site is an important milestone in the studies of Chinese migration and settlement in a global context. The author argues strongly that the story of the Chinese in Australia is only part of "the transnational flow of capital, labor, technology, information, cultural motifs, and consumer habits" that are "not simply one-way, but circulative".

In the opening pages of the book, Ryan declares: "There is a need to address families, economic enterprises, community formation, political and social movements, and other aspects of the Asian Australian experience as transnational and global." This notion serves as the theme of Chinese Women and the Global Village as an academic work that is highly informative and easily accessible to general readers.

In her book, Ryan focuses on the role of women in the dynamics of global issues and knowledge. For example, how do women construct their multiple identities as they negotiate between different living and working cultures in an increasingly globalized world?

In the case of women of Chinese ancestry, how do their individual senses of "Chineseness" impact on their identity formation, family construction, work environments, and cultural adaptation? Specifically, to what extent are these individual senses of "Chineseness" shaped by various political, economic, social and/or cultural forces that control the formation and constant modification of the concepts of "being Chinese" and "being woman"?

Women of Chinese ancestry in Australia live not only as an ethnic minority, but also as a female minority. This leads to all kinds of issues of ethnicity, gender and identity that Ryan ruthlessly but thoroughly interrogates in her book.

Using past and present academic research data on global Chinese migration and settlement, as well as results of her interviews with women of Chinese ancestry in Australia, Ryan examines the traditional roles of Chinese family. She then explores how women adopt and adapt these roles to their changing living and working environments.

Furthermore, Ryan investigates how women of Chinese ancestry create their identity, "when these identities are always gender and ethnic specific". The thought-provoking term "stained glass ceiling" is used as Ryan discusses how these women deal with the blocked opportunities in the workplace.

Most significantly, Ryan points out that "there is a rich diversity of life experiences in what it means to be a woman of Chinese heritage". There are different kinds of subjective and individual identities that come into play within the broader cultural labels of "Chinese" and "women". How women of Chinese ancestry in Australia perceive and appropriate these differences in their self-reflection is an issue that needs to be carefully analyzed.

Jan Ryan's Chinese Women and the Global Village: An Australian Site was published by the University of Queensland Press in 2003.

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Copyright: Chrisitne Sun, Taiwan.com.au Portal, 2005. All rights are reserved.