David Lin

Chinese Print Media in Nz Present Ideas of Chinese Cultural Identity David Lin

This thesis is a study of the free newspapers that form a significant part of the media consumed by Chinese people in New Zealand. In it I examine how these newspapers reflect and portray ideas of identity . Little work has been done on Chinese print media in New Zealand and the free newspapers have often been regarded as ephemeral and of little interest to media scholars. However, in this thesis I argue that they offer insights into the experiences and attitudes of the Chinese people in New Zealand both those who have been settled here for many years and also more recent immigrants. This study is intended to show how these varied newspapers reflect ideas about cultural identity in a diasporic setting. Two case studies are used to examine and elaborate the idea of how the Chinese print media in NZ present Chinese cultural identity. Chinese readers pick up the newspapers to read and discuss various controversial stories. People argue about important questions such as "who we are" and "what is our identity". By studying these newspapers, we can gain insights into how the Chinese cultural identity is transformed by the experience of immigration.