Responsive Reading Assignment

Running head: RESPONSIVE READING ASSIGNMENT
Responsive Reading Assignment
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RESPONSIVE READING ASSIGNMENT 2
Introduction
Ethnicity and race are essential as they give and define the identity of a person or group
of people. An ethnic group comprised of people who share memories, have a unique culture, and
have an established physical territory, common ancestry myths as well as a common history.
This paper will examine two articles that focused on ethnicity between the local New Zealanders
and white immigrants from other places who came to settle there and a reflection on the two
articles.
New Zealand Chinese Identity: Sojourners, Model Minority and Multiple Identities
Analysis
The article explores the identity of Chinese New Zealanders who migrated to the country
140 years ago. The report presents Chinese New Zealanders population to be approximately
100,000 (Ip & Pang, 2005). The identity formation has been a sensitive issue as it implies socio-
political factors in both the homeland and the host country. An examination of the essential
elements which controlled and affected the Chinese community comprising of social-political
dynamics is conducted. The New Zealand government established qualifications which the
immigrants should meet as a strategy of controlling immigration process. Some of the
requirements include social class, education levels, and educational backgrounds. The factors
have continued to establish a backdrop against which the Chinese New Zealand identity is based
on. Apart from the enacted legislation, the New Zealand Factor also incorporates the attitude of
the people and this case it implied the Pakeha and Maori communities (Ip & Pang, 2005). The
two cities form the dominant culture which has been involved in monopolizing the political
power.

RESPONSIVE READING ASSIGNMENT 3
The Sojourners phase of isolation and ostracized identity happened in the 1860’s to the
late 1940’s when the Chinese economy was weak, and New Zealand was discriminatory and
hostile (Ip & Pang, 2005). Although total emergent multiple identities happened when China was
economically stable particularly in the 1980’s, New Zealand happened to be more benign. The
local born of the country was primarily reconciled as the immigrants remained unintegrated. The
Chinese, New Zealand community, is made up of two broad communities comprising of the local
born and the new Asians (Shambaugh D & Shambaugh L, 2005). The Chinese New Zealanders
are considered to be uniformly successful and flourishing to outsiders. The rivalry between the
New Zealanders and Chinese New Zealanders seems to be thicker than personal jealousies. The
‘Chinese Factor’ was weak in terms of prestige and cultural influence. The competition cannot
be ignored even if the two belong to the same ethnic groups (Ip & Pang, 2005). The language
differentiates them since the settlers can fluently speak and write English as opposed to Chinese
whose language is limited. The locally born individuals obtained humility and inoffensiveness as
they were forced to exist as a minority under a white monoculture while the immigrants grew up
in societies dominated by Chinese and as a result, they did not have to apologize for their
Chineseness. The ‘New Zealand Factor’ which was negative in terms of Chinese legislation and
overt prejudice was very strong.
Chinese local-born people have been molded into its current form primarily based on
what their ancestors underwent from the 1860s (Butcher, Spoonley & Trin, 2006). They
predominated the descendants of the early migrants who were involved in various economic
activities such as gold miners, laundrymen, market gardeners, and fruiters. They struggled
economically to bridge the existing gaps although they were not involved in mainstream
competition with New Zealanders. From the fact that their population was small, they were