Chinese-language Cyberspace, homeland media and ethnic media: A contested space for being Chinese

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.