That is, the so called freedom of information you can have in the west compared to china doesn't necessarily convert a PRC born or national against their country, but rather the inconsistencies you'll see in "free" western media compared with what is the reality of knowing the country they write of, makes one turn against that BS.
You may have seen Maying Ips (the dean of Asian studies at Akld Uni) recent puublication.as regards Chinese identifying with their homeland. ( im a little hazy on some aspects and might mistakenly attribute something to her that was actually said by someone else...... so a little tolerance ok?
Basically she said that a poll had revealed that 95% of mainland Chinese who immigrated to NZ indicated that their loyalty remained with China. In about turn what was more surprising was the increasing number of young , several generations removed from their ancestral homeland and motivated by the increasing prominence of China had expressed some level of identification/interest to their ancestral land.
IMO having been to China what china chooses to show is not what you really get in China. These young who had never been to China get totally mislead by the B.S. emanating out of China. That could easily be the situation with a few Chinese in this forum.
Your last sentence is interesting though -- I once had a taiwanese friend who asked me why my parents moved to NZ. I answered "the environment". He replied "ah the political environment". I said "no, I mean trees".
Basically what you're saying (correct me if i'm wrong) is that there is indeed a new cold war going on, and you are either on one side or the other (the word "safety"). If you "defect"/immigrate to "the west" then you must immediately renounce all support for your "previous" homeland.
But that's not exactly the case in reality.
Or maybe we're all wumao trololol.
I should think there is an expectation that if one takes up citizenship, ones loyalty is then transferred. If its residency or long term visit , theres a bit of leeway, however I think I would be alot more circumspect in expressing my preference.
At the start of WW2 there was only one Chinese who fought in the NZ army in Crete/African campaign His name was Alec Wong and a friend of the family. He was born in NZ and would possibly have been conscripted but he chose to volunteer.
The rest of the Chinese males of military age made it quite plain that it wasn't their fight and therefore they weren't interested in volunteering .
To cut the story short all nz troops transited through Australia on their way to the middle east and to facilitate their movement, were given visa waivers including all nationalities who fought on behalf of NZ who weren'.t citizens.
Fast forward to peace time, all these nationalities carried on with their automatic visa free entry to Australia except the Chinese. There was this one particular nasty australian in wellington who took particular delight in not processing Chinese visa applications in time for travel.
This attracted the attention of the "maying ip types" who claimed of prejudice etc etc.. Was she right or did the chinese deserve that treatment.
P.S. a few chinese did volunteer (late 43-44) certainly after the japanese entered the war. But they went into the airforce and did their training in Canada. I don't think any saw active service and because there was no need to go to Australia, the visa status went unaltered.
Back to the Article
THe same article talks about this girl who obtained P.R. after gaining some business qualification.Unfortunately we do not know whether its a genuine Uni. degree or some diploma thing from those degree mills that have become established to help someone gain P.R. and as a P.R. one has the right to vote . However she did not feel she could identify with NZ.so when it came to issues concerning China Versus NZ , she would side with China. this brings interesting things into play such as the "CRAYFAR DEAL" if you know what i mean.
So whats she doing in NZ then? , instead of us having to make her feel NZ wants her, she should be saying to herself "what can I do to feel part of NZ."
---------- Post added at 06:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 AM ----------
One of my lecturers migrated from UK with his family during the 60s due to the tense cold war atmosphere and the fact that Britain along with western Europe would be the first to get toasted in a WWII situation between NATO and soviet block. His parents were trying to find the most distant country away from the UK that is english-speaking. (the official language of NZ is actually Maori) That doesn't mean he dislike UK or love NZ more.
Ummmm I think your example doesn't apply here
For one thing the loyalty question does not come about. While im not familiar with the finer points of the constitution and how it actually translates, I think the question of loyalty does not apply here because the Queen is the head of state of both countries. and its to her where our loyalty is pledged to.
Secondly Im pretty sure maori was not an offcial language then . If it was in the statutute books , it certainly wasnt practiced because certainly in the 50's and maybe very early 60's children were punished if caught speaking maori during school. A short sharp wack across the knuckles/hand was a common occurrence for daring to speak it.
