Asia NZ Newsletter

Media Newsletter

August 2007

Kia ora, selamat datang and welcome to the August edition of the Asia New Zealand Foundation media newsletter. There’s news of the Media Women in Asia seminar, two new Asia:NZ reports, a visit by a Singaporean blogger and lots of other interesting Asia-related stuff.

In this issue

• Media women in Asia seminar
•
• Asian students as friends and allies
•
• New Zealand could benefit from Asian role models
•
• Mr Brown, travel grants and other stuff
•
• Angst over journalism matters
•
• More on Asian students
•
• Visibility is important, says UK media expert
•
• AEN journal explores faith and ethnicity
•
• Chinese Kiwis debate banana image
•
• Remembering Gandhi
•
• Doris Chung and the migrating kitchen
•
________________________________________

Media women in Asia seminar
In the backdrop of the challenges and opportunities posed by Asia to the news media in New Zealand, come and meet some leading women journalists and hear their views on reporting and journalism in Asia.

Learn some of the burning issues and get a sense of what it is like to work in news and current affairs in Asian countries at the Media Women in Asia seminar featuring four high profile women working in the Asian region.

The Media Women in Asia seminar is organised by the Asia New Zealand Foundation and will be held in Auckland on September 26.

The speakers are Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN in New Delhi, Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN in Manila, Trish Carter, formerly of Al Jazeera International in Kuala Lumpur, and Charlotte Glennie of the Australia Network in Beijing.

Sagarika Ghose is senior editor and prime time news anchor of the Indian English television news channel CNN IBN. She has been presenter of the BBC World Service Programme Question Time India. She has worked as a journalist in India since 1991, and has also travelled extensively in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. She has been a correspondent for the Times of India and special correspondent for Outlook Magazine and senior editor of The Indian Express. She is also the author of two novels, The Gin Drinkers and Blind Faith.

Maria Ressa is the head of news and current affairs at the ABS-CBN network in the Philippines. She is the former Jakarta bureau chief for CNN International. While she was at CNN, she was lead reporter in East Timor, Indonesia and the Philippines. She is also the author of Seeds of Terror, a book containing a blow-by-blow account of locating Al Qaeda bases in Asia.

Trish Carter was head of current affairs at TVNZ and Maori Television executive before being recruited by Al Jazeera Television to start its Asia bureau. As Asia bureau chief, Trish built the Kuala Lumpur office into a 24 hour news operation employing over 180 staff. She resigned earlier this year.

Charlotte Glennie is an award-winning journalist and former Asia correspondent for TVNZ. She won the supreme Qantas Media Award for her Boxing Day tsunami reporting and a Special Service Medal. She was based in Hong Kong until TVNZ closed its Asia bureau in 2006. She currently resides in Beijing as the China correspondent for the Australia Network which broadcasts in 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The half-day event on September 26 at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland will be chaired by Public Address journalist Russell Brown. For more information, contact Asia:NZ media adviser Charles Mabbett at cmabbett@asianz.org.nz.

________________________________________

Asian students as friends and allies
New Zealand needs to grasp the opportunities that returning Asian students represent in positively expanding their countries’ relationships with New Zealand.

A new report by the Asia New Zealand Foundation – Friends and Allies: The Impacts of Returning Asian Students on New Zealand-Asia Relationships - says about 80 percent of Asian students who study in New Zealand return to Asia.

“The opportunity afforded for a significant expansion of New Zealand-Asia relationships through initiating relationships with Asian students studying here is critical,” say the report’s authors.

The returnees become ambassadors for New Zealand, commentators on this country’s values, people and lifestyles and advocates for New Zealand as a tourism destination as well as for its quality of education.

The study also notes that as Asian students who return to Asia are a great resource, so are those graduates who remain in New Zealand: “Together, Asian students who return or stay are invaluable in building relationships between countries of Asia and New Zealand.”

But the research showed that the majority of Asian students returned home without having really connected with the host community or New Zealand student peers that they would have liked.

The most frequently encountered problems returned Asian students identified were New Zealand’s poor public transport infrastructure as well as grappling to communicate well in English. Experiencing cultural distance and being unable to make New Zealand friends were also identified as major negative factors.

Some Asian students have received negative messages, such as racist remarks, financial exploitation or poor treatment by service providers.

“Research shows that amongst recent Asian students studying in New Zealand, their friendships are more likely to be made amongst co-nationals and other internationals rather than with local domestic students and other New Zealanders.”

The report’s recommendations include support building, facilitating and maintaining person-to-person relationships between Asian students and others in New Zealand through education institutions or groups such as churches and sports clubs.

It also says there is a need to address issues of social exclusion and discrimination in the school or university, and in society at large. “We need to discuss ‘Asian students’ as part of a broader conversation about what it means for New Zealand to engage with Asia.”

For more information or a copy of the report, email Asia:NZ researcher Leonie Hall at lhall@asianz.org.nz

________________________________________

New Zealand could benefit from Asian role models
If New Zealand is to return into the top half of OECD nations, it needs to make wealth creation the top strategic priority in the way some Asian nations have done, says a new Asia:NZ report.

New Zealand Capability: Lessons from Asia is an Asia New Zealand Foundation Outlook report by Dr Lance Beath of the Strategic Studies Programme at Victoria University that focuses on Singapore and Malaysia.

In the report Dr Beath says New Zealand needs to consider whether it is sufficiently transformative and ambitious for the future. It is important to consider where the country wants to be and how best to get there.

Dr Beath says many Asian nations have formal long-range planning documents that encapsulate their visions and directions for the future.

For example, Malaysia has its Vision 2020 and Knowledge-based Master Plan while Singapore’s 2002 Life Sciences Plan is designed to ensure that by 2010 at least 15 world-class life sciences and biotechnology companies will have established regional headquarters in Singapore.

Dr Beath asks what is it that New Zealand can learn from developing Asian capability and ‘best practice’ in the area of long-range strategy formulation, taking Singapore and Malaysia as representative of other fast-growing Southeast Asian economies.

In looking at Singapore and Malaysia, the report advocates thinking further about New Zealand’s governing elites. The protected value of egalitarianism in New Zealand should be rethought. New Zealand has world class public sector leaders and it needs to begin celebrating their achievements.

Lance Beath is a consultant and university lecturer who specialises in defence, security, futures forecasting and long range strategic issues. He has 33 years experience in government at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Ministry of Defence, and five-years private sector consulting.

For more information or a copy of the report, email lhall@asianz.org.nz

________________________________________

Mr Brown, travel grants and other stuff
Singaporean blogger Lee Kin Mun, better known as Mr Brown, will be part of upcoming Karajoz Great Blend events organised by Public Address.

Mr Brown, a web-based political and social satirist, also appeared at the Going Bananas NZ Going Global conference in Auckland on August 19.

Asia:NZ has supported his visit to New Zealand and you can read about his experiences at wwwmrbrown.com and hear him featured on RNZ National at http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon.

The Karajoz Great Blend events are on in Wellington on August 30 and Auckland on September 1. For more information, visit www.publicaddress.net.

Grant Fleming of NZPA and two AUT University journalism graduates, Joseph Barratt and Spike Mountjoy, will receive media travel grants for the 2007 Southeast Asia round.

Grant Fleming will travel to Singapore later this year while Joseph Barratt and Spike Mountjoy will go on assignment in Thailand early next year.

The deadline for the South Asia round of Asia:NZ media travel grants is September 18. For more information, visit http://www.asianz.org.nz/grants/media-travel-guidelines.

There’s a correction to an item in last month’s Asia:NZ media newsletter.

WTV’s new free-to-air channel CTV8 is only in Mandarin, not in both Mandarin and Cantonese as reported. Organisers say they may include Cantonese programming in future if there is interest.

________________________________________

Angst over journalism matters
In the 2006 Census nearly a third of all New Zealander's identified as being of Maori, Pacific Island and Asian descent. Whether you use the Journalism Training Organisation’s 2006 survey or James Holling's interrogation of the 2006 NZ Census data, the results are embarrassing.

Either 81 percent or 83 percent of journalists are European/Pakeha depending on which data is used. The proportion of Maori, Pacific Island and Asian in newsrooms is pitifully low and this has been a structural, systemic problem for decades.

Fairfax deserves kudos for the composition of its first journalism intern scheme with five Maori, one Asian and one Pacific Islander chosen in the first intake of 17 from 230 applicants.

A job for the incoming Journalism Training Organisation chief executive should be an audit of the 11 journalism schools in New Zealand by diversity of selection. Waiariki and the AUT University may be the only schools to pass.

The composition of journalism has resulted in the Maori news is bad news syndrome noted by researchers such as Emeritus Professor Ranginui Walker, Derek Fox, the late Michael King, Gary Wilson, and others in the past 30 years.

Is Asian news now following the same pattern? North & South’s magazine cover story Asian Angst written by former Act MP Deborah Coddington, whipped the blankets off the Press Council who found reportorial failure in relation to accuracy and discrimination.

Asian Angst also revealed a repugnant editorial rationale. ACP’s group manager said the magazine had always been provocative and the Press Council decision was igniting interest in the title. In a spirited column on media ethics at the crossroads, Press columnist Simon Cunliffe stated:

“How revealing. No matter how wrong, contemptible or just plan ignorant your article might have been, if it was raising the profile of the magazine, then it was justified? Come again?”

The representation of ethnicity and diversity in the mainstream media defies business case arguments and represents a faultline in New Zealand journalism, one of its own making.

The above is an excerpt from a speech by Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor at the Journalism Matters conference in Wellington earlier this month.

________________________________________

More on Asian students
Connecting international students to local communities is a central theme of a national conference for education professionals.

The conference at the University of Waikato from August 30-31 is expected to attract about 100 delegates from tertiary institutions and high schools around the country.

Speakers will focus on the theme of "interconnectedness" and practical strategies in international education. The conference is organised by the New Zealand branch of ISANA, an Australasian organisation for professionals who work in international student services.

Sessions on cross-cultural interaction will be led by Hamilton city councillor Daphne Bell and University of Waikato senior research fellow Dr Elsie Ho. Dr Ho's paper, Living and Studying in New Zealand: Socio-cultural challenges for Chinese international students, looks at the experiences of 80 international students from China between 1999 and 2006.

The Asia:NZ report Friends and Allies: The Impact of returning Asian students on New Zealand-Asia Relationships will be highlighted at the conference by Terry McGrath of the International Student Ministries who is one of the report’s authors.

Media are invited to attend. More details of the conference are listed under News on the website www.isana.org.au.

________________________________________

Visibility is important, says UK media expert
It is important for ethnic minorities to be visible in mainstream broadcasting because it is the most influential, says a British expert on media policy and research issues.

Andrea Millwood Hargrave is the former research director at Britain’s Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Independent Television Commission.

She will be speaking the New Broadcasting Futures: Out of the Box conference in Wellington on August 28-29.

Ms Hargrave says that while ethnic minorities have seen an increase in levels of representation in mainstream broadcasting over recent years, they still saw the need for greater representation.

Her research showed that ethnic minorities were very conscious of tokenism, negative stereotyping and unrealistic or simplistic portrayals of their community and the need for authentic portrayals.

One of the topics Ms Hargrave will be speaking about is how regulation can be used to promote cultural diversity across broadcasting media. This is the basis of her most recent report Cultural Diversity Practices among Broadcasting Regulators.

The representation of different cultures and national identity are increasingly important issues in New Zealand as the population continues to become more diverse.

Of the major ethnic groups, Asian grew the fastest between 2001 and 2006, increasing from 238,176 people in 2001 to 354,552 people in 2006.

For more information about the New Broadcasting Futures: Out of the Box conference in Wellington on August 28-29, visit www.newfuture.govt.nz.

________________________________________

AEN journal explores faith and ethnicity
The fourth issue of Aotearoa Ethnic Network Journal which focuses on faith and interfaith issues is to be launched at the NZ Diversity Forum Interfaith event in Auckland on 26 August.

The event organised by the Auckland Interfaith Council will feature performance and sacred scripture readings from the world's major religions. It will be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Parnell, Auckland beginning at 7.30pm.

The AEN journal will be available online after the launch. Edited by Ruth DeSouza, contributors include Joris de Bres, Larry Stillman, Bashy Quraishy, Ruqayya Sulaiman-Hill, Todd Nachowitz, Heather Kavan, Fuad Khan Baloch, Verpal Singh.

Asia:NZ’s director of research, Dr Andrew Butcher is also a contributor to the journal. For more information or to get a copy of the AEN journal, visit www.aen.org.nz

________________________________________

Chinese Kiwis debate banana image
By Wang Yanlin
Chinese New Zealanders want greater and deeper recognition in New Zealand and expect their identity to be supported through the political system, speakers at the third Bananas NZ Going Global International Conference said.

The two-day conference in Auckland had nothing to do with bananas except the colour of the fruit which was yellow on the outside and white on the inside indicating Chinese who lived in predominantly European cultures.

“The question of ‘where are you from’ still prevails over ‘where are you in’. It seems the colour of the skin is a ‘disadvantage’, and can instantly alienate Asian people from those who are white,” said Adam Lam, a senior lecturer of Cultural Studies Program at the University of Canterbury.

In the view of Manying Ip, associate professor with School of Asian Studies at the University of Auckland, New Zealand was rather “multi-ethnic” than “multi-cultural”.

“Where do Asians and other minorities stand in the Treaty discourse?” Dr Ip asked. “There is nothing clearly spelt out for Asians Are they ‘welcoming guests’ or ‘gate crashers’?”

But one clear and inevitable trend is the closer economic correlation with Asia. And to promote “multiculturalism” is the only way to shape the future of New Zealand, speakers said.

To establish a real multicultural New Zealand requires efforts other than an apology for the historical poll tax and financial compensation.

“It should be more than symbolism, more than festivals and cultural performance,” said James H. Liu, deputy director of Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research at Victoria University of Wellington.

The New Zealand Chinese Association organised the conference with over 300 people attending.

Wang Yanlin is a Shanghai Daily journalist working at the Dominion Post for four weeks on an Asia:NZ placement.

________________________________________

Remembering Gandhi
A play commemorating the life of Mahatma Gandhi and which marks 100 years of the non-violence movement that he founded will be touring New Zealand this month.

Sammy! The Incredible Journey of Mahatma Gandhi will be at the Opera House in Wellington on August 25, the Regent Theatre in Palmerston North on August 28-29 and Auckland at the SkyCity Theatre on August 31 and September 1

It traces the transformation of the young Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi from a naïve lawyer to shrewd politician to world leader, from his early days in South Africa to his assassination after India’s independence.

The title of the play Sammy! comes from the word ‘swami’ - a word used as an insult thrown at Indians taken to South Africa as indentured labourers.

The production touring Australia and New Zealand had its international premiere in Dubai in March 2006 and has since travelled to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Brussels, Antwerp, New York, Boston, Stamford, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Houston. Earlier this year it completed a two-week run in London. For more information, visit www.sammy.co.nz.

________________________________________

Doris Chung and the migrating kitchen
At 89, Doris Chung is the second oldest in a family of 18. Her parents came to New Zealand from China in the late 1800s and had to pay the poll tax of 100 pounds each.

Her story is just one of several featured in the Migrating Kitchen exhibition at Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures in Porirua. The exhibition which began on August 10 runs until October 28.

It features six ethnic kiwi kitchens, Chinese, Greek, Samoan, Russian, Chinese, Somali and Burmese, with video screens telling stories of migration and families cooking their favourite foods

When she was 11 Doris Chung and nine of her siblings were sent to China, “to be educated.” They returned to New Zealand six years later when the Japanese invaded southern China.

By then she was 18 and she says she had lost all her English and had to start again. But she had no chance to train for a career. Instead her parents said a young man was ‘asking for’ her.

Doris says she had no choice but to marry at 18. “You can’t do that now. They choose their own. They wouldn’t listen. Imagine trying to tell the young ones today who to marry,” laughed the mother of nine and grandmother to many.

Doris Chung is an enthusiastic knitter, with a line up of soft toys and dolls on her sofa. She paints exquisitely and never misses her Chinese painting and calligraphy class. And she loves to cook.

The Migrating Kitchen has been created by documentary makers Anna Cottrell and Jennifer Bush-Daumec who along with the six featured Wellington communities are looking forward to presenting 10 weeks of cultural cuisine.

As well as the displays and video stories, each Saturday there will be cooking demonstrations, delicious food to sample and performances from one of the communities.

Toitu he kianga; whatungarongaro he tangata - people are transient things but the land endures.

ends

© Scoop Media