This paper forms part of a larger study mapping and analysing the way audiovisual media are used in the dual processes of cultural maintenance and adaptation within Asian diasporic communities and seeks to complement media and cultural studies' emphasis on the representation of ‘ethnic minorities' in mainstream media with a focus on media produced for and consumed within the communities.
The paper overviews popular media of the Vietnamese diaspora. The largest refugee community in Australia, it supports a thriving popular culture produced by and for overseas Vietnamese. Issues of how narrowcast media forms are used to ‘broadcast’ cultural production within a globally dispersed, relatively small community transected by age, class, education, gender, migration and refugee status, recency of arrival and regional background are raised.
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Stuart Cunningham is Professor and Head of the School of Media and Journalism at Queensland University of Technology.
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Tina Nguyen is a postgraduate student in the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Queensland University of Technology.
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The research on which this paper is based was supported by an Australian Research Council Large Grant 1996–98 (‘Audiovisual Media Use for Cultural Maintenance and Negotiation by Diasporic Communities of Asian Origin in Australia’) awarded to Stuart Cunningham and John Sinclair. The authors are greatly indebted to input from project colleagues John Sinclair, Gay Hawkins and Audrey Yue, and to research assistants Jo Clifford and Trang Nguyen.
