Australia and the World: Australia and Asia
In this chapter Nick Knight speaks about Australia’s complex relations with Asian regions. While admitting trade and economical benefits, Australians often do not want to think about themselves as Asians. Knight suggests such attitude is caused by European influence from the time, when Asia was treated as a second-rate world; Australians also feared of Asian “invasion”.
Australian aborigines contacted with Asian people long before the “official” discovery of the continent made by James Cook in 1770. Chinese and Japanese fishermen visited Australia in 15th century for trade and usage of local sources. British colonists did not support trade relations with Asia. The Empire made active moves to strengthen positions in the region. Most of its citizens treated Asia as a second-rate world because of cultural and technological differences: Britain also demonstrated its superiority with several wins over China (Knight & Heazle, 2011, p. 223). White colonists did not treat Asians as appropriate trade partners or neighbors. The region even viewed as a source of a cheap labor until the discovery of gold seams in 1851. This event triggered the wave of Chinese and some other …show more content…
Asia made another successful attempt to show it can compete with Europe. Australians understood they cannot take their relations with the region for granted (Knight & Heazle, 2011, p. 226). However, this revelation did not stop the anxiety. While Whitlam Labor government and further officials made some significant steps to improve both trade and social relations with Asia, like abolition of racist immigration laws, did not calm the society. Some steps demonized Australia as it supported Asian partners during their violation of human rights. Knight concluded that. While Australians deny their Asian connections, they cannot abandon long-term experience of relations with the
In this chapter Nick Knight speaks about Australia’s complex relations with Asian regions. While admitting trade and economical benefits, Australians often do not want to think about themselves as Asians. Knight suggests such attitude is caused by European influence from the time, when Asia was treated as a second-rate world; Australians also feared of Asian “invasion”.
Australian aborigines contacted with Asian people long before the “official” discovery of the continent made by James Cook in 1770. Chinese and Japanese fishermen visited Australia in 15th century for trade and usage of local sources. British colonists did not support trade relations with Asia. The Empire made active moves to strengthen positions in the region. Most of its citizens treated Asia as a second-rate world because of cultural and technological differences: Britain also demonstrated its superiority with several wins over China (Knight & Heazle, 2011, p. 223). White colonists did not treat Asians as appropriate trade partners or neighbors. The region even viewed as a source of a cheap labor until the discovery of gold seams in 1851. This event triggered the wave of Chinese and some other …show more content…
Asia made another successful attempt to show it can compete with Europe. Australians understood they cannot take their relations with the region for granted (Knight & Heazle, 2011, p. 226). However, this revelation did not stop the anxiety. While Whitlam Labor government and further officials made some significant steps to improve both trade and social relations with Asia, like abolition of racist immigration laws, did not calm the society. Some steps demonized Australia as it supported Asian partners during their violation of human rights. Knight concluded that. While Australians deny their Asian connections, they cannot abandon long-term experience of relations with the