Chinese Australians made to feel unwelcome by local media: study

afr.com:

Henry Luo was walking through a park in Sydney with his elderly father and two toddlers when a stranger approached him, kicked a fence and screamed at him about Chinese people hoovering properties in Australia.

Mr Luo was part of study by the University of Technology Sydney, released on Wednesday, that examined how 689 first-generation Chinese migrants living in Australia feel about the local media.

Henry Luo, 40, says negative media reporting about China can have a strong effect on the lives of Chinese Australians.  Dion Georgopoulos

He says the incident occurred on the eve oflast year’s federal election, when trucks emblazoned with billboards portraying Chinese President Xi Jinping at the ballot box with text saying “CCP vote Labor”, paid for by conservative lobby group Advance Australia, were spotted around the country.

The 40-year-old, who grew up in Shenzhen but now runs an electronics wholesaler in Sydney after moving to Australia in 2009, was completely taken aback as 50 per cent of people in his Sydney suburb of Burwood have Chinese ancestry, according to the 2021 Census.

“We just want a normal life without people screaming at us on the street. We belong here,” Mr Luo told The Australian Financial Review.

“I know lots of people are having a tough time, but you can’t take it out on other communities. If you throw a rock at China, it lands on the head of Chinese Australians. We can and must do better.”

The Reid Business Community president also pointed to an incident in March where one Australian media outlet alleged that three Chinese men taking pictures at an air show in Melbourne had “aroused suspicions” of a security expert.

“Bad stories about China get good clicks in Australia,” Mr Luo, a rank-and-file member