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We chose to analyse Amy Lyons - 'Blondie in China' YouTube food vlogger as our main text firstly, because it explicitly references the concept of stereotypes (cultural artifacts) as passé. Prior to watching her vlogs, we were curious to observe how old stereotypes can be challenged in different foreign contexts and how it is exemplified in personal narratives. Moreover, Australian and Chinese cultures represented in the vlog show different parallels of stereotypes. This vlog gives all group members something to resonate with, while also providing space for others to analyse the theory.

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Framework - What are stereotypes exactly? 

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Framework - What are stereotypes exactly? 

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Stereotypes are essentially schemas for a group based on social and cultural experiences with members of that group. It is essentially a way to place group information on someone when individual information is not known.

Cultural schema theory argues that we organize information in our minds by unconsciously creating categories. (Bartlett, 1932)

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But are stereotypes just instruments of power? 

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But are stereotypes just instruments of power? 

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Managing power relations and “local knowledge” can be difficult when knowledge and experience of how these work are distributed differentially among members. (Van Langenhove & Harré, 1999).

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Asian-Australians make up around 12 per cent of Australia's population, but they hold less than four per cent of senior leadership positions. Asian-Australians are under-represented, and it seems, under-appreciated.

Now, new research may shed light on the underlying reasons for this imbalance.

Eighty-two per cent of surveyed Asian-Australians report that they have experienced some form of discrimination in Australia.

Sixty-five per cent of those who have been discriminated against had the experience in the workplace, while the most common setting for discrimination was at a shop or restaurant - sitting at 71 per cent.

The firsthand experiences of some of our most successful Asian-Australians highlight the problem of unconscious bias or stereotyping.

Getting women on board

"It's very natural that customers will assume that I'm there to take coffee and take notes," says Irene Yu, who is Director of Migrant and Multicultural Banking at Westpac and the Bank of Melbourne.

Ms Yu's comments come in the lead-up to the first Asian-Australian Leadership Summit in Melbourne this week - an initiative of Asialink at the University of Melbourne, PwC and Australian National University. The aim is to identify strategies to shift the dial on diversity and highlight the important contribution that Asian-Australians can play in our future engagement with Asia.

Monica Tan, Greens candidate in the last federal election, teacher, and published author is another Asian-Australian who has felt excluded. She was recently at a party in Sydney, where she met a famous writer.

"His first question was - 'Which part of China do you come from?', which sort of made me feel like an outsider," she says.

"It didn't make me feel like I was there as an author, just as he was."

While the existence of a 'glass ceiling' is well-established across workplaces the world over, the notion of a so-called 'bamboo ceiling' is now gaining traction.

Cracking the glass ceiling: Asia's next challenge

Marlene Kanga is one of Australia's most respected engineers, as President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations. But she's spent much of her career being knocked back by potential employers.

"People would say to me - 'Oh, Marlene, you know you are excellent at this and you've done this very well, but--' there's one more thing that I hadn't done and therefore I hadn't got the job," she says.

"And so, I've tried very hard to cover all those bases, all those extra things that people said I had to do. And then I realised that really, there would always be one more thing."

"I think there are white gatekeepers in all of our communities," says writer and broadcaster Benjamin Law, "and I don't think that's a sledge or a slur."

"When we look at people in leadership positions in Australian business, media, politics, and culture, they usually do come from an Anglo background, and that's a lot to do with our history," says Law.

"But we also need to introduce interventions in order for other people to step up into those positions."

The research also shows that, compared with other sections of the Australian population, Asian-Australians are much more likely to have a personal reaction to this discrimination.

Is Australia becoming the 'lonely' country?

That may mean being less outspoken at work, less aggressive in work style or choosing an occupation where discrimination is less likely.

The Asian-Australian Leadership Summit brings together both established and emerging leaders from across the country to address the under-representation of Asian-Australians in leadership positions.

The Summit will also recognise the achievements of the next generation, by naming the '40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians.'

Peter Varghese AO, former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and one of Australia's longest-serving and most-respected diplomats, is one of the judges of the '40 Under 40' awards.

Born in Kenya to Indian parents and arriving in Australia as an eight year old in 1964, he thinks it's time to rethink some of the fundamental portrayals of our society.

"While multiculturalism has become the sort of leitmotif of how we describe the country, I think at its heart, those who are successful in Australia are those that assimilate into Australia."

"I think there's an expectation in the broader community that people who come to make Australia their home are welcome. But there is an expectation that they will assimilate."

For almost 30 years, Asialink has been a point of creative exchange between Australia and the Asian region. Through the summit, the organisation recognises the critical role that Asian-Australians can play in building stronger relations with our near-neighbours.

Indeed, business leader Ming Long is emphatic about the contributions of Asian-Australians in a changing world order.

"We have so many Asian-Australians here who fight for this country," she says.

"They desperately want this country to succeed."

The Asian-Australian Leadership Summit is an initiative of Asialink, PwC and Australian National University, and will be held in Melbourne on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th September. Visit asianaustralianleadership.com.au to find out more.

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Asian-Australians make up around 12 per cent of Australia's population, but they hold less than four per cent of senior leadership positions. Asian-Australians are under-represented, and it seems, under-appreciated. Now, new research may shed light on the underlying reasons for this imbalance.

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Text: One Aussie girl's solution to negative Chinese stereotypes: Vlogs!

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Text: One Aussie girl's solution to negative Chinese stereotypes: Vlogs!

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Lyons hopes that through her videos she can challenge cultural stereotypes about China, and reveal to her audience a more authentic view about China, its food, and its culture.

Over-generalized assumptions such as Chinese food being greasy and unhealthy neglects the hundreds, if not thousands, of nutritious and healthy meals that have emerged since antiquity from The Eight Traditional Chinese Cuisines (中国八大菜系).

Interpretative Analysis:

The transnational influence of Chinese take-away food such as 'dumplings and sweet & sour pork' in many Australians have opened a wide range of oversimplified stereotypical preconceptions that lack factual knowledge and first-hand experience (Bai 2021).

Lyon resonates well with the habitus concept of 'a fish in the water' as her vlogger role shows she can now learn multifaceted aspects of Chinese food culture through the lens of travel.

Challenging interethnic misunderstandings and outdated opinions may require adapting our new ways of thinking and transitioning the self from being an outsider to an insider in foreign settings.

Cultural and ethnic misappropriation from Australians may embody 'pre-existing, narrow assumptions' about Chinese food (Bailey 2000, p. 88).

Hence, initial judgements that fail to justify multicultural generalisations can present as a coping mechanism for humans to evolve and adapt (Monnet 2018).

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Questions：

1. How do you think stereotypes might affect our understanding of other cultures?

2. Do you think there will come a time when stereotypes will cease to exist?

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"Yes, they're stereotypes, there must be more to life."...Blur (1996) 

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"Yes, they're stereotypes, there must be more to life."...Blur (1996) 

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Where to from here?

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Bai, X (2021). Aussie vlogger dishes up Chinese cuisine to challenge stereotypes. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-03/20/c_139823130.htm.

Bailey, B. (2000). Communicative behavior and conflict between African-American customers and Korean
immigrant retailers in Los Angeles. Discourse & Society 11(1), 86-108.

Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge University Press.

Billig, M. (1995). Banal Nationalism. London: Sage.

Du Bois, J. W. (2007). The stance triangle. In Robert Englebretson (ed.), Stance taking in discourse: Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction, 139–182. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Goddard, C. (2012). ‘Early interactions’ in Australian English, American English, and English English: Cultural differences and cultural scripts. Journal of Pragmatics 44 (9), 1038–1050.

Holmes, J. (2003). 'I couldn't follow her story...' Ethnic differences in New Zealand narratives. In J. House, G. Kasper, & S. Ross (Eds.), Misunderstanding in social life (pp. 173-198). Harlow, UK: Pearson Education.

Monnet, J. (2018, February 7). How Stereotypes Affect Communication. Building Bridges: Indo-European Intercultural Dynamics. How stereotypes affect communication – Building Bridges: Indo-European Intercultural Dynamics (intercultural-dynamics.org)

Piller, I. (2017). Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction (2nd ed.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (Chapters 1 and 2).

Samovar, L.A., & Porter, R.E. (2003). Understanding intercultural communication: An introduction. In L. A. Samovar & R. E. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader (pp. 6–17). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Van Langenhove, L., & Harré, R (1999). Introducing positioning theory. In:  R. Harré & L. van Langenhove, (eds.), Positioning Theory (pp. 14-31). Oxford: Blackwell.

Zhang, S., & Deng, D. (2009). Stereotypes Communication. International Education Studies, 2(4), 25-27. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1065727.pdf

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Analysis: Stereotypes help us to understand others.

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Analysis: Stereotypes help us to understand others.

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According to Zhang and Deng (2009), stereotypes are simply cognitive representations of other groups that influence our feelings toward members of those groups.

Quoting Lippman (1922) who refers to stereotypes as “pictures in our heads,”  they go on to explain two aspects of stereotypes:

1.  If we can make accurate stereotypes, then our cultural-level predictions about strangers’ behavior can also be accurate, and

2.  Inaccurate stereotypes often lead to misunderstanding. (Zhang & Deng, 2009).

But culture should not be considered as something that people have but rather something that is created and recreated through text and [speech acts].” (Piller, 2017, p. 5)

Echoing Du Bois's (2007) sentiments below:

“A public act by a social actor, achieved dialogically through overt communicative means, of simultaneously evaluating objects, positions, subjects (self and others), and aligning with other subjects” (Du Bois, 2007, p. 163).

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How stereotypes are shaped by narrative ideologies.

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How stereotypes are shaped by narrative ideologies.

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Narrative ideologies do come into play, and ‘cultural conceptions’ do shape the stories being told. It is therefore important to be conscious of what is tellable by and to whom, where, when, why, and what for. (Holmes, 2003).

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Analysis: But how do stereotypes make sense of complexity?

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Analysis: But how do stereotypes make sense of complexity?

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Since culture is ubiquitous, multidimensional, complex, and persuasive (Samovar & Porter, 2003, p.8),

we also need to be sensitive to “...who makes culture relevant to whom in which context, [and] for which purposes.” (Piller, 2017, p. 7)

For example, the 'banal nationalism' (Billig, 1995) perhaps evident in contemporary China that highlights the everyday routines and discourses through which mundane national sentiments are produced, or that of Australians who tend to downplay achievement in favor of self-depreciation. (Goddard 2012)

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The key to effective communication lies in listening to and understanding the perspectives of the people that you communicate with. However, allowing preconceived notions to influence this understanding automatically arouses expectations of the individual's response based on our categorization of that particular individual. (Monnet, 2018).

To this effect, stereotypes act as cultural artifacts in that they allow us to process information about certain individuals. But due to stereotypes requiring a period of time to become ingrained in society they are not subject to instant change. Part of this reason may be due to the complexity of culture and cultural differences.

Stereotypes as cultural artifacts are so passé yet they still exist in contemporary society.