Writer
Wanning Sun
Wanning Sun is a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. She also serves as the deputy director of the UTS Australia-China Relations Institute. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and a member of the Australian Research Council's College of Experts (2020-23). She is best known in the field of China studies for her ethnography of rural-to-urban migration and social inequality in contemporary China. She writes about Chinese diaspora, diasporic Chinese media, and Australia-China relations.
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Is a re-set likely in our media’s China coverage?
Andy Park, the host of Drive on ABC Radio National, asked one of his guests the following question about Albanese’s visit to China: ‘Scoring an invitation to go to Beijing is obviously a coup for Mr Albanese. Obviously, much was said and done under the table diplomatically speaking. … Do you think the average Australian Continue reading »
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Decoupling in the knowledge production sphere threatens Australia’s future
An intimate and complex understanding of China is now one of the most important prerequisites for understanding and furthering our national interests. For the two nations of China and Australia, to allow tensions and misunderstandings to provoke a decoupling in the knowledge production sphere –whether it be in the sciences, the social sciences or the Continue reading »
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Pearls and Irritations refuses to follow the pack mentality of the mainstream media
A tonic for readers who are drowning in news about China, climate change and socioeconomic problems, but who are starved of alternative and critical perspectives. Continue reading »
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Chinese voters’ disillusionment over Labor and AUKUS
When Labor and the Liberals share similar strategies regarding China and national defence, why should Chinese-Australian voters stay loyal? Continue reading »
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Australia’s multicultural framework can no longer be separate from geopolitics
A new multicultural framework needs to recognise that the well-being of Australia’s multicultural communities is closely related to, and inevitably affected by, geopolitics, and by Australia’s foreign policy towards migrants’ countries of origin. It is no longer viable to conceptualise foreign policy and multicultural affairs as two separate entities. Continue reading »
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Sixty-three per cent of Chinese-Australians report mental anguish from English-language media’s “biased reporting”
New survey results from the Australia-China Relations Institute at UTS find that 91% of Chinese-Australians are concerned by the Australian English-language media’s tendency to engage in speculation about war with China, because they believe such speculation could become a self-fulfilling prophecy; and about six in ten (63%) respondents reported feelings of emotional and mental anguish Continue reading »
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Pearls and Irritations refuses to follow the pack mentality
A tonic for readers who are drowning in news about China, climate change and socioeconomic problems… Continue reading »
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Australia may ban WeChat – but for many Chinese Australians, it’s their ‘lifeline’
One morning in February 2021, I was woken by a WeChat call from my brother in China. Mum had died the previous night, he told me. I wasn’t shocked to hear about Mum’s death – she had been very ill for a couple of years. Continue reading »
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The troubled love lives of China’s rural migrants
For the past decade or so, the Western media has been critical of the Chinese state, the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party. This criticism has been made in the context of a small number of issues, such as human rights in Xinjiang, political dissent in Hong Kong and Western citizens detained in China. Continue reading »
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‘The media normalises war-mongering’: how Chinese Australians respond to talk of war in mainstream media
Early this month, the Daily Mail published a story online implying three Chinese men taking photos at the Avalon Airshow in Melbourne were spies. After complaints and an open letter condemning the paper for racially profiling the Chinese communities and throwing around baseless accusations, the story disappeared from the Mail’s site without explanation. Continue reading »
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Red Alert: news media ‘Sleep-Walking’ into US war propaganda
One of the best-known writers on public opinion, Walter Lippmann, tells us that every conflict is fought on two fronts: the battlefield and the minds of people via propaganda. ‘We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda, and what is said on Continue reading »
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The Liberals’ review of Chinese-Australian voters betrays more blind spots
The Liberal Party’s problem with Chinese-Australian voters became apparent after its loss in the May 2022 federal election. Post-election number-crunching reveals that in 15 seats with large concentrations of Chinese-Australian voters, the swing against the Liberals was 6.6 percent, in contrast to 3.7 percent in other seats. Continue reading »
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“Bad China” makes good news stories — but who benefits and who suffers?
Positive energy is in the air in anticipation of a possible meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and many are evidently encouraged by the positive vibes from the recent telephone conversation between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Australian counterpart Penny Wong. Continue reading »
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Misconstruing China’s ‘demands’, Australian media beat the drums of war
After three years in deep freeze, Australia’s relationship with China may be starting to thaw, with the foreign affairs ministers finally talking to each other. Continue reading »
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What Scott did, and what Labor needs to undo: How to retain the Chinese-Australian Vote
‘Is there anything that you specifically think Anthony Albanese would do better?’ a journalist in the National Press Club asked Grace Tame, the 2021 Australian of the Year, and a fearless champion for women in Australia. Tame answered, ‘All Anthony would have to do is none of the things that Scott’s done.’ Continue reading »
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Ill informed media led a merry dance by ‘hack’ on Morrison’s WeChat account
The ‘hijacking’ of the Prime Minister’s account is a complicated story that, when simplified, fits neatly again into the anti-China narrative. Continue reading »
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Between watch dog and guard dog: the China threat and the Australian media
What is the role of Australian media, especially news media, in shaping a sense of who we are as a nation, amidst talk of a Cold War with China? Continue reading »
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Australian universities and the anxiety of Chinese influence
Sometime in 2010, a graduate journalism student from China asked to meet with me. She needed to interview at least two people for one of her assignments, and her chosen topic was the media in China and freedom of expression. She told me that she had already spoken with the well-known Australian writer Frank Moorhouse Continue reading »
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Fear and Loathing: Australian media on China and Covid-19
The way various segments of the Australian media report on China’s COVID-19 experience reflects these media’s own fears and anxieties and their political, ideological, and cultural positions. More credible media outlets in Australia have mostly framed China’s efforts in political and ideological terms. Continue reading »
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WeChat’s Potential for Social Activism and Civic Action in the Chinese Diaspora (GJIA Dec 10, 2020)
WeChat is predominantly used by Mandarin speakers both within and outside China. Although this social media platform is owned by a Chinese company and is subject to China’s censorship and scrutiny, it nevertheless has the potential to enable social activism and civic action in the Chinese diaspora across the globe. Continue reading »
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Many Australians with a Chinese background feel caught ‘between a rock and a hard place’
I was invited to give the annual 2020 Henry Chan lecture at a time when Chinese-Australians had well and truly become objects of suspicion and distrust. I have been doing research on Chinese-language media in the Chinese diaspora for two decades. Continue reading »
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“When a scholar meets a soldier …”: Why I’ve decided not to speak to the senate inquiry on diaspora communities in Australia (ABC Oct 21, 2020)
What purpose does Senator Abetz’s questioning of Chinese Australians serve, other than to make them feel that they will never belong, no matter how long they have lived here or how hard they have tried? Continue reading »
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Issues with the Chinese diaspora’s political participation
Australia’s public diplomacy agenda does not seem to have translated into concrete policies in regard to the Chinese diaspora, argues this excerpt from a submission to a current Senate inquiry. Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN.-Response to ‘Red Flag: Waking Up to China’s Challenge’ by Peter Hartcher
Following the logic of his own argument, can we assume that Hartcher now wants to recant the position he has advanced in the Quarterly Essay? Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN.-China’s journey through Covid-19: A tale of one city and one family. (ABC Religion and Ethics 18.3.2020)
A difficult question is whether we can achieve similar results(as China) without the heavy-handed top-down control and significant incursions into individual liberty and freedom as we have seen in the City Y. Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN. Australia’s nation-building must start re-imagining Chinese-Australians as part of the ‘national self’, not the nation’s ‘internal Other
Australia is now home to more than 1.3 million citizens of Chinese heritage. They have been profoundly alienated. Continue reading »
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Adversarial journalism in the coverage of China
Australian media’s coverage of China has shifted to adversarial journalism. To change this status quo requires leadership and serious action. Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN. China finding its place in the world.
China. Chinese Australians are feeling the heat, whether they support China or Australia Chinese migration to Australia has always been an essential part of Australian multicultural history. Various diasporic Chinese communities in Australia have played important roles in Australia’s political, social, cultural and economic maturations. Yet now their loyalty to Australia has been unfairly questioned. Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN. New research shows Chinese migrants don’t always side with China and are ha ppy to promote Australia
The Australian government has indicated that “diaspora communities” are crucial to Australia’s public diplomacy mission to promote the country abroad. It has also identified online and social media as essential “public diplomacy tools”. Continue reading »
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WANNING SUN. Another Non-Story on China – An Example of Selective Framing
An ABC news story, ‘Chinese media mocks Australia and Prime Minister in WeChat posts’, fails to mention a few key points, and as a result, is potentially misleading, even confusing. Continue reading »
