Persistence, Change and Innovation: The Social Organization of the New Zeafand Chinese 1866-1976

Abstract

The central concern of this paper has to do with a description and explanation of the strategies used by the New Zealand Chinese to articulate their autonomy and survive in a context which would at times deny this possibility. The framework for the description and explanation draws mainly on the analytical contributions of Crissman (1967) and Wickberg (1979) and thus focusses on the unique organisational structures that are ubiquitious in the overseas Chinese context. These organisational structures provide not only a map to the internal and external relations of the Chinese community but also a key to understanding the process of change as it occurs in that community. It is the segmentary system, including all organisational structures in the Chinese community through time, which provides a range of idioms through which the _community may combine its resources to articulate its external and internal needs as well as confronting exploitation and discrimination. The context which underlies these needs, areas of confrontation and the changing configuration of the segmentary system, is shown, not only to be the result of influences external to the community but also to derive from the unintended and intended consequences of reorganisation to cope with the former. In brief cooperation that ensues because of one set of influences can at the same time provide the basis for conflict and fragmentation within the community structure. The result of this case study reveals an organisational structure in the New Zealand Chinese community which is forced through cycles of cooperation, fragmentation and conflict but because of the capacity to undergo change has also become, it is argued, the basis of its survival.