Taiwanese Australian Shan Ju Lin joins One Nation as a candidate, and her reasons are completely flawed
I have read all the media surrounding the candidacy of Taiwanese Australian Shan Ju Lin with One Nation. Her reasons for defending Pauline Hanson and standing strong with a bigoted political party is a sign of her ignorance and lack of understanding on the intersections of race relations in Australia. Where many people will laugh and dismiss her as a joke, her candidacy presents many implications in how Australia views racism, bigotry and cultural diversity.
Shan will be standing as a candidate for Queensland in 2018, and just a quick check up on her social media already indicates how problematic her public displays of affection for Pauline Hanson actually is. Just a little bit of background, Shan is of Taiwanese descent and has made Australia home for 26 years. A woman who is passionate about politics, and in particular Asian geo-politics, Shan has spouted and fear mongered about how the rise of China will be to the detriment of Australia and to the rest of the western world. Shan is also an active participant within the Falun Gong movement, a group which promotes meditation and peace, but really is a front to blame and shame China for the ills of the world. And where I am not condemning Shan for her views because she has every right to hold them, I do believe her methods of promoting her views is wrong and she has managed to blur the lines between what it means to be anti-Chinese Government and what is seen as China bashing and promoting racism and hate. In addition, Shan is also anti-LGBTIQ and pretty much has dribbled extremely problematic views which works against the cause of promoting a harmonious and diverse Australian society.
Her five minutes of fame really came to light when she made a statement saying “good Asians” will vote for her and One Nation. This statement as simple as it sounds is extremely ignorant and divisive. The fact that she is attempting to create a wedge within the Asian Australian community is a huge problem, and One Nation knows that and is manipulating Shan for their own ambitions and agendas. Having Shan on their side will validate that One Nation is not against Asians, and that the racism and hate which they stand for should also resonate with Asian Australian voters. This is an extremely sad state of affairs, and Shan has played into this plot. Other statements which Shan has made to the media to validate her reasons for standing as a One Nation candidate are flawed and hold no substance in terms of being reputable reasons:
“For European people it’s very difficult to distinguish Chinese or Korean or Japanese, and I can understand why she said it. She sees the problem ahead of everybody, including you and me. Everything she said is happening now.”
So this is problematic in that it has reinforced racial stereotyping, which in itself is racist. Asian Australians have fought for equality for decades and this statement only pushes this work backwards. Shan again demonstrates that she has no understanding about the intersectionality of race relations in Australia and clearly has no inkling about the history of racism in Australia. She has also now given the green light for racists and ignorant Australians to generalise all Asians as the same. She also has endorsed the famous maiden speech Pauline Hanson made back in 1996 (see video below), when she just got elected into the Australian Parliament, that “Australia is being swamped by Asians”. If Pauline got her way back then, Asian Australians such as Shan would be isolated, targeted and cleared out, so the question is whether Shan is just ignorant or whether she is a combination of ignorance and opportunism.
“I feel the Chinese Communist Party is a great threat to Australia because they bought a lot of businesses and our harbours and properties. They will take over power of Australia. They will form their own government” (ABC online).
This statement is all wrong and again demonstrates the failure of Shan to understand what is being against a Government and what is being racist. The other fact which Shan has omitted is that the Chinese are not the biggest investors in Australia. In actual fact the US, UK and Canada beats China in terms of the amount of foreign investment in Australia. So why does she not go after them? The other statements that the Chinese Government will take power in Australia and will form their own Government is the dribble of a woman who has been over consumed by her hatred of the Chinese Government that she is now spewing the same racist words which come out of racist Australians and the mainstream media.
“There are two groups of Asians … the good Asians will be like me. The other group will be supporting CCP, and those people who support CCP are selfish people” (ABC online).
Again, Shan has contradicted herself in her own statement and has an extremely narrow view of defining what it means to be Asian in Australia. The statement should be that no Asians will like her, unless they are the ones who support the same anti-Chinese Government dribble like she does. The majority of Asian Australians do not even think about the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), nor do they support them. And even those who do support the CCP, it is unfair to label them as “selfish”. Shan has failed to discern the difference between supporting racist rhetoric and being opposed to a political ideology. This statement is extremely damaging to the cultural diversity and social cohesion of Australian society.
Finally, Shan is truly an embellishment to the Asian Australian brand. She does not represent any sectors of the community and she does not represent me. Shan is not stupid, she is calculating and has joined One Nation for her own selfish reasons, due to her opposition to a political ideology. She is an opportunist and has used the media storm surrounding her to peddle the China bashing rhetoric. Of course Pauline Hanson and One Nation can capitalise on this, and behind her back are probably showing her disrespect. But Shan is blind to this and will refuse to see it as it is: One Nation is nothing more than a racist and bigoted political party and is no different from the white supremacist/nationalist cavalry.
Erin Chew is Convener of the Asian Australian Alliance, and Asian Australian Alliance Women’s Forum.
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Return to home pageThank you Erin for this very interesting insight. I hope your article is shared far and wide. Pauline Hanson and Co. will use her for their own ends of course, to prove they arent racist. So your article is very timely.
“I feel the Chinese Communist Party is a great threat to Australia because they bought a lot of businesses and our harbours and properties. They will take over power of Australia. They will form their own government”
Can’t blame people for offering to buy stuff …
If a willing seller sells stuff (e.g.businesses and harbours) against their own self interest or national security, more fool them.
That’s Oz, in the 21st century.
You can’t fix stupid.
She’s admittedly a Chinese government-hating Taiwanese immigrant with her own personal agenda and thinks Hanson will be the solution.
The Taiwanese have their own version of “The Yellow Peril” when it comes to the Chinese mainland but I think she fails to see she’s being used as a token apologist for Hanson’s wider hatreds.
She may feel like she’s one of “us” but in reality she’s just another one of those unwanted people from that mystical evil place One Nation calls “Asia”, plus a non-Christian heathen to boot. Hanson never attempted to discriminate between different Asian groups – they were all the same to her.
Despite the smiling photo-ops, there’s really no place for her in Hanson’s White Christian Australia.
I think Stalin used to refer to such people as “useful idiots”.
“I was always taught the yellow race will rule the world. And if we don’t do something now … I’m afraid, yes, the yellow race will rule the world.” – Pauline Hanson’s mum.
“I do not want Australia to be Asianised, I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate.” – Pauline Hanson’s first maiden speech
” Now we are in danger of being swamped by Muslims, who bear a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own……our leaders continue to tell us to be tolerant and embrace the good Muslims. But how should we tell the difference? There is no sign saying ‘good Muslim’ or ‘bad Muslim’. How many lives will be lost or destroyed trying to determine who is good and who is bad?
Have no doubt that we will be living under sharia law and treated as second-class citizens with second-class rights if we keep heading down the path with the attitude, ‘She’ll be right, mate.’ ” – Pauline Hanson’s second “maiden” speech
Shan Ju Lin has tried to run for the Liberal Party and the Labor Party and she did run for the Katter Party. Another self-serving moocher if ever I saw one.
Nah we are OK with Asians at the moment our prime target is Muslims we in danger of being swamped with Muslims !!!!
Indonesians are Asians and they’re 90% Muslims.
Great post, Erin. Hanson thinks she has found a get out of racism accusations free card. Oppressed groups routinely side with the oppressor group against the latest targets.
Whomever is using whom, I can’t see how this is going to work long term. Shan Ju Lin will no doubt end up in a Jacquie Lambie/Palmer United situation and become an independent. Another with flawed thinking much of the time, and yet – we need all the indiies we can get.
It would be funny.if it wasn’t true.mark
“drivel”??
Australia’s political class have proven themselves to be harlots for hire to foreign powers, to big business, to the property speculators, various vested interests such as state security and especially the foreign and local financier class. We are right to be concerned especially about the excessive influence of China and of the United States and even smaller players like Britain, Japan and Germany. Perhaps it is our colonial origins that are the source of our lack of independent nationalism or political backbone to pursue our own best interests?
Andrew Robb’s appalling free trade agreements with China, South Korea and Japan where our car industry and the manufacturing sector across the board was sacrificed for slightly improved trade access for our beef exports and a few other tokens was a clear example of foreign and local finance and other nations being prioritised over our own long term national interest. The loss of our manufacturing sector, apart from a few niches, will also have substantial long term defence implications, is this one of the main long term objectives of Chinese trade policy?
Why would any democratic government support the Investor State Dispute protocols in the TPP when such agreements would tie the hands of government to protect the environment or the rights of citizens and effectively leaves government subservient to global corporations? Even after Trump has rejected the TPP our pathetic political leadership continues to lobby for it and even threatens to adopt a similar agreement with China. It is clear that the world’s most reprehensible corporations and China are colluding when their interests coincide and that our political class are complicit.
Chevron’s massive LNG investments in the North West Shelf where mostly foreign manufactured infrastructure is used, very few locals are employed apart from the construction phase, and negligible royalties or taxes paid is a further example of our colonial subservience. Norway’s approach to its oil and gas resources was the path we should have chosen where local businesses were developed and performed most of the work and taxes are used for the public good.
Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Bob Carr have also spent most of their post political careers serving the best interests of China. Martin Ferguson also served his true masters – the big oil and gas corporations very well.
Chinese business interests, often with government connections, actively lobby our political class and the Chinese government actively influences editorial policy of local Chinese language media by putting pressure on advertisers and by providing financial support.
The property market in Sydney and Melbourne continues to grow despite becoming unaffordable to all but the most wealthy, primarily due to foreign investment from China and our local wealthy elite which will ultimately lead to locals becoming tenants to a wealthy local and foreign elite that are generously subsidised by the same middle class taxpayers that are being forced to become tenants.
Australia really is as corrupt as any third world banana republic but rather than depositing funds directly into the personal bank accounts of political leaders, funds from lobbyists are generally used for campaigning purposes or to run the parties, the mass media is bought, allied think tanks are funded or lucrative business careers are arranged for compliant politicians or bureaucrats.
One thing is clear, lobbying pays when the political class is for sale and we should all be afraid of the big fish in the pond who have learnt how to write the rules. Middle size fish are heading for extinction.
Somehow I can see this all ending in tears. Again. Porleen’s nuttiest fan base will just get confused, as they won’t be able to distinguish between the “good” Asians and the bad (which I’m guessing means Chinese and/or Muslim) ones. How will they know who to hate? It’s already got too complex with Culleton’s exit! Shouldn’t laugh…
Ken, one of my pet peeves that, the use of the word dribble when the intended meaning is drivel.
I have yet to hear a One Nation associated person whose views are ‘not’ flawed
Steve Laing re:
I’m not sure she is so much about ‘hate’ but more driven by ‘fear’. Read any of her speeches and what becomes clear is her ‘fears’.
Even in the dying days of the Parliament when demonstrators interrupted the running of the House of Representatives and there was a subsequent discussion in the Senate about what might be done, Hinch was against the ‘fortress mentality’ – not wanting to surround the public places with barbed wire.. No so Pauline, she was quick to claim: ‘we are all living in fear’.
See KL’s citations above, for examples, and see the words used also in other parts of her Senate speech
She probably inherited that fear from her family, mother in particular who is also cited above always taught the yellow race will rule the world. And if we don’t do something now … I’m afraid, yes, the yellow race will rule
While ‘hate’ may be part of her mental mix, it seems to me that the over riding emotional state is that of FEAR . And she is very successful in arousing that same emotion is many others.
What most Australians fail to understand, is the importance that most Asian people place on politics. They have already learned the hard way not to do so spells disaster and wars.
Matters Not – you are absolutely right that the initial premise of One Nation, and indeed the Coalition, is to elicit fear. However the problem is that the fear creates hate – you need the hate to deal with the fear. It is unfortunately how many fearful people usually react, particularly when in numbers. They might be cowardly alone, but in a mob they feel powerful and that is when the hate turns up.
Fear alone is not enough, as fear disables one from taking action. From fear, create anger, from anger create hate. Its a very old trick with great short term benefits, but is very costly longer term. Our economy is currently in the doldrums in large part caused by the fear spread by Tony Abbott that the economy was in the toilet – people’s fear stopped them from spending, and the spiral downwards started. It won’t recover until that fear is removed, and this won’t happen with the Coalition. Likewise One Nation will undoubtably implode (indeed that has already started) as it becomes obvious that they simply don’t have the smarts to operate collectively.
Steve Laing, while hate and fear often go together, they don’t have to. For example, I fear lions, tigers and crocodiles but I don’t hate them. On the other hand, I hate red lights, stop signs and reality TV shows, but I don’t fear them.
As for One Nation and its likely trajectory, can I refer to her maiden Senate speech:
Because they are a strong, united team they will have a bright future. LOL.
The problem is that they don’t share a political ideology that is grounded in common values and attitudes that have been expressed AND thought through. With the probable rise of Bernardi’s party, and the possibility of going ‘independent’ they are ripe for the picking.
Australia should abandon her British colonial ties and join in agressively on the Chinese opportunity OBOR peace thru development infrastructure program… these two women are morons.
Good article Ms Chew. Pity about your attack on the Falun Gong movement. An attack which you fail to provide any evidence about in the article leading me to question the intention of this otherwise good article.
Can we have a follow up article regarding why you claim Falun Gong are “…a front to blame and shame China for the ills of the world.”
Matters Not – you are absolutely correct in your statement, however if you wanted to get people to get rid of those lions, tigers and crocodiles, then it would be easier if you could stoke a bit of hate. It’s why propagandists regularly suggest that enemy soldiers happily rape and kill children. Fear discourages action, hate gets things moving.