“环境焦虑”与澳大利亚殖民地反华话语的构建

The “Environmental Anxiety” and the Construction of Anti-Chinese Discourse in the Australian Colonies

19世纪下半叶,澳大利亚殖民地的欧洲裔移民社会通过渲染华人对自然资源的浪费、水土环境的破坏以及引发流行病等现象,将一种对环境恶化的焦虑感融入反华话语的构建之中。从华人移民劳工进入殖民地伊始,社会舆论就探讨了其与环境的关系。在牧羊业扩张时代,华人劳工一度被认为具有更高的环境适应力,但在淘金热引发环境巨变后,移民劳工舆论开始强调华人对生产环境的直接破坏,而政治精英们渲染华人威胁殖民地生态的整体健康,借此强调排华政策的合理性。澳大利亚的案例说明,欧洲拓殖型殖民地种族矛盾不仅存在于经济与文化领域,而且包含一种生态竞争的内涵。

In the second half of the 19^(th) century,the communities of European immigrants in Australia integrated their anxieties concerning the environmental deterioration into the discourse of anti-Chinese racism through blaming Chinese immigrants for wasting nature resources,destroying the water-soil environment,and bringing the epidemics caused by the above behaviors in the Australian colonies.As soon as Chinese labors arrived in the Australian colonies,their interaction with the Australian environment was discussed by the public opinion.During the period of sheep farming expansion,Chinese labors were considered a group with higher ability to adapt the local environment.However,after the radical changes caused by the gold rushes,the public opinion censured the Chinese miners to directly destructed the production environment.The local political elites exaggerated that Chinese immigrants threatened the public health in the ecology of the colonies,and accordingly,stressed the reasonableness of their anti-Chinese policy.Through the examination of the Australian case,it is clear to show that the racial conflict deriving from the European colonization not only existed in the economic and cultural spheres,but contained the meaning of an ecological competition.