Like Jews, Irish, African-Americans and Filipinos, Chinese have migrated far from their ancestral homeland to the four corners of the Earth. Today, 34 million Chinese immigrants and their offspring live in 140 countries throughout the world. In the 1990s, “Overseas Chinese” moved into cyberspace, with a rich Web presence in several languages. Responding to their virtual migrations, a new Chinese Cultures Abroad Directory documents, describes and evaluates 40 websites by and about immigrant Chinese in Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawai’i, North America and beyond.
Located at www2.hawaii.edu/~pollard/chculture.html on the World Wide Web, the Directory is a unique resource for students, teachers, journalists and community organizers interested in the Internet activity of “Overseas Chinese.” Information ranges from religious and martial arts, to business, social services, and history. Users read the evaluations, visit linked websites, make comparisons, and draw their own conclusions.
As the Directory’s Editor, Vincent Kelly Pollard received a Freeman Undergraduate Grant in July. To enhance quality, he also recruited a trans-national board of scholars from the People’s Republic of China, Japan and Taiwan to advise him. Beginning in the Spring 2004 Semester, Pollard’s undergraduate Asian Studies students will add their evaluations of linked websites to the Directory’s current set of expert evaluations. Aside gaining experience, contributing students will also be recognized with author-identified credits in the Directory.
Pollard has been teaching Political Science and Asian Studies on three campuses in the UH System, including KCC. Much of his research and writing concerns modern and contemporary East and Southeast Asian social history and international politics.
KCC faculty, students and staff interested in becoming involved in the Directory are encouranged to visit the website and then to contact Pollard.
