本站记者 彭寒
王国忠生于中国香港，祖籍宁波，1979年赴澳留学，之后留在了这里。现任澳大利亚新南威尔士州上议会议员，也是如今新州议会大厦中唯一一位华裔议员。
华人与华人政治
王国忠于2013年当选为新州立法委（即上议会）的议员，是新州继何沈慧霞、黄肇强和曾筱龙之后的又一位华裔上议员。
随着中国移民的数量在澳大利亚，尤其是悉尼地区不断上升，华人社区已经成为了澳大利亚的重要组成部分。虽然已经有像王国忠这样的华人政客走进议会大厦，也有中文媒体对时政新闻越来越频繁的报道，但总体来讲，王国忠认为华人对政治的参与度还并不能匹配我们在悉尼地区的人口基数。
“我们（华人社区）的影响力并不匹配我们的人口基数，差很远。”
刚刚移民到澳大利亚的华人普遍需要花大量的时间来融入当地的生活，这期间会遇到很多障碍，不可避免地会花费更多的时间，自然而然地会降低在政治上的参与度。
“这并不是很明显的政治歧视，但确实是很多移民都被边缘化了，因为主流政治体系不会主动寻求包括华人在内少数族裔的参与。”
在悉尼地区华人的日常生活中，也许政治的确没有成为很重要的一部分。但是在每一次州议会或是地方政府选举的时候，却又是另一番光景。
“每一次选举的时候都会有很多华人出来想要竞选，我不反对。但是他们的目的究竟是让自己有一种特殊的地位呢，还是真正想让自己成为这个政治圈子的一分子，去带动华人去参与政治呢？”
“政治其实不是一门特殊的学问，它是我们每天所需要的，非常简单普遍的东西。这个社会的资源很短缺，当你去争取它，就产生了政治。”
王国忠表示，中国文化中没有‘游说’的传统，其他很多民族都有，这是中华文化的一个短板，也是拖累华人社区不能在争取自己的利益上更进一步的原因之一。
“华人参政需要华人社区整体的凝聚力，去影响执政党，去争取我们的资源和权利，这样才算是成功的参政。”
主流与偏见
“主流”这个词，对于在澳洲生活的华人来讲不会陌生，它几乎出现在当地每一句与澳洲本地文化有关的中文里，比如“主流社会”，“主流媒体”等等。说起来华人社区中对“主流”如何定义没有一个严格的说法，但宽泛来讲，一切与西方社会和文化相关的事物都会被贴上“主流”的标签，仿佛我们自己把自己定位到了“偏流”上。
不可否认的是，在所有由移民为基础建立的多元文化国家中，都或多或少存在少数族裔文化认同的问题，澳大利亚的华人也是其中之一。
“华人在澳大利亚的社会中其实占了很重要的一个环节，除了人口基数和在整体经济上参与以外，我们还可以有很多其他方面的影响，现在还远远不够。”
“最重要的原因在于，澳大利亚的多元文化一直没有把人家（少数族裔）放到脑筋里面，变成一体。”
“很多英裔议员都会说，多元文化是不能进行的，因为我们需要一个统一文化，即英裔文化，主流文化最早也是他们提出的。但这之中的矛盾在于，澳大利亚土著文化是主流呢？还是英裔文化是主流呢？所以现在的主流只是代表了历史和人数上占优势的文化。”
“我们离主流说远可以很远，说近也可以很近。很多民族其实并没有把多元文化变成一体。当所有人都认同真正的多元文化，我们就都是主流了。但是当所有人都有一种偏见，把每一个人都分一个种类的话，那我们距离彼此就很远了。”
三个月前，Reid选区联邦议员Craig Laundy在一次公开活动中的讲话引起了王国忠的关注，并在华人社区中引起了不小的轰动。
“有一位议员在华人的商业活动里公开说了一句，中国人不喜欢交税。”王国忠说，“作为一位议员，他为什么要特地说中国人不喜欢交税？他为什么不说澳大利亚人不喜欢交税，为什么不说世界人不喜欢交税呢？所以，在主流社会也好，英裔文化里也好，他们一早就已经把所有的民族都分开了。这是深深在人心里面的，而不是在社会里面的。”
我是有中国价值观的澳大利亚人
王国忠在香港出生的时候那里还是英国的殖民地。谈起自己的文化定位，他自己也笑了，坦言自己从小就很纠结。
“我在议会的第一次发言中就讲过，我小时候对自己的定位就很混乱，我是香港人呢？中国人呢？还是英国人？其实，我真正寻找我作为中国人的文化根本，还是到了澳大利亚以后。在这个基础上，才开始探索我在澳大利亚的文化定位。”
他认为自己首先是澳大利亚公民，因为他已经选择了这块土地作为自己的家，自己要代表这片土地的利益。
“但是这个澳大利亚的利益里面，是一定可以容纳一个有不同价值观的人的。而我拥有的是中国人的价值观，比如我的家庭观念，我对老一辈的爱护等等。”
讲到这里，王国忠也一再强调，自己在这一块的定位已经非常明确了，自己希望把中国的价值观融入到澳大利亚的文化中去。
“我也不怕去表达这一种想法，人们接受不接受都没有问题，我会把它传承下去。”
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I’m the Australian with Chinese Value
State representative of NSW Legislative Council Ernest Wong
By Han, Southeast Net Australia 16 June
Wong was born in Hong Kong at 1960, where he spent the first 19 years of his life growing up. He came to Australia as an international student in 1979, and decided to stay as a citizen afterwards.
Mr. Wong was elected to the Legislative Council in 2013 after serving 15 years in the city council of Burwood, the areas with one of the highest density of Chinese Community across the state.
Chinese Australians and Politics
Ernest Wong being elected as the upper house member marks the third Chinese Australian Legislative Council Representative after Helen Sham-Ho, Peter Wong and Henry Tsang.
Chinese Community is now one of the strongest ethnic communities in Sydney Region in terms of the population thanks to the continuously increasing number of immigrants over the past two decades. However, as a part of the country, politics has never really become a part of the everyday lives of Chinese community.
“Our influence does not match our population, not even close.”
Wong points out that for most newcomers, it’s understandable that they might spend most of their time trying to fit in the society, which sometimes ends up with the lack of involvement of politics.
“I would not call it a political discrimination, even though we did see a political marginalization on immigrants. Mainstream society simply do not come to you and ask you to get involved. ”
Asked about his opinions regarding Chinese Australian politicians, Wong said, “Politics is not a complicated thing. Instead, it’s about out everyday life. What we have in our society, the resource, is pretty limited. When it comes to how people divide the limited resource, politics came along.”
“Chinese culture does not have such a tradition called ‘lobby’, whereas many cultures do. This is what has been dragging us in politics.”
Mainstream and Stereotyping
Mainstream, or “主流” in Chinese, is quite a popular word among Chinese Australians whenever it comes to a conversation regarding “westerners”, “mainstream media”, “mainstream society”, etc.
It has been a common acknowledge of the problem over the issue of recognition across cultures in countries whose population are largely based on immigrants.
Where there is a mainstream, there must be a “sub-stream”.
“How far are we from mainstream? It can be very far, or very close.”
“There are different reasons for Chinese communities not playing their roles as they should be playing, among which there is misrepresentation of multiculturalism. They never take it seriously.”
“The idea of mainstream was introduced by Anglo-Australian politicians, claiming the importance of a dominant culture, which is, so it is to say, the Anglo-Australian culture. However, it triggered an interesting contradiction on whether Anglo-Australian culture is to be the dominant one, or the Aboriginal’s should. ”
During Wong’s year in Burwood city council, he served as Mayor for one term and deputy for many terms, within which he established the multiculturalism committee of Burwood. It’s been over 10 years of multiculturalism work for him.
“Everybody in this country is talking about multiculturalism and claim themselves the supporters. However, when people are still thinking in the way, which involves stereotyping and still classifies other people by how they look, the gap could never be bridged. ”
Three months earlier, the comments by Craig Laundy, federal member for Reid and assistant minister for multiculturalism was a good example.
“A federal member said ‘Chinese do not like to pay tax’. What was he emphasizing Chinese for, as a federal member? Why didn’t he say ‘Australians don’t like to pay tax’ or ‘the world people don’t feel like paying tax’ instead? In mainstream, so it is to say, every ethnic group was classified and tagged. It’s deep rooted in people’s minds.”
I’m an Australian with the Chinese Value
When Wong was born, Hong Kong was still a British Colony. He had been struggling for his own cultural identity for a long time since the first day of his life.
“I addressed the matter of my cultural recognition in my first speech in the state parliament. I?was confused?for a while. Hong Kong people? Chinese? Or British? Not until I came to Australia did I start looking for my cultural identity as a Chinese descendant, based on which I was able to orientate myself culturally to the land that I choose to live on.”
First thing’s first, he recognizes himself as an Australian citizen, representing the interest of Australia, where he now sees as his home for the rest his life.
“Among Australian interest, I believe a man with the Chinese value is definitely tolerable. This Chinese value may refer to my close ties to my family, my respect to the elders. ”
“This would be a part of my cultural identity and I will pass it along to my children.”
（以上言论均代表被访者个人意见）
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