The fundamental funding support for this project was provided by an Australian Research Council Large Grant, “Audiovisual Media Use for Cultural Maintenance and Negotiation by Diasporic Communities of Asian Origin in Australia”, awarded for 1996–98 to Stuart Cunningham, John Sinclair and Gay Hawkins. We are pleased to record from the outset that our undertaking would have been unthinkable without such support. Ancillary funding and/or in-kind support which assisted the research was provided by Queensland University of Technology, Victoria University of Technology, the University of New South Wales and the University of Canberra.
We owe thanks to a number of people and institutions for their assistance in this project: Elizabeth Jacka, whose idea it was in the first place and who was an original applicant for the sustaining ARC grant; at University of Queensland Press, our commissioning editor, Craig Munro, and managing director Laurie Muller; the School of Media and Journalism at Queensland University of Technology and the Department of Communication, Language and Cultural Studies, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, which have been good home bases for our work; and Jo-Anne Clifford and Maggie Gundert for their continuing support.
Stuart Cunningham and Tina Nguyen gratefully acknowledge the vital research provided by Jo Chichester, Trang Nguyen and Jo-Anne Clifford, without which the work would have been impossible; and the help of Audrey Yue, Son Ca, Nguyen Van Khanh, Trinh Thu Lan, Tran Le Trinh, Vo Quoc Thanh and Huynh Thai Van (Jasmine). The collegial academic support and assistance provided by Mandy Thomas at the University of Western Sydney and Ashley Carruthers at the University of Sydney have been appreciated immensely.
Manas Ray seeks to acknowledge Brij Lal in Canberra for granting a valuable interview; Satish Rai, Sashi Mahendra Singh, Nick Kumar, Saronika Pratap, Akash Hossain, Sanjoy Dello, Gabriel and Sheetal Chellam in Sydney for their assistance with the research into the Fiji Indians; Uri Themal, Firoz Khan, Taushif Khan, Raniga, Aiyasha, Sunny Prasad and Tracey Edwards in Brisbane for their assistance with the research generally; Ravi Vasudevan in Delhi and Pradip Bose, Gantam Bhadra, Moinak Biswas and Sivaji Bandhyopadhyay in Calcutta for collegial discussion and debate. Glen Lewis and Chalinee Hirano would like to thank the Thai Welfare Organization in Sydney and the Thai video rental stores, as well as the Thai communities in Sydney and Canberra whose assistance made their research possible.
Some parts of this work have been presented at a number of venues, including the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) conferences in Sydney in 1996, Oaxaca in 1997 and Glasgow in 1998; the Communications Law Centre “Television and the Multicultural Audience” seminar in Sydney in 1995; Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy conferences and workshops in Singapore, Brisbane and Sydney in 1996 and 1997; the “Chinese in Australia” conference in Melbourne in 1996; and the Cultural Studies Association of Australia conference in Adelaide in 1998. Parts have appeared in previous form in Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, Citizenship and Cultural Policy (eds Denise Meredyth and Jeffrey Minson, Sage, 2000), and in New Formations.
For the use of copyright material, we would like to thank the following: Galaxy Media Pty Ltd, ASIA Productions, Thuy Nga Productions, Chieu Duong, and Fiji Times. All reasonable efforts were made to secure permission for material used but we would be glad to hear from anyone we have been unable to contact in order to correct this for any future edition.