蔡珮

Pei Tsai

台灣移民、族群認同、符號互動論、跨界認同、澳洲人

Taiwanese immigrant, ethnic identity, symbolic interactionism, cross-border identity, Australian

本文探討布里斯本澳籍台裔之越界族群認同，同時也思考從傳播角度可以如何豐富認同研究的多樣性。文中探討了Barth 族群邊界論與Mead 符號互動論兩者在認同形成過程中所共同關注的社會互動有何差異、互補與不足，Mead 的符號互動論經由Hecht 認同的傳播理論延伸與修正後，與傳播的關係更為密切，也使得田野觀察中錯綜複雜的互動行為，有了條理化的分析方式。本文發現，從傳播互動角度探究越界認同之過程，需找出Mead 理論中連結自我與共同體的「重要象徵符號」如何在互動中產生，其「趨同」與「區異」之特質需同時掌握才能描繪認同同時具備「同一」與「差異」的雙重特性。傳播與認同之關係，並非如Mead 符號互動論單向地認為認同是傳播的果，而是如Hecht 指出認同反映傳播，傳播具體表現認同。因此「重要象徵符號」不只在共同體成員溝通互動時內化為自我認同，時也外化為傳播的實踐來建構認同。

This article explores how Taiwanese immigrants become Australians, and considers how communication perspectives enrich identity study. The main theoretical frames in this study combine Barth’s theory of “ethnic boundary” and Mead’s symbolic interactionism, drawing on the strength of each to offset the weakness of the other. By extending and modifying Mead’s theory, Hecht’s communication theory of identity not only makes further linkage between communication and identity, but also provides clear analysis and presentation for observing complex interaction behaviors. The results show studying cross-border identity from the perspective of symbolic interactionism necessitates discovering how “significant symbols”, the key communicative factor to link self with community in Mead’s theories, are generated within interaction process. Grasping the twofold characteristic of significant symbols -- sameness (generated from the interaction within an ethnic group) and difference (generated from the interaction between ethnic groups), completely describes the dual quality of identity -- identical and different. The relationship between communication and identity is not as Mead thought, that identity is the outcomes of communication, but as Hecht pointed out, that identity reflects communication that externalizes identity. Therefore, significant symbols not only internalize into self identification during interaction among members of a community, they also externalize during communication practices to construct identity.