Representing Chinese Migrant Workers in SBS’s New Gold Mountain (2021)

Migration has long been a prominent theme in films and televisions, yet the interlingual and intercultural representation of migrants in these audiovisual products has received scarce scholarly attention thus far. This paper seeks to examine how Chinese migrant workers are represented in Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)’s New Gold Mountain (2021), which tells the real stories of the gold rush in mid-19th century Australia – a period marked by a significant influx of migrants from China, who sought fortune and fled from conflicts. Understanding such representation is crucial in a contemporary context where discussions around migration and conflict remain relevant. Taking New Gold Mountain with closed captions and its Chinese translated versions as the research subject, this paper analyses the construction of narratives of one specific plot in which Chinese migrant workers are scapegoated for the death of a white individual with a view to investigate the construction and representation of Chinese migrants. Drawing on multimodal critical discourse analysis (Machin & Mayr, 2023) and socio-narrative theory (Baker 2019), the data analysis reveals a multi-layered construction and representation of migrants that highlight the diversity of individuals within this community and suggests a positive shift in the presentation of Chinese migrants on screen.