امپریالیسم بدون امپراطوری: سکوت در پژوهش حسابداری معاصر درباره نژاد/قومیت

This paper focuses on the experiences of Chinese accountants in the accountancy profession in New Zealand. It endeavors to gain insights into the better understanding of the continuities and discontinuities of colonialism/imperialism, and their impact on the lives of certain groups of people whose voices have not yet been heard. In so doing, this paper is particularly interested in articulating silences and omissions of issues of race/ethnicity in contemporary accounting literature. This includes critical reflection on serious concerns about ethnic/racial bias in western society and social practice, in particular accounting. Findings from my study suggest the existence of ongoing imperialism against the Chinese and the politics of “difference” have been the most efficient tools in excluding the Chinese accountants from the center of the power structure within the accountancy profession in New Zealand.

In the last three decades or so, there has been a growing interest amongst critical accounting researchers in articulating the role of accounting and the accountancy profession in the enactment and maintenance of western colonial imperialism (Annisette, 2000a and Annisette, 2000b; Chew and Greer, 1997, Gibson, 1994, Gibson, 1995, Gibson, 1996, Gibson, 2000 and Greer and Patel, 2000; Neu, 2000). A significant, although still comparatively scarce, number of studies, based on the notion of race/ethnicity, has articulated the impact of colonialism/postcolonialism/imperialism on the career development of ethnic minorities in accountancy by examining the institutional and social factors that have contributed to the marginalization of these ethnic minorities (AICPA, 1980, AICPA, 1988a, AICPA, 1988b, AICPA, 1989, AICPA, 1990, AICPA, 1992a, AICPA, 1992b, AICPA, 1996a, AICPA, 1996b, Aiken, 1972, Aiken and Brown, 1989, Anonymous, 1995, Belkaoui, 1985, Benson, 1981, Collins, 1988, Collins, 1989 and Cramer and Strawser, 1970; Hammond, 1994, Hammond, 1995, Hammond, 1997a, Hammond, 1997b and Hammond, 1997c; Hammond and Streeter, 1994, Knapp and Kwon, 1991, Martin, 1933, McNicholas et al., 2000, Mitchell and Flintall, 1990, Mynatt et al., 1997 and Paige, 1991). All these research efforts, however, have been grounded in the colonial history of ethnic minorities and have left out other ethnic minorities who do not fit into this quintessential image of “ethnic minority.” Possibly the most important ethnic minority group amongst previously ignored non-White, non-Black and non-indigenous ethnic minorities is the Chinese. Focusing on the experiences of Chinese accountants in the accountancy profession in New Zealand, this paper examines the impact of colonialism/imperialism in shaping their experiences in accountancy which would in turn help us better to understand the multiplicity of colonial imperial enterprise by the British Empire in New Zealand in general, and in the accountancy profession in particular. In reporting on accounts by some Chinese accountants, I am particularly interested in gaining insights into the ways in which the accountancy profession in New Zealand is stratified along racial/ethnic lines and the strategies that have been used to keep ethnic minorities “in their place” within the profession. The discussion is organized as follows. First, a brief discussion is presented on the different modalities of colonialism/imperialism which have justified the exploitation of “territory-less” ethnic minority groups by the British/European Empire. Second, an historical overview of the incorporation of Chinese into the 19th century British/European colonial imperial enterprise in the New Worlds in general and in New Zealand in particular is provided. The next section on methodology/method, discusses the difficulties that I have experienced in my conduct of qualitative research on race/ethnicity in accounting. I then critically scrutinize the predicament of Chinese accountants and the factors that have contributed to their under representation within the New Zealand accountancy profession. An extensive discussion on the barriers/obstacles that the Chinese accountants have experienced on the basis of culturally re/produced notion of race/ethnicity in the accountancy profession in New Zealand is followed next. Finally, the discussion concludes with a summary of the main findings from my study and potential directions for future research on race/ethnicity in accounting.

This paper has examined the experiences of Chinese accountants who participate in the accountancy profession in New Zealand so as to gain insights into the role of accounting and the accountancy profession in the continuities and discontinuities of the British colonialism/imperialism and its impact on the lives of certain groups of people whose voices have been marginalized. I was particularly concerned to shed some light on the implications of ongoing colonialism/imperialism on the lives of ethnic minorities through the process of racialization re/producing them as “the problem” within society. Contemporary social science research on race/ethnicity and racism has mainly focused on the colonial situation as the object of analysis based on the Black (i.e. colonized) versus White (i.e. colonizer) dichotomy that has influenced the construction of cultural lenses through which social scientists have viewed people of “color.” However, this over-simplified Black/White dichotomy have little explanatory power to articulate non-colonial incorporation of those “territory-less” ethnic minorities into the 19th century British colonialism/imperialism, and thereby fails to recognize racism against these groups. A direct outcome of the introduction of people who were “culturally different” from both indigenous population and members of dominant groups was different processes of racialization, which often involved, and continues to involve, the positioning of subordinated groups against each other. It was indeed the surest and most efficient means of sustaining colonial relations of domination, by creating socio-economic competition and hostility between indigenous and the migrant populations. This contextual difference has not been widely acknowledged in previous social science research on colonialism/imperialism due mainly to the geographically confined research focus on the USA and South Africa. The consequence is that the colonial expansion of modern Europe is still the reference point for most discussions on the impact of colonialism/imperialism on the lives of ethnic minorities and the voices of those “territory-less” victims of colonialism/imperialism are still left in vacuum. There is, therefore, an urgent need to broaden the scope of enquiry on the issues of race/ethnicity in order to deepen our understanding of the different manifestation of colonialism/imperialism and its ongoing impact on people’s lives. The research focus on the different modalities of the 19th century colonialism/imperialism experienced by these non-colonized ethnic minorities has a particularly strong significance in this age of “globalization,” a time when the increasing homogenization and harmonization of accounting practice and education is attracting many criticisms for the emergence of neo-colonialism in accounting. An examination of these issues will give prominence to the voices that have been silenced in contemporary accounting literature, which continues to privilege the experiences of the center over those of the periphery.