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In fact, the notion of some socio-political union between Australia and Asia along with
constantly rising levels of Asian immigration resulted in a resurgence in invasion theories and
literature. No matter the directions taken by politicians and intellectuals, as long as Australia,
though ‘much changed from its original position of supporting the ‘White Australia’ policy,
remained predominantly white and European, it was basically opposed to the idea of the
Asianisation of Australia or the future of a Eurasian nation’ (Ouyang Yu, 1995, Invasion, 80).
Young, affluent middle-class Westerners, meanwhile, were discovering Asia as a
paradise of ‘peaceful, palm-lined beaches, sun-drenched landscapes, tropical nights, the
mysteries of the Orient’—all available at very low prices. Hippies flooded in, looking for the
Asia of transcendental experiences obtained through drugs, sex, and religious ecstasies. They
were followed by the tourists, who wanted all this plus modern plumbing and easier travelling.
The ‘underlying desire’, Hamilton writes, was—beyond the surface requirements for a paradise
full of erotic natives, good surfing beaches and Australian beer—for hippies and tourists alike
‘to escape the constructions of urban Western life and re-discover the hidden native in
themselves’ (Hamilton, 25). The Australians and other Westerners had indeed ‘rediscovered’
Asia, but their perception remained the old stereotypical land of exotic dreams. The psychic
wounds caused by the war in Vietnam led to the expansion of the sex trade in Asia. ‘The Asia
woman (and boy) has increasingly become the means through which another form of power
can be discovered’, writes Hamilton. In stark contrast to Western women, ‘Asia women are
constructed as “really feminine”, docile, undemanding and childlike’. Sexuality is associated
with nakedness and thus ‘nativeness’, and so ‘is seen to be liberated by being in “Asia”’
(Hamilton, 26). Having sex with a ‘native’ would serve to restore the Westerner’s sense of
superiority, not only over the Asian but over one’s Western partners as well.
In Australia Prime Minister Whitlam ushered in what he called the ‘New Nationalism’, a
vague concept which was associated with renewed pride in Australian achievement, especially
in the cultural field, but also with doubts about the increasing foreign involvement with the
Australian economy. The most obvious targets were American mining giants, but, White
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