‘Are you a Catholic Chinese or a Protestant Chinese?’: Belfast's ethnic minorities and the sectarian divide

Abstract

This paper reflects on the rapidly changing demography of Belfast and the (potential) role of ethnic minorities in facilitating the city's move to a more progressive and pluralistic society. Focusing specifically on two films about the migrant population—Lab Ky Mo's Oranges are Blue (2005) and Stephen Don's Faraway (2013)—it assesses the extent to which increased cultural diversity and alternative identities are complicating the dominant image of Belfast as a paradigmatic ‘divided city’ (between Catholics and Protestants). The paper also explores the city's alarming problem with racism—the number of racially motivated attacks increased by 30% from 2013 to 2014—as well as ongoing sectarian tensions and the ways in which these severely hinder the ability of migrants to contribute to the reconstruction of the city in imaginative and enlightened ways.

Key words:

• post-conflict Belfast
• ethnic minorities
• racism
• sectarianism
• film
• Lab Ky Mo
• Stephen Don

Notes

1 When the Race Relations Act was being drafted in 1965, Stormont apparently requested that Northern Ireland be excluded as ‘religion rather than race’ was the more serious issue in the territory (Dickey 1972).

2 Belfast infamously hit the headlines in 2009 when more than 100 Romanians were forced to leave the capital.

3 According to UKIP's leader in Northern Ireland, David McNarry, the posters reflect east Belfast residents’ ‘distress that 500 foreign workers are being employed building oil rigs in Belfast harbour’.

4 Doyle and McAreavey (2014) explore this in more detail.

5 The first recorded Chinese restaurant, The Peacock, opened in Belfast in 1962. Today there are an estimated 500 outlets.

6 Their numbers are not significant enough to allow for the formation of so-called ghettos.

7 This term is attributed to postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha and, broadly speaking, refers to the in-between space of hybridity, a space outside the existing order that can potentially complicate/contaminate established narratives. The Third Space represents an attempt to move beyond binary thinking and allows for the existence of identities that lie outside dominant discourse.

8 For more on ‘Troubles Nostalgia’, see Colin Graham's article in The Vacuum 42 (March 2009).

9 With the current demise of the Alliance Party in Northern Ireland the political system seems set to become even more bipartite.

10 The problematic nature of ‘Troubles tourism’ has attracted considerable critical attention (i.e., see Donnelly 2005; Dépret 2007).

11 In this respect Faraway resembles David Frears’ film about immigrants in London, Dirty, Pretty, Things (2002) in that the focus is on the city's hidden topographies.

12 The reduction in the number of police officers since 2001, following the recommendation of the Patten Commission, is also a contributing factor to the increase in organised crime.

13 Interview with Lab Ky Mo, 22 January 2013.

Additional information

Adele Lee is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Greenwich, London. She is also the Secretary of the Literary London Society and Associate Editor of City.