Post on 20-Aug-2020
MUSEUM OF SYDNEY
29 MARCH — 12 OCTOBER 2014
English
language
guide
sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/celestialsydney
In 1888, as Sydney celebrated its centenary, several
boats carrying Chinese immigrants sailed through
Sydney Heads into a crisis that would shape the
nation. ‘Celestials’, as Chinese people were known at
the time, had been arriving in Sydney under organised
immigration schemes since the 1840s.* By 1888 growing
ill will towards them had broken out into open hostility,
and the tide turned against the immigrants aboard the
SS Afghan, Menmuir and Guthrie. They were detained
and deported under harsh new immigration laws
hastily rushed through Parliament.
The ‘Afghan crisis’ was sparked by the threat of
cheap Chinese labour, compounded by prejudices
demonising the Chinese and their way of life. It was a
turning point in the history of the Chinese in Australia,
paving the way for the White Australia policy and the
exclusion of Asian immigrants for the next 80 years.
Celestial City explores the background to and
consequences of this nation-defining event through
stories of Sydney’s Chinese people who were here before,
during and after this crucial moment in our history.
*In the 19th century, English-speakers referred to China as the ‘Celestial
Empire’, in accordance with the emperor’s status as the ‘Son of Heaven’.
introduction
General Wong Yung Ho and
Consul General U Tsing with
unidentified young Chinese
man in Western suit (centre)
Freeman & Co, 1887
State Library of New South Wales ON 219/415
General Wong Yung Ho was a
highly accomplished military
officer who spoke excellent
English. He and Consul General
U Tsing travelled to Australia in a
semi-official capacity, as China’s
diplomatic relationship was with
Britain, not Australia. They were
met on Sydney Harbour by the
leaders of Sydney’s Chinese
community, some of whom were
officially recognised as mandarins
(or officials) of the Chinese Empire.
引言
At the time of the Afghan crisis, Chinese immigrants
had been arriving in New South Wales for four
decades, first as agricultural labourers on rural
properties, then as miners on the goldfields, and in
the 1870s as market gardeners, hawkers and cabinet-
makers in Sydney. The first influx was in the 1840s,
when 3000 Chinese ‘coolies’, predominantly from
Fujian and the Pearl River districts of Canton (now
Guangzhou), were contracted to work as shepherds
and farmhands. Most intended to return home after
their five-year contracts were completed, but many
stayed to be swept up in the gold rushes of the 1850s.
The lure of gold brought new waves of Chinese
immigrants, who made their way to places like
Braidwood and Hill End. There they diligently
worked claims or became storekeepers, market
gardeners, bankers or traders, roles vital to
the establishment of towns. Some eventually
returned to China with hard-earned wealth,
but many remained in New South Wales.
goldminers
Washing tailings
Artist unknown, 1870s
Rex Nan Kivell Collection,
National Library of Australia
The Chinese miners arrived in
well-organised and well-equipped
parties. They worked under the
direction of a ‘head-man’, or boss,
who organised the purchase of
claims and supply of provisions
and equipment. These teams
could produce good yields of
alluvial gold by methodically
working the ground, often
employing methods of damming
and sluicing different from those
of their European neighbours.
Chinese miners, familiar with
methods of draining water from
irrigated fields, used treadmills
and waterwheels to pump
water out of flooded ground.
淘金者
By 1888 Sydneysiders had come to rely on Chinese
market gardens for their supply of fresh vegetables.
The Chinese grew vegetables in over 100 densely
cultivated gardens across the city, and hawkers,
who carried their produce in baskets hung from a
shoulder yoke, sold them door to door. For most
people, the local market gardeners and hawkers were
the ‘human face’ of China. As cabbages and turnips
changed hands at the back door or over the fence, men
who were otherwise ‘alien’ became part of everyday
family life. At Christmas and Chinese New Year, gifts
of plum puddings and ginger pots were exchanged
and, years later, adults would recall with fondness
‘that friend of our childhood, the vegetable John …’
market gardeners and hawkers
Christmas in Melbourne:
a Chinese pedlar making
presents to his customers
Artist unknown, The Graphic,
24 December 1887
Chinese Museum, Melbourne 1985.07.13
Hawkers selling vegetables door
to door helped to bridge the
racial divide. Housewives came to
know their hawkers, and unlikely
friendships sprang up over the
front gate. One story is of a woman
who, shocked by the Afghan
crisis, treated her regular hawker
to some home-baked cakes. He
returned with presents of ginger,
tea and toys for her baby:
From that day a strong friendship
sprang up between us, and it
was my custom each week to
present him with some of my
choicest flowers, cakes and
preserves, while he, on his side,
quite embarrassed me with the
royal munificence of his gifts.
Margaret Egerton, ‘My Chinese’,
Cosmos Magazine, 19 September 1896
菜农与小贩
As the gold rushes subsided, many Chinese made
their way to Sydney to work in the cabinet-making
workshops clustered in The Rocks in the north of
the city, and around Belmore Markets in the south.
Chinese cabinet-makers worked long hours to turn out
cheap domestic furniture, sold through department
stores like Anthony Hordern & Sons. From the
1870s onwards, the burgeoning number of Chinese
workshops and their growing competitive edge led
to increasing resentment from European cabinet-
makers, who felt that their livelihoods and working
conditions were threatened. Conflict inevitably arose,
generally in the form of anti-Chinese rallies and
marches organised by trade unions, but sometimes
in riots and physical attacks on the Chinese.
The most extreme of these, in 1878, was a riot at Ah Toy’s
workshop on George Street, which rivalled the riots
on the Lambing Flat goldfields in intensity and size.
Perpetrated by 2000 youths carrying flaming torches,
the attack had Chinese residents living in fear for their
safety, and divided the community. Sydneysiders
decried the riot as the act of a mindless minority, but it
was part of a growing pattern of resentment and unrest
that would culminate ten years later in the Afghan crisis.
cabinet-makers
Chinese carpenters at
work , Emerald Hill
Frederick Grosse, c1873
National Library of Australia
From the 1860s onward, Chinese
furniture factories proliferated
in Sydney. By 1889 the Furniture
Trades Union was complaining
that nine-tenths of the furniture
sold in Sydney was made in
Chinese workshops; two-thirds
was probably closer to the
truth. Despite union pressure,
Chinese workshops continued
to outnumber those run by
Europeans until 1915. Their
numbers then declined as a
consequence of the White
Australia policy’s restrictions
on Chinese immigration.
家具工匠
As Sydney’s Chinese population grew throughout
the 1870s, so did fears that these foreign neighbours
might be a harmful influence. By the 1880s, opium
smoking and betting on games like fan-tan and
pak-ah-pu, once regarded as exclusively Chinese
pastimes, were becoming alarmingly prevalent
among Sydney’s youth. The reputed squalor of fetid
opium and gambling dens also made Sydneysiders
anxious that living near Chinese people would lead to
outbreaks of disease. Politicians played on this fear,
one even stating that leprosy was ‘communicated
by the means of Chinese-made furniture’.*
The basis of such outlandish claims lay in the badly
dilapidated workshops and overcrowded lodging
houses that Chinese immigrants leased from absentee
landlords. The poor drainage and inadequate ventilation
of these buildings raised legitimate concerns about
the spread of contagious diseases, realised when
a smallpox epidemic, believed to have originated
from a Chinese household, hit Sydney in 1881.
*Ninian Melville, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 August 1889
neighbours
Chinese in Sydney:
opium eating
Illustrated Sydney News,
3 October 1868
State Library of New South Wales F8/39–F8/40
Unlike Europeans, who preferred
to drink their opiates in patent
medicines and cough mixtures,
the Chinese smoked opium in a
pipe. Smoking released a smaller
concentration of opiates than
was consumed in compounds
like laudanum and morphine, key
ingredients in patent medicines
like ‘Mrs Winslow’s Soothing
Syrup’ for teething children.
邻里
The successful merchants were the elite of
Sydney’s Chinese community. Unlike their
working-class compatriots, they were considered
‘desirable immigrants’ who created businesses
and employment and participated in civic life.
Businessmen like Quong Tart, Dr George On Lee
and Cheng Fan Chong (known as Henry Fine Chong)
were longstanding Sydney residents, who had both
Chinese and European clients and employees. They
ran substantial businesses and lived comfortably
with their families in prosperous households.
Several of Sydney’s merchants were also mandarins,
or government officials, of the Chinese Empire. Dressed
in their splendid silken robes, their presence at official
functions presented a view of Chinese culture as
refined and dignified, as a spectacle to be enjoyed.
Quong Tart and Dr George On Lee were Sydney’s best
known mandarins. They were often called upon to act
as de facto leaders of the Chinese community at crucial
moments, such as during the 1887 visit of the Chinese
commissioners and the following year’s Afghan crisis.
merchantsand Mandarins
Portrait of Quong Tart
Artist unknown, c1880s,
oil on canvas
State Library of New South Wales ML 1346
By 1888 Quong Tart was a
household name in Sydney, thanks
to his fashionable tea shops in
the city’s new shopping arcades.
He was widely approved of as
a ‘choice blend’, an interesting
hybrid of Chinese ancestry
and Australian upbringing who
had embraced Christianity,
Freemasonry and a home in
the suburbs. His celebrity was
such that at the height of the
anti-Chinese fervour he was
referred to as ‘the most popular
Chinese, indeed the only
popular Chinese, in Australia’.*
*News clipping, source unknown,
Society of Australian Genealogists
商人与清廷官员
Throughout the 19th century most of Sydney’s Chinese
men lived alone, separated from their families in China.
A few settled their Chinese wives here, braving the
difficulties of discrimination, while others married
Australian women. Interracial marriages had to
withstand social disapproval and the problems of
cultural difference, yet many proved to be successful,
lengthy and fertile unions. Whether these families lived
‘above the shop’ on Goulburn Street, in a villa in the
suburbs or in a Wynyard Square mansion, their homes
– contrary to the popular perception of impoverished
Chinese life – were ‘as comfortable, as respectable,
and as pleasant as can be found almost anywhere’.*
The children of these marriages were part of
a growing mixed-race population who had to
contend with being referred to as ‘half-caste’ in
a society increasingly preoccupied with ideas
of racial purity and a ‘white’ Australia.
* Sydney Morning Herald, 4 February 1879
husbands and fathers
Gwok Ah Poo and his family
Photographer unknown, 1896
Powe family collection
Gwok and Emma Ah Poo had
eight children and, judging
by this photograph, had a
reasonably prosperous lifestyle.
Their eldest son, Bertie, became
a horticulturalist. Their eldest
daughter, Lily May, married the
merchant and mandarin Henry
Fine Chong. The other children
wed under the anglicised family
name of ‘Harper’: Jessie married a
member of the Chinese Braidwood
community, Emmeline married
Albert Ah Lett from Tambaroora,
and the remaining four married
partners of European descent.
丈夫与父亲
The anti-Chinese immigration laws rushed through
the New South Wales Parliament after the Afghan crisis
in 1888 laid the foundation for the White Australia
policy. The other Australian colonies enacted similar
legislation, which was enshrined as national policy
13 years later in the form of the Immigration Restriction
Act 1901. This act, the first law passed by the newly
federated Commonwealth, excluded Asian immigrants
from Australia in the interests of protecting Australian
workers and keeping Australia ‘white’ for the British
race. The Chinese already living here were denied
citizenship, the vote and the freedom to come and go
between Australia and China. Chinese Australians
and their children faced the prospect of being
refused re-entry to Australia if they left – even if they
had been born and spent their entire lives here.
This meant that after 1901 many Chinese were
effectively exiled in Sydney, their futures uncertain.
Those who had made their lives here were unwilling
to risk returning to, or visiting, China for fear they
would not be allowed to return. So they stayed in
Australia, raised families and became the ancestors of
many of today’s generations of Chinese Australians.
exiles and ancestors
Tin Lee’s Certificate
of Domicile
1903 National Archives of Australia
NAA ST 84/1; 1903/261–270; 747389
Tin Lee was a cabinet-maker who
had lived in Botany since 1888.
After being here for 18 years he
applied for an extension of his
Certificate of Domicile, a proof
of residency that allowed him
to re-enter Australia if he left.
His certificate was extended by
one year, to 31 December 1907.
This meant that if he departed
Australia after that time, perhaps
to visit family in China, he would
not be allowed to return.
流放者与祖先
One hundred and fifty years ago, Sydney’s Chinese
community was drawn from a relatively small area
of southern China. Today, that growing community is
diverse and multifaceted, including people who have
come from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and
South-East Asia, as well as those who have been here
for generations. A tenth of Sydney’s population now
claims Chinese ancestry and, after English, Mandarin
has become the city’s most spoken language.
The seven people interviewed in the film at the
end of this exhibition all share a Chinese heritage.
Some were born here as second- or third-generation
Australians, some arrived as children and others
came as adults, to start new lives. They have made
significant contributions to the social, cultural and
civic fabric of our city as doctors, artists, politicians
and businesspeople. Australia has benefited
enormously from the Chinese immigrants, past
and present, who chose to make Sydney their
home. Listen to some of them tell their stories.
‘celestial city’ today
Acknowledgments
Sydney Living Museums and the
curator would like to thank the
following lenders for sharing their
collections for this exhibition:
Albury Library Museum, Ashfield &
District Historical Society, Chinese
Heritage Association of Australia,
City of Sydney Archives, Toni
Johnston of Mode Indigo Antiques,
Lois McEvoy, Grenfell Historical
Society and Museum, Museum
of the Riverina, National Archives
of Australia, National Library of
Australia, Desmond Ong, Palerang
Council, Brad Powe, Powerhouse
Museum, National Parks and
Wildlife Services Quarantine
Station, Peter Robinson, State
Library of New South Wales,
Society of Australian Genealogists,
State Records NSW, Byron Tart,
Josh Quong Tart, Unions NSW.
Exhibition team
Curator: Dr Nicola Teffer
Project manager: Georgia Connolly
Exhibitions officers:
Kate Bruxner, Veronica Kooyman
Exhibition design:
Matthew Guzowski
Graphic design: Bruce Smythe
Collections: Bronwyn McKenzie
Editor: Sarah Fitzherbert
Permissions: Alice Livingstone
Marketing: Ron Cuadra
Media: Lara Dawson
Programs: Sam Sweedman,
Kate Ford, Emma Shrapnel
Translations: Jennifer Mok
WANG XU
Wang Xu is an artist whose
portraits, subject paintings and
landscape paintings have been
exhibited in the Archibald, Sulman
and Wynne prizes at the Art
Gallery of New South Wales. Born
in Nantong, near Shanghai, in 1949,
Wang Xu arrived in Australia in
1989 and became a citizen in 1995.
SHEN JIAWEI
Shen Jiawei was born in Shanghai
in 1948 and was a well-known
artist in China before he emigrated
to Sydney in 1989. He is a leading
painter of portraits and historical
subjects in Australia, and his
works have been collected by
the National Portrait Gallery and
Parliament House, Canberra.
VIVIAN CHAN SHAW
Vivian Chan Shaw is a fashion
designer who has been running
her international knitwear and
jewellery business in Sydney since
1972. A descendant of Chinese
grandfathers who arrived in
Australia during the gold rushes
of the 1860s, Vivian was born in
Hong Kong while her Australian-
born parents were travelling.
THE HON HELEN
SHAM-HO OAM
Helen Wai-Har Sham-Ho was
born in Hong Kong and arrived in
Sydney in 1961 as a teenager. She
completed degrees in arts/social
work at Sydney University and
law at Macquarie University, then
worked as a social worker and a
solicitor. She was then appointed
as a part-time commissioner for
the Ethnic Affairs Commission. In
1988 she became Australia’s first
Chinese-born parliamentarian,
serving four parliamentary terms.
She has been recognised for her
work in humanitarian services,
social justice and multiculturalism.
LILY ZHANG
Lily Zhang was born in Tangshan,
an industrial city in northern
China, and as a three-year-old
migrated to Sydney with her
parents in 1983. She grew up in the
Cabramatta district and developed
her passion for social justice
while studying social sciences
at the University of New South
Wales. Today she is a researcher
for the labour movement.
JOSH QUONG TART
Actor Josh Quong Tart is the great-
grandson of Quong Tart, featured
in this exhibition. Josh was born
in Sydney in 1975 and grew up
on the northern beaches. In 1988
Josh changed his surname from
Tart to Quong Tart in recognition
of his Chinese heritage.
DR JOHN YU AC
Dr John Yu was made Australian
of the Year in 1996 for his service
to the nation as a visionary leader
in healthcare services. He arrived
in Sydney from Nanking as a
three-year-old in 1934 to join his
extended family, who had lived
here since the gold rushes.
Dr Yu has served on many
boards and foundations relating
to both health and the arts, and
was made a Companion of the
Order of Australia in 2001.
今天悉尼的华人
public programs
公开活动
SYDNEY’S CHINESE COMMUNITY
IN THE ROCKS
Explore the Chinese heritage of The Rocks, Sydney’s
first Chinatown. On this fascinating walking tour,
discover buildings and places with colourful Chinese
history and wander through laneways where Chinese
hawkers once sold their wares door to door.
Where: Meet at Susannah Place Museum, 58–64 Gloucester St, The Rocks
When: Sunday 6 April, 10am–11.30am Tickets: Adult $30
Concession $25 Members $25 Bookings essential
WOMEN OF THE CHINESE TEAROOMS
Discover a forgotten Sydney icon – the Chinese
tearoom. In the late 19th century these refined
establishments gave women of all classes a place
to socialise. Join curator Dr Nicola Teffer to learn
about these beautiful spaces, the ‘ladies who
lunched’ and the crucial role the tearooms played
in Sydney’s early women’s rights movement.
Where: Museum of Sydney, cnr Bridge & Phillip streets
When: Saturday 17 May, 2pm–3pm Tickets: Free with museum entry
CHINESE ON THE GOLDFIELDS
Join us for an illustrated talk on an important episode
in Australia’s history, the riots on the goldfields
at Lambing Flat. Learn about the ‘roll-up’ flag, the
growing animosity between Europeans and Chinese
and how this led to the White Australia policy.
Where: Museum of Sydney, cnr Bridge & Phillip streets
When: Saturday 22 June, 2pm–3pm Tickets: Free with museum entry
INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE MEDICINE
Curious about Chinese medicine? This talk is
the perfect introduction to this ancient and
fascinating science. Demonstrations on the
applications of Chinese medicine are included.
Where: Museum of Sydney, cnr Bridge & Phillip streets
When: Sunday 20 July, 2pm–3pm Tickets: Free with museum entry
SECRETS OF THE WILLOW PATTERN
(CHILDREN’S PROGRAM)
Through storytelling and puzzles, this wonderful kids
workshop will allow your child to discover the secrets
and folklore of the instantly recognisable Willow Pattern,
a ceramic pattern inspired by traditional Chinese designs.
Where: Museum of Sydney forecourt, cnr Bridge & Phillip streets
Winter school holidays, Monday 30 June – Monday 14 July, 10.30am–
10.50am daily Spring school holidays, Monday 22 September – Monday
6 October, 10.30am–10.50am daily Tickets: Free with museum entry
VISIT OUR CHINESE MARKET GARDEN
Discover the pleasure of growing vegies as you wander
through our Chinese-style market garden. Visitors to
our vegie patch are invited to get their hands dirty
while hearing more of Sydney’s many Chinese stories.
Where: Museum of Sydney forecourt, cnr Bridge & Phillip streets
When: 29 March – 12 October
SPECIAL PLANTING & HARVESTING DAYS
The garden is open and free to be explored at any
time but we are also holding special planting and
harvesting days and interpretive tours. To find
out about our special garden days, as well as new
exhibitions and upcoming events, sign up to our
e-news at sydneylivingmuseums.com.au
Where: Museum of Sydney forecourt, cnr Bridge & Phillip streets
Tickets: Free with museum entry
DAILY GARDEN TOURS
Join this short tour of our market garden to discover
what we are growing and the important role Chinese
market gardeners have played in feeding our city.
Where: Tours start from Museum of Sydney foyer, cnr Bridge & Phillip
streets When: 29 March – 12 October, 11.30am–11.45am daily
Tickets: Free with museum entry
CHINESE MARKET GARDEN FINAL HARVEST
After a bounteous year, it’s time to harvest our
Chinese market garden for the last time. Join us to
help pick the vegies, and talk to the gardeners. Take
a plant home with you! First come, first served.
Where: Museum of Sydney forecourt, cnr Bridge & Phillip streets
When: Sunday 12 October, 10.30am–12pm Tickets: Free with museum entry
© 2014 Sydney Living Museums
Bookings: sydneylivingmuseums.com.au
T 1300 448 849
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