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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