Elsevier Asian Studies Series. Waltham, MA: Chandos Publishing (imprint of Elsevier), 2015. xx, 179 pp. (Tables, figures.) US$141.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-84334-784-2.
I want to say right up front that Jia Gao has written a very interesting and insightful book. Gao provides clear and concise details about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs experienced by generations of Chinese migrants who originally arrived in the Land Down Under in the 1850s. He also addresses how present-day and future Chinese migrants will benefit greatly from the hard work and great sacrifices made by prior generations who left China for the shores of Australia in the mid-nineteenth century.
From the very beginning, Gao informs his readers that he is attempting to “address the major gaps in the existing literature and knowledge” relating to the great achievements and contributions that Chinese migrants have accomplished and made within Australian society. However, he also notes that the Chinese-Australian community’s economic and educational gains in Australia since the late 1980s were not achieved without undue pain and disappointment for many. The original expectations for many Chinese migrants that Australia was going to be the “New Gold Mountain” were met with a much different reality.
Gao writes that the bloody and violent crackdown on Chinese protestors at Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989 badly shook up thousands of overseas Chinese nationals. In 1993, then Australian prime minister Paul Keating decided to provide approximately 45,000 Chinese nationals in Australia with a new visa option. They could stay in Australia or return to China. Almost all decided to stay in Australia. Gao views Keating’s decision as being a critically important turning point for the Chinese-Australian community.
Gao, who moved to Australia in 1988, received his PhD in human geography at the University of Melbourne. In 1993, he decided to live and work permanently in Australia. Gao is an associate professor at the Asian Institute at the University of Melbourne. His PhD dissertation is believed to be the most comprehensive work on the largest acceptance of in-country Chinese asylum seekers in the history of Australian immigration.
Gao’s book briefly describes the historical stages that defined the Chinese presence in Australia. He points out that the first Chinese migration to Australia was due to the “gold rush era” in the 1850s. Shortly afterwards, an “establishing stage” ensued, followed by a period of “long consolidation” which evolved during the early decades of the “White Australia” policy (1901–1973).
However, Gao identifies the Colombo Plan, established in 1950, as a major initiative and as the first important turning point that eventually allowed tens of thousands of Asian students to attend Australian educational institutions. The Colombo Plan itself only allowed about 20,000 students to enter Australia from 1950 to the 1980s. But, the Plan also put forth a new idea of “privately funded Asian students” which was established during this period and its overall effect was huge in terms of the numbers (approximately 100,000) and the diversification of students at Australian schools.
Gao proudly identifies Dr. Victor Chang, a Chinese-Australian cardiac surgeon and a pioneer of modern heart transplantation, as one of those privately funded students. Chang came to Australia in 1953. By the time of his death in 1991, he had become an iconic figure in Australia. At the end of the twentieth century, Chang was named “the Australian of the Century” by the People’s Choice Awards. Chang’s brilliant contributions to Australian society, and the world, alone justified the eventual dismantling of the “White Australia” policy in 1973. Two years later, the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 would emphatically provide invaluable state support for multiculturalism as a new way of social existence for Australians.
Being an educator, the chapter I found most interesting had to do with the creation of the Xin Jinshan schools. These schools benefitted by getting quality teachers who had confronted the painful and uncomfortable realities that many educated and skilled Chinese migrants encountered upon their arrival to Australia. Quality jobs were very tough to obtain. These same individuals also discovered quickly that there was a cultural and language chasm between themselves and the older Chinese communities in Australia.
Gao provides great detail on the key role these schools played in the lives of many Chinese migrants, many of whom had to revise their “New Gold Mountain” expectations that they held for Australia. Originally, many Chinese sought to obtain an ideal job and/or a formal education. However, sooner than expected, many had to recalibrate their version of the Australian Dream by instead seeking to buy a house and/or find the best schools possible for their children. This personal and psychological shift within the Chinese migrant community in Australia was quite profound.
Finally, I believe readers will be very interested in a couple of other topics addressed in Gao’s book. First, he tells how Chinese entrepreneurs revived the Australian sheepskin industry with the creation of the Yellow Earth company. A brilliant chapter. The key factors were the expanding marketplace in China for such products, and the excellent marketing strategies implemented to revive this iconic Australian industry.
Second, I want to draw attention to Gao’s discussion of the role that education has played in the rise of the Chinese-Australian community throughout Australia. In essence, Chinese-Australian students, first and second generations, began to set the standard for academic excellence in Australian schools and universities. As a consequence, educated and talented Chinese-Australian students increasingly became seen as national assets, and not as economic threats to Australian workers.
Put simply, the growing successes within the Chinese-Australian community are beginning to help this vibrant and hardworking segment of Australian society find its rightful place under the Australian sun. Producing wealth and creating jobs are increasingly the hallmark characteristics of the Chinese-Australian community. I greatly look forward to Gao’s next work on the growing role of the Chinese-Australian community in the twenty-first century.
Randall Doyle
Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
pp. 313-315