The Monash Asia Series. Clayton, VIC: Monash University Publishing; Portland, OR: International Specialized Book Services [distributor], 2013. xii, 308 pp. (Illustrations.) US$39.95, paper. ISBN 978-1-921867-96-5.
Chinese have been settling in Australia since the 1830s. However, from 1901 until 1975 they were officially excluded under the White Australia policy, legalized in the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 but without mentioning Asians specifically in order to avoid tensions with Britain’s friends and allies in Japan, India, or other Asian countries. This meant that Chinese-born residents steadily declined in numbers. There were only 6,404 left in 1947, compared with 38,702 in 1881 when restrictions began to be introduced. Today there are 865,000 (2011 Census) described as of Chinese descent, including many from Southeast Asia.
This interesting and highly competent study deals with the period of restriction, when Australian public policy aimed at the gradual decline of Asian and all other non-European settlers. The particular concentration is on the period from 1892 to 1912 and is based on the Chinese print media and the creation of a Chinese identity in what was not a particularly welcoming environment. Today the Chinese-language print media is one of the most significant in the varied multicultural media published in Australia
Monash University in Melbourne has been a pioneer in Asian studies since its foundation fifty years ago. A major obstacle to effective study of Asian minorities has been the lack of scholars literate in the relevant languages and with adequate personal contacts with resident Asians and access to their societies and institutions. This has changed radically in recent years and there is a considerable amount of work now published on Chinese Australian history and settlement experiences by scholars such as Eric Rolls, John Fitzgerald, Wang Gungwu, and many others, for instance through the Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs. This has tended to concentrate on two areas: the period of exclusion and suppression under White Australia, or the modern political and economic development of modern China. This study makes full use of archives available in Chinese. These have rarely been worked on and include locally produced newspapers and reports. They give a unique insight into the creation of a viable Chinese Australian community within a restrictive and sometimes hostile society.
Chinese-Australian social life was sustained through a degree of assimilation, as illustrations throughout the text suggest. But as in many other ethnic minorities, there were often disputes about this as well as homeland political issues. As China moved from a traditional empire to a liberal republic during this period, this was inevitable. The author’s academic bases in Melbourne and Taiwan allow him to describe freely the tensions which this earlier division created. Most of the Chinese settling in Australia then and later have been from the Cantonese areas of southeast China, which already had extensive links with Western commerce and culture. This assisted them in coming to grips with the utterly Western lifestyle and values of British Australia at the height of the British Empire. One aspect, fully surveyed in chapter 2, was the acceptance of Christianity. This was actively being preached through such agencies as the Chinese Presbyterian Church. Another was the adoption of Western dress by the growing commercial class. The best-known example of this assimilation was Quong Tart (1850–1903), whose life has been detailed in several publications. He became an accepted business figure with a special love for Robert Burns and Scottish culture in general. Unfortunately he was killed by a stranger in the Victoria Markets in Sydney. The author glosses over this as “untimely,” mentioning suspicion in the community of a plot against such an eminent figure and the splendour of his funeral. Quong Tart had recently resigned from the Chinese Empire Reform Association amidst bitter factional disputes related to political crises in China.
Apart from cultural assimilation through religion and clothing, the major entry points to the majority society were through successful commerce, bilingualism, business community organizations, and generous donations to good causes. At the same time, the concentration of particular businesses in Chinese hands, the exclusiveness of some Chinese business organizations, and the monolingual character of the Chinese media created obstacles to total acceptance within majority society. A further obstacle was created by the Boxer Rebellion in China, which drew in British and other Western troops against this traditionalist reaction to modernization. Instability lasted until the Chinese Revolution of 1911, which led to the overthrow of the imperial system. This inspired the founding of the Sydney Young China League, which supported the revolution and generally favoured Westernization.
All of these events and developments were detailed in the Chinese media, which is the basic resource for this fascinating book. The media was not confined to Sydney. The Chinese Times took a major role in Melbourne in supporting a liberal radical approach to Chinese and Australian politics. The Chinese population had not benefitted from Australian federation in 1901. Prejudice against them had risen within the labour movement, which enthusiastically backed the new immigration restrictions. The Chinese Times argued that the government of China should take a stronger role in criticizing Australian policy. But this was not welcome either to China or to those who did business with it. The influence of the younger radicals spread through the previously conservative and assimilationist business community. Confucianism emerged within the Chinese schools which had been set up. As the story ends China is entering the long period of evolution and radicalism which was to extend for the next fifty years and lead to the reassertion of Chinese national pride. Chinese commerce in Australia was disturbed by the First World War, when its shipping line was appropriated for military use. The exclusion of Chinese and other Asian immigrants was a central task of the newly created Immigration Department in 1945. But that is another story.
There is only one satisfactory way to study the processes of integrating and assimilating new elements into society. That is to study their own, often contradictory, efforts to be accepted. The print media is a vital source, but not accessible to many who would like to understand the process of becoming a distinct but accepted element in settler societies like Australia. Mei-Fen Kuo and Monash University Publishing are to be commended for opening up new horizons for understanding how this major community was able not just to struggle but to prosper, through difficult years.
James Jupp
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia