“Publications” in Chinese Australian History since 2018
The word publications is used loosely here as modern media has so many formats, but the main point is that the uptick in the last five years in material related to Chinese Australian history has been dramatic.[1]
Any missing? Let me know.
Not all media is equal and arranging things by media format and chronology is no doubt arbitrary. By topic/keyword and credibility would be better but of course more time consuming and perhaps not always liable to be very endearing. Judge for yourself.
Books – Still the most assessable and most likely to yield long-term benefit – often in eBook form now. You can also try the wonderful Internet Archive for hard-to-find books.
Chapters – Can be tricky to find unless it is an eBook as they are often buried in books with a less than obvious title or theme.
Journal articles – Mostly in academic journals and too often hard to access without a university library card. Join your State Library to access some. Lobby your State Library to add more journal access, spend less on picture rooms and more on books!
Theses – PhD students are the rock on which the rest is built. Publication is not always guaranteed or can take many years. Usually online they are well worth looking at.
Websites – These are a mixed bag but are searchable and well worth having a look at.
Blogs – Appearing on websites not devoted to Chinese Australian history are various related topics. Most are not very good but there are exceptions.
Facebooks groups – Many interesting things pop up on these groups and they are a great way to get in touch with others or to ask questions. Give it a go.
Web presentations – Post-Covid and the Zoom revolution means that once one-off lectures and seminars are now watchable on YouTube and such like places (forever?).
Exhibitions – Galleries and museums put a lot of effort into hosting exhibitions, unfortunately they seem to regularly neglect recording what they exhibited. Even when a catalogue is produced it is often hard to find a copy. And when you do find a copy the amount of information – like where is it? – can be very disappointing.
Theatre – Not many yet but watch this space.
Radio/Podcasts – Who said radio was dead? A great way to learn.
Journalism – While journalism is often seen as inherently superficial and prone to repeating stereotypes, there are many good stories and the wider readership is perhaps worth the dumbing down. Is The Conversation any better? Perhaps, though the gatekeepers at The Conversation seem determined to keep it light.
TV – Like journalism all too often pitched at a high school level at best. Often a lot of effort for short-term impact. But that’s the nature of an entertainment medium apparently. WDYTYA is a notable exception.
Books[2]
2023
Kate Bagnall & Peter Prince (eds.), Subjects and Aliens: Histories of Nationality, Law and Belonging in Australia and New Zealand, ANU Press, 2023.
Patrick Skene, Celestial Footy: the Story of Chinese Heritage Aussie Rules, Hardie Grant Media, 2023.
Denis Byrne, Ien Ang and Phillip Mar eds., Heritage and History in the China Australia Migration Corridor, Hong Kong University Press.
2022
Juanita Kwok and Ely Finch, Bew Chip’s Register: A Chinese Australian Remittance Register, Tambaroora and Hill End Goldfield.
Mavis Yen (Richard Horsburgh & Siaoman Yen, Eds), South Flows the Pearl, Sydney University Press.
Alanna Kamp, Intersectional Lives: Chinese Australian Women in White Australia, Routledge.
Peter Gibson, Made in Chinatown: Chinese Australian Furniture Factories, 1880-1930, Sydney University Press.
2021
Kate Bagnall & Julia T. Martínez, Locating Chinese Women: Historical Mobility Between China and Australia, Hong Kong University Press.
Michael Williams, Australia’s Dictation Test: The Test it was a Crime to Fail, Brill.
2020
John Fitzgerald and Mon-Ming Yip, Chinese Diaspora Charity and the Cantonese Pacific, 1850-1949, Hong Kong University Press.
Andrew Kwong, One Bright Moon, HarperCollins.
Jia Gao, Chinese Immigration and Australian Politics: A Critical Analysis on a Merit-Based Immigration System, Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
2019
Wong Shee Ping (translated by Ely Finch), The Poison of Polygamy, Sydney University Press.
Sophie Couchman (ed.), Journeys into Chinese Australian Family History, Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria.
Guanglun Michael Mu, Bonnie Pang, Interpreting the Chinese Diaspora Identity, Socialisation, and Resilience According to Pierre Bourdieu, Routledge.
James Beattie, Richard Bullen, Maria Galikowski (Eds), China in Australasia: Cultural Diplomacy and Chinese Arts since the Cold War, Routledge.
Kay Anderson, et al, Chinatown Unbound: Trans-Asian Urbanism in the Age of China, Rowman & Littlefield International
2018
Michael Williams, Returning Home with Glory Chinese Villagers around the Pacific, 1849 to 1949(榮 歸故里:太平洋地區的中國僑鄉1849–1949), Hong Kong University Press.
Chapters in Books[3]
2023
2022
Tompkins, J., Holledge, J., Bollen, J., & Xia, L., “Cantonese Opera and the Layering of Space on the Australian Goldfields”, in Visualising Lost Theatres: Virtual Praxis and the Recovery of Performance Spaces, Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre, Cambridge University Press, pp. 96-126.
2021
Catherine Dewhirst and Richard Scully, “Publishing Sydney’s Chinese Newspapers in the Australian Federation Era: Struggle for a Voice, Community and Diaspora Solidarity.” Voices of Challenge in Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 63-82.
Catherine Dewhirst and Richard Scully, “Recovering an Optimistic Era: Chinese-Australian Journalism from the 1920s to the 1940s.” Voices of Challenge in Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 83–106.
2020
Michael Williams, “Smoking opium, puffing cigars, and drinking gingerbeer: Chinese Opera in Australia”, in Opera, Emotion, and the Antipodes Volume II Applied Perspectives: Compositions and Performances, Jane W. Davidson, Michael Halliwell and Stephanie Rocke (eds), pp.166-208, Routledge.
Angelina Tang, Zhi Rou, et al. “The Changing Composition and Fortunes of Overseas Graduates in Australia: The Case of Chinese and Indian Graduates”, in Population Change and Impacts in Asia and the Pacific. Singapore: Springer Singapore, 201–220.
Warwick Frost, “Chinese and Pacific Islanders: The White Frontier and the Other, 1880–1920.” An Environmental History of Australian Rainforests Until 1939. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Group.
Mei-fen Kuo and John Fitzgerald, Colonial Pathways to International Education: Chinese Students in White Australia in the 1920s, in Peter Monteath and Matthew P. Fitzpatrick (eds.), Colonialism, China and the Chinese, Routledge.
2019
Sophie Couchman & Kate Bagnall, “Memory and meaning in the search for Chinese Australian families”, in K. Darian-Smith and P. Hamilton (eds), Remembering Migration: Oral History and Heritage in Australia, Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies.
Neal Stan, “From Singapore to Sydney: Race, Labour and Chinese Migration to Australia”, in Singapore, Chinese Migration and the Making of the British Empire, 1819-67, Vol. 17. United Kingdom: Boydell & Brewer, 99–124.
2018
Mei-fen Kuo, “Jinxin: The Remittance Trade and Enterprising Chinese Australians, 1850-1916” in Gregor Benton, Hong Liu, Huimei Zhang (eds.), The Qiaopi Trade and Transnational Networks in the Chinese Diaspora, Routledge.
Jiajie Lu, “The Global Expansion of China-Based Social Media Platforms and Its Dynamics in the Australian Context.” Chinese Social Media. 1st ed. Routledge, 191–206.
Kate Bagnall, “Writing home from China: Charles Allen’s transnational childhood.” Migrant Nation, London: Anthem Press, 91–118.
Articles[4]
2023
Hidden Toils: the contribution of Chinese Australians to the early development of Queensland, Special Issue of Queensland History Journal 25.4.
Sophie Couchman & K. Bagnall, “Identification photography and the surveillance of Chinese mobility in colonial Australasia”, Australian Historical Studies, vol.54, no.2, 2023, pp.299-329.
Michael Williams, & Shen Yuexiu, “Benevolence Returns from across the Seas”, History SA, No. 273, January 2023, pp.9-13.
Josh Stenberg, “Chinese-Australian Culture in a Sinophone History and Geography”, Journal of Australian Studies.
Daozhi Xu, “Chinese Statecraft and Indigenous Affairs in Chinese Australian Newspapers, 1894-1912”, Australian Historical Studies, 1–19.
Yu Tao, et al. “Searching for Moon Chow: A Joint Journey.” Life writing 20.1: 217–236.
2022
Zhong Huang, “Chinese Masculinity Redefined: Brian Castro’s After China”, Journal of Australian Studies.
Tian Zhuoling, “Am I Chinese before I am a Woman or am I a Woman First?”: Gender and Racial Melancholia in Brian Castro’s The Garden Book, Journal of Australian Studies.
Nathan Daniel Gardner, “United we stood but divided we were: Chinese Australian Unity and the 1984 immigration debate”, History Australia.
Michael Williams, “Vegetables varied and excellent, chiefly from a Celestial garden”, History, September, pp.9-11.
Peter Gibson, “Reading Chinese Australian enterprise through insolvency and bankruptcy files, 1857–1926, Business History.
James Flowers, “Chinese-Medicine Doctors Healing Australians: On the Frontline of Healthcare from the Colonial Period to the Twenty-First Century”, Translocal Chinese: East Asian Perspectives, Special Issue: The Question of Chineseness in Colonial and Postcolonial Diasporas, Volume 16, Issue 1.
2021
Karen Schamberger, “Whose Stories Are We Telling? Chinese Australian History in New South Wales and Victorian Museums”, Australian Historical Studies, 52:4, 567-590.
Ben Silverstein, “‘Throwing Mud’ on Questions of Sovereignty: Race and Northern Arguments over White, Chinese, and Aboriginal Labour, 1905-12”, Australian Historical Studies.
Michael Williams, “Holding Up Half the Family: Women in the Villages of South China”, Journal of Chinese Overseas.
Grace Gassin, “All Eyes on You: Debutantes’ Explorations of Chinese Australian Womanhood at the Dragon Festival Ball”, Australian Historical Studies.
Xu Daozhi, “Chinese Australian Perspectives on the ‘Protection’ of Aboriginal People in the 1890s. Australian Historical Studies.
Catherine Ann Martin, “The Chinese Invasion: Settler Colonialism and the Metaphoric Construction of Race, Journal of Australian Studies.
Hu (胡博林), Bolin. “Reporting China: Chinese-Language Newspapers and Diasporic Chinese Identity in Australia, 1931–1937.” Journal of Chinese Overseas 17.1: 84–116.
Huang, Andrew, “To the Ends of the Earth. From Melbourne to Shanghai, and from Molong to Calgary : The Story of Australian Pentecostal Jessie Wong”. Australasian Pentecostal Studies, 22 (2):149-84, 2021.
2020
Kate Bagnall, Chinese women in colonial New South Wales: From absence to presence, Australian Journal of Biography and History.
Michael Williams, “Stopping them Using Our Boats”, Australian Economic History Review, 61(1), pp.64–79.
Michael Williams, “Avoid stigmatising them by name”, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 106(2), p.165.
Michael Williams, “Sojourners & Birds of Passage: Chinese and Italian Migrants in Australia and the United States in Comparative Perspective, 1871-1914, Journal of the European Association for Studies on Australia, 11(2), pp.2-16.
Christopher Cheng, “Beacons of Modern Learning: Diaspora-Funded Schools in the China-Australia Corridor,” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 29, no. 2: 139–62.
2019
David Beynon, ‘Beyond Big Gold Mountain: Chinese-Australian Settlement and Industry as Integral to Colonial Australia’, Fabrications – The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, 29/2, May, pp. 184-206.
Sophie Couchman & Kate Bagnall (ed.), New Perspectives in Chinese-Australian History and Heritage, special issue of Chinese Southern Disapora Studies, vol.8.
Kate Bagnall, ‘19 shiji Xin Nan Wei’ershi zhimindi de Zhongguo nüxing 19 世纪新南威尔士殖民地的中国女性[Chinese women in nineteenth-century New South Wales], Quanqiu shi pinglun 全球史评论 [Global History Review], vol. 16, pp. 106–27.
Gordon Grimwade, ‘Tenacity in the Tropics: Chinese Overland Migration in Northern Australia During the Nineteenth Century’, Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies, Vol. 8, 2019.
2018
Peter Prince, ‘The ‘Chinese’ always belonged’, History Australia.
Kate Bagnall, ‘Potter v. Minahan: Chinese Australians, the law and belonging in White Australia, History Australia.
Natalie Fong, “The significance of the Northern Territory in the Formulation of the ‘White
Australia’ Policies, 1880-1901”, Australian Historical Studies.
Theses[5]
2023
2022
Christopher Cheng, Australian migrant heritage in south China: the legacy of diaspora- funded schools in twentieth century Zhongshan, Western Sydney University.
2021
Natalie Fong, ‘Chinese Merchants in the Northern Territory, 1880-1950: A translocal case study’, Griffith University.
2020
2019
Wing-Fai Wong, Everyday Life of the Celestials in the Land of the Parrots: Chinese Almanacs in Australia, University of Queensland.
Sandi Robb, North Queensland’s Chinese family landscape: 1860-1920, James Cook University.
Juanita Kwok, The Chinese in Bathurst: Recovering Forgotten Histories, Charles Sturt University.
2018
Websites[6]
Scattered Legacy (forthcoming)
Chinese Australian Family Historians of Victoria Inc
Ayahs and Amahs, Transcolonial Servants in Australia and Britain 1780-1945
Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects
Our Chinese Past
Chinese-Australian Heritage Corridor project.
The Tiger’s Mouth
Chinese Australian Historical Society
Opening Multilingual Archive of Australia – Chinese, Sydney University
Cemetrees
Blogs and random posts[7]
Two Centuries of Chinese Migration, Kim Tao, Australian National Maritime Museum Blog
Billy Potts, The Immigrant Dragons – Part 1: How Australia is saving a Hong Kong tradition, Part 2: On the hunt for the right master, and Part 3: Creating a dragon that will last 100 years.
National Library of Australia, Chinese Australian Family History
National Library of Australia, Chinese-Australian collections
Facebook Groups[8]
Chinese Australian History
Chinese Australian Family History
Journeys into Queensland’s Chinese Past
Chinese Aboriginals: find out about your ancestors
Chinese Australia: an object history
Web Presentations[9]
2023
My China Story (a series), IAC, WSU
Sophie Loy-Wilson, Sydney’s Chinese Ghosts: the NSW Royal Commission into Alleged Chinese Gambling and Immorality 1891.
2022
South Flows the Pearl: Chinese Australian Voices, University of Sydney
The history and evolution of the work choices of Chinese Australians | Belongings | ABC
The evolution of Chinese Australian cuisine | Belongings | ABC
Chinese Australian History Online Seminar, Series 3, IAC, WSU
National Library of Australia, How-to / Chinese-Australian Family History
Kate Bagnall & Sophie Couchman, More than a Story – Family History Webinar Series: Visiting Chinese Australian homelands, University of Tasmania
2021
Chinese Australian History Online Seminar, Series 2, IAC, WSU
Hilda MacClean, Tracing Chinese families in Queensland through records created by government agencies, Society of Australian Genealogists and CAHS
One Million Stories-Chinese Australian 200 years: King Fong’s story, Museum of Chinese in Australia
One Million Stories-Chinese Australian 200 years: George Tung Yep’s story, Museum of Chinese in Australia
2020
Wanning Sun, Multicultural Citizenship Re-Imagined: Engaging Migrants from China, CAHS Henry Chan Lecture
Chinese Australian History Online Seminar, Series 1, IAC, WSU
Darryl Loy Chow, Sun Kum Tiy: Qing warrior to mysterious colonial merchant, Talking Chinese Australian History, CAHS
2019
Karen Shamberger, Conflict at Lambing Flat: Memory, Myth & History, Talking Chinese Australian History, CAHS
Shirley Fitzgerald, “Poison of Polygamy” book launch, GlebeBooks
Researching Your Chinese Australian Family History with Kerry Choy, Inner West Speaker series
One Million Stories: Chinese Australian 200 Years, Chinese Museum in Australia
2018
Exhibitions[10]
2023
MÌNH explores Vietnamese and Chinese diasporic life in Australia today, Fairfield Museum and Art Gallery.
Mei Zhao, Liminal Places, Hurstville Museum and Gallery
2022
2021
Hurstville Museum & Gallery – ‘Our Journeys | Our Stories’
Tyto Regional Art GallerY – ‘Re-Awakening, Buk Ti – Chinese Settlers in the Lower Herbert Valley: Part 2,’ Ingham Family History Association.
Western Australian Maritime Museum – Fire and Water 火和水,
The Chinese Museum Melbourne – HerStory: Multiple Facets of Chinese Australian Women.
2020
Library & Archives NT and the Chung Wah Society’s Chinese Museum – Chinese Portraits.
Echuca Historical Society Museum – Our Chinese Community
2019
On the Move: The Dion Family, Wollongong Art Gallery
John Young, The lives of Celestials
2018
Chinese ANZACs, Golden Dragon Museum
Theatre[11]
2023
The Best Cabinet Maker Musical 唐人街木匠音乐剧, Library at The Dock, Performance Space 107 Victoria Harbour Promenade, Docklands.
White China, Therese Collie – Playlab Theatre
The Poison of Polygamy, Anchuli Felicia King – STC
Miss Peony, Belvoir Street
2022
Slow Boat, Anna Yen – Brisbane Festival
Radio / Podcasts[12]
2023
The curious case of an ancient Buddha found in remote Western Australia, Radio National
A 114-year-old Australian novel in Chinese becomes a play for today, Radio National
2022
William Ah Ket: the first Chinese-Australian barrister, Radio National
The queen of Chinese cookery Elizabeth Chong, Richard Fidler, ABC Conversations
Anna Kyi, Activism on the goldfields: Victorian Chinese petitions, PRO Victoria
2021
How racism on the goldfields shaped the world, Radio National
Gold rush show puts Chinese miners at the front and centre, Radio National
The radical history of Christmas Island, Radio National
The fraught history of the Australian Dictation Test, Radio National
2020
Chinese Australians caught in the middle of a political stoush, Radio National
Jinghua Qian, Melbourne’s Chinatown
Karen Schamberger, This Week in History: Lambing Flat Riots, Nightlife
2019
The surprising story of Wong Shee Ping, Radio National
Clare Wright, Alien Nation, Radio National
2018
What does it mean to be Chinese-Australian? Radio National
Chinese immigration to Australia, Radio National
William Ah Ket, Radio National
Celebrating 200 years of Chinese Migration to Australia, Radio National
Journalism[13]
2023
Claudia Forsberg, Chinese gold miners’ historic 500km trek from Robe to Ballarat in the 19th century, ABC.
Yu Tao & Benjamin Smith, This Buddhist sculpture probably won’t ‘rewrite history’ – Western Australia already has a rich Chinese past, The Conversation.
Kate Leaver, Moon Chow’s legacy as WA’s first Chinese person explored almost 150 years after his tragic death, ABC.
Zoe Kean, James Chung Gon arrived with a shilling in his pocket but left his mark on Launceston, ABC.
Lexie Jeuniewic, Unveiling Ballarat’s ‘hidden’ dragon during Lunar New Year as the oldest of its kind in Australia, ABC.
2022
Gillian Aeria, Four-decade journey to uncover true surname of Ararat’s Chinese-Australian family, ABC.
Tim Lee, How racism tarnished the lustre of gold in Bendigo, a town transformed by the Chinese during Australia’s gold rush, ABC.
Caleb Cluff, This home was the centre of much Chinese life in Ballarat but it’s under threat of demolition, The Courier.
Patrick Skene, The forgotten story of … the Chinese Goldfields Aussie Rules leagues, The Guardian.
2021
Kate Bagnall & Julia T. Martínez, ‘Your government makes us go’: the hidden history of Chinese Australian women at a time of anti-Asian immigration laws, The Conversation
Tom Plevey, After the gold rush; before Tiananmen: how Chinese-Australians put down deep roots in the regions, The Guardian.
Kai Feng, A former Chinese soldier turned artist explains how a song on Radio Australia changed his life, ABC.
Cecilia Leong-Salobir, From lurid orange sauces to refined, regional flavours: how politics helped shape Chinese food in Australia, The Conversation.
Lucas Kao, ‘Ultimo’s KMT Building: a monument to Chinese Australian identity’, Honi Soit, University of Sydney, 12 Oct 2021.
2020
Bang Xiao, An Australian family’s journey to bring their son home after the Tiananmen Square massacre, ABC.
Ben Collins, ‘Whether you’re Chinese or not Chinese, this is all our history’: Broome celebrates Asian history, ABC.
Sean Parnell, The forgotten fortune of Willie Mar, the last Chinese-born market gardener in western Queensland, InQueensland
2019
Elizabeth Kwan, Matriarch of Darwin’s Chinese community, Lim Lee See (Granny Lum Loy) (c. 1887–1980), Inside Story.
Samuel Yang, How a Queensland man discovered his Chinese heritage and rose to the top of Australia’s Army Reserve, ABC.
2018
Isabella Kwai, 200 Years On, Chinese-Australians Are Still Proving They Belong, The New York Times.
Jessie Davies, Fong Lees Lane: Artists bring Wellington’s Chinese history back to life, ABC.
Jason Fang, 200 years of Chinese-Australians: First settler’s descendants reconnect with their roots, ABC
TV[14]
Forthcoming
Who the Bloody Hell Are We? SBS
2022
Jeff Fatt, Who Do you Think You Are? SBS
Belonging(s), ABC
2021
Chopsticks or Fork? ABC
New Gold Mountain SBS
2020
2019
Waltzing the Dragon with Benjamin Law ABC
2018
[1] Thanks to the hardworking folk at the Australian Migration History Network who have since 2018 published lists of recent publications related to migration from which the initial wave of material has been culled.
[2] Still the most assessable and likely to yield the most long-term benefit – often in eBook form now. You can also try the wonderful Internet Archivefor hard-to-find books.
[3] These can be tricky to find unless it is an ebook as they are often buried in books with a less than obvious title or theme.
[4] These are mostly in academic journals and too often hard to access without a university library card. Join your State Library to access some. Lobby your State Library to add more journal access, spend less on picture rooms and more on books!
[5] PhD students are the rock on which the rest is built. Publication is not always guaranteed or can take many years. Usually online they are well worth looking at.
[6] These are a mixed bag but are searchable and well worth having a look at.
[7] Appearing on websites not devoted to Chinese Australian history are various related topics. Most are not very good but there are exceptions.
[8] Many interesting things pop up on these groups and they are a great way to get in touch with others or to ask questions. Give it a go.
[9] Post-Covid and the Zoom revolution means that once one-off lectures and seminars are now watchable on YouTube and such like places (forever?).
[10] Galleries and museums put a lot of effort into hosting exhibitions, unfortunately they seem to regularly neglect recording what they exhibited. Even when a catalogue is produced it is often hard to find a copy. And when you do find a copy the amount of information – like where is it? – can be very disappointing.
[11] Not many yet but watch this space.
[12] Who said radio was dead? A great way to learn.
[13] While journalism is often seen as inherently superficial and prone to repeating stereotypes, there are many good stories and the wider readership is perhaps worth the dumbing down. Is The Conversation any better? Perhaps, though the gatekeepers at The Conversation seem determined to keep it light.
[14] Like journalism all too often pitched at a high school level at best. Often a lot of effort for short-term impact. But that’s the nature of an entertainment medium apparently. WDYTYA is a notable exception.