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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 44 | April 2000


The Chinese in Australia and New Zealand

A highly successful workshop was held in Sydney from 10 to 13 February to assess the study of the history and heritage of the Chinese in Australasia. It brought together over 100 people from a variety of backgrounds, including scholars, government officials, cultural and information specialists and members of the Chinese community.

The ‘Workshop on the Chinese in Australian and New Zealand History’ was held at the University of New South Wales. It covered many topics, including historical archaeology, particularly of Chinese historical sites on the goldfields and other early settlements; the history of Chinese women in Australasia; gender relations and relations between Chinese and non-Chinese; and family and community histories.

Issues relating to libraries were well covered at the workshop, largely due to the strong interest of the convenor, Dr Henry Chan of the University of New South Wales. Diana Giese, writer and oral historian, spoke eloquently about what had been achieved in the National Library’s Oral History Project on Postwar Chinese Australians. Several researchers commented on how valuable the interviews have been for their studies on the Chinese in Australia.

A panel entitled ‘Collection Building on the History of the Chinese Communities and their Institutions in Australasia’ was held immediately after the oral history session and complemented it well.

Andrew Gosling chaired the session, and referred to a handout describing National Library collections on the Chinese in Australia and the Collecting Multicultural Australia project, which the Library is undertaking to improve coverage of publications from ethnic communities. He also mentioned the Asian Accounts of Australia Project, which aims to make the Library’s Chinese and Japanese holdings about Australia better known.

The session included three main speakers. Fiona Burn of the National Archives of Australia, Sydney Office, outlined their considerable holdings on the Chinese in Australia. Alan Tasker spoke about printed and special collections on the Chinese at the State Library of New South Wales where he works. Nigel Murphy, of the National Library of New Zealand, discussed collections in his country. As a discussant, Terry Abraham, of the University of Idaho Library, made the point that researchers are not necessarily aware that so much is already held on the Chinese diaspora in libraries and archives. He also called on researchers to be active in assisting collecting institutions to improve their holdings.

Andrew Gosling and Di Oiyang with Dr Henry Chan

Left to right: Andrew Gosling and Di Ouyang, both of the NLA,
with Dr Henry Chan, convenor of the workshop

In a separate session, Professor John Fitzgerald, Professor of Asian Studies at La Trobe University, and Paul McGregor, Curator, Museum of Chinese History in Melbourne, outlined the Chinese Heritage at Federation (CHAF) project. The CHAF project covers an ambitious range of proposed activities to ‘collect, preserve, research, document, translate, promote and display the history of Chinese people and their descendants in Australia around the time of Federation’. The project in effect covers the period from 1850 to 1950. It includes publications, such as guides to Australian Chinese-language newspapers from 1850 to 1940 and to archival holdings on the Chinese community; exhibitions; a national conference in Melbourne from 1 to 3 July 2000; and web-based databases. The National Library is currently involved in supporting one part of this project, the production of a web-based index to the Australian Chinese newspaper, the Tung Wah Times (Sydney, 1898–1936).

The workshop showed that the study of the Chinese in Australia and New Zealand is a growth area. Participants were greatly impressed by the number and range of academic, heritage, library and other projects under way. The positive response from academics and community members towards library and archival developments, including the National Library’s Chinese-language oral history and other collecting programs, was most encouraging.

For further details on the workshop and related activities please contact Andrew Gosling (agosling@nla.gov.au).

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: tford@nla.gov.au

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