Chinese Australian History by Chidestudy Press

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Chinese Australian history with an emphasis on agency, context and evidence, not myths, stereotypes or white guilt. Nearly all episodes are AI generated from publications which can be seen at https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore/ or ordered by writing to: chidestudypress@gmail.com

  1. Sep 12

    32. A Gross Piece of Chicanery: Australia's Dictation Test

    What do a watercolour entitled "Advance Australia", an American jazz band and the Purple Wiggle all have in common? For over the first half a century of its existence there resided at the heart of the administration of the immigration policy of the Commonwealth of Australia, a legal trick. Known at first as the Education Test and thereafter as the Dictation Test, this was a bogus quiz for which a prospective entrant into Australia was set up to fail. The purpose of this pretence was to bar entry into Australia of ‘undesirables’ without revealing too crudely the overwhelmingly racial reasons for these prohibitions. Such a gap between word and intent naturally caused confusion and misunderstanding at the time of its first implementation, including among those whose job it was to administer this test. This confusion, as well as varying degrees of dismay, shame and contempt continued throughout the more than 50 years the Dictation Test remained on the statute books, both in Australia and internationally. Here we explain some of these issues and how Australia remains influenced by this tool of the White Australia Project. The book this poscast is based on: Australia’s Dictation Test: The Test it was a Crime to Fail (Brill, 2021) Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com  Please check out our publications at - https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/ Also have a look at: Scattered Legacy - https://www.scatteredlegacy.org.au/

  2. Aug 22

    31. Dueling Australians in Warlord China

    What Happened to Riley - is the first piece of Chinese-Australian literature written in English. It follows The Poison of Polygamy (see podcast No.29) by some twenty years and pre-dates the next example of this literature by some fifty years. Why is this short story almost unknown, despite this distinction and its remarkable tale of a confrontation between a Chinese Australian and a European Australian in warlord China? The answer tells us something of the narrowness of perceptions about what is “Australian” as well as about the breadth of experiences that embodies the term “Chinese Australian”. For a full copy of the story - What Happened to Riley Please check out our publications at ChideStudy Press https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com  For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/

  3. Jul 23

    30. Royal Commission and Chinese Welfare 1891

    This discussion examines the fascinating Royal Commission into the Police and Chinese Gambling of 1891. [Or to give it is full offical name: REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON ALLEGED CHINESE GAMBLING AND IMMORALITY AND CHARGES OF BRIBERY AGAINST MEMBERS OF THE POLICE FORCE.] A document that in fact tells us little about either gambling or the police or even immorality and a great deal about the make up of the Chinese communities of Sydney in the late 19th century. Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com  Please check out our publications at - https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/ Also have a look at: Scattered Legacy - https://www.scatteredlegacy.org.au/

  4. Jul 1

    29. The Poison of Polygamy - a social novel

    The Poison of Polygamy - the last Qing novel or the first novel of the Chinese Australian experience - is undoubtedly a fascinating read. This podcast will delve into the equally fascinating historical background to this story, highlighting what is true and what is just a good story.  It will also explain the political intentions of this novel written at the end of Qing China and the beginning of the Republic of China. To purchase The Poison of Polygamy  - hhttps://sydneyuniversitypress.com/products/9781743326022 Please check out our publications at ChideStudy Press https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com  For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/

  5. Jun 8

    28. Rebuilding the scattered legacy of Chinese Australian history

    The Scattered Legacy project is a digital archive that brings together the scattered treasures and history of Chinese Australians. Drawing on material from private collections, regional museums, archives, and families, it creates a national database linking objects, people, places, and historical themes. Rather than being just a catalogue, it shows how individual artefacts connect to larger stories of migration, community life, business, discrimination, and identity. The site includes historical essays, translated Chinese texts, biographies, and records ranging from immigration documents to commercial correspondence. By connecting these fragments of the past, Scattered Legacy not only help preserve the rich and complex contributions of the Chinese Australian community but helps make them accessible within a single searchable ecosystem. Scattered Legacy - https://www.scatteredlegacy.org.au/  Submit your own Treasure - https://scatteredlegacy.com.au/submit-a-treasure/ Ask questions or comment - scattered.legacy@gmail.com Please check out our publications at - https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com  For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/

  6. Apr 21

    27. Was the First Fleet a tea run?

    How did a colourful scene of Sydney harbour from around 1820 find itself depicted on a large punchbowl - the so-called Canton Punchbowl - that was manufactured in the Chinese port city of Canton (Guangzhou 廣州)? This gilded punchbowl was one of many China-made products produced specifically for export to Europe and represents the growing establishment of European-China trade centred on Canton but very much including the Colony of NSW in the years before the Opium Wars and the establishment of Hong Kong. The use of an engraving of the small British colony at Port Jackson – only established a generation previously – highlights the strong link with China that existed from the beginning of this British colony long before its gold rushes of a subsequent generation. The implications of this often forgotten China connection is discussed in detail. Please check out our publications at - https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com  For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/

  7. Apr 15

    26. Role of the Home Districts (qiaoxiang)

    It is impossible to understand Chinese Australian history without also understand the qiaoxiang - the home districts. The various small countries or districts in the Pearl River Delta with which people identifies and via which many people organised and associated themselves when far from home. Here we only touch upon this fascinating topic. See: Returning Home with Glory: Chinese villagers around the Pacific, 1849 to 1949 by Michael Williams, Hong Kong University Press, 2018. and also, ‘Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Qiaoxiang‘, Modern Asian Studies, 2004, vol. 38, part 2, pp. 257-282. Please check out our publications at - https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com  For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/

  8. Mar 30

    25. Too Much Like Englishmen

    Too much like Englishmen uncovers a forgotten migration that reshaped colonial Australia long before the gold rushes made Chinese migration visible. Between 1848 and 1853, more than 3,000 men from Amoy—modern Xiamen in China’s Fujian province—were recruited under five-year labour contracts and sent to New South Wales. Their recruitment was often opaque and coercive, their voyages arduous, and their lives in Australia profoundly disparate. Some endured exploitation, isolation, and violence; others resisted mistreatment, adapted to new conditions, and forged lives beyond the terms of their contracts. When their contracts expired, these men did not simply vanish from history. Some moved on to the goldfields, but many remained in rural Australia, marrying locally, becoming naturalized, and establishing families whose descendants live in Australia today. Long eclipsed by later Cantonese migration and distorted by the enduring stereotype of “coolie” labour, their experiences have been marginalised or misunderstood. Drawing on newly uncovered archival records and family histories, Too much like Englishmen restores these men to the centre of Australia’s colonial story, revealing a complex history of resilience, agency, and belonging. To purchase Too much like Englishmen  - https://books2read.com/b/3n0OvR Please check out our publications at ChideStudy Press https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com  For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/

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Chinese Australian history with an emphasis on agency, context and evidence, not myths, stereotypes or white guilt. Nearly all episodes are AI generated from publications which can be seen at https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore/ or ordered by writing to: chidestudypress@gmail.com

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