Chinese in Australian Fiction, 1888–1988 By Ouyang Yu

All these signs pointed to a growing concern for the Chinese abroad and increasing attention to international affairs on the part of the Chinese government. However, these actions did not produce much effect; on the contrary, Australians viewed them with serious concern as a precursor to invasion.³⁹ The Chinese government’s suggestion that they establish a consulate in Melbourne in the late 1880s met with strong disapproval from Great Britain because of the fear that it might arouse anti-Chinese feelings in Australia.⁴⁰

The anti-Chinese policies of the Australian colonies culminated in the passing of Coloured Races Restriction and Regulations bills in 1896. A third Intercolonial Conference held in that year agreed on the exclusion of all coloured peoples, including ‘native inhabitants of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands’.⁴¹ Nationalism combined with racism in the thinking of colonial legislators. They believed in a global race-struggle for existence between the white and the inferior coloured races and in the possible triumph of the latter over the former.⁴² They saw the exclusion of the Chinese and other coloured races from Australia in the context of this struggle. They feared not only economic competition but also the more important political and cultural issues of Australian national identity. As Charles A. Price remarks, ‘Chinese were the anvil on which the new young societies were slowly hammering out their national identity’.⁴³ It appears that economically, racially, politically, culturally, and religiously unacceptable, the Chinese existed singly as the Other for Australia to achieve its nationhood and to mark its difference from all the other inferior races.⁴⁴ In this climate following Federation, the Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act No. 17 passed in 1901, incorporating the Dictation Test, aimed at total exclusion⁴⁵ becoming the cornerstone of the White Australia policy.

At this point, one should bear in mind that anti-Chinese feelings and legislative restrictions were not exclusively Australian but rather an international phenomenon. According to Li Changfu, all the countries to which the Chinese emigrated except North Borneo and Brazil adopted restrictive and exclusive measures.⁴⁶ The rising fear of the so-called Yellow Peril lies at the bottom of this widespread exclusion of the Chinese, particularly in European countries and English dominions.