Chinese in Australian Fiction, 1888–1988 By Ouyang Yu

Stories of early convicts escaping imprisonment in an effort to run away to China and the saying ‘Beyond the hills lies China’ attest to an imaginary closeness of China to Australia, which underlies a whole range of invasion literature reflecting the Australian fear of a possible Chinese invasion.

According to the commonly accepted view, the Chinese first arrived in Australia in 1848 when a ship carrying a hundred or so Chinese coolies from Amoy, now Xiamen, reached Sydney. Popular accounts give various dates,⁵ the earliest being 1817 when Mai Shiying in Mandarin, Mak Sai Ying in Cantonese,⁶ a.k.a. Mark O Pong or John Shying, arrived in Australia.⁷ The imaginary proximity of China and the real presence of the Chinese in Australia have influenced the Australian literary imagination for generations.

The majority of the earliest Chinese came to Australia from poor coastal provinces in South China, such as Canton and Fukien, now Guangdong and Fujian. They followed in the footsteps of the Chinese who had gone before them to the United States and South America as indentured labourers, and later, as gold diggers. Some of them travelled to Australia and New Zealand, under treaty agreements with Great Britain that allowed them to go to British dominions as British subjects. By sailing to Australia, they intended to make a fortune and go back ‘in silk robes’, as the saying went. Hence the name ‘New Gold Mountain’ for Melbourne, parallelling the ‘Old Gold Mountain’ for San Francisco.⁸ Their presence in Australia caused much amused curiosity at first, soon replaced by resentment and hostility as they grew in number and strength. The sentiment gradually led to their exclusion from the country in an ever-expanding anti-Chinese campaign that culminated in the ‘White Australia’ policy of 1901. During the one hundred years from 1888 to 1988, the Chinese came and went. Their demographic composition changed from the early indentured labourers, to gold diggers, then market gardeners, cabinetmakers, laundrymen, street hawkers, and merchants, and still later, students from mainland China. They left their culture and descendants behind them. Following the dismantling of the White Australia policy in the late 1960s, and especially after 1988, they became a significant presence in and contributors to multicultural Australia.