Catch up Online: 2021 Chinese Australian History Online Seminar Series 2

Following Federation, Chinese-Aboriginal families in Queensland laboured under numerous legislative frameworks including the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act (1897) which could be construed as designed to discourage the existence of these families.

This talk is a case study of Tasmania based on an ARC research project that attempts to research into several questions concerning early Chinese migrants to Australia.

In the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, Chinese merchants occupied a special position in many British or ex-British colonies, such as the Northern Territory (‘the Territory’) of South Australia, as facilitators of labour supply and trade and as leaders and representatives of Chinese communities. They were recognised in these capacities by governments through exemptions from immigration regulations. The lack of restrictions on Chinese immigration to the Territory until 1888 enabled Chinese merchants to establish Chinatown and, in some cases, business networks that were transnational and transfamilial.

Operatic forms have a long history of development in Chinese culture with sources dating from at least the Tang Dynasty. Known poetically as the artform of the 'Pear Garden' (Liyuan 梨园), this musical tradition continues to hold relevance and meaning to the overseas Chinese and was mostly likely the first performative artform to arrive in Australia. In their very first collaborative project, Dr Michael Williams and Dr Nicholas Ng discuss nineteenth and mid-to-late twentieth century Chinese opera in Australia as examples of migrant diversity and identity. Their research engages with the origins of the genre in the examination of regional, cultural and linguistic forms, the meaning of opera in a migrant context, and the experience of diversity within a much larger fluid construct of "Chineseness".

The Chinese Youth League (CYL), a progressive patriotic organisation, is one of the few surviving political organisations of the early Chinese diaspora in Australia. [1] It was established in Sydney on 1 July 1939

From the success of the Chinese Australian History Series 1 in 2020, the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture is very pleased to launch Series 2, with the first lecture entitled From Family Story to Australia’s Story, featuring Tim Watts MP in conversation with Professor Stephen FitzGerald.

From the success of the Chinese Australian History Series 1 in 2020, the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture is very pleased to launch Series 2, with the first lecture entitled From Family Story to Australia’s Story, featuring Tim Watts MP in conversation with Professor Stephen FitzGerald.