A Tale of Two Grocery Stores

Clockwise from left: Doris Lee and her son WIlliam at the family grocery store in Haymarket, 1951; Wah Hook Lee and Doris with their grandchildren; the building housing the grocery shop in Shekki in 2017; William Lee and his wife Nancy at their home in North Parramatta today. 

Separated by more than 7,400 kilometres stand two buildings: 82 Harbour Street in Sydney, Australia, and 86 Yuelai Road in Zhongshan, China. Behind each of their modest facades lies a rich shared history, one that connects generations of Chinese Australians to both countries.

"While Australia has lots of buildings that date back more than 120 years or so, it also has a built heritage overseas. China’s heritage also transcends national boundaries," says Professor Denis Byrne, who leads the ​​China-Australia Heritage Corridor project with Distinguished Professor Ien Ang.  

Supported by an Australian Research Council grant, Byrne and Ang have been investigating the post-1840s bidirectional flow of people between Australia and China, captured in both physical places and family histories. It is in this context that they have been documenting the history of the two grocery stores. The findings of their wider research have been shared in a public database, which is helping many Chinese Australians trace their roots and deepen their sense of identity.  

Both Harbour Street and Yuelai Road were sites for grocery stores owned by Chee Win Lee. Born in Zhongshan, Lee immigrated to Australia in 1900 and soon opened a grocery shop at 82 Harbour Street which he named Yet Shing & Co. Ten years later, having saved enough money, Lee returned to Zhongshan and married. He opened a second grocery shop at 86 Yuelai Road in Shekki, Zhongshan’s main commercial hub, and built a house nearby on Meiji Street for his wife and children. Lee himself, however, returned to Sydney and regularly sent money home. 

"As so often happens with migrants, they often intend to go back to their home country but develop ties to the places they migrate to. This could be in the form of a business or a marriage," says Byrne. "Essentially, they set down roots." 

Lee’s living arrangements were typical for many migrants to Australia at the turn of the century. Decades after a gold rush which brought many Chinese migrants into the country, Australia introduced the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901, designed to restrict non-European migration and make it difficult for the Chinese men working in Australia to bring their families with them. 

Eventually, however, Lee was able to bring his family to Australia. The first to arrive was his son, Wah Hook, who arrived in 1923 aged 12-years. In 1938, as the Japanese invaded China, Lee returned to Shekki to bring the rest of his family out of China. 

Lee’s son, Wah Hook, later married Doris Gay, whose mother had a Chinese father and an English mother. The Gay family traces their time in Australia back to Louis Gay, who was born in Zhongshan and came to Australia at age 17. After a stint managing a banana plantation in Fiji, Gay struck out on his own as a market gardener in Sydney, first on leased land at Rose Bay and then on land he bought at Guildford. 

Farming saw the Gay family through up to the 1950s, when the land was acquired by the government. The family grew lettuce, potatoes and other vegetables, taking their produce to a stall in Sydney’s Haymarket by horse and cart, and later by truck. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the farm provided the family with a stable source of food, and when World War II broke out, the sons were spared military service since market gardening was seen as an essential industry. 

Farmers like the Gays brought Chinese agricultural techniques refined over hundreds of years to Australia, including methods of irrigating the often-dry soil. "In addition, there were plant seeds flowing in from China, as well as a whole range of commodities such as dried seafood and other preserved goods," says Byrne. 

"On the one hand you had remittances being sent back from Australia, so there’s a flow of money in that direction being used to build houses and so on," Byrne continues. "Flowing in the opposite direction, you had knowledge and ideas about farming." 

Today, William lives in Parramatta with his wife, Nancy. Both were interviewed for the China-Australia Heritage Corridor project in 2017. With four generations of memories, the Lees are firmly woven into the fabric of the local community. Recent years have seen a new wave of immigration bringing large numbers of Chinese and Indian migrants into the area.

"In a related project, partly funded by the New South Wales Government’s Heritage Office, we are looking at the way the new wave of immigrants are making their own heritage in the area," says Byrne. "We are asking them how they relate to Indigenous heritage and old buildings in Parramatta, including heritage sites of the colonial era. It’s been really interesting to see how they’ve been building connections and developing their own perspective." 

By tracing the unusual connections between seemingly ordinary places and everyday people, this research has not only deepened the identities of individual participants, but also raised awareness of the Chinese Australian community’s shared history. "The research also highlights the continuing strong transnational connection between Australia and China which these migrants and their descendants have maintained. This is especially important today as a counter against challenges in the political relationship between the two countries," adds Ang.