Humanities and Social Sciences

After the Rush: Regulation, Participation and Chinese Communities in Australia 1860-1940

edited by Sophie Couchman, John Fitzgerald and Paul Macgregor
Special edition of Otherland, no.9, December 2004.

RRP: $29.95 plus p&h, ISBN 0-646-44352-6, 249 pages, paperback

For much of the post-war era, the study of 'Overseas Chinese' was dominated by studies of the major Chinese communities of Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on their place in trade, colonialism and indigenous nationalist movements. Outside of Southeast Asia, recognition of local Chinese community heritage was largely confined to 'gold-rush' archaeology and to studies of immigration restrictions in White-settler societies on the Pacific Rim. Little attention was paid to the Chinese communities that elected to remain and work in White settler societies in the post-gold rush era, particularly in Australia

This book draws on the research of some of Australia's most established historians, as well as immigration and law specialists, and a number of younger scholars whose work is beginning to claim critical attention to fill this gap. The seventeen chapters in the volume have been selected from over fifty papers presented at the Chinese Heritage of Australian Federation, an international conference on Chinese community history held at the Chinese Museum in Melbourne in July 2001. The book is organized around three major themes in Australia's post-gold rush history: regulation and governance, participation in public life, and community and identity formation.

CONTENTS
Adam McKeown, Introduction: The continuing reformation of Chinese Australians

I. REGULATION
John Hirst, The Chinese and Federation

Kim Rubenstein, The influence of Chinese immigration on Australian citizenship

Michael Williams, Would this not help your Federation?

Andrew Markus, Reflections on the administration of the 'White Australia' immigration policy

II. PARTICIPATION
John Fitzgerald, Advance Australia fairly: Chinese voices at Federation

Denise, A Austin Citizens of heaven: Overseas Chinese Christians during Australian Federation

Rob Hess, 'A death blow to the White Australia policy': Australian rules football and Chinese communities in Victoria, 1892-1908

Drew Cottle, Unbroken commitment: Fred Wong, China, Australia and a world to win

III. COMMUNITIES AND CULTURES
Pauline Rule, The Chinese camps in colonial Victoria: Their role as contact zones

Cai Shaoqing, From mutual aid to public interest: Chinese secret societies in Australia

Kate Bagnall, 'He would be a Chinese still': Negotiating boundaries of race, culture and identity in late nineteenth century Australia

Sophie Couchman, 'Oh I would like to see Maggie Moore again!: Selected women of Melbourne's Chinatown

Rod Lancashire, Blanche street, Wahgunyah: A pre-Federation Australian Chinese community on the border

Rey Tiquia, 'Bottling' an Australian medical tradition: Traditional Chinese medicine during Australian Federation

Paul Jones, What happened to Australia's Chinese between the World Wars?

IV. AFTERWORD
Henry Chan, Becoming Australian: An afterword