Chinese Presence in Australia by Andrew Tran
During the late 1800s, many Chinese came to Australia in search of freedom and wealth. However, when the Chinese arrived to Australia, they were treated with great hostility, racism and resentment from the European society. This was due to the very strange and unusual Chinese customs that the Australians/Europeans saw. Soon, the Australian government introduced the ‘White Australia Policy.’ The origin of the policy can be traced back to the Lambing Flat Riots which were anti-Chinese acts that occurred around the Lambing Flat gold fields. As such, the Europeans responded extremely poorly to the presence of Chinese people.
The Chinese’ arrival incited discrimination and they were targets of a great deal of racism and prejudice. This was due to the fear of the unknown and unfamiliar that was among the white-Australians and the fact that they were not accustomed to the way the Chinese dressed, ate and worked. Chinese miners often worked in groups (usually families) and preferred to re-mine the ground abandoned by Europeans, while the Europeans worked alone and would go to and mine on new grounds. In 1861, the Chinese numbered over 40,000 which made up 3 per cent of the population. The overwhelming number of Chinese working in the minefields created a very tense atmosphere
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Around the 30th of June, a mob estimating 3000 Europeans forced on 1000 Chinese to abandon their encampment. The Europeans destroyed and looted everything that the Chinese had in their possession. The main cause of the riot was simply because of racism. The overwhelming number of Chinese created much tension for the European since they thought that the Chinese were going to take their jobs. This event only further provoked anti-Chinese behaviours which soon lead to the establishment of the ‘White Australia’
After the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in the early 1840s during the California Gold Rush, many Chinese people continued to travel across the Pacific, escaping poor conditions in China with hopes and ambitions for a better life in America. Many more Chinese immigrants began arriving into the 1860s on the Pacific coast for work in other areas such as the railroad industry. The immigrants noticed an increasing demand for their labor because of their readiness to work for low wages. Many of those who arrived did not plan to stay long, and therefore there was no push for their naturalization. The immigrants left a country with thousands of years of a “decaying feudal system,” corruption, a growing
Australia’s history has shown a “White Australia” policy from as early as 1850. It began with competition in the goldfields between immigrant Chinese and the British miners caused a severe amount of tension. Eventually turning into riots (Buckland Riot in 1857 and the Lambing Flat Riots in 1860 and 1861) Victoria and New South Wales put restrictions on Chinese immigration as well as residency taxes. This has been described as the earliest sign of the White Australia policy.
The influences that contributed to the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 was nativism and racial prejudice against Chinese immigrants.
People always seem to be changing themselves because they want the approval of others and are worried what others think of them. They aren't happy about who they are, maybe its looks, or maybe its race that they are concerned about, either way people try to change who they are. In ABC, the author Yang reveals many common stereotypes about chinese people and the struggle they might have in fitting in. Chin-kee one of the main characters is very stereotypical and impacts Danny and Jin’s life greatly. Jin Wang the main character faces some problems fitting in because of his race and the stereotypes associated with it and changes himself in order to fit in.
The immigration policy of Australia has been in a constant state of flux ever since Federation in 1901, when the first legislative piece, the Immigration Restriction Act, was introduced. The Immigration Restriction Act has become infamous in Australian history and throughout the world, more nefariously as the ‘White Australia Policy’. The White Australia Policy was Australia’s seemingly indestructible way of ensuring a White Australia. However, the immigration of European refugees after World War II, which aimed to defend the nation from Japanese invasion, challenged this policy. From 1901, Australia held a strong belief that coloured people, specifically Asians, were inferior and detrimental to the Australian way of life, and did all in it’s
There was more or less no assistance of any kind given to the Chinese migrants, as immigration was rather a haphazard affair in the 19th century (especially to an isolated young country like Australia) and the level of racism encountered by Chinese prospectors on arrival made goldmining and making a living in Australia even harder.
The Gold Rush made Australia largely colonised and continually expanding. In 1852, 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia from many different countries. The economy boomed and many different cultures were introduced. Countries like England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, America, China and Germany showed up as the majority of diggers on the Australian census. The population continued to grow
This essay analyses the Australian-China bilateral relationship since 1945 and in particular its political significance to Australia. Many global factors have influenced this relationship, including the advent of the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the collapse of the Soviet bloc European nations. In addition, internal political changes in Australia and China have both affected and been affected by the global changes. It will be analysed that Australia’s bilateral relationship with China has always had a sharp political edge but that approaching the new millenium economics and trade considerations are shaping Australias and for that matter Chinese politics.
In the 19th Century, there was a significant increase of Chinese immigrants in Australia. By 1861, the Chinese community was already thriving, making up nearly 7% of the Victorian population. During this period, the Chinese came to Australia in search of Gold. The early settlers didn’t accept the Chinese because they were different in appearance and cultural practices, so they were forced into different camps.
This was for many reasons but one main reason being the fact that the whites could lose their occupations and industries to a Chinese being, which were also known as coolies. Source 1 states that some of the earliest evidence was during the gold rush during the 1850’s, Chinese were hard workers and needed to support their families and themselves. It also states in source 1 that South Sea Island Islanders (commonly known as ‘Kanakas’) were imported as cheap labour to work in Northern Queensland. This was so they could work on the sugar cane fields; the process is called ‘black birding’. Source 7 shows that the origins that the Policy was built on was because of ‘racial exclusiveness’ on the gold fields. The Dictation Test, as seen in source 5, was given to all non-European people attempting to enter Australia in the years between 1901 and 1958. The test was harsh and any foreigner who took the test was almost always set to fail. It was incredibly unfair to the ‘coolies’ that were trying to enter. Another reason that the immigration act was passed was because of ‘racial
The quantity of non-Europeans moving to Australia dropped fundamentally. It is important to note that the White Australia arrangement was not seen as supremacist or unfair. The strategy was viewed as a logical, matter-of-reality, and protective activity proposed to shield Australia from the Japanese attacker . Prominent generalizations of the Japanese developed in the years after the White Australia approach and
as New South Wales. “On the 13th May 1787 a fleet of eleven ships left Britain with two
This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part the concepts or race, ethnicity, prejudice and racism are defined and how they are connected is discussed. Part 2 of the paper looks at the ‘White Australia’ policy and why it was introduced. The impact of such a racist immigration history on contemporary Australia is also discussed in terms of attitudes and behaviours of the population. Following is a brief discussion on how successive government polic
People affected by Cronulla Riots in any manner were ‘out of the frying pan, and were into the fire’, when the documentary displayed Prime Minister John Howard declaring the riots as “un-Australian”. He made us believe that his view was optimistic and disagrees that there is underlying racism in Australia.
For many years Asian Migrants were restricted from entering Australia and found it difficult to migrate due to discriminatory political policies. The main policies were the ‘dictation test’, the policy of ‘Assimilation’ and the ‘White Australia’ policy. The main Asian Migration wave occurred in 1976 after the Vietnam War forced many people to leave there homes and come here to Australia. These Asian Migrants arrived in Australia by boat which was usually very over crowded. The cause of