Chinese Australians
華裔澳洲人 or 华裔澳大利亚人

Chinatown, Sydney
Total population
1,390,639 by ancestry (2021 census) [1][2] (5.5% of the Australian population)[1][2] 677,240 born in Mainland China (2019)[3] 101,290 born in Hong Kong (2019)[3] 59,250 born in Taiwan (2019)[3] 3,130 born in Macau (2019)[3]
Regions with significant populations
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, other urban areas Christmas Island
Languages
Australian English Mandarin, Cantonese various other Chinese dialects
Religion
Irreligion, Christianity, Buddhism, Chinese folk religion, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam
Related ethnic groups
Hong Kong Australians, Taiwanese Australians, Malaysian Australians, Singaporean Australians, Overseas Chinese

Chinese Australians (simplified Chinese: 华裔澳大利亚人 or 华裔澳洲人; traditional Chinese: 華裔澳大利亞人 or 華裔澳洲人; pinyin: Huáyì àodàlìyà rén or Huáyì àozhōu rén) are Australians of Chinese origin. Chinese Australians are one of the largest groups within the global Chinese diaspora, and are the largest Asian Australian community. Per capita, Australia has more people of Chinese ancestry than any country outside Asia. As a whole, Australian residents identifying themselves as having Chinese ancestry made up 5.5% of Australia's population at the 2021 census.^[1][2]

The very early history of Chinese Australians involved significant immigration from villages of the Pearl River Delta in South China, with most such immigrants speaking dialects within the Yue dialect group. The Gold rushes lured many Chinese to the Australian colonies in the 19th century. As with many overseas Chinese groups the world over, early Chinese immigrants to Australia established several Chinatowns in major cities, such as Sydney (Chinatown, Sydney), Melbourne (Chinatown, Melbourne), Brisbane (Chinatown, Brisbane) and Perth (Chinatown, Perth). In the Australian external territory of Christmas Island, Australians of full or partial Chinese origin form the majority of the population.

The recent turbulence of Australia–China relations had a negative impact to the Chinese Australian community, being increasingly targeted by xenophobic attitudes.^[4]

History

Chinese immigrants arriving in Chinatown, Melbourne, 1866

Chinese peoples have a long and continuing role in Australian history. There were early links between China and Australia when Macau and Canton were used as an important trading ports with the fledgling colony. Mak Sai Ying (also known as John Shying) was the first officially recorded Chinese migrant in 1818. After his arrival he spent some time farming before, in 1829, he became prominent as the publican of The Lion in Parramatta. Early 19th Century migration was in limited numbers and sporadic, primarily those who came in this period were free merchants or adventurers and, the more common, indentured labourers.

Gate to Bendigo's Golden Dragon Museum, dedicated to the history of the Chinese on the Victorian goldfields

The Australian Gold Rushes are what first lured thousands of Chinese to the country. In 1855 in Melbourne there were 11,493 Chinese arrivals.^[5] This was startling considering that barely five years previous, Melbourne's entire population had only been around 25,000 people. By 1858, 42,000 Chinese immigrants had arrived in Victoria, with many of them living in boarding houses in Little Bourke Street.^[6] Due to the widespread racist sentiments in parliament and on the goldfields, the first of many immigration restrictions and Chinese targeting laws was passed in late 1855. However, due to the long, poorly regulated borders between the colonies of Australia the numbers of Chinese on the goldfields continued to swell. Upon the goldfields Chinese peoples faced many hardships. There were violent anti-Chinese riots; the Buckland Riot, the Lambing Flats Riots, as well as general discrimination and prejudice. However, there were many establishments in this period that would have a lasting effect on the history of Australia and the history of Chinese in Australia. One of these establishments were the Chinese camps, which most often, later, became Chinatowns in Australia. There was also the establishment and the consolidation of power for Chinese societies, many of these are still active in Australia today. These societies provided support and community for the Chinese in the colonies.

After the gold rushes the numbers of Chinese living in the cities swelled and their businesses and industries contributed much to growth of Melbourne and Sydney in the late 19th century. Mei Quong Tart and Lowe Kong Meng were prominent business figures in Sydney and Melbourne respectively. However, there were very few Chinese women migrating to Australia. At one point in the 1860s the numbers of Chinese in Australia was around 40,000. Of these, it is believed only 12, were women.^[7] This gender imbalance meant that Chinese men married women of European descent but many had it in their hearts to return to China.

Published in 1888, this cartoon depicts the anti-Chinese political situation of Australia that was one of the driving forces behind the push for federation.

Anti-Chinese sentiment also strongly contributed to the establishment of the Federation of Australia. Some of the first Acts of the new federation would establish the White Australia Policy. This policy made it almost impossible for anyone new to migrate from China to Australia. After federation the population of Chinese in Australia steadily declined. Despite the declining numbers people with Chinese heritage still played their part in Australian history. There were over 200 people with Chinese heritage who fought for Australia in World War I, including the decorated sniper Billy Sing. A similar number fought for Australia in World War II.

The final end of the White Australia Policy from the 1960s saw new arrivals from the Chinese diaspora and for the first time significant numbers from non-Cantonese speaking parts of China. The first wave of arrivals were ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia during the 1970s. This was followed by economic immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s, whose families often settled in the capital cities. New institutions were established for these arrivals and old ones such as the Chinese Chamber of Commerce revived, while numerous Chinese language newspapers were once again published in the capital cities. Ethnic Chinese settlers from Peru immigrated to Australia following the Peruvian dictatorship of Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru in 1968.

After the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, then-Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, allowed students from China to settle in Australia permanently. Since the 2000s, with the rapid development of China's economy, there has been an explosion in the number of immigrants from China, which have frequently been Australia's largest source of new immigrants since 2000. In 2015–16, China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) was the second largest source of immigrants to Australia behind India.^[8] China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) is now the third largest foreign birthplace for Australian residents, after England and New Zealand.^[9]

Demographics

At the 2021 census, 1,390,637 Australian residents identified themselves as having Chinese ancestry, accounting for 5.5% of the total population.^[1][2]

In 2019, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that there were 677,240 Australian residents born in Mainland China, 101,290 born in Hong Kong, 59,250 born in Taiwan and 3,130 born in Macau.^[3] There are also a large number of persons of Chinese ancestry among those born in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Before the end of the 20th century, Chinese Australians were predominately of Cantonese and Hakka descent from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, and Cantonese was the dominant language.^[10] Due to more recent immigration from other regions of China, Mandarin has surpassed Cantonese by number of speakers.

In a 2004 study on the intermarriage pattern in Australia, the proportion of second-generation Chinese Australians with spouses of Anglo-Celtic ancestry was approximately 21% and for third generation it was 68%.^[11]

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2012 Chinese immigrant mothers had a total fertility of 1.59 children per woman, lower compared to the Australian average of 1.94.^[12] This declined to 1.19 and 1.73 respectively in 2019.

Brisbane population of Chinese ancestry.^[19]

Religion

The Heavenly Queen Temple in Footscray, Victoria is Australia's largest Taoist temple.

Internal courtyard of the Green Pine Taoist Temple in Deagon, Brisbane, belonging to the Evergreen Taoist Church.

According to the census data collected in the last twenty years, among Australians with full or partial Chinese ancestry there has been a general decline of institutional religions (between 2006 and 2016, Buddhism fell from 24.1% to 15.7% and Christianity fell from 29.8% to 23.4%). In 2016, 55.4% of the Chinese Australians fit within the census category of "not religious, secular beliefs or other spiritual beliefs", rising significantly from 37.8% in 2006. These shiftings in religious demography may be due to the incoming of new immigrants from China who generally do not have a formal religious affiliation, and many of whom are involved in the native Chinese religion (including Chinese ancestral worship) which has been experiencing a revival in China over the last decades.

There are also several notable Chinese temples that exist and still active in Australia, like Sarm Sung Goon Temple, Albion (built in 1886), Sze Yup Temple (built in 1898), Yiu Ming Temple (built in 1908) and Heavenly Queen Temple (Melbourne). Nan Tien Temple in New South Wales and Chung Tian Temple in Queensland are the oversea branch temples of Fo Guang Shan.

Religion of Australians of full or partial Chinese ancestry, by census^[22]

Religion	2006		2011		2016
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Not religious or Chinese religion	238,678	37.8	359,139	43.7	633,056	55.4
Christianity	188,111	29.8	233,070	28.4	267,256	23.4
Buddhism	152,544	24.1	177,902	21.6	179,384	15.7
Islam	1,466	0.23	2,280	0.27	3,120	0.27
Hinduism	212	0.03	301	0.03	828	0.07
Judaism	139	0.02	170	0.02	219	0.02
Other	2,433	0.38	3,249	0.4	4,330	0.37
Unclear	2,375	0.37	3,423	0.4	2,883	0.25
Unanswered	44,643	7.0	41,074	5.0	50,364	4.4
Total population	630,598	100.0	820,613	100.0	1,141,440	100.0

Socioeconomics

Notable Chinese Australians

There have been numerous notable Chinese Australians in various fields throughout Australia's history.

Chinese place names in Australia

Due to the long history of the Chinese in Australia, many places have Chinese names.^[35]

Conversely, many places also feature the archaic and now derogatory term "Chinaman" (see here).

See also

• History of Chinese Australians
• Chinatowns in Australia
• Chinatowns in Oceania
• Asian Australians
• White Australia policy
• Buckland riot (1857)
• Lambing Flat riots (1860–1861)
• Australia–China relations
• Australia–Taiwan relations

References

Further reading

• Brawley, Sean, The White Peril – Foreign Relations and Asian Immigration to Australasia and North America 1919–1978, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1995. 9780868402789
• Cushman, J.W., "A 'Colonial Casualty': The Chinese community in Australian Historiography", Asian Studies Association of Australia, vol.7, no 3, April 1984.
• Fitzgerald, Shirley, Red Tape, Gold Scissors, State Library of NSW Press, Sydney, 1997.
• Macgregor, Paul (ed.), Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne,1995.
• May, Cathie, Topsawyers: the Chinese in Cairns 1870 to 1920, James Cook University, Townsville, 1984.
• Williams, Michael, 2018, Returning home with glory: Chinese villagers around the Pacific, 1849 to 1949 (榮歸故里：太平洋地區的中國僑鄉 1849–1949), Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong.
• Taylor, Antony. "Chinese Emigration to Australia around 1900: A Re-examination of Australia’s 'Great White Walls'" History Compass (February 2013) 11#2 pp 104–116, DOI:10.1111/hic3.12032
• Williams, Michael, Chinese Settlement in NSW – A thematic history (Sydney: Heritage Office of NSW, 1999) www.heritage.nsw.gov.au

External links

• Chinese Museum Chinese Immigration to Australia
• Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia
• Chinese Australian Historical Society
• From Quong Tarts to Victor Changs: Being Chinese in Australia in the Twentieth Century Archived 4 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
• [http The Poison of Polygamy - the first Chinese Australian novel://chineseaustralianhistory.org Chinese Australian history website]
• Tracking The Dragon – A history of the Chinese in the Riverina online exhibition
• Tracking the Dragon A guide for finding and assessing Chinese Australian heritage places
• The Harvest of Endurance scroll – an interactive representing two centuries of Chinese contact with, and emigration to, Australia Archived 2 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine at the National Museum of Australia
• Culture Victoria – Dreams of Jade and Gold – Chinese Australian families
• Chinese Language Records at Public Record Office Victoria Archived 2 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• The tiger’s mouth – Thoughts on the history and heritage of Chinese Australia
• Shirley Fitzgerald - City of Sydney History Unit (2008). "Chinese". Dictionary of Sydney. Retrieved 4 October 2015. (Chinese in Sydney) [CC-By-SA]
• Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects