Chinese Migration and Settlement in Australia 0424068109

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CHINESE MIGRATION

AND SETTLEMENT

IN AUSTRALIA c. Y. CHOI

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY PRESS

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY PRESS Press Building, University of Sydney UNITED KINGDOM, EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, CARIBBEAN

Prentice/Hall International, International Book Distributors Ltd Hemel Hempstead, England NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA

International Scholarly Book Services, Inc., Portland, Oregon

First published 1975 © C. Y. Chop 1975 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-94022 National Library of Australia Registry Card Number and ISBN 0 424 068109

This book is supported by money from THE ELEANOR SOPHIA WOOD BEQUEST

Printed in Australia at The G1'ifHn Press, Adelaide

Contents List of Figures List of Tables

vi

vi

Foreword

iX

Preface

xi

PART ONE: The Chinese in Australia Before World War II I

Chinese Migration Background-The Rural Village II Early Chinese Migration to Australia 1861-1901 111 Chinese Migration 1901-47. Under the Commonwealth

3 17

Immigration Resrtriction Act 1901

36

PART TWO: The Chinese in Australia After World War II IV Post-war Changes and Chinese Migration to Australia 1947-66 V Settlement and Suburbanization of the Chinese 194166 Vi Process of Migration and Occupational. Adjustment VII Marriages and Intermarriages Summary and Conclusion

Appendix

57 67 '73 95

105

I: Categories of Chinese Admitted under

Australian Immigration Regulations Appendix II: A Note on Sources and the Method of the

Melbourne Survey

113

Bibliography

116 122

Index

127

List of Figures 1 2 3

4

Distribution of full-Chinese in Australia, 1966 Distribution of f-ull-Chinese in Metropolitan Sydney, 1966 Distribution of full-Chinese in Metropolitan Melbourne, 1966

'71

Place of origin of Sze-Yap Chinese migrants, 1893-1913

81

68

'73

List of Tables 1.1 Landuse and population of fourteen districts in the Canton Delta 2.1 Chinese in Australia, by colonies, 1861-1901 2.2 Arrivals and departures of Chinese (by sea) , New South Wales and Victoria, 1862-1901 2.3 Chinese population in metropolitan areas, 1861-1901

7 22 23 28

2.4 Number of Chinese males in fourteen major Chinese occupations, for New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, 1891 and 1901

3.1 Number of full-Chinese by sex, various censuses, 1901-47

30/31

42

3.2 Total movements of ethnic Chinese by sex, Australia 1914-47 43 3.3 Estimate of net gain or loss of Chinese for intercensal periods,

1911-47, through migration by age-groups (full-Chinese only)

3.4 Age-structure of full-Chinese, 1911-47 3.5 Marriages of persons born in China, 1907-40 3.6 Part-Chinese population, 1901-47 4.1

Total movements of Chinese nationals by sex, Australia 1948-65 (three years moving averages)

46 48 49

50

62.

4.2 Estimates of net gain or 1oss of Chinese for intercensal periods,

1947-66, through migration by agegroups by sex 63

(full-Chinese only)

vi

LIST OF TABLES

vii

66 4.3 Age structure of lull-Chinese, 1954-66 5.1 Percentage distribution of fuI1~Chinese in capital cities, urban, 67 rural sections of states, Australia 1966 5.2 Intercensal increase of Chinese in metropolitan Sydney, 1947-66 (full-Chinese only) 72 5.3 Intercensal increase of Chinese in metropolitan Melbourne, 1947-66 (full-Chinese only) 74 5.4 Present suburb address (1968) by previous suburb -address (1965), heads of households only, Melbourne survey, 76 1968 77 5.5 Home ownership, Melbourne survey, 1968 6.1 Place of origin of Chinese migrants in Victoria as registered in the South Melbourne Chinese Joss House, 1s93-1913,

6.2 6.3 6.4

6.5

7.1 7.2

79 by principal surnames Occupations of foreign-born Chinese males on arrival and at 88 present, Melbourne survey, 1968 Post-arrival mobility among Melbourne Chinese, foreign-born 89 males only, Melbourne survey, 1968 Fathers' occupation of Australian-born Chinese who were 92 actually employed at the time of 'the survey, 1968 Father-to-son mobility among Melbourne Chinese, Australian-born males only, Melbourne survey, 1968 93 Average age at first marriage by types of marriage tor foreign-born Chinese, Melbourne survey, 1968 100 Average age at first marriage for Australian-born Chinese, 102 Melbourne survey, 1968

Foreword By CHARLES A. PRICE Professorial Fellow, Department of Demography Australian National University

The story of the Chinese in Australia is intricate and absorbing. It is also important, because it was the Chinese immigrants of the later nineteenth century who forced British-Australian1 to clarify

their attitudes. to other races and to hammer out their policies of restrictive immigration. The story is fascinating in itself, mainly because those who came were not a uniform 'heathen Chi fee' bent on flooding this country with a low-level peasant civilization. Rather, they were from different areas, spoke different dialects, and often had different aims and €81°€i€1'3I some became well-known merchants and traders, some established country stores and businesses, some established market-gardens, banana plantations and fruit businesses, others became skilled tradesmen, yet others saved money to return to their ancestral homes in south China. All in all they were a colorful variegated people and the more one delves. into their history the more absorbed one becomes. In his book Dr Choi makes a notable contribution to our understanding of Australia's Chinese people. He gives a clear and helpful sketch of their background and customs, he traces their

immigration and distribution through the country census by census, he discusses their entry into various occupations and the reactions this aroused amongst white Australians. He also traces their demographic history, including intermarriage with Europeans. This occupies the first part of the book. The second part is a more detailed examination of a major Chinese community Io Australia, drat of Melbourne. This survey, based on extensive interviews with Chinese families in Melbourne, reveals the shift from traditional Chinese to 'Australian' occupations and from old "Chinatown" to the suburbs; it also shows the demographic and sociological trends. governing more recent Chinese settlement. Altogether die book is stimulating, and is based on careful research and a deep understanding of the people involved.

CHARLES A. PRICE ix

Preface

as

at- present only a small minority The Chinese in Australia among Australia's 13 million people. Comprising about 0.3 per cent of the total Australian population in 1966, they are insigniiicant in number, in the economy, w an the political SCCIJS. Yet, the presence of aNs group, particularly of the third or fourth generation Chinese whose forefathers arrived during the gold rushes of the 1850s, recalls the long history of Chinese settlement in Australia. It arouses curiosity as to how these people managed to remain and propagate, and often prosper in the face of strict Australian immigration laws, and it raises interesting questions of how they are at present being received by Australian society at large. The purpose of this book is to answer the above questions, to, least partially, by tracing trends of Chinese migration and their settlement in Australia since the early days of the gold rush. does not attempt to describe the story of this migrant group in its totality, as this covers a period of more than a century. Such a task would be almost impossible for a single person, not only because the material to be covered for a complete survey is so vast, but also because much of the social history of the Chinese in Australia has yet to be adequately studied. This book has a much more limited aim, It purports to show that the pattern of Chinese migration and settlement has been vitally influenced by Australian immigration restrictions. The great effect of these restrictions was shown in the volume and characteristics of their migration, in their occupational adjustments, in marriage tendencies and in their residential distribution. The concentration of my study on these aspects is not an assertion that these phenomena can be studied independently without relating them to social factors other than legal immigration restrictions , nor is it a denial that social forces within Australian society contributed to the shaping of the Chinese community, In fact, attempts are made to show that reasons for early Chinese migration australian migration restrictions to produce a intertwined. 1.

l_ 1

special kind of migration system

the commuting system

which

greatly influenced the process of settlement. At appropriate points, the position of the Chinese in Australian society is discussed in the xi

xii PREFACE light of Australian reactions to the presence of this minority group. Incomplete as this study is as a social history, I hope it will make clear the importance of one basic point in the study of social groups such as these-that many significant and interesting phenomena which one might discover in examining conditions at a certain point in time, have to be understood in the light of earlier events. Extracted and divorced from their historical context, much of the essence is lost. The story of the Chinese in Australia is very similar to that of the Chinese in the U.S.A. The California gold discoveries in the early 1850s attracted the first massive migration of Chinese to the U.S.A.; the Victorian and New South Wales gold ends resulted in a large influx of Chinese diggers in the mid- and late 1850s. So important was gold at that time that the Chinese equivalent of 'Old Gold Mountain' (Chiu Chin Shan) is still occasionally used at present among overseas Chinese to refer to California, and 'New Gold Mountain' (Hsin Chin Shan) to refer to Australia. The massive influxes of Chinese in Australia and California were both considered threats to the social and economic well-being of the society, and agitators for the exclusion of Chinese succeeded in having laws enacted Eseverely to restrict Chinese immigration. Thereafter, numbers Siwindled until after World War II when m1!ll1111ll11illlllllllL me relaxed. man sources of information for this study have been official statistics collected by various Australian authorities and a sample survey of the Chinese in Melbourne. The censuses are particularly useful because colonial censuses before 1911 treated Chinese as a special category, often tabulating them separately from the general population. Commonwealth censuses from 1911 until the present included 'race' as an item of inquiry, particulars

relating to the Chinese, therefore, are available since the early days of the gold rush. Migration and marriage statistics are also useful, although they have more limitations than census statistics. A sample survey of the Chinese in Melbourne was conducted in 1968, and this provides valuable information on more detailed aspects about which official statistics can only give broad outlines. The nature and quality of these statistics and the method employed in the Melbourne survey are described for interested readers in Appendix II. The major part of this work was originally written as a PhD thesis at The Australian National University, I thank the A.N.U. for granting me a generous scholarship. I am greatly indebted to

my thesis supervisor, Dr C. A. Price of the Department of Demography, The Australian

National University, for his constant

xiii

PREFACE

advice and encouragement. His own work on the whole subject of non-European migration in the 'White Pacific' is an authoritative account of events which led to restrictive immigration legislations in Canada, the United States of America and Australia. In this work which is to be published as a book by The Australian National University Press, he has amply shown his understanding of Chinese life in Australia. I must also thank Professor E. P. Hutchinson of The University of Pennsylvania for encouraging me in the publication of this work and for giving me valuable suggestion for die revision. For any shortcomings, however, I am alone responsible. I am grateful also to those Chinese in Melbourne who were interviewed in the survey, their co-operation and hospitality, in

addition to confirming the feasibility of interview surveys, have made my own survey work much more enjoyable than it would otherwise have been. . I would also like to thank the Institute? of Race (London) and the Australian Journal of Social Issues (Sydney) for permitting me to quote substantially from my own articles as follows: 'Occupational change among the Chinese in Melbourne' January 1970, 3-11, 'Patterns of marriage and migration among the Chinese in Australia', Australian Journal of Social Issues, July 1972, 141-50. W

Hong Kong 1974

1,nr;

was

C. Y. CHO;

PART ONE

Chinese in Australia Before World M I I

Chinese Migration Background The Rural Village

I

Chinese emigration overseas has been restricted to certain provinces which are close to the Pacific Ocean and were exposed to Western impact during the nineteenth century. Those Chinese who went to Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada nearly all came from Kwangtlmg, the southernmost province of China. A majority of them came from the Canton Delta, an area of nearly 7,000 square miles of fertile land around the estuary of the Pearl River (Chu-Kiang). This area has also sent many migrants to Southeast Asia. .Not all Chinese emigrants came from this area. The majority of those in Thailand, for example, came from Swatao in northeast Kwangtung and the surrounding Han Delta region. Many in g . .Q_, island of Hainan ha south Kwangtung. ._.___ The Hokkien Chinese from Fukien province, north along the coast from Kwangtung, migrated generally to all countries in Southeast Asia; many are still in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Borneo. The I-Iakka. Chinese, who originally came from central China in the thirteenth century and settled in various parts of south China, migrated to most countries in Southeast Asia, but mainly to Malaysia. In addition to emigration from South China, coolies were recruited from Chefu, Shantung province in north China, to go to France during the labour shortage of World War I. Seamen from Shanghai also settled in Europe, and some M England, Migration from the northern provinces to Manchtuia was also extensive after the fall of the Ching dynasty in 1911. my purpose, Qwhich concerns Chinese migration to Australia, it is necessary to explore the social and economic conditions of Kwangtung only and more specifically of the Canton 'Delta region from where most of the Chinese in Australia originated. _ _ . _ _

- _ - - _ _ _

_

Geography, Production, and Population

The Province of Kwangtung is hilly but is penetrated by the valleys of three large rivers which converge to a common delta, 3

4

CHINESE MIGRATION

A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

usually called the Canton Delta. These three rivers are the Si-Kiang, the Pei-Kiang and Tung~Kiang literally, the West, North and East Rivers. All three converge near the city of Canton and the combined flow is then called Chu~Kiang or the Pearl River. The whole province of Kwangtung can be seen as a vast valley drained by these three rivers and surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges stretching from the east through the north to the west. These mountain ranges, reaching heights of 6,000 ft, form important dividers between Kwangtung and Central China, isolating Kwangtung from any extensive influence from the north. Politically, Kwangtung and her neighbouring province, Fukien, have often been places of refuge for rebellious armies and defeated emperors, and therefore, areas of potential trouble and danger to established governments. Chinese migration from the north to the south was often propelled by political changes of dynasties, the defeated emperors withdrawing to Kwangtung with their loyal troops and people. Economically, although the Canton Delta, a 7,000 sq. in of fertile farm land, produces two rice crops and one dry crop a year, the pressure of population on land is great. In addition, natural disasters such as floods and droughts, and destructive warfares like the Taiping Rebellion, have occurred. These, together with the widespread corrupt opium-smoking in Kwangtung in the latter half of the nineteenth century, shattered the economic foundation of the Kwangtung society. The isolation of Kwangtung is well shown in her distin clive languages. In Human, Kiangsi and Chekiang provinces north of Kwangtung, the Mandarin dialect is generally spoken as elsewhere in China. On the southeastern Swatao area of Kwangtung, the I-Iokkien-Teochiu dialect prevails, while on Hainan Island, off the

south coast of Kwangtung, inhabitants use the Hoi ram dialect. In central and western Kwangtung the inhabitants use an ancient form of spoken Chinese, often referred to as Cantonese after Canton City. Various versions of Cantonese exist; those from Toishan, Sunwui, Hoiping and Yangping speak the Sze-Yap (Four Districts) dialect and those from Nanhai, Punyu and Shunte speak the Sam-Yap (Three Districts) dialect. Canton City and the districts of Chung-Shan and Kao-Yao, being near the Three Districts, are also places where the Sam-Yap dialect is spoken. There are als-o the Hakkas who have retained their own village system and distinctive Mandarin style language. Chinese in the United States, Canada and Australia are mostly Cantonese where-

as Hokkiens, Teochius and H

I

migrated more

frequently to various countries in Southeast Asia. Dialect groups,

B A C K G R O U N D - T H E RURAL VILLAGE

5

with the exception of the I-Iakkas, correspond to places of origin and provide one of the basic classificatory criteria of Chinese ntLigrants.1 According to figures published by the government of the People's Republic of China after the first systematic census of China in 1953, the province of Kwangtung has an area of about 231,000 sq. km (or a little less than 86,000 sq. $11.),2 about twothirds of which are hills and mountains and the other one-third level plains. Not only are the plains and the valleys cultivated, some of the slopes of low hills and mountains are also terraced for farming. In total, cultivated land consists of about one-twelfth to one-tenth of the total land area of the whole brovincef m a r i n o'b it one of the most intensely cultivated provinces in China. The ;

L . ; \.»\l.l.l.,l..A_l.

climate is also favourable for agriculture. The Kwangtung coastal low lands and the Hainan Island are the warmest regions of China.

Irrigated rice is the leading food crop, having a production of about 8,500,000 tons per year Sweet potatoes, peanuts and various types of vegetables and fruits are also grown. Mulberry trees flourish, especially around the Shunte area directly south of Canton City, supporting a large silk industry second in scale only to the Hankow-Shanghai silks. Kwangtung is also one of China's major sugar-cane provinces, having sugar-cane Fields in the Han River Delta and on I-Iainan Island as well as in the Canton Delta. Among other crops are tea and tobacco, both suited to the north and northwestern hilly countries. In the coastal regions, fishing both from the ocean and from fish ponds plays a major role in the economy. In short, the province of Kwangtung is relatively fertile and the variety and quantity of produce are abundant enough to support a relatively large population, making the province one of the most den self populated areas in China. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the population of Kwangtung had reached 14 million, and by the 1860s it had approached the 30 million n;1a1°k,5

representing an average density of over 400 persons per sq. m. The concentration of dialect groups in certain countries is closely related to the development of shipping routes. See G. W. Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History, Ithaca 1957, pp. 35-52. glen Men Situ T'.s'e (Peoples Handbook), Peking 1959, P. 209. Also, Didi ZNisfzi (Geographic Knofwiedge), Peking 1959, p. 205. 3 Wang Chin-Fu, Chung~Kuo Fen Shang To Chili (Provincial Geography of China), Shanghai 1926, Vol. 2, p. 70. Changing Map, New York 1956, p. 164. 4 Theodore Shabad, China 5 C. P. Yen (ed.), Chung-Kuo Chin-Tai Ching-Cfzi Shih Tang-Cixi Tsu 1

Liao Hsu an Chi (.E'conomic Sraristicai Materials o f

Moderrz

China),

Pelting 1959. J. Durand, 'The population statistics of China, 2-1953 A.D.', Population Studies, XIII, March 1960, pp. 209-56.

6

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

The population density for the province as a whole is not totally indicative of the pressure of excessive population, for the bulk of the popul ation is concentrated on the fertile Canton Delta while the mountain areas are not as crowded. Figures of 2,000 per sq. m. and 3,000 per sq. m. have been reported for the Canton Delta area, and it is km-own that large numbers of Tankas (some 200,000) live permanently on boats.6 Some rough estimates of population densities and proportions of cultivated land are given below for the various districts (Hsieh) around Canton Delta; most of these are districts of large-scale emigration to Australia. The figures of Table 1.1 had to be read with a great deal of care as they are based on estimates of district post offices and no details exist as to how the areas were surveyed. Even so, it is apparent that these districts, except for a few hilly ones, were subjected to intensive farming with more than 30 per cent of their total land area cultivated, and in Nanhai and Shunte districts directly south of Canton City, the proportions of cultivated land were even higher, at 72 per cent and 84 per cent respectively. These proportions contrast with 12 per cent calculated for the total area of Kwangtung. The need to produce and extract more from the land is apparent if the popul ation in each district is considered in relation to land area (Table 1.1). Densities of over 3,000 per sq. m. are observed for Shunte and Chungshan, the two most fertile districts. Five other districts--Sarnsui, Punyu, Toishan, Sunni and Hoiping-have densities over 1,000 per sq, In. Only three districts had densities lower than the provincial average of about 400 per

sq.

in.

Since there was large variation in the proportion of culti-

vated land between the districts, the situation of population pressure is better described by the ratio of cultivated land to the population. For the period during the 1920s and 19305 in South China, it was estimated that a minimum of 3 mows of cultivated land per person was necessary to provide enough to satisfy the ordinary livelillood.* In 1812, for minimum req.uirernen I example, Kwangtung had approximately 32 million mows of 6 _|_ 7

L. Buck, Land Uzilization in China, Shanghai 1937, PP~ 86, 122.

E. K. LO, 'Population Problems prior to the Taiping Rebellion' in Chung~Kuo Chin~Tai

Shih Lan-Ts'ung ( A

Collection

of Essays

oft

Modern Chinese History), Taipei 1958, VOL 2, Book 2, p. 39. Estimated by considering the average production of rice per mow of land and the

cost of each item 0-f daily necessity.

579 712 577 838 15 817 331 1,145 1,053 321 108 249 534 516

Lsonably large. It is, therefore, omitted

| Year .Book 1925, pp. 4-zo

'kind Economic Year Book), 1932, pp. F 50-2 (Text in Chinese.) 2.26 2.15 2.05 .52 .92

LANDUSE AND POPULATION OF FOURTEEN DISTRICTS IN THE CANTON DELTA

Cultivated land (mows) per person

LI

.90 1.04

2.05

1.46 .79 1.03 2.39

1.10

Per ent of total area cultivated"

Total

Area" (sq. m.)

0L9'zvI 098'981

000'006 0w.'690'I

006'805 000'88z 00€'2:zs 00SZ8I 00z'z09 009'£90'I 008'8178'I 00I'L8o'I 00£'9Is'I 009'sv 006'66z

, ,I!

'l`1AUIII&

wmlvm

Buyduiagg

Canton Delta districts

ozz's1>I'I

OZ#-'OSF 091;-'su

aw;

0891991

'Z°8tf 0°9z S`I1* is L°£.i' 0'E" z'6

8u¥d!0H gnmung

UBQSIOL

Table 1.1:

2:6z

oz g9g'g

p

VST 6'sI Z`E£ Qsv

069 98L I17I'£ *m:9'I

00s's2:s

ELS

P

s2:8'9zL

885 179I'I

s's I

0083175 00I's1>2:'I

00L'vsz'z

0w'u9 089'0176

Q(S/SAOTII)

0°S1? VSI

0LL'0€Z'I s(EZ6U uoglelndog

R912

62751

pun]J() 'LU 'be .rad UOI_1B[UdOc[

p91vA¥1IH:>

sz9'r I

7 BACKGROUND-THE RURAL VILLAGE

8

CHINESE MIGRATION A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

cultivated. land and about 19 million population,8 thereby giving an average of 1.67 mows to each person. This was considerably lower than the national average of 2.19 and much lower than the 3 mows of minimum requirement. If the figure of 3 mows per person is accepted as the minimum for ordinary livelihood, all but live- of these districts were below the minimum standard of living. Some relief came from growing high yield crops rather than rice, for example, tobacco and opium poppies which had a high sale price, and from cultivating sandy soil for peanuts, potatoes and corn. Chinese emigrants from these districts also helped by sending remittance from overseas to their families. But the shortage of land and food was keenly felt and remained a basic problem of rural South China. In the early 1910s, the imports of rice increased from about 10-,000 tans per year (1 tan 133.33 lb.) during the late Ching period to over 10 million 1: tarts, sometimes exceeding 20 million tans as in 1923, 1927 and 1933.9 Kwangtung and Fukien received the majority of these imports." Impoverished farmers, leaving their small plots of land, have for a long time migrated during the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century to Kwangsi and Szechuan provinces,11 some with connections in Southeast Asia. or the United States migrated abroad. Others joined bandits, became beggars, gathered in gangs or formed secret societies. They roamed the country and attacked towns, looting rich families and government rice storages, and occasionally occupying villages and towns. In both Toishan and Hoiping, bandit robbery and riots occurred almost every year. All these finally merged into the White Lotus Revolt (1796-7) and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) which devastated large areas. Others joined pirate gangs and became a great menace to local governments around the coast. Still others enlisted in the local militia units which were established for selfdefence. Rural villages of South China during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were far from peaceful and quiet. Central troops, bandits, beggar gangs, as well as militia and clan mercenaries were 8 Ibid., p. 42. 9 Wu Chuan-Chun,

Chung-Kuo Liunghih China), Shanghai 1943, pp. 8I»-3. 10 Ibid., pp. 73-4. 11 Lo,

'Population

Pro1:>1ems',

IJ.

57.

See

Diff (Food

and Geography of

also Kwangrzmg Tung-chih

(Gazetteer of Kwangtung), Canton 1864, pp. 67-8. Emperor Yung Ching

(1723-97), in an edict to the Viceroy of Human and Kwangtung asked the oiiicials to discourage Kwaugtung emigration to Szechuan.

BACKGROUND-THE

R U R A L VILLAGE

9

operating, each trying to consolidate their positions. The "Farmers" Movement of the 1920s for the protection of villages against bandits and for the equalization of land ownership was short-lived and ineffective. In addition, heavy taxation was levied on the farmers to pay indemnity to Western powers, and the collapse of the national economy added extra burdens to the peasants. From whatever little the peasants gained from the land, the usurers, the landlords, and the government extracted a portion. The socio-economic conditions of the late Ching and early Republican period

were conducive to emigration not only to overseas countries but also within China. It was partly because cornrnunications with overseas countries were more efficient, owing to Western shipping, than communications within China, and partly because conditions in other parts of China were almost as bad that so many migrants were impelled to go overseas. Given these conditions, it is not surprising to find Chinese peasants attracted to foreign countries, In the latter half of the nineteenth century, numerous Chinese emigrated, some to Southeast Asia to join their relatives, others through coolie contracts to Hawaii and South America, still others through the 'credit-ticket' system to North America and Australasia. The push factors for emigration were abundant, it is necessary also to consider how the process of emigration was regulated and how the pull factors functioned to influence the volume as well as the nature of Chinese emigration. The Family-Lineage System and the E}§'eet on Emigration

The importance of the family and the kinship system in China, at least prior to the establishment of the Communist government,

has long been recognized as vital to the integration and functioning of the society, Many of. the society's economic, educational, religious and political functions were intimately related to the family institution, and the process of emigration was much

affected by it. From birth to death, an individual constantly made The Farmers' Movement was nation-wide but started originally from Kwangtung. Supported by the Coalition Government of the Nationalists and the Communists, the Movement took on a policy of uniting all farmers against landlords, usurers and oppressive local governments. The Movement was branded 'Communist' by the Nationalist Party, and after 1927 when the Communist Party lost power in the government, the Movement collapsed under government pressure. Later, in areas where Communist influence was strong, the Farmers' movement emerged as

Z

Chinese Soviets. See T. C. Chang, The Farmers Movencenr in Kwangrufzg

(translated by the Committee on National Christian Council of China), Shanghai 1928, pp, 4-15.

IO

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

reference to the needs of the family or the larger agnatic groups In making decisions concerning himself .. education, marriage, migration, residence, the choice of occupation and so on. The individual was constantly under the influence of the head of the family, who in turn deferred to advice from senior members of his lineage. Ideally, patriarchal authority prevailed, sons deferring to their fathers, wives to husbands, brothers to their elder brothers, while decisions of importance-for example, the sale of 'clalt' land or the migration of a young son were made in consultation with senior families of the lineage. The importance of the family, or rather the local lineage, can be understood if the rural scene of nineteenth and early twentieth century China is reconstructed. First, villages in Kwangtung and Fukien consisted of a few surnames (lineages or clans), some of one." Outsiders were sometimes admitted as tenants or occupational specialists, but were usually subjected to the unchallenged authority of the residing lineage. The presence of more than one strong lineage in a village might give rise to inter-lineage rivalry or to open conflict, Secondly, a large proportion of village land was owned corporately in contrast to individual ownership-by lineages and clans. The proportions were specially high in Kwang-

tung, estimated on average at about 23 per cent of all agricultural area in the southeast, 25 per cent in the north, 35 per cent in the east and 40 per cent in the middle south. In the Four Districts around the Canton Delta, for example, Toishan had 50 per cent of her agricultural land 'clan-owned', Sunwni 60 per cent, Yang-

ping and Hoiping, 40 per cent each. In Chungshan, Nanhoi, and Shunts, the proportions were estimated to be 50 per cent, 40 per cent and 60 per cent respectively." These lands, rented to individual families in the lineage or outside the lineage, provided an 13 Single lineage villages

were found more often in South China than in

North China. Hu Hsieh-Chin, in her The Common Descent Group In. China and Irs Functions, New York 1948, p. 14, found that of 1,291 villages in Kao-an district in. Kwangsi, 87 per cent were villages of a single surname. In Kwangtung it was also reported that villages with a

single or only two or three surnames constituted a majority of the villages. See Ch'u Ta-Chun, Kwangtung Hein-yu, Canton 1700, oh. 17, pp. 5-6, K. C. Hsiao, Rural China Imperial Control in Fhe Nineteenth Century, Seattle 1960, pp. 328-9. M. Freedman went as far as to assume that the desire to form single lineage villages was a motive given in the kinship system, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung, London 1966, p. 8. 14 Chan

Han-Seng, Landlords and Peasants in China, New York 1937,

pp, 33-5.

BACKGROUND-THE

RURAL VILLAGE

II

income which was used as education funds for lineage schools and scholarships, for purchase of more lineage lands, for relief and charity, for loans to needy families, or for construction and repairs of ancestral halls. Theoretically, though lineage land was privately owned by head families or lineages, it could not be privately sold as this was a disgraceful breach of the Confucian tradition of filial piety, on the contrary, to be prestigetul and honoured, one was supposed to contribute to the accumulation of lineage properties. lu practice, however, much land was bought and sold, ownership being transferred from poorer lineages to wealthier ones. The ownership of large areas of land meant much more than just economic advantages. In Kwangtung, at least, the landlord-tenant relationship involved the deference of tenants to landlords, resembling sometimes a relationship of father and son or benefactor and beneficiary. Since land was scarce and concentrated in a few lineages, the dominating position of the landlord over the tenant was well established. Where landlords and tenants were from different lineages, the landlord lineage dominated over that of the tenant, but if two lineages were of similar strength, and were competing for more land, conflicts easily arose. Cases of corrupt officials co-operating

with wealthy lineages to secure land from weakened lineages were often reported." Sometimes, conflicts were so severe that lineage wars (popularly called clan wars) developed. Lineage wars were

often openly backed and organized by the lineage leaders because this was one important way to unify members of the lineage, and to increase their own power. By the nineteenth century, lineage warfare was widespread in Kwangtung, mercenaries were hired

and lineages extended their network of alliances by calling on other unrelated lineages of the same surname, Some villages erected high walls, emhankmcnts and other defences for protection,"

The emphasis on lineage solidarity was not limited to land ownership. Politically, lineages struggled for power and influence, hence the practice of a lineage educating at least one son for an official position, or if competition in official examination was too keen, of purchasing an olice to enhance the power of the lineage. The lineage organization, moreover, was. recognized by the imperial government as a legitimate and supplementary organ of the 15 Ibid., pp. 29-30. 16 Freedman, Cizfnese Lineage, p. 114.

12

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

'Pao-Chia' system." Where the Pao-Chia system did not function, lineages enforced laws, collected imperial taxes, and organized the local militia to protect villages against bandits. In religious

matters, ancestral worship dominated religious ceremonies. Ancestral halls were built for the descendants to honour the ancestors. In terms of commerce and trade, the lineage as a unit of organization was equally dominant. In this kind of rural society where the collective interest of the family and the lineage was paramount, movements and activities of individuals were restricted and controlled. Hence, in marriages, it was extremely important for the wives to be able to bear as many children as the family could support. Failure to bear children, especially male ones, was a maj-or ground for divorce or for

the husband to take a second wife.1** Wealthy lineages, whose men were able to support several wives and numerous children, were in a stronger position to survive lineage struggles, disease, poverty and war, to gain a position in the ancestral cult and to accumulate lineage property and wealth. When a family was relatively barren but wealthy, sons were adopted as a means to boost the numbers at home, or, if a migrant family, to provide help in their father's

business abroad, Multiple marriages were, therefore, not un-» common and had legal sanction under the Ching Code of laws. For the traditional Chinese family, marriage was not so much an affair of the matured children as an adair of the parents, and its chief purpose was not so much the romantic happiness of the marrying couple but the fulfillment of the sacred duty of pro~ ducing male heirs for the perpetuation of the ancestor's lineage, the acquiring of an extra woman to help in domestic work, and the begetting -of sons for the security of the parents' old age. Whatever the reasons behind marriage and child-bearing, one thing is clear. The lineage had to be sustained and strengthened, even though this might entail some hardship for the individual. But in a community where competing lineages were often in conflict, it was important to belong to strong and prosperous lineages which could protect members and provide economic and legalpolitical benefits. 17

18

I-Isiao, Rural China, p. 348-52. The Pan-Chia system was essentially a local police system to watch and check the number, movement and activities of the people. It provided an organ for census-taidng, revenue collection and police supervision. The system started well before the Ching Dynasty during the Sung Dynasty, and was employed by various Dynasties for more or less the same purposes. Olga Lang, Chinese Family and Society, New Haven 1946, p. 40. Mario

Levy (In), The Family Revolution in Modern China, Cambridge, Mass. 1949, p, 98.

BACKGROUND--TI-IE

RURAL VILLAGE

13

This elevation of lineage loyalty over individual comfort can be detected in the process of Chinese emigration. While there was comparatively little objection to males emigrating to foreign countries, especially when migration was only temporary, there was strong objection regarding females, for fear that the whole family would be lost." Hence, the small number of Chinese females

migrating with the men in early periods. Emigrants, either from weak or from strong lineages, were expected to make money abroad and to remit a portion back to the villages in China to promote the interest of their lineage. If they become wealthy, they might also assist to establish schools, or construct new ancestral halls. Some invested in commerce and industries in China while others invested in purchasing land. The ideal migrant was one who regarded himself as a member of his own village but separated by distance. If he was married when he migrated, he would be encouraged to go without his wife but to return to his home village once in a few years, thereby maintaining his overseas earnings and keeping in touch with his family. When his economic conditions permitted, he might take a native girl as second wife and maintain two households, as was frequently the case among wealthy Chinese in Southeast Asia.20 If he was single when he migrated, he would return home, after saving enough money, to marry, stay for a few months and return to the place of migration without his wife.21 Thereafter, he would visit his home village as often as he could afford, adopting essentially the same commuting system as those who migrated married. This commuting system thus developed certainly helps to explain the frequent re-migration movements of Chinese. Here, too, can be found some of the reasons for the objections in North America and Australia that Chinese migrants were 'clannish' and non~assinlilahIe, and that they remitted their earnings instead of spending them in their place of residence. The influence of lineage solidarity on Chinese migration did not stop at regulating numbers of female and male migrants. It penetrated the organizations which facilitated migration - the money-lenders, commercial firms, agents and so on and affected the method of migration. Chinese labourers often recruited from one local area worked in gangs under headmen who were solne~ times appointed from important lineages of the same area. Persons of the same clan (surname), or even of the same village or dis19 Skinner, Cfrzfnese Society, p.

20 Chen

126.

Ta, Nanyang Hua-ch'fao Yu Ming-yueh She-huz' (Ernfgrant Com-

muniffes in South China), Shanghai 1939, pp. 139-40. 21 Ibid.,

pp. 149-55.

14

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

trict, grouped together to form associations abroad to protect themselves and to provide conveniences for newcomers. Golddiggers, migrating under the credit-ticket system, borrowed baggage fares from friends anil relatives hnth a t home and over-

seas. Commercial firms and import-export traders sent for their sons and relatives to help in their business, or to work as junior clerks, shop assistants, -or to open branches elsewhere. In Australia, and probably also in other places, Chinese merchants played an important part in advancing passage money to their own. kin, and in countries where Chinese entries were restricted, the merchants were often the only ones who could sponsor new

arrivals. Another major effect of this kin-oriented migration was on the attitude towards work and settlement in the new land. Since the migrant's goal was not only individual achievement but also lineage survival and advancement, there were enough reasons for him to be frugal, thrifty and industrious. While poverty and recurring disturbances in the villages of South China reminded the peasant-migrant that thrift and industry were essential to his survival, he also realized that through hard work and saving, he would be able to raise the prestige of his family-lineage, thereby fulfilling an important ambition of his life. Additionally, he was probably in debt for his passage and exploited by his creditor. Hence, it is not difficult to comprehend why early Chinese migrants were willing to l a b o r long hours, sacrifice personal consumption and enjoyment, and live at a low standard of living. They entered into business from which quick profits could be expected they washed alluvial gold instead of working on the more time consuming quartz deposits. If they were poor they were willing to work for very low wages, or in jobs such. as cooking and domestic service which were not desirable for men, if they were wealthy, they favored import-export trade and other

commercial enterprises rather than investments in long-term capital-intensive projects. All in all, this disciplined sobriety, thrift and industriousness presented a sharp, and often unpopular, contrast to the local population. The Policy of the Ching Government on Chinese Emigration The official policy towards Chinese emigration during the Ching Dynasty was fundamentally one of prohibition, although in the later stages Western pressures succeeded in obtaining the Ching Government's recognition of the freedom of movement. The Emperors took die attitude that emigration was a disgrace to the

BACKGROUND-THE RURAL VILLAGE

15

mother country and therefore to be prohibited. But the policy was largely dictated by the political consideration that emigrants from South China would almost certainly be anti-Manchu. Being mixed with loyal elements of the late Ming Emperors, and once out of reach of the government, they would undoubtedly be plotting for the overthrow of the government. Koxinga's resistance in Formosa (166I-83) and the Revolt of the San~I-Tan (1673-81) were such examples. The policy was severe, even to the extent of prohibiting the settlement within 50 ii of the sea coast of Kwangtung and Ful'S'€ to

Fouricen

W'

9LIS'a: 'Z'Z'0 T

et

we

Z0°'£'E LVIZ

I

LIL

Z

3

$9' 68'8Z

PERCENTAGES

MIGRATION 1861-1901

31

32

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

Supplementing the gardens were the fruit vendors, vegetable hawkers and small grocers and shops which catered mainly to Australians." Much of the flourishing fruit and vegetable distributing business was due to their close connection with the with vegetables. Indeed, market gardens which supplied the market gardens were often operated in partnership, with fou r or

live sharing the whole range of work from planting, weeding and watering to harvest and hElwking.31 There were also those employed in other agricultural and pastoral pursuits; many worked as general farm labourers, shepherds , bush-clearers and the like. In Queensland, a large number of

Chinese were fruit growers, 377 in 1891 and 1,019 in 1901.

Although the apparent massive entry into market gardening and other agricultural pursuits can be readily understood from the peasant background of the Chinese migrants, the growing imnet-making and the laundry business the portance of the focus of much agitation in the 1900s in New South Wales and Victoria-needs some explanation. It seems that there were a of artisans, including furniture-makers and carpenters among the numerous Chinese gold diggers. Some of them were engaged in making boxes for the despatch of gold bullion to China, some, then, stayed on after the goldrush as cabinet-makers. But the number remained very small until 1881. In Victoria, the 1881 census returned only 56 Chinese furniture-makers, but the 1891 census counted 246, and the 1901 census 6-20, accounting for 10 per cent of the total Chinese working males in 1901. In New South Wales, there were 347 Chinese cabinet-makers in 1891 and 662 in 1901, accounting for 7 per cent of the total. This increase of cabinet-makers was related to the general prosperity of Sydney and Melbourne during this time. Metropolitan Melbourne, for example, experienced an important period of growth, the popul action increasing from a little over 280,000 to 490,000 from 1881 to 1891. This, together with the economic boom of the 'eighties (sometimes called the 'Land Boom' or the 'Marvellous Eighties'),32 stimulated the building industry which received its funds partly from substantial foreign capital bien .__

30 The large number of grocers and small retail dealers was evident in New

South Wales towns. In fact, competition with Australian retailers was so keen that there was agitation against them by storekeepers in these towns. Yarwood, Asian Mfg1'a/:lon to Australia, Melbourne 1967, 31 Yong Chinese Michael Cannon,

.

Pw Jibe

South Wales, pp. 58-9. Land Boomers, Melbcrurne 1966, Melbourne

of Works, Metropolitan Planning Scheme $954; Survey and 1954, pp. 8-9. Analysis

MIGRATION 1 8 6 1 - 1 9 0 1

33

flowing into Victoria. "' this great building boom, the small Chinese furniture shops prospered greatly although they were initially making only cheap articles So well, indeed, did they establish themselves that when depression came (1892-3) they were successful in competing against Australian makers; the number of Chinese furniture shops increased rapidly, employing large numbers of workers in the 1900s. The situation in New South Wales was similar although Sydney did not experience a building boom of the magnitude of Melboume's, die number of Chinese cabinet-makers increased substantially during this period. In Queensland, however, cabinetmaking was much less important. The rise of Chinese laundries was perhaps less dependent on economic conditions of the 1880s than on the shortage of women in general. The large number of Chinese domestic servants, working either in private households or in lodging-board ing houses, was the result of the great demand for household and personal servicc.i*'* Laundry work was part of domestic service, and it appeared that many domestic servants, who had learned to launder as part of their job, opened small laundry shops when their service was no longer needed during the 1892-3 depression. By 1901, then, although market-gardening was still the most important occupation, urban occupations such as cabinetmaking, laundry, vegetables and fruit distributing, general dealers and hawkers, grocers and cafes, were becoming more important, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. The opportunity of employ~ rent in these urban occupations, together with the security and community provided by the formation of benevolent associations and social clubs, certainly helps to explain why the Chinese population in Sydney and Melbourne increased rapidly after 1881,

_

despite the general decrease of the Chinese in Victoria after 1861 and in New South Wales after Chinese were found in most of the suburbs in Sydney and Melof bourne even in 1901 but the principal concentrations, residence and shops, were in the city centres: in Sydney, around the Haymarket-Dixon Street area, and in Melbourne, ong the east end of Little Bourke Street. There was, however, no con:wsfns.r-

A. Oddie, The Chinese in Victoria 1870-1890, unpublished MA thesis, University of Melbourne, 1959, p. 84, Yong, p. 69. 34 This has been shown to be true with the Chinese in the United States. See Paul Siu, 'The Isolation of the Chinese Laundryman', in Ernest

33 G.

Burgess and Donald Byrne (eds), Contributions to Urban Sociology,

Chicago 1964, p. 430. Also, Rose Hum Lee, The Chinese in the United States of America, Hong Kong 1960, p. 257.

34

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

centration in Brisbane. The majority of the Chinese in Queensland were scattered in the country towns. The Chinese communities in Sydney and Melbourne were taking shape during this time. Stratified into the 'working class' Chinese (market-gardeners, hawkers, cabinet-makers etc.) and the merchant 'e1ite',35 they had grown to such numbers that Chinese associations could afford to build club-houses for their members. The joss-house in South Melbourne of the Sze-Yap Association, built in 1856, had an important extension erected in 1902, The Kong Chew Society in Melbourne of the Sunni migrants bought several houses in Little Bourke Street during this time. The Chinese Times, an important organ of the Chinese anti~manchu revolutionaries, began publishing in 1901 in Melbourne and continued, with intermediate pauses, until 1921. In Sydney, similar events occurred. Numerous Chinese regional associations and business organizations were formed, including the important Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1913. . Sydney and Melbourne, Chinese merchants now af- . occupying important positions in the fruit and vegetable markets as well as in the import trade, were gaining respect. Indeed, they were wealthy enough to co-op crate with other businessmen in Hong Kong to operate the short-lived Australia-China Mail Steamship Line (1917-24) which once owned three steamers sail» ing between Shanghai, Canton, Hong Kong and Australia. Their value as import-export merchants, their capacity in commerce, and their more tidy~looking European dress, probably convinced some of the Australian public that there were many types of Chinese migrants, some more assimilable than others. >

I In the Norther Territory, much the same story was repeated. Largely attracted by gold, several thousands arrived in the late

1870s. At that time, there was only a small non-Aboriginal population so that the three or four thousand Chinese represented more than half the total non-Aboriginal population until 19096 It was reported that the number of Chinese had reached 7,000 around 1888.37 But the Chinese had arrived too late; much of the easy alluvial gold had already been washed and numerous companies had held G. A. Oddie, 'The Lower Class Chinese and the Merchant Elite in Victoria, 1870-1S97', Historical Studies: Australian and New Zealand, X, November 1961, pp. 65-9. se Christine Inglis, The Darwin Chinese.° A study of Assilfmatfon MA

35

Lhesis, Australian National University, Canberra 1967, p. 21.

37 Douglas Lockwood, The Fromi Door, Darwin 1869-/909, Adelaide 1968, p. 86.

MIGRATION

1861-1901

35

claims on other promising lands. Like the Chinese diggers in Victoria and New South Wales, they tried their luck on previously worked diggings. Some gold was found and sent back to families in Kwangtung, but by the mid-1880s, gold became exhausted and the Chinese began to leave the gold fields, Those who were fortunate and found gold retired to China in glory, and those who had to stay worked mainly as laborers for construction and clearing projects. By 1888, some 5,000 Chinese were reported to be working on the Darwin-Pine Creek railway.3s Like Sydney and Melbourne, Darwin served as a resting place and a depot where Chinese from nearby areas obtained their supplies and recreation. They stayed separately from others in a small area in the centre of Darwin a place which was locally known as 'Little Canton'.i°*9 = Since then, the Chinese population declined sharply. The extension of the South Australian immigration restrictions to the Northern Territory in 1888 helped accelerate the pace. In 1891, the census counted only 3,600 Chinese and in 1901, it was 3,000. Those who remained were the naturalized, the few old ones too old to be repatriated and those with Australian-born children. Among these children, eighty years later, one of their descendants, the late Harry Chan, became the Mayor of Darwin and President of the Northern Territory Legislative Council. At the time of federation (1901), the settlement of Chinese in Australia was somewhat different from that of the gold rush days. The Annoy indentured labourers were long gone, dead or departed. The majority of those in Australia in 1901 were from the Canton Delta region. The 'Four District' people were concentrated in Melbourne and in small country towns in Victoria, but in Sydney, most of them came from Kaoyao, Chungshan, and Tungkuan, others from the districts of Nanhai, Punyu and Shunte. Gold fields R o u s h some stayed behind in the were more or less empty, country -areas as farm hands and station men, many of those remaining in Australia began to move towards the metropolitan centres and settled around dieir fringes, forming Chinese communities. The 1901 federation of the Australian colonies effectively separates the early period and the second period of Chinese migration. The pattern in the second period was partly influenced by the strong ties of the Chinese migrants with their family lineages but more decidedly by die 1901 Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act.

as Inglis, The Darwin Chinese, p. 22. 39 Lockwood,

Darwin 1869-1909, p, 78.

III

Chinese Migration 1901-47 Under the Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act

1901 Changes in the Chinese Scene In 1911, the Republican Revolution in China forced the last Ching Emperor to relinquish his throne, thus ending the legal support of the Confucian-oriented kinship ethnics. Encouraged by the success of the revolution, young intellectuals attempted, as part of the May Fourth Movement (1919) to initiate fundamental changes in the family system. The impact of the West, through missionaries, trade, education and political intervention, to a degree, upset the ethical and ideological foundations O11 which the 'classical' family-lineage system was built, But the spearhead of this movement was directed mainly in the cities to the intelligentsia and the educated, and the degree of penetration to the rural area is doubtful. Some claimed that the countryside

was not much affected by modern movements.1 On the one hand, it is known that Chinese females, especially married ones, began to emigrate to Southeast Asia during the 1920s,2 indicating that the family-lineage rules against female emigration was relaxed to allow some women to go abroad. This, however, did not affect Chinese migration to Australia because Australian restriction on Chinese females had tightened by then. On the other hand, the existence of large clan ownership of land continued throughout the Republican period, 1911-49, showing C. K. Yang, Chinese Communist Society: The Family and the Village, Cambridge, Mass. 1959, p. 16. 2 W- G. Sldnner showed that while large numbers of married Chinese females started to emigrate to Thailand during the 19205, there was no appreciable emigration of single Chinese females until after 1940.

1

C'/zinese Society in

T}zaz'Jarzd, Ithaca 1957, pp. 190-6. C.

P- Firzgerald,

The Third China, Melbourne 1965, p. 17. D. F. Wilmott, The Chinese of Semarang, Ithaca 1950, p. 18.

36

MIGRATION

1901-47

UNDER THE 1 9 0 1

ACT

37

that the power of the family lineage, though under the increasing impact of modernization, was entrenched in Ii rural areas.3 Moreover, the Chinese Women's Movement, aiming to attain, for women, equal status with men and freedom from family lineage control gained little success nd concubil ontinued even among educated families in cities, although concubines no longer had a legal status after 1930.4 All this points to one significant aspect of the 1911 Revolution. It certainly caused the disintegration of the traditional system of

government control by deposing the Emperor in favour of a Republican system, but social changes were slow. The importance of the family-lineage in the rural areas of China continued, and Chinese emigration after 1911 still carried with it the earlier characteristic of being a temporary movement to promote the well-being of one's family and lineage at home. The difference between the period under the Ching Government and the period under the Nationalist Government lies in official attitudes and policies towards Chinese emigration. The policy of the Nationalist Government largely arose from the strong tie of overseas Chinese with the 1911 revolution. Dr Sun Yat-Sen organized the Tung Men Hui in Japan and the United States which later became the Nationalist Party of China. Soon after establishing itself, the Republican Government allocated several seats in the Chinese legislature to overseas Chinese in recognition of their contribution to the revolution,5 and in 1923 established the First office of Overseas Chinese Affairs in Canton. The First policy, announced in 1925 in The Second Nationalist Party Conference, aimed at ( 1 ) protesting against discriminatory laws and gaining equal treatment for Chinese in foreign countries, (2) pro-

viding facilities for young Chinese who desired an education in

China, and (3) encouraging overseas Chinese investment in China.6 3

Chan Hen-sang, Landlords and Peasants in China, New York 1937,

4

pp. 34-5. The '1930 Laws of Kinship Relations' denied the legal status of concubines. Olga Lang, Chinese Family and Society, New Haven 1946,

pp. 223-4. seats were allocated in the Temporary Parliament in 1911. In 1925, when the Constitution was rectified, 65 seats were allocated to the Overseas Chinese in the National Assembly 19 in the Legislative Yuan, and 8 in the Supervision Yuan. See Lian Tze-hen, Hua-Ci:.'iao Cheng C f z i Shena-hoo (Poiirieal Life of Oversees Chinese), Taipei 1962, p. 14. The

5 SiX

Chinese i n Australia once sent two delegates, M r William Ah

Ket and

Mr M. All Mossy, to the Chinese National Assembly in the 1920s. 6 China, Hut-chico Chip (Overseas Chinese), Taipei 1964, pp. 645-7.

38

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N AND SETTLEMENT IN AUSTRALIA

In 1936, the policy was further spelled out, a major emphasis this time was the spread of Chinese education and associations in overseas Chinese communities. Chinese schools, at this time, were already widespread in Southeast Asia, creating much conflict with local policies of education and arousing criticism from local governments." Similarly Chinese associations, in the past largely religious, economic and district-oriented, became more political after the 1911 revolution. The strengthening and consolidating of these associations ran counter to the desire of local govern~ merits to assimilate the Chinese. In regard to Chinese nationality, the Chinese Nationalist Government kept the doctrine of jus sang:/tinfs -that all Chinese, wherever born, are Chinese nationals -and was opposed to Chinese becoming naturalized. The rallying of overseas Chinese to the support of China was central to the policy of the Nationalist Government, especially the maintenance of investments and remittances from overseas. It became even more important after the growth of communism which forced the government to consolidate every support it could. In addition to the traditional loyalty towards their fatnily~ lineages, the tie between Chinese migrants and China was further

manifested in the rise of Chinese nationalism in Australia, not only in response to the eliorts of the Chinese Nationalist Government, but also as I reaction against the 190-1 Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act. The Commonwealth Immigration Restriction Act 1901-/956 In 1901, when the Commonwealth of the Australian colonies decided to exclude practically all Chinese and other non-Euro-

peans, there were already 30,000 Chinese in Australia; with other Asians, Pacific Islanders, and other non-Europeans, they totaled about 47,000 colored persons. It was not practical or possible to close the door completely. Some Chinese were already naturalized under laws of the colonies, some had domicile rights; others sought entry for special reasons (merchants, students, ministers of religion). The 1901 Act was forced to allow such exemptions to boost overseas trade, to uphold humanitarian principles, and to ease international diplomacy. Under these conditions, the policy aimed at restriction rather than exclusion. The 7

Thailand in 1933, Indonesia and Malaya (now Malaysia) since World War II, for example, have exerted great pressure to regulate Chinese schools and to limit the teaching of Chinese. See Skinner, Chinese

Society, pp. 228-9, Victor Purcell, The Chinese in South-east Asia (2nd edu), London 1965, p. 37.

MIGRATION

1901-47

UNDER THE 1 9 0 1

ACT

39

principle, then, was simple: non-Europeans were to be discouraged from permanent residence in Australia. However, the practical administration of the policy was problematic and complex. In fact, the revisions, and modifications of exemptions, plus the attempts to rectify loopholes in the 1901 Act, constituted a major part of the administration of the policy. The original Act, in clause 3a, defined a prohibited immigrant as a person who when asked to do so by an officer, failed to write out at dictation a passage of fifty words in a European languagefi The choice of language as well as the choice of whether or not to administer the test lay in the hands of the immigration oilicer. Clause 9 stipulated that the master, owners and charters of any vessel from which any prohibited immigrant entered the Commonwealth were liable to a maximum penalty of £100 for each such prohibited immigrant, The effectiveness of this act was due to its double-check. The shipping lines shouldered a large share of the responsibility by restricting the issue of tickets to potentially prohibited passengers and by co-operating with the Australian government in the prevention of stowaway and desertion of crew members. The dictation test provided a further check on those who succeeded in obtaining passage and on those who somehow entered through illegal means, as the test could be administered to anyone in the first year of arrival (clause 5.2). The one year period was later extended to two years in 1910, three years in 1920 and live years in 1932. The 1903 Nationality Act which prohibited the naturalization of non-Europeans, formed the final barricade against non-Europeans in Australia. The original 1901 Act expressly permitted the entry of wives and children of migrants who were not prohibited (clause 3111), and also any person who satisfied an officer that he had formerly been domiciled in Australia (clause in). The operation of the clause concerning wives and dependants was suspended by proclamation in March 1903, and both clauses were repealed in Decent ber 1905. Clause 3n was, from 1905, substituted by the amended new Section $B which allowed the issue of the 'certificate of exemption from the Dictation Test' to those who were of good character and of live years of residence in Australia? On the surface, the suspension and repeal of clause 3m affecting wives and 8In 1905, upon severe protest from Iapan, the test was changed from 'fifty words in a European language' to 'not less than fifty words in any

prescribed language'. The original 1901 Act was reproduced in A. T. Yarwood's Asian Migration to Australia, Melbourne 1967, Appendix I,

pp, 157-62. 9

Section 8 of the 1905 Amendment Act.

40

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

dependants was explained by the government as due to the Chinese taking too full an advantage of the concession." In fact, relatively few Chinese entered in this way. Yarwood was o f the opinion that it was the intention of the Commonwealth government to maintain the scarcity of females amongst the resident Asian population as a permanent obstacle to the increasing of their nulnbers.11 Without their families, the Asian migrants would also tend to return to their countries more quickly." As far as the Chinese were concerned, even when there was no restriction on Chinese female migration, Chinese wives had not often migrated with their husbands. A petition for the repeal of the 'Act to Make Provisions for Certain Migrants' in 1856, explained that Chinese wished to leave their wives and children to look after their aged parents, and that Chinese women were too weak physically to travel over long distances?-* It was pointed out earlier that the objection against female migration was imbedded in the Chinese family-lineage system. Even during the early 19005, there was little indication that this sentiment had changed. The already functioning commuting system of husbands

visiting their families every few years now received new impetus from the repeal of clause 3n of the 1901 act. The restriction of female entry was strictly carried out. After 1905, only wives of well-established merchants were admitted and for short periods only, usually six months. The severity of the government's attitude was shown by the famous Poor Gooey case where the government did not yield to the popular demand and deported the wife of Poor Gooey, a merchant in Australia." Subsequent petitions for the re-incorporation of clause 3m were met with Firm rejections from the government, although the privilege was granted to the less numerous Indians and Japanese, whose governments actives intervened on their behalf. It was A. C. Palfreeman, The Administration of the White Australia Policy, Melbourne 1967, pp. 6-13. 11 During 1902.-3, when the Chinese could have brought in their families, 2,080 Chinese who went back to China and returned, brought with them only 88 persons as members of their families. (See Yarwood, Asian Migration, p. 78). Yarwood, therefore, argued that 'it is impossible to accept Prime Minister Dealer's claim that the Chinese had forced the government to extreme measures by taking advantage of the exemption in large numbers' (p. 79) 12 A. T. Yarwcod, 'The White Australia Policy' Some Administrative Prob» fems', Australian Journal of Politics and History, VII, November 1961, pp. 246-7. 10

.

13

Victoria Legislative Council., Votes and Proc eeclirz gs, 1856-7, Vol. 3, No.

E76. 14 Yarwood, 'White Australia Policy', pp. S0-1.

MIGRATION

1901-47

U N D E R THE 1 9 0 1 ACT

41

apparent that the Chinese, being the most numerous among all non-Europeans and having only weak support from their government, were in a disadvantageous position. Several categories of Chinese migrants were exempted from the Dictation Test. Students and merchants were the First two categories, apparently to enter from 1901 on temporary certificates of exemption and after 1912 on passports. Merchants were allowed to have assistants and special clerks to assist them. In 1934, assistants and 'substitutes' for local traders and marketgardeners, and chefs and café-workers, were exempted: i.e.

allowed in on temporary permits but with no rights of having wives with them or nominating other Chinese as immigrants. The system of exemptions was complicated, and the conditions affecting each category differed.15 Even if conditions were statedfor example, turn-over requirement for businesses to introduce assistants, period of stay, etc. the granting of exemption was administratively at the discretion of the departments concerned." Over time, changes were often made, significantly in 1934 after Sir John Latham's visit to China, when the exemption categories of assistants, substitutes and café-workers were officially recognized, and in 1947 after World War II when the conditions of each exemption category were clarilied.17 Whatever the changes, the basic principle iS clear: the reasoning of the policy was that competitive labour was to be excluded.

While no exemption was made either for unskilled labour or for professionals, skilled workers and other trained persons, nori-eompetirive l a b o r was admissible; this included chefs, assistants, special clerks and substitutes. It follows that, once admitted, these Chinese would either have to stay with those who sponsored them, or move to another job it the new employer was also an

'eligible' employer. That is, the change of employment must not result in the assumption of a position to which Chinese under exemption did not have a free choice of employment. This philosophy continued at least until after World War II when substantial changes were made, and from then on, we enter into the postwar period. 15 16

17

For the conditions affecting each of the exempted category, see Appendix I. Immigration was administered by the Department of External AITairs between 1902-16, by the Department of Home and Territories between 1917-32, and by the Department of the Interior between 1933-45. In 1945, the Department of Immigration was formed. For a summary of the 1947 regulations, see letter from Mr Calv ell to

the Charge d'AFfaires of China reproduced in Palfreeman, Admfnisfrarion of the White Australia Policy, pp. 153-6, Appendix II.

42

CHINESE MIGRATION A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

From 1901 to 1947 then, Chinese migration was heavily restricted by exemption categories. This, together with a continuous re-migration of Chinese back to China, produced a sign-licant period in the history of the Chinese in Australia, a period of con~ tinuous population decline and a period which decidedly influenced the present settlement of the Chinese in Australia. Numbers, Arrivals and Departures

The 1901 census counted almost 30,000 full-Chinese in Australia; this was considerably less than the 45,000 to 50,000 estinaated for the gold rush periods. But by 1947, the number had decreased even further by more than two-thirds to only about 9,000 The table below shows the census Figures for 1901-47. Table 3.1 :

I9o1-47

NUMBER op FULL-CHINESE BY SEX, VARIOUS CENSUSES,

Per cent of Males

1901 1911 1921 1933 1947

29,153 21,856 16,011 9,311 6,594

Females 474 897 1,146 1,535 2,550

Australian population

Persons 29,627 22,753 17,157 10,846 9,144

0.78 0.51

_ 0.31 0.16 0.12

This decline was even more drastic if we consider that in 1947 some 3,700 of them were Australianloorii, leaving only 5,416 full-Chinese

born outside Australia. Among the foreign-born,

1,921, or nearly 35 per cent had been in Australia for forty years or more, probably having arrived in Australia before 1901. The actual number of Chinese who managed to land in Australia after 1901 and stayed until 1947 can, then, be estimated to be not more than 3,500. Of these 3,500, 1,228 were recent arrivals, having been in Australia for less than four years. Some -of these were temporary residents such as students and assistants, and others were seamen and travelers without resident status." During this period, 1901-47, e)rc"eprler1 arrivals

Chinese departures

generally

except for the war years when some Fhinese

were repatriated from war areas. The following table shows total arrivals and departures during 1914-47. IS There were 776 full-Chinese counted as migratory persons in

census. Most of these were travelers and seamen waters.

011

the 1947

ships in Australian

M I G R A T I O N 1 9 0 1 - 4 7 U N D E R THE 1 9 0 1 A C T

43

Table 3.2: TOTAL

MOVEMENTS OF ETHNIC CHINESE BY SEX, AUSTRALIA, 1914-47 MALE

FEMALE

Year

Arrival

Dept.

Gain (Jr) :Loss ( - )

1914 1915 1916 1917

3,869 4,233

-404

107

81

-871

87

+73 +234 -L102

80 86 93

118 113 110

1918

3,465 3,362 3,361 2,836 2,367

1919

2,415

2,638

-223

103

108

-5

1920 1921

3,323

4,045 4,634

-722 -1,208

191 204

170

+21

220

-16

3,522

-105 +190 -54

196 165 173

203 153

+12

-297

145

132

-359 -62.7 -192 -297 -516 -478 -332 -409 -32 -84 -86 -32 +191

151 199 242 220 197 246 204 162 181 187 207 239 316

-46

524

1922 1923 1924 1925 1926

1927 1928 1929 1930 1931

3,426 3,417 3,699

3,237 2,471 3,162 3,259 3,065

1932

2,693 2,461 2,062 1,596

1933

1,321

3,288 2,602 2,265

3,509

3,291 2,768 3,521

3,886 3,257 2,990 2,977 2,540

1,928 1,730 1,431

1934

1,399

1935

1,351

1,435

1936

1,544

1939

1,458 1,377 1,462 1,115

1940

778

1937 1938

1941-3" 1944

1945

1946 1947

Total 1914-40 1944- 7 a

1,409 1,271

1,161 1,003

Arrival

326

Dept.

93

136 189

221 205 230 250 269 201 181 182

Gain (Jr) Loss ( - )

+26 -31

-33 -24 0

-7

+37 +13 -38 -22

+37 -10

-53

-23

+3 -19 -1

152

+35

208 159 204

-1 +80

+112

411 263

+113 2 +24

+63

(not available)

25 113 326 722

65,938 1,186

414

-389

38 680 1,311

+75 -354

-"15 36 126

-589

191

17 12 88 199

72,747

-6,809 -1,257

5,231

4,962

368

316

2,443

+38 8

+269

+52

Figures for 1941-3 are not available by sex, but there was a total gain of 1,138 persons for the three years. Cornmonwealrh Yearbooks, 1942-3.

Source: Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Demography Buffering 1914-47.

44

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

Yearly figures do not necessarily show permanent loss or gain because departures in a certain year may eventually return at a later date and arrivals may depart without settling permanently. Indeed, this seems to be the usual case among Chinese. With a population always less than 30,000 during the years 1901-47, total yearly movements (male and female arrivals and departures together) of about 6,000 during 1914-27 decreasing to 2,000 in later years, were great. This can be expected firstly, because arrivals of Chinese were usually persons exempted from the dietation test under some regulations which demanded their future departure. Students, assistants and substitutes were temporary residents who had to depart after a certain prescribed length of time. Settler arrivals could have been #very few. Secondly, the

form of Chinese settlement was gradually changing from a mining, market-gardening type of economy (which demanded few movements) into a trade and commerce oriented economy, where movements in and out of the country could be expected to be frequent. In spite of these defects in the raw data, a consistent loss of Chinese through excess of departure over arrival throughout the whole period can be observed. A major exception to this was in the years 1942 and 1943 when the evacuation -of New Guinea and some Pacific islands brought some Chinese to Australia. For the males, this loss was consistent until the outbreak of the Pacific War, for the ternales, a slight gain started around 1937. The depression of the 1930s did not cause a sudden return of Chinese to China, but the total movements dropped and did not regain their pre-depression level. The Pacific War started in 1942 and total movements dropped even further, probably due to stricken decline of Sino-Australian trade and lack of shipping. If the crude gain and loss for the years are added together it bgseen that there was a total loss of 692 persons for IF,.¢.ul. "1

""

11

1911{33,} a loss of 1,811 males and 46 females for the period 1914-20, a s s or 4,275 males and 67 females for 1921-32, and a loss of 723 males but a gain of 382 females tor 1933-40 giving a total loss of 6,809 males and a gain of 269 females for the whole period 1914-40. The 1941-3 war years cannot be analysed by sex, but there was a total gain of 1,138 persons for the three years. Some of this gain during the war years departed after the war and probably contributed to the male loss of 1,257 for the years 1944-7. The total 1-oss irrespective of male or female for the whole period 1911-47 was 7 2 9 9 , contributing to about 53.7 per

cent of the decline of the full-Chinese population census dates 1911-47 (see Table 3.1).

MIGRATION

1901-47

U N D E R THE 1 9 0 1 ACT

45

Although the interpretation of migration statistics is limited to crude numbers, it adequately shows that there was a large number of departures for the males and no appreciable immigration of females.

The lack of Chinese women in Australia was explained partly as a phenomenon arising from the traditional kinship system of Southern Chinese villages, but during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when Chinese females were beginning to emigrate to Thailand, Malaya and other Southeast Asian countries, the restrictive policy of Australia limited the entry of wives and dependants, except those of merchants and well-established families. Because the numbers of these families were few, there was little increase in female arrivals, until after World War II. The numbers of foreign-born full~Chinese females remained very small --265 in 1911, 237 in 1921, 219 in 1933, and 746 in 1961. This phenomenon was rene ired

in

counties where restrictive policies were

operating. The United States Chinese population had a similar, but not as intensive, imbalance of sex ratio until after World War

Ha9 Since migration figures do not show other character sties of Chinese arrivals and departures, an estimate of the age distribution of the loss or gain through migration was made alternatively by using the 'survival method' to compare the expected survivors of El previous census with the next census.2° The female numbers were too small for meaningful estimation and they were, therefore, excluded from the calculation. The results are shown in Table 3.3 The great loss of males indicated in the previous analysis of migration statistics was reieeted again in the Table 3.3. For the period 1911-21, there was a heavy net loss of males for those aged 35 and over, totaling 8,834. The 1921-33 period showed a

similar trend and the net loss was 3,678 males aged 35 and aboveNet loss for the later 1933-47 period was not as heavy and occurred with those aged 60 and above. The important aspect of Table 38 is not only the relatively large numbers but also the ages of the Chinese returning. For both be observed that heavy 1921-33, : periods 19 f emigration occurred for ages 60 and above. This lends strong often impressionistic Qontention that Chinese of support to ss the earlier periods tended to return to China for retirement. Even 19

Rose H. Lee, The Chfrzese in the United States of America, Hong Kong 1960, pp. 23-4.

20 For a description of the 'survival method', see United Nations, Manual VI: Methods of Estimating Internal Migrarrforz, New York 1970.

46

CHINESE MIGRATION A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

Table

3.3: ESTIMATE OF NET GAIN OR LOSS OF CHINESE FOR INTERCENSAL PERIODS, 1911-47, THROUGH MIGRATION BY AGE-GROUPS (FULL-CHINESE ONLY)

1911-21

1921-33

Males

Males

15-19 20-24

-30 +22 +180

+47 +157

25-29

+274

+162

30-34

+54

+7

25-39

-139

40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79

-197

-109 -160 -135 -308

Agegroups

1933-4? Males

0-4 5-9

10-14

-467 -489 -436 -705 -491

--553

85+

-166 -128 -3

10+

-3,274

80-84

-452 -616 -820 -660 -338 -83

-4

-3,312

+60 +273 +319

+328 +185 +102 +72

+17 +11

-100 -319 -458 -382 -125 -22 -39

Note: (+) denotes gain (-) denotes loss

during 1933-47, this return movement was still distinctly observable, although it had slowed down considerably. Age-sex, Nativity and Conjugal Conditions

It was shown that early Chinese migration was predominantly male. The 1901 census counted 474 females as against 29,153 males. Previous censuses of the colonies showed even lower proportions of females. After 1901, however, the ratio dropped from 2,436 males to 100 females in 1911, to 1,397 in 1921, 606 in 1933, and to 2.58 in 1947. Put in terms of percentages, males C011stituted 96.0 per cent of the total population in 1911, 93.3 per cent in 1921, 85.8 per cent in 1933 and 72.1 per cent in 1947. whole §Miod, 1901-47, there was no appreciable l

migration of Chinese females to Australia, at least the gradual

balance of sex ratio was mainly caused by a decline of male population and the small increase of Australian-born females, rather

MIGRATION 1 g o r - 4 7 U N D E R T H E I g o r

ACT

47

than by a marked increase of female migrants. This lack of females resulted firstly in a very slow growth of the Australianborn full-Chinese population and secondly in the prolonged predominance of aged males. Let us consider the Australian-horn Chinese population first. In 1911, there were only 1,456 Australian-born Chinese, or approximately 6 per cent of the total full-Chinese population, in 1947, the Australian-born Chinese were about 41 per cent of t;§ total. This rapid percentage increase was the result of the departure and death of the foreign-born Chinese rather than the growth of the Australian-born population itself. The increase in the number presents a better picture; although showing a continuous increase after 1911, the amount of approximately 95 persons a year is very slow. The Chinese in the United States experienced a similar growth pattern, that is, a sudden influx during the gold rush and railway construction years and a decline after restrictive immigration laws were imposed. For the Chinese in the United States, the percentage of native-born had been consistently higher than that of the Australian counterpart, in 1950, the native~born Chinese in the United States exceeded the foreign-bom. Partly because of the slow increase of Australian-born and partly because of lack of immigration of young Chinese, the Chinese population in Australia grew older during the first three decades of this century. By 1933, die group of young adults who came before or about the turn of the century were now, in 1933, mostly over 50 years of age. The age structure of the Chinese for this period is shown in Tabl The median age for males rose from an already high figure of 44.21 in 1911 to the still higher figures of 50.58 in 1921 and .,

....-

56.46 in 1933, then dropping tO 40.29 in 1947. This rapid ageing of the Chinese was attained in spite of the large numbers of remigrants of higher age-groups. The proportion of males aged 50 and over remained high for this period' 34.08 per cent in 1911, 52.00 per cent in 1921, and 68.59 in 1933. The big drop in proportions was in the younger age-groups those between 20-39 for 1911-33, and 40-49 for the period 1921-33. The increase of the proportion under 20 years of age was very slight, in fact due more to the decline of the general population than to the increase of the number of these pens-ons. The majority of the full-Chinese female population until 1947 was Australian-born. In the absence of any appreciable imrrrigra-

tion of adult females, the proportion in the reproductive ages 20-49 remained very low, although an increase was observed for

48

CHINESE MIGRATION A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

Table 3.4:

AGE-STRUCTURE OF FULL-CHINESE,

1911-47°

Percentages Total persons under 20

Year

m 21,156 1911 f p m 1921 f p m

1933 f p

m 1947 f p G

50 and over

Median age

44.21

28.52

34.08 2.14 32.87

20-29

30-39

40-49

25.85

29.39

11-43

6.55

25.30

840

3.46 62.75

21,996

5.72

7.22 17.14 7.60

15,708 1,138 16,846

5.23 60.10 8.94

4.80 14.94 5.48

8.89 14.41 9.26

29.07 6.50 27.55

52.00 4.04 48.77

49.57

9,213 1,528 10,741

9.97

7.60

7.84

68.59

56.46

6,507 2,533 9,040

12.75

43.65

50.58 16.03

48.04 15.39

23.49

6.00 12.37

9.86

6.91

9.36 8.05

6.74 59.79

20.27 54.11

16.84

15.83 18.20 16.49

16.93 18.16 17.28

11.66 12.83 11.99

38.73 11.58 31.12

40.29 21.86 34.89

39.24 23.12

figures excluding those ages unstated

every census period. This is reflected in the median age of the females -12.75 in 1911, 16.03 in 1921, 20.27 in 1933, and a r e in 1947. The high masculinity, and the big di1f'fe1'ence between the age structure of male and female, had important effects on their marriage pattern. Pre-1911 colonial census figures on conjugal colonies decided that Chinese condition are inaccurate. i should be reported as 'never married' unless they had or had had wives in Australia.21 This practice was followed by all colonies ; percentage for 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901. Under this rule, of never-married Chinese males of age 15 and over was abnormally high: 99 per cent in 1871, 95 per cent in 1881, and 94 per cent in 1891 and 1901.22 From 1911 onwards, the practice was officially discontinued and figures were from then on theoretically comparable. But the never-married figure for 1911 was still high. There is a great disparity between the numbers of married males and married females for both these censuses. In 191 I, there .,¢

Sz'az'£sz1°cian's Report p Report p 22 Figures for

§881, .S'z'a!1ls!fc fan'S Report p. 90, 1891 census, Western Australia, 1901 census, Starisr fc fan'.s'

1871 and .l.8§.;, Victoria only; 1891 figure excludes South

and Western Australia;

1901 figure excludes South Australia.

MIGRATION

1901-47

U N D E R T H E 1 9 0 1 ACT

49

was only one married female to every 25.6 married males. Though this figure dropped to 11.6 in 1933, the extreme discrepancy indicates that an overwhelming majority of Chinese men had their wives and families in China. Not only were married females scarce among Chinese; females who were never-married were also few compared with males, for example, in 1933, there were 2,608 males and 410 females or a ratio of 6.36 males to one female. The traditional commuting system, plus the restrictive legislation, virtually forced single Chinese men wishing to marry Chinese women to return to their places of origin to marry. Lack of marriageable Chinese females also affected inter-racial marriage with European-Australians. Since Australian marriage statistics are based on 'birth-place', reliable analyses can only be made to about 1940, as the percentage of ethnic Chinese among Chinese-born persons dropped rapidly after that for the males to 84 per cent and for the females to 41 per cent in 1947. The table below presents the pattern of marriages involving persons born in China. Table 3.5;

MARRIAGES OF PERSONS BORN IN c1~m~IA,

1907-40

Total cases

Per cent both bride and groom born in China

1907-10 1911-20 1921-30

203

8.4

350 276

8.9 3.3

20.3

89.6 82.2 76.4

1931-40

313

4.1

35.3

60.5

Period

Per cent bride

born in China groom

elsewhere 1.9 8.9

Per cent groom born in China bride elsewhere

Source: Denzograplzy Bulletins, 1997-1940.

Two interesting facts emerge from the above table. First is that in the total number of marriages which occurred in Australia, the proportion involving both partners born in China remained very low, while the proportion of Chinese-b is Chinese-born brides was high for the whole period. Second, is the increasing proportion of Chinese-born brides marrying nonChinese-born grooms. It is, however, erroneous to consider nonChinese-born persons as non-Chinese in ethnic terms. Both non-Chinese-born males and females include

a,

portion of ethnic

Chinese who are not born in China. The increasing proportion of n-on-Chinese-born grooms marrying Chinese-born brides may, in

50

CHINESE MIGRATION A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

fact, be reflecting growth in the Australian-born Chinese population, some of the males have chosen Chinese-born brides as marriage partners. The low proportion of marriages involving both partners born in China appears to be a result of keen competition for a small number of marriageable Chinese females. In general, it seems that while inter-racial marriages occurred, they were very largely the result of the small number of single Chinese females available. The small total number of marriages contracted during the whole period lends support to the above argument. Partly because of the small number of inter-racial marriages, and partly because of a possible inaccuracy in enumerating partChinese, the censuses recorded an extremely slow growth of the part-Chinese populationTable 3.6:

PART-CHINESE POPULATION,

1901-47

Total number

Year

Male

Female

Persons

of Chinese

1891

l,000"' 1,556 1,510

1,018" 1,534

2,018"

1,501

8,019

1,891b 1,901 1,599

IJ783

3,669*1 3,503 2,950

37,839 32,717 25,772 20,826 14,349

1901 1911 1921 1933 1947

1,602 1,351

3,090

12,094

Per cent of part-Chinese in total 5.3 9.3

11.'7 17.6 24.4 24.4

Source: Australian Censuses. Notes: " Numbers estimated by Common wealrk Year Book 1925, pp. 951-6. Western Australia excluded. b

The 1925 Commonwealth Year Book gives a slightly lower figure for part-Chinese for 1921, presumably taken from the table on Race by Birthplace in the 1921 Census Report, Volume II, pp- 295-6, which

excluded Chinese whose birthplaces were unstated.

Figures prior to 1891 are incomplete, but it is likely that there were already some part-Chinese before that time. If the accuracy of the numeration of part-Chinese can be assumed, Table 3.6 shows practically no increase for the 50 some years. A number of the part-Chinese might have reached advanced ages in the 1920s and were consequently? eliminated through death. From 1921 until 1947, there was a continuous decline in numbers signifying either an excess of deaths over births, I Migration over

immigration, or both. There is no good reason for part-Chinese emigrating in any great numbers during the period, and it is

MIGRATION 1 9 0 1 - 4 7

U N D E R THE 1 9 0 1 ACT

51

unlikely that mortality among them was so high as to exceed the number of births. " seems likely that part-Chinese were under! Instead, p enumerated. Since Australian censuses have always been completed by heads of the households and not by census collectors and because of the popular concept of 'mixed-bloods' (as ampliNed by the objectionable term 'half-caste' in census schedules) carries undesirable connotation, it is very likely that some partChinese simply wrote 'European' or 'Chinese' in spite of specific

instructions to state 'H.C.' if part-Chinese. It is clear from the above discussion that marriage statistics and census data cannot be easily interpreted. Not only were marriage data based on birth-places of bride and groom unsatisfactory because they could not take account of the Australianborn Chinese intermarrying, census ligules of part-Chinese were subject to under-enumeration. Any attempt to explain the pattern can, therefore, only be tentative.

Geographical and Occupational Distributions The geographical distribution of the Chinese followed closely the general Australian pattern. For Australia as a whole, from 1901 to 1947, the total population more than doubled, but the eastern states continued to be the main settlement areas. New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland together consistently attracted more than 80 per cent of the total Australian population. The Chinese were also concentrated in these most populous states. New South Wales alone had 34.5 per cent of the total Chinese population in 1901 and this proportion increased (though not in absolute number until 1933-47) to slightly over half in 1947. The number of Chinese in Victoria was not as numerous as those in Queensland for the period 190-1-47, but the proportion in Queensland dropped continuously from a high of 25.90 per cent in 1901 to 19.00 per cent in 1947. The three states together, however, accounted always for more than 80 per cent (85 per cent in 1947) of the total Chinese population. We have seen that in the 1890s and the early 1900s furniture factories, latmdries and fruit and vegetable distributing businesses replace as well as market gardening around them began primary industry such as station hands or farm labourers -as the main occupations among the Chinese. Sydney and Melbourne protruded the most suitable areas for the employments. older Chinese, previously having works@

areas;

retired to the Chinese quarters of these cities to await transportation back to China or to be cared for by the Chinese benevolent

52

CHINESE MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

associations. By 1911, the occupation structure already showed the growing importance of urban employment. Commercial and industrial pursuits accounted for 39.6 per cent (6,300 persons) of the total workforce, and although agricultural pursuits (mainly market gardening) still claimed 9,126 persons (or 43.1 per cent),i'3 many of the market gardeners were located near the metropolitan centres. The mining population had almost con1~ pletely disappeared by this time. The drift to the urban centres was evident. The number of Chinese declined rapidly in general between 1901-47, but was less marked in New South Wales and Victoria, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. Queensland experienced the greatest decrease from a high of 7,672 (25.90 per cent) in 1901 to only 1,737 (19.00 per cent) in 1947, probably

losing some Chinese to New South Wales especially Sydney where the chances 61' hhdmg jobs were better. Brisbane, being less important to Queensland than Sydney or Melbourne to their states, never had a high proportion of Chinese population by 1947, only 24.37 per cent of the Chinese in Queensland were in Brisbane. The tendency towards urbanization was experienced by the Australian population as whole, it was, however, more rapid for the Chinese. In 1911, only 32 per cent of the Chinese resided in metropolitan areas. This proportion increased rapidly to 37.5 per cent in 1921, to 41.4 per cent in 1933 and to 58.9 per cent in 1947 when aNs proportion exceeded that for the Australian population. The urbanization of the Chinese was not a phenomenon limited only to those in Australia. Chinese in the United States have also experienced a similar trend. In 1880, only 23 per cent of the Chinese in the United States lived in cities of over 25,000 popula»

son. In 1890, the percentage had risen to 43 per cent, in 1920, 66 per cent and in 1950, 94 per cent." This rapid urbanization of the Chinese in America was similarly accompanied by a switch of occupation from mining, farming and railroad construction to restaurant and laundry work. During this period, 1901-47, the occupational structure of the Chinese was undergoing change, partly because of loss Census 1911. Figures of occupation by Chinese (race). Weston Bate, History of Brighton, Melbourne 1962, p. 358-60, described some of these in the Brighton and Moorabbin areas of Melbourne. Some gardens were located on the banks of the River Yarra in Kew and Heidelberg. Hwuy-ung, A Chz'nczrnarz's Opinion of MS and his Own Country (trans. I. A. Makepeace), London 1927, p. 17. 25 United States Census figures reported by Rose H. Lee, Chinese in the Unirez! Stores of America, pp. 35-8. 23

2*

MIGRATION

1901-47

UNDER THE 1 9 0 1 ACT

53

through emigration and through death. Chinese furniture-makers and laundry~keepers, being keen competitors and therefore unpopular among Australian counterparts, were not permitted to sponsor Chinese migrants to help in their businesses, The recruitment of help in Australia was limited in view of the consistent decline and ageing of the Chinese population, and this made it difficult for the cabinet-makers and laundry-keepers to End enough workers. In addition, the discriminatory Factories and

Shops Act (N.S.W., 1896, Victoria, 1896) further put the Chinese in a disadvantageous position. The Act defined any workshop employing one or more Chinese as a factory, and thereby, made industrial regulations concerning wages, conditions of work and limited hours applicable to small Chinese workshops. Lyng,2" writing in 1927, noted the beginning of the decline of the Chinese cabinet and laundry business. By the end of World War II, the decline was complete and Chinese furniture or laundry shops were almost non-existent. Market gardening declined more slowly. Unlike cabinet-1naking and laundries, there was little objection to Chinese marketgardeners, and their value as a major producer of vegetables was appreciated. Indeed, immigration regulations allowed assistants and 'substitutes' to enter and work in the gardens. They declined only after World War II with the expansion of the metropolitan areas into surrounding market-gardens." Many of the market-

gardeners were by now rather old, reaching retirement age. Having been separated from their families for years, some sold dieir gardens and returned to China, while others retired to Chinatowns and spent their last days under the care of Chinese benevolent associations. A few younger gardeners and their assistants, who were still able to work, were beginning to be absorbed by

the flourishing cafes and restaurants. While the market gardens were becoming l e t

, their supporting occupations as distributing agents were flourishing. Large wholesale fruit and vegetable distributing firms were established in both New South Wales and Victoria during 1910-20L23 Small-scale and almost monopolized the business at that vegetable and fruit retail stalls were also numerous, claiming a major part of the distributing agents. They usually bought their 2G J. Long, Non-Brftfsh¢2r.r in Australia, Melbourne 1927, p. 1 6 8 . 27 This has been the case with market gardens around Melbourne. Brighton,

a suburb, used to have many Chinese gardens along the present Nepean Highway, this area is now part of

the metropolitan built-up area. See

Weston Bate, History of Brighton, pp. 358-60. 28

Yong, The Clzinese in: New South Wales and Victoria 190/-2/, pp. 83-7.

54

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

vegetables from Chinese wholesalers or market-gardeners, and sold them at the retail market. Unfortunately, detailed occupation data on the Chinese are not available for censuses after 1911. It is, therefore, not possible to trace the exact timing of the rise and fall of some of these occupations from census data. In summary, it appears that changes in the Chinese background had less influence than Australian immigration laws on the pattern of Chinese immigration during the 1901-47 period, Although social change in China during the 1920s permitted the emigration from China of married Chinese females to Southeast Asia, the number of Chinese females in Australia remained very small. This was mainly because clause am of the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act which permitted the entry of dependants was suspended. Moreover, forbidden to become naturalized after 1903, they were not able to exercise the right as Australian citizens to introduce their dependants. The separation of Chinese families and the difficulties in living a de facto bachelor life probably provided strong reasons, in addition to their loyalty towards their family-lineages, for the large numbers who returned to China. The 1901-47 period, then, saw a major decline of the Chinese population. The 1947 census counted the lowest number an Chinese--less than 10,000, of whom only 5 -. 1 were foreignborn. But, more important than the effect on numbers was the influence on the pattern of Chinese settlement. By permitting only certain categories of sponsored Chinese to e n d , the 1901 Act idependent Chinese while at the immigration excluded t same time encouraged the continuation of some of the traditional

occupations. By 1947, more than half of the Chinese were concentrated in the metropolitan areas. The Chinese furniture shops and the laundries had mostly disappeared, but the market-gardeners vegetable distributing business continued into the-post-war period. .. .. .. .

T

The Chinese in Australia "II After World

IV

Post-War Changes and Chinese Migration to Australia 1947-66

Policies of the People's Republic of China on Chinese Migration Events after the establishment of the People's Republic in China

had far greater influence OH Chinese migration than those of the Nationalist period 1911-49. Among these events, the Land Reform of 1950-3 probably had the most far reaching effect, not only by eliminating large land ownership, especially clan land, and thereby weakening the binding strength of the family lineage, but also by confiscating land owned by overseas Chinese families? As the lineages began to disintegrate, loyalty among Chinese migrants towards their families and lineages started to lose its basic foundation. In addition, the accusation that wealthy families with relatives abroad were landlords and exploiters put these families into disadvantageous positions, their above-average livelihood was regarded as 'bourgeois' and non-productive, and they themselves were suspected and watched. Their ties with foreign countries, especially Western countries, became for the first time a political liability rather than an asset. The relationship between emigration and traditional ties with the family-lineage and China had been very different after the Land

Reform. First, many Chinese migrants abroad seriously doubted the advisability of returning to China, especially when their invest»ments in China might be nationalized, and private ownership of land was virtually abolished in favour of agricultural communes. Against such unfavourable conditions at home, Chinese migrants began to settle permanently abroad, and tried to bring their wives and families out from China. Return movements, either for visits or settlement, which were so much a characteristic of early 1

In the beginning of the Land Reform, there were special considerations given to overseas Chinese families. These concessions were, however, withdrawn in 1952 when the programme was accelerated. Lu Yu-sen, Programs o f Com rn unzfmt China for Overseas Chinese, Hong Kong 1956, Comn1.un.isf China, Hong

p. 16. Ho Wei, Overseas Chinese Policies of Kong 1956, p. 3.

57

58

C H I N E S E MIGRATION A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

Chinese migration, became difficult, partly because of strict immigration-emigration control of the Chinese government and partly because of the fear of being persecuted as landlords. Some of these fears received confirmation when it was known that rich Chinese migrants were asked to remit large sums of money to pay 'lines' on behalf of their landlord-relatives.2 Second, the hostility towards the People's Republic of China on the part of many countries affected China's capacity of improving the status of Chinese settled there. This was specially true, for example, in Malaya after the 1948-60 'elnergency', in Thailand and Indo~China as a whole, in India after the 1962 Sino-Indian War. and in Western countries such as the United States and Australia where communist sympathizers were suspected. Third, and perhaps most important, the Peking Government did not have a policy of protection of the overseas Chinese. The general trend, at least until the 'Cultural Revolution' in the early 1960s, had been the encouragement of the assimilation of overseas Chinese to local population. Liu Shao-chi and Chou En-lai were reported to have asked overseas compatriots to obey local laws, to respect the customs and habits, to learn local languages and to intermarry.3 In the same vein, the Peking Government abandoned the doctrine o f jus sanguines, as instance the 1956 treaty between Peking and Jakarta to resolve the question of Chinese dual nationality in Indonesia. This policy seemed to indicate a desire of the People's Republic of China to dissociate herself from local politics involving overseas Chinese instead of actively participating to protect them.4= a definite alienation of overseas All these; contributed Chinese from China. While the Nationalist Government in Tai2

For some accounts of this, see Robert S. Elegant, The Dragon's Teeth,

New York 1959, pp. 22-6. Also Lu Yu-sen, Programs of Communist China, pp. 15-18. 3 Chino-wr: Cheng-Chih W e n - I f (Political Problems of OVerseas Chinese Agafrs), Peking 1957, pp. 44-6. Jen-min Je-Pao (Peop£e'5 Daily), Peking, 13 August 1957, editorial. 4

This desire is also indicated in the attempt to repatriate those who were discriminated and wished to return to China. Beginning in 1959 when Indonesia banned alien retail traders, and accelerated. by the 1962 SinoIndian War and the 1965 Indonesia coup-d'etat, the programme of repatriation has brought thousands of overseas Chinese back to Kwangtung and Fukien. The settlement of these repatriots became a major item in the administration of overseas Chinese affairs. For details of developments leading to the 1956 Bandung treaty and the emergence of the policy of dissociation, sec S. Fitzgerald, Overseas

Chinese Adair's of the Peoples Repabfic .QI China, PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra 1969.

POST-WAR

CHANGES AND MIGRATION

1947-66 59

wan gradually lost the support from Chinese communities, the Peking Government was not able to resolve the conflict arising from their policy of internal reconstruction, especially the Land Reform and the nationalization of private enterprises, and from their policies of aiding communist activities abroad. The overseas Chinese now faced an enormous problem if they wished to stay being 'Chinese' not assimilated to the local society. Mainland China had greatly changed since they left. The rural villages were no longer the same as before. If they returned, they would be

facing a problem of adjusting to this new environment which might be even more difficult than adjusting to the countries in which they resided. Chances of the Nationalist Government returning to mainland China seemed remote and unrealistic as time passed, and even if this d.id happen, the old familiar China was only a part of history that would never return. In the meantime, their children were being brought up and educated abroad. There was every reason to stay permanently in their place or residence and be assimilated into local conditions. Poor-World War II Changes in Atzsfralfan Immigration Resfrictfon

Encouragement for the Chinese to remain permanently in Australia came not only from post-war changes in China but also from a relaxation of the Australian immigration restriction policy towards the Chinese. Policy changes after World War II and especially in 1956 in~ v o l e d not only the curtailment of the entry of assistants and substitutes but also the improved treatment of the war-time refugees and those on exemption. Partly because of the practical difficulties of deporting Chinese to China and partly because of

current demands for a more humanitarian approach to refugee migrants, the Australian Government decided on the one hand to liberalize the treatment of those who were already in Australia, but on the other hand to tighten the fresh entry of non~Europeans. The first group to be affected by these changes was the wartime refugees some 800 of them, mostly Chinese who did not wish to return. The Labor Government, with Arthur Calv ell as Minister for Immigration, strenuously attempted to deport them-

Having encountered

difficulties in the O'Keefe case,5 Calv ell

immediately introduced the controversial War-time Refugee Rcmoval Act in June 1949 to enable deportation. The general elec5 For a description of the case, see A. C. Palfreeman, The Admfnisfr'a!l'on o! the While Ausfrafifzn Policy, Melbourne 1967, pp. 87-8, 102.

6o

CHINESE

MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

son was near. The deportation of war-time refugees became a political issue with the government under constant attack by both the opposition and the general public. In December 1949, the Liberal Party won the election and at the same time China fell under the complete control of the Chinese Communist Party, making it more difficult to deport Chinese migrants who did not wish to return. The incoming government decided to cancel the outstanding deportation orders and not to proceed with further deportation. For practical reasons, then, these refugees were allowed to stay permanently with the status of 'War-time Refugees' but with no right to nominate families and assistants. Similar difficulties occurred with some assistants who violated their conditions of entry. In view of this, and the expected reduction of numbers eligible for entry in the future by tightening the admission of assistants and substitutes, a general review of the policy in 1956 resulted in a more liberal attitude being adopted towards pensons already in Australia. They received 'Liberal Attitude' status which permitted them to stay and change their denied them any privileges such as those . . . . of employing persons under exemption, introducing assistants, or bringing in families. At the same time, the policy of refusing naturalization to nonEuropeans was abandoned. Non~Europeans were allowed to become permanent residents and be naturalized after 15 years o_| residence. Such persons were then able to introduce wives and children. In 1958, the new Migration Act repealed the old immigration mvus.v

Act and abolished the 'Dictation Test', while the Minister for Immigration introduced the category of 'Distinguished and Highly Qualified' persons. In 1962, provisions to admit Eurasians were relaxed, and i.n. 1966, there was another review of policy. Non-Europeans could now be naturalized after live years of residence; and the 1958 category of 'Distinguished and Highly Qualified' persons was extended to include a wide range of professionals and semi-professionals. Many factors were responsible for the liberalization of the restrictive policy. Within ifixustralia, notwitliStaiiding determined opposition to reform," pressure groups such as the Australian Council of Churches, the Catholic Bishops, and immigration Restriction

6 S0n1e associations such

the Australian Natives' Association and the

Returned Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen's League (R.S.L.) had been sistently opposed to any reform.

COD.-

POST-WAR

CHANGES A N D MIGRATION

1947-66 61

reform associations, had been actively campaigning for immigration I'€f0I'11].I In the Australian political arena, the Democratic Labor Party and the Australian Communist Party had consistently denounced the racial content of the policy, although their inliuence on the government had been small. Some individual members of the :Liberal-Country Parties and the Australian Labor Party had also deviated from the traditional line and supported immigration reform. Immigration reformers within the Labor Party were successful, in 1965, in asking the Party to delete the words 'White Australia' from its platform.** Within the Liberal and Country Parties, the more conservative view that Australia should retain its

homogeneous population was rapidly losing governmental

adherents, although as a government the Liberal-Country Coalition was not likely to effectuate major policy shifts. Outside Australia in the international scene, the racial content of the 'White Australia' policy was an obstacle to smooth diplomatic relations with the emerging and racially conscious Asian and African countries. Indeed, Australian politicians realized the diflicultics in defending racial notions in a world which was in-

creasingly sensitive to such issues. Moreover, in view of the importance of future co-operation with Asian countries in trade and deface, there was a growing necessity to eliminate the objectionable image of the 'White Australia' policy abroad and to avoid embarrassment which might arise from a discriminatory immigration policy. It is not possible to pin-point accurately which of these factors was most responsible for policy reform. They complemented each other to produce a favourable climate for liberalization.9

Chinese in Australia 1947-66 The post~war period saw two important changes in the Chinese population in Australia: First, the large scale re-migration (return

movement) ended after 1947 partly because the Chinese were now more settled in Australia and partly because the number had decreased to such a low point in 194-7 that the volume of migration could not have been large, second, there was a continuous increase in the number of Chinese in Australia since 1947. '7 For

S

a summary of the activities of these groups, see H. I. London, NonWhite Immigralfon and the 'White Australia' Policy, Sydney 1970, pp. 107-42. Palfreeman, Admirafsrrarfora o.f Me Wfzfte A u s z r a f f a Pohfcy, p. 150. Lon-

don, Non-Whfze Immigration, pp. 90-1. 9

London, p. 262.

62

CHINESE MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT I N

AUSTRALIA

Unfortunately, migration figures for the post-war period are not available by 'race', and both 'nationality' and 'birthplace' figures are inadequate approximates to ethnic Chinese figures. The postwar period cannot be analysed by straightforward figures such as those in the previous periods. in the absence of more accurate data, we have to be content with 'nationality' ligules, which, though undercoating large numbers of ethnic Chinese who have non~Chinese nationality, are probably slightly better than 'birthplace' figures which have a high proportion of non-Chinese. First, naturalization of Chinese was granted only after 1956 and then after 15 years of residence until 1966 when the residence requirement was reduced to 5 years. Second, ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, Singapore or Hong Kong who hold British (Commonwealth) passports are mostly students who return to their coun-

tries after they finish their studies. Table 4.1:

TOTAL MOVEMENTS OP CHINESE NATIONALS BY six, AUSTRAL1A 1948-65 (THREE YEARS MOVING AVERAGES)

MALE

FEMALE

Gain(-I-)

Period" 1949-51 1950-2 1951-3 1952-4 1953-5 1954-6

Arrival

Dept.

959 855 724 667 608

Gai n(+) Loss (-)

Loss (~)

Arrival

Dept.

612

+347

338

255

+83

413 429 471

+442

233 267

+125

+295

358 382

+196 +82

368 351

+67

+115

722

526 585

+137

387

274 284 298

1955-7

848

702

+146

454

346

+108

1956-8 1957-9

980 1,051 1,136 1,319 1,397 1,373 1,296 1,155

751 729

+229 +322

488 518

351 347

+137

657

+479

306

697 776 959

+622 +621

535 S87

+229 +284

1,074 1,173

+222 -18

15,090

10,554

+4,536

1958-60

1959-61 1960-2 1961-3 1962-4

1963-S Total

+414

303

+94 -f-89

+171

538 513

299 355 401 420

+229 +137

6,991

4,739

-l~2,2S2

590 584

+291 +93

" Three year moving averages are calculated to correct the unevenness of the crude figures by averaging three year arrivals and departures from 1949-51,

1950-2 and so on for both males and femalesSource: Demography B¢¢!le£ins

POST-WAR

CHANGES A N D MIGRATION

1947-66 63

From Table 4.1, it can be seen that, as far as Chinese nationals are concerned, arrivals exceeded departures generally relatively heavy for both males and females. For the males, gains during 1949-52 were probably due to political change which occurred in China in 1949. Large numbers of Chinese fled the war-stricken Chinese mainland to other countries, some of these entered Australia in this period. Since then, arrivals decreased

u

for a short time between 1952-6 and picked up again until the present. For the females, the pattern was similar. But the years 1957-9 marked the beginning of large number of female arrivals. The excess of arrival over departure was large, about 250 a year. This grant was related to the Australian Government's decision naturalization rights to the Chinese, Survival estimates of net gain or loss through intercensal migration show a general agreement with the trend indicated by the migration figures. The intercensal periods of 1947-54 and 1954-61 show significant gains of both males and females, especially for the ages 15 to 30. Table

4.2: ESTIMATES OF NET GAIN OR LOSS OF CHINESE FOR INTERCENSAL PERIODS, 1947-66, THROUGH MIGRATION BY AGE-GROUPS BY SEX (FULL-CHINESE ONLY)

1947-54

Age~

groups

m

1954-61

f

In

1961-6

t`

m

f

0-4

+3

+39 +70

+568

+131 +1,281

+601

+805

+1,514

+541

+99 -19

-1,118

-277

-37

-518

+19

+54

+141

+77

-23

+84

+82

+56

45-49

+40

-7

+36 +18

+37 +29 +27

-57 -33 -30 -27 -13

5-9 10-14 15-19

+152

20-24

-1-981

25-29

+502

30-34 35-39

+220 +162

40-44

+646

+101 +165 +197 +68 +18

+383 +1,529

+191

+2.929 +571

-10

+41 +10

50-54

+52

+24

S5-59

+2

+15

60-64 65-69

+17

+2

+38 -49 -63

+5

+9

+173

+10 -2

-23

70-74

+21

+10

75-79 80 +

-54 -17

114 -32

+16

--6 +38

+53

+3

Total

+2372

+700

+5,348

+1,884

~I~1,107

+1,292

-4

....-

+30 -{-1

+4

-31 -2

+5 +11 +28 -1- 26 +50

64

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

Some of these gains were probably due to the increase of migratory Chinese during the years (779 in 1947, 1,125 in 1966), but this accounted only for a slight proportion. The majority represented the arrival of assistants, substitutes, cooks and dependants who could enter more easily between 1947 and 1956. Those of higher ages were virtually not emigrating at all and the general pattern presented itself as a marked contrast to the pre-war trend. The next intercensal period 1961-6 showed a relatively large loss of males for the age groups 25-29 and 30-34. Part of the explanation was the large number of private students who, having entered Australia at a younger age (possibly mainly at 15-19 and 20-24), were enumerated in 1961, but had left the country by 1966. This is because the majority of these students

did not settle permanently. The loss of 500 or so of those aged 30-34 can be partly attributed to a small number of temporary assistants and substitutes leaving Australia without replacement, and the decrease of about 470 migratory persons in 1966 compared with 1961. The post~war period, then, showed a large Increase Q both males and females. In 1947, there were 5,416 foreign-born fullChinese, of whom 4,670 were males and 746 females %- 1966 -,899 this number increased to 17,065 (12,166 males the females). The total increase was more than three-fold. males alone, the increase was more than two-fold and for the 'females alone, it was more than six-iold. This seemingly spectacular increase of Chinese population since 1948 would look less impressive if migratory persons and private students were excluded. In March 1966, the Chinese student -

W

population holding temporary permits was given at 8,502.10 Unfortunately, the sex composition was not available. But if 67 per

cent of them were assumed to be males," there would be 5,696 Plaruling Division, Mimeograpired Statistics, Canberra 1966. 11 During the years 1964-7, 'arrivals for educational purposes' were classiNed by sex and published by the Bureau of Census and Statistics in Aus10 Department of Immigration,

tralian Demographic Review. The proportion of males for these arrivals was 68 per cent for 1964 and dropped gradually to 66 per cent in 1967. Although these proportions refer to all arrivals in the year, and not to all Chinese students residing in Australia in that year, the proportions are here assumed to be approximately applicable to the Chinese students. This assumption is made because the Chinese students form the overwhelmin .g majority of the foreign student population in Australia. In 1966, 8,502 from a total of 1u,se5, or about S0 per cent, were Chinese.

Department of Immigration, Planning Division, Mimeographed Statistics for 1966.

POST-WAR

CHANGES AND MIGRATION

1947-66 65

male and 2,806 formal non-sponsored students. The census counted 779 (777 males and 2 females) and 1,125 (1,118 males and 7 females) migratory full-Chinese for 194-7 and 1966 respectively. If these non-resident students and migratory persons were excluded from the total foreign-born full-Chinese population, the 1947 Figure would drop to 4,637 (3,893 males and 744 females), and the 1966 figure would drop to 7,438 (5,352 males and 2,086 females). There was, then, an Increase of a mere 2,801 (1,459 males and 1,342 females) from 194'1 to 1966, or about 150 per year, nearly half of them being females. The above analysis of migration and census figures shows that the loss of Chinese for the period 1901-47 through death and was compensated more by the massive arrival of private students than from non-student arrivals. Being IlOIlsettlers and engaged in short-term academic pursuits, these stu dents cannot he classified. as _Qmnese immigrants unless they decide to stay permanently after their studies." The importance of students (so long as they stay as students) in a study of Chinese immigration and settlement in Australia should only be assessed in terms of their influence on the settler group and not in terms of the students per se. With this increase through migration, the Chinese population grew younger. The median age for males fell. from over 40 in prewar years to 31.9 in 1954, and then rapidly to 24.8 in 1961, then rising slightly to 26.0 in 1966. Among males, the proportion in th.e higher age groups (50+) fell continuously from 24.4 per cent in 1954 to 12.9 per cent in 1966, while the 20-29 age group became more important, the proportion increasing from 23.2 per emigration

cent in 1954 to 38.1 per cent in 1966. For the females, the age

structure remained more or less the same for this period, except that when compared with the pre-war situation, the proportion in ages under 20 became slightly smaller. Also because of the influx of new arrivals the proportion of Australi an-born among the total Chinese population decreased-from 40.8 per cent in 1947, to 37.0 per cent in 1954, to 27.2 per cent in 1961, and to 25.7 per cent in 1966. 12

Note must be taken that when the entry of dependants was restricted, i.e. before the naturalization change in 1956, one of the ways for young Chinese dependants to enter Australia was to enter as students. Since the 19605, however, this type of student entry was less frequent because they can be introduced as dependants. Arthur I-Iuek reported about 19 and 17 per cent ex-students in the Chinese populations of New South Wales

and Victoria respectively. The Chinese In Australia, Melbourne 1967, p. 21-2. Some of these presumably were children sponsored as students.

66

C H I N E S E M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

Table 4.3:

AGE STRUCTURE

on FULL-CHINESE, 1954-66

Total

m 1954 f p In

1961

f

p m 1966 f p

Median

Percentages 20-

20-29

30-39

40-49

50+

Age

9,150 3,728 12,878

23.50 39.48 28.13

23.25 20.01

16.39 13.95

24.45 13.22

31.94 24.46

21.2.0

29.77

14,237 6,145 20,382

25.54

13.13 13.36 13.20

24.31 23,25 24.41

15,406 7,875 23,281

26.03

persons

22.31

15.68

12.41 13.33 12.68

13.55 11.11

10.16 9.76

29.07

37.62 28.49 34.87

12.82

10.04

24.69

38.03

14.08

10.19

12.94

34.95

30.03

12.61

8.28

14.17

24.01

28,16

35.36

13.59

9.53

13.36

25.38

37.27

The actual number of Australian-born full-Chinese, in fact, increased from 3,728 in 1947 to 5,976 in 1966. The sex~ratio, too, became more balanced, but not through a decrease of males as was true of the pre-war periods, but through an increase of the females. For the total full-Chinese population, the sex-ratio declined from 245 males to 100 females in 1954 to 232 in 1961 and to 196 in 1966. The trend of changing age structure and sex-ratio showed a 'norlnalization' of the population composition. Had it not been tor the great infltn; of_ brivate male students, the sex ratio would have been more balanced and the proportion of Australian-born would have been considerably higher. Summing up the discussion, we can come to the following conclusion-although the increase in the total number of Chinese

since 1947 has been mainly through immigration and not internally generated through natural increase, it is nevertheless reasonable to expect a faster rate of growth by natural increase in the near future. Australian-born Chinese with a more balanced sex-ratio are replacing the older foreign-born immigrants, and the youthfulness of the Chinese population as a whole compared earlier periods ensures a decline of deaths. The revision of the naturalization laws in 1956 and 1966 will also contribute to greater opportunity for die Chinese to stay and to introduce their immediate families after naturalization.

Settlement and Suburbanization of the Chinese 1947-66

V

General Distribution in Australia In Chapter III, it was noted that the urbanization of the Chinese occurred rapidly after 1901, and that most of this was related to the opportunities and other attractions oliered by Chinese com-

munities in urban areas. This pattern continued after World War II so that in 1966, 83 per cent of the Chinese were located in

metropolitan capital cities. Together with those in other urban areas,1 they accounted for nearly 97 per cent of the total Chinese population. Following closely the general Australian pattern, those in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales are the most urbanized, while those in Queensland the least (see Fig. 1). Table

5.1 :

PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION of FULL-CHINESE IN CAPITAL CITIES, URBAN, RURAL SECTIONS

States

Capital cities

on

STATES, AUSTRALIA

1966

Other urban

Total

Total

Percent in

Rural

state

Number'

each state

N.S.W.

89.13

8.62

2.25

100.0

11,155

51.37

Vic.

90.10

8.30

1.60

100.0

5,456

25.13

Qld

49_'.7{]

95.53 87.04 80.24

41.81 3.87

8.49 .60

8.41

4.55

2,392 671 1,034

6.30 1.80

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

11.02

S.A. W.A.

2.98

100.0

21,712

Tas.

A.C.T.

98.20

Australia

82.98

a

1

13.98 93.70

14.04

5.78

3.09 4.76

329

1.52

508 167

2.34 .'77

100.0

Migratory persons, mainly seamen on ships, are excluded. Defined by the Australian Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statis-

tics as areas with population density of 500 persons per square mile or more.

67

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

68

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FIG. 1 Distribution of full-Chinese in Australia, 1966

In 1966, Adelaide had 95.5 per cent of the total Chinese population in South Australia; Sydney had 89.1 per cent of those in New South Wales; and Melbourne had 90.1 per cent of those in Victoria. Since a large proportion, 76.5 per cent, of the Chinese were found in New South Wales and Victoria, the Chinese population in Sydney and Melbourne comprised 68.4 per cent of the

total Chinese -=@pulatioll in Australia. Apart from Armidale (N.S.W.) Newcastle (N.S.W.), Wollongong (N.S.W.) and BalIarat (Vie), there was no other area in New South Wales and Victoria which had more than 50 Chinese in 1966. Canberra, the Capital of Australia, had over 150 Chinese, but they were mainly members of diplomatic corps or were students at the various educational institutions in Canberra. In terms of population numbers, Brisbane as a state capital is much less important to Queensland than Sydney and Melbourne are to their respective states. %$1966, only 43.3 per cent of the total Queensland population was in Metropolitan Brisbane com-

pared with 57.9 per cent of New South Wales in Sydney and 65.6 per cent of Victoria in Melbourne- Queensland has many median

size towns which are distribution centres of agricultural or pastoral regions. Along tlle long coast line where the tropical sun and

SETTLEMENT

AND

SUBURBANIZATION

1947-66

69

the Great Barrier Reef attract too many tourist spots have grown to sizeable towns. Moreov mineral booms have continued and cities such as Mount Isa and Cloncurry have developed into major cities in the otherwise almost uninhabited Barkly Tableland. The distribution of Chinese in Queensland follows the genera] Australian pattern. There are many towns with more than 50 et.

Chinese, and even the proportion in rural areas is higher in Queensland than in other states. Cairns and the nearby Johnston City in Northern Queensland together had about 250 Chinese in

1966, and Brownsville remained an important concentration point for the Chinese, having about 280 full-Chinese in 1966. Rockhampton also had about 80 Chinese. The Chinese in these 3 cities differ from those in Sydney or Melbourne. Although no official statistics are available, a large proportion of the Chinese in Cairns. Brownsville and Rockh ampton are third or fourth generation Chinese descendants of Queensland gold-diggers and laborers of the early days. Darwin in the Northern Territory has continued to be an important area, having some 400 Chinese in 1966. The importance of Darwin as a Chinese settlement is certainly not because of the

number, four hundred Chinese is but 2 per cent of the total population of Darwin. It is important because it is here that successful assimilation of the Chinese appears to be taking place, Relatively separated from other urban areas in Australia and having received little immigration of Chinese even after the war, only one-fourth of their population is foreign,-born and many are third or fourth generation Chinese? Economically, though concentrating, in the retail business before the war, the Chinese in Darwin have spread to most other occupations and show little

concentration in any particular

011.3

Socially, in civic terms, the

Chinese are well assimilated, as evidenced by the election of a Chinese in 1957 as an Alderman in the City Council and in 1966 of another Chinese as Mayor of Darwin. Unfortuinately, it is not known whether the experience of the Chinese in Darwin is shared by those in Northern Queensland where a. major proportion of the Chinese there is also Australian-born. In Western Australia,f"'a . " . . =y of the one thousand Chinese are in and among them a large percentage are Chinese students from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The settler population is relatively small.

-

"Christine Luglis, The Chinese in Darwin, MA thesis, Australian National 3

University, 1968; p. 71. Ibid., pp. 83-4.

70

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

Suburbanization of the Chinese I 947-66 Before World War II, most of the Chinese in Metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne concentrated in the city centres. In 1921, the city centre of Sydney and the surrounding areas (since 1954 included into the Local Government Area of the City of Sydney) had 63.2 per cent of the total Chinese population in Metropolitan

Sydney. In 1933, this proportion dropped to 51.9 per cent, and since 1947, it has declined below 50 per cent. The situation in Melbourne was similar; the City of Melbourne accounted for 63.3 per cent of the total Chinese population in Metropolitan Melbourne in 1921, 52.9 per cent in 1933, and declined below 50

per cent since 1947. In 1966, the percentages of Metropolitan

Chinese in the City of Sydney and the City of Melbourne were 16.3 per cent and 20.2 per cent respectively. Though still somewhat higher than the proportion in the general population, they show, however, significant changes in the residential pattern of

the Chinese in these Metropolitan areas. The pattern in Sydney Many of the outer suburbs of Sydney were developed after World War II. Northern suburbs such as Warringah, Ku-ring~gai, Baulkan Hills and Blacktop, and Southern suburbs such as Fairfield, Liverpool, etc., had large increases of population. The increase of Chinese, however, was not limited to the outer suburbs, the middle-distance suburbs also had considerable increase (see Fig. 2 ) . Table 5.2 shows the pattern of suburbanization in Sydney. The Chinese in Sydney had a large increase after 1947--a three-fold increase from 3,300 in 1947 to 9,943 in 1966. Again, this was mainly due to increases in middle-distance suburbs and outer suburbs, and not to the City of Sydney, although Sydney's City Suburbs (especially Marrickville) had considerable increase. The increase was most rapid in the Southern middle-distance suburbs (from a total of 821 in 1947 to 4,152 in 1966), especially Randwick, Canterbury and Rockdale, making them important areas of Chinese settlement besides the City of Sydney. Among outer suburbs, the increase was most marked in Ku-ringgat.

In 1966, the ten suburbs having most Chinese were, in ranking order: Randwick, Canterbury, Marrickville, Ashheld, Rockdale, Waverley, Willoughby, Ku-ring-gai, Shurwood and Ryde- A.ccord~

in to a survey of the ecology of the Chinese in Sydney, there were two important movements, one among the post-war 'upper class'

71

SETTLEMENT A N D S U B U R B A N I Z A T I O N 1 9 4 7 - 6 6

I Haulkham H1115

* . . l l . . l

.

.

l l

Ellacrktawn

'*

l

Illyringgai

I

=rlI2}friSb'l"

,":l.,l

-I

1 Ash+ield

I

,H

Penrith

Hill

I

i i

u

1

H0§r¢,"d

1..

I

_

FE 'Concord

" * ¢ - - .

I

x

I

H U

ala..

I

J

I

*¢¢¢

- -- _ - _

. I I

. **

•

r

iiii::\ \1

.5

'isdn

I

g

I

u RE*I 200 Persons

TOISHAN

.

`J

Of O

a

'o `*= o

Shang Ping

3

To Canton

S1JNWU:

l

'I

.

KWANG -TUNG P nowwcn

o

O 100-139 persons

. I

I

5099 Persons 20-49 Parsons

I

_.__ .

S29-Yap EraYap ff

1l II

_ -

.I=_ 1

.

*_..-'._H°f1s1 Emu K.cf10 , **.,»*Hul-19

i I -*Q I

I

n1?°

So Chakra So 5uur.F4 China Scurf

FIG. 4 Place of origin of Sze-Yap Chinese migrants, 1893-1913 (Source: Kwangtung Yu Ti Chuan Tu (map of Kwangtung), Canton IS97 )

nerty, and those who were sponsored recently and wore still dependants, the foreign-born Chinese were mainly from Toishan and Sunni. The Four Districts were also the major emigration area for the Chinese in North America and New Zealand. Initially, as during the gold rush, migrant groups from one or several near-by villages were formed under 'headmen' and emigrated through Macao and Hong Kon2? Successful stories were quickly transmitted back to the villages through re-migrants, letters, and not less important, shipping agents. All these encouraged their fellow villagers to try their luck in Australia. Villages nearby, hearing the news, then sent migrants, thereby creating a migration stream from a large area. Since many of these villages contained a few 'clans' and during the early migration period (1850-70s) were major organizers of migrant groups. Their work included the formation of migrant parties, usually at their own native village, securing shipping

9 I-Ieadmen

tickets and often accompanying the party on the journey to their destinations. Sec Wang Sing-Wu, The Organrfzatforz of Chinese E.*nigratfon

1848-/8-88, with Special Reference to Emigration to Australia, unpublished MA thesis, Australian National University, 1969, pp. 86-8.

82

C H I N E S E M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

therefore only a few surnames, we find migrants of certain family names coming from specific villages. A great number of the immigrants during the early period came under the crerlif ticket sys-tern, After 1901, however, the Commonwealth Immigration Act, while strictly prohibiting free migration, largely changed the system of Chinese migration by permit-

ting only certain categories of Chinese to enter Australia. New Chinese migrants HOW had to be sponsored by some person or him established in Australia, Under these immigration laws, the credit-ticket system through which Lmeonnected Chinese migrated independently, could no longer be practised. Chinese migrants having no connections in Australia, found it immensely difficult to enter' Australia, even if passage fares were raised. It is pos~

sible to argue that this type of legal restriction interfered only to a small extent with migration from villages already well represented in Australia for which there were sponsors-but to

virtually exclude the possibility of the formation of new migration chains from other villages and districts. This legal restriction, together with the desire to be close to one's kin and relatives, produced a migration situation very conducive to the continuation of chain. migration from these villages in Toishan and Sunni. The concept of 'chain-migration' has been mainly used by Australian scholars to describe the pattern of tree migration from Southern Europe to Australia and New Zealand. First dcveiopcd by Lochorelo and later elaborated by Borrie, McDonald and Price," a common form of chain migration consists of live stages : 1 ) pioneers deciding to stay; 2) other men arriving from the same region after the successful establishment by the pioneers, 3 ) successful migrants bringing out iiancees, wives and dependants

and thereby causing large~seale migration streams; 4) second generation reaching maturity and receiving fuller impact from the receiving society, and 5) third generation reaching maturity. The

transition from one stage to another depends on numerous factors, ranging from village background, familial tics, shipping convenience, conditions of the receiving country and even international politics. Under favorable conditions, some chains 10 R. 11

A. Loc fore, From Europe to New Zealand, Wellington 1951, pp, 23-4. W. D. Borrie, Italians and Germans in Australia, Melbourne 1954, p. 80, J. S. MacDonald, Migration from Italy to Australia, with Special

Reference to Selected Groups, unpublished PhD thesis, Australian National University, 1959; C. A. Price, unpublished information, pp. 107-

39, also 'The Study of Assimilation' in I. A. Jackson (ed.), Migration, Cambridge 1969, pp. 210-12.

PROCESS A N D O C C U P A T I O N A L A D J U S T M E N T

83

develop to such massive scale that they depopulate whole villages, while other 'unproductive chains die off without bringing many migrants. Chinese migrants to Australia, however, have not gone through these stages. Although the first Chinese gold diggers can "be described as adventurous, they were, nevertheless, not lonely pioneers. They came in groups, moved in groups and often left in groups. The loyalty to their family-lineage in China and the fact that they did not bring with diem women-folk even when it was possible (before 1901 when dependants were usually exempted from the colonial anti-Chinese acts), cast serious doubts as to whether or not early Chinese migrants actually wanted to stay. In the United States and New Zealand, these early Chinese were described as 'sojoul'ners' whose principal aims were not to settle but to return to China after the accumulation of wealth." In the 1920s when large numbers of Chinese females started to emigrate to Southeast Asia, Australia permitted only small numbers of merchants and well established families to introduce their wives and children. It was not until the 1950s that the right to introduce dependants was extended to others. Admittedly it was possible to bring some relatives to Australia in other ways. A local trader, market-gardener of café owner wanting his son or cousin to join him might, if his see or cousin were of school age, be able to sponsor him as a student-dependant. If the relative were an adult, he might be able to introduce him as an assistant or substitute or café worker. Some of those introduced as students became assistants later on, and some of the assistants, substitutes or café workers, 'being close relatives of the original owner of the business, eventually took over the business and became new owners. Persons introduced in this way could not, however, bring out their own wives until they became well-established themselves. The main links between them and their families in China were letters and, more significantly, occasional visits. Such visits, every few years if the financial conditions of the migrants permitted, constituted what was described earlier as the commuting system. These visits were important, not only because they brought pres~ tige and honour to the family-lineage, but also because marriage might be contracted and Children might be conceived, and the family system continued. When such children reached maturity, 12

Paul C. P. Sir, 'The Sojourners', American Journal of Sociology, LVIII,

July 1952, pp. 34-44; Rose H. Lee, The Chinese fn the United States' of America, Hong Kong 1960, pp. 69-72; Fig B. Fong, The Chinese in New

Zealand, Hong Kong 1959, pp. 7-13.

84

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT

IN

AUSTRALIA

brought up and educated in the village, some of them were sponsored in tum by their fathers or uncles in Australia. The cycle of migration, or the commuting migration system adult male children replacing retiring fathers generation after generation is perhaps the one single characteristic which differentiates pre-war Chinese migrants from migration of other nationalities. In the Melbourne Chinese community, there exist many who are foreign~born themselves although their fathers and grandfadiers, some even great grandfathers, were in Australia before. In this way, the female portion of the lineage remained in China while some of the males commuted. This migration situation has been most important to the integration of immigrants. Firstly, being sponsored by Chinese concerns and bound legally to their sponsors for specific lengths of

time, new migrants have inevitably found themselves under the influence of the Chinese community instead of 'being able to

receive the fuller impact of Australian society. The status of being sponsored implies much. A sponsored Chinese depends on his fellow countrymen

for his sponsorship

to enter Australia, his

occupation and therefore his income, his extension to stay ii so desired and his recreation and friendship. His activities are fairly well confined to the Chinese community. This strong legal tie between the long-timer and the new migrants strengthens and sustains the already existing social and cultural relationship among Chinese migrants. Secondly, having families in China and with limited expectations of being able to bring them to Australia

before naturalization, these migrants learn to be thrifty and work hard so that they could accumulate enough to support and visit

their families. This commuting system, together with the legally enforced 'chain-1nigration', severely limits the development of a sense of achievement and establishment in Australian society, in other words, it retards the switch from a reference group based r Eere c gr p in sed the Austhe Chi ese s c i t y t tralian society. Post-World War II Migrant Groups Up to this point, the discussion has been mainly concerned with traditional migration from the Four Districts and nearby areastraditional partly because her emigration has been related to the

sponsorship system, and partly because this is the core group which was and still is the centre of the now-changing, Melbourne

Chinese community. There are, however, other groups of Chinese in Melbourne which have arrived since World War II and have

PROCESS A N D OCCUPATIONAL ADJUSTMENT

85

not come under the sponsorship system and which differ from the traditional group in several important ways. First, there are the war-time refugees who were repatriated from the Pacific areas during the war years 1940-6. Those born in China were either seamen recruited in Shanghai and were in Australian waters when hostility broke out, or were migrants who had come to Hong Kong in search of work and were recruited for work in the Pacific areas such as Nauru Island and North Borneo had been part of the older started, shortly before the Chinese communities of German New-Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In late 1940, massive evacuation to Australia started

or

from these areas which were under the threat of J apanese invasion. A total of about 9,000 non-Europeans came to Australia, some 900 of which stayed permanently, among whom twenty-one Chinese refugees were included in the Melbourne survey. Most of these refugees in the Melbourne survey had no connection with an established Chinese community in Australia and were placed in war industry production lines, in military camps working as cooks, or in factories until the war ended in 1945. Only h e had friends already in Australia and found jobs with them, one as a marketgarden assistant and four as cooks in Chinese cafes. After the war, these refugees were permitted to remain in Australia but without the right to introduce their families or assistants. They are now scattered in all capital cities and are not concentrated in any one locality.

The second group are the private students who entered independently, remained and became permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Like the war-time refugees, few of these students were

from the Four Districts. Of the 26 in the Melbourne sample, eight were born in China (only two in Toishan), while the other 18 were born in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia or some other Southeast Asian countries. All of them arrived after 1950 when the large-scale influx of Asian students started. These students differ from other Chinese immigrants in the following ways. First, all of them had had some English training before coming to Australia, because competence in English is necessary for admission into Australian educational institutions and for a student visa. In fact, they all had been brought up in partly westernized societies and almost all had a western education, even those born in China, had spent some time in Hong Kong and had received part of their education in

bilingual schools.

Secondly,

unlike sponsored

migrants, whose activities outside the Chinese community are limited, these students are in constant contact with Australian

86

CHINESE MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

society through schools and universities, friendship groups, and by boarding in Australian families or university halls of residence. Thirdly, being educated in Australia, they are better equipped than most other groups to gain responsible positions within the Australian occupational structure. The third group consists of professional and highly skilled persons who entered Australia in the special admission category of 'Distinguished and Highly Qualitiedl This group was still small when the Melbourne survey was done in 1968. But as the entry

conditions were relaxed in 1966 to include a wider range of skilled persons, their number has almost certainly increased since the time of the survey and will probably increase more in the future.

Occupational Adjustment and Mobility We tum now to the occupational distribution of each of these three groups in Australia. Their very different mode of migration has, as might be expected, resulted in very different settlement patterns. The sponsored group, having come from traditional emigration areas and being connected, legally and ia terms of kinship, with Chinese establishments in Australia, have had little chance to deviate from Chinese traditional occupations. More~ over, having been brought up mostly in their own villages and educated under the Chinese education system, few reached a level of education above primary school. Few spoke any English before they left China or had any special training at skilled occupations except as Chinese school teachers, carpenters or Chinese chefs.

In fact, half of the Melbourne sample of foreign born who had

_

some occupation -ore they emigrated from China were laborers, farmers the like working primarily in Chinese rural villages. Only a small number had gained considerable urban experience by working in Canton City or Hong Kong for more than four years -as shop assistants or clerks. In short, their background and orientation were primarily those of rural China, with little preparation for adaptation into an urban society such as Melbourne.

The war-time refugees, though having different backgrounds from the sponsored migrants working in Hong Kong, the Pacific Islands and during the war in Australia, were mainly engaged in labouring work. When the war ended, most of these wartime refu-

gees have joined the sponsored migrants in the Chinese Cate 'business, partly because the Chinese cafes have become prosperous

PROCESS A N D O C C U P A T I O N A L

ADJUSTMENT

87

and partly because some trade unions have rules restricting Chinese labour." Students and professionals, being basically orientated towards

the prof'ssons when they came to Australia, have few contacts with established Chinese community, although some of them have also entered the cafe business. To enable more efficient analysis, occupations are classified into 'Chinese' and 'Austra_lian' Chinese traditional oecubations are called "Chinese" either because the employers are often Chinese and those in the occupations have little contact with Australians, or because of traditional links with early Chinese occupasons. The other occupations are called 'Australian' because those in them are mostly employed by Australian firms or by the govern-

ment, or if self-employed, have contacts mostly with Australians. Among the total Melbourne sample of 206 foreign-born Chinese males, only tour could be classified, on arrival, as minor professionals or white-collar clerical workers. There were none in the major professional occupations. Many came as assistants and employees of Chinese concerns, the majority worked as chefs and waiters. Even more came as private students and young depen-

dants and were enrolled in some educational institutions, twentysix were private students and seventy-six dependants. Fifteen had skilled and unskilled blue-collar occupations, among whom fourteen (including one who has since retired) were war-time refugees. There is, then, little variation in the initial occupation on arrival among sponsored immigrants arriving -as adults. The restrictive legal system of sponsorship, together with the natural tendency of 'chain-rriigration', have produced a Chinese immigrant group whose members are not only connected with each other in terms of kinship, but also by common economic interests.

The pattern of present occupation shows a slight diversification from the concentration in Chinese traditional occupations, with seventeen as medical physicians, engineers or other major professionals and seven as minor professionals ng_alging atgtal.. of intwenty-four (12 per cent) in professional occupations. crease is mainly due to seventeen students who have entered the professions after they finished their courses. But the concentration in Chinese occupations is still evident. Moreover the effect of the sponsorship system is such that certain occupations are mainly 13

The Australian Workers' Union (the largest union in Australia) excludes people of Asian and African origin from membership and this effectively barred Chinese from all industries covered by awards. G. W. Ford,

'Work' in A. F. Davis and S. Encel (eds), Australian Society, 2nd edu, Melbourne 1970, pp. 105-6.

88

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

controlled by migrants from certain districts. For example, both major and minor cafés were controlled by the Toishan group : eight out of eleven major cafes and twenty out of thirty-two minor ones. In the vegetable distributing business too, there is a dilierentiation by birthplace groups. While the wholesale businesses were mainly in the hands of the Toishans (in the sample, all four

wholesale firms were owned by Toishan Chinese), the retail stalls were mainly operated by Sunwui Chinese (in the sample, thirteen out of twenty-five -or 52. per cent) The pattern of occupational distribution so far indicates that the

.

Chinese tend to concentrate in Chinese traditional occupations, especially in lesser cafes (without employee). Table 6.2:

OCCUPATIONS OF FOREIGN-BORN CHINESE MALES, ON ARRIVAL AND AT PRESENI, MELBOURNE SURVEY,

Occupation

Australian Major prof. Minor prof. White color" Blue collar Chinese

On Arrival

1968 (N = 206) Present 17

2

2 15

'743

Grocer Vegetable Wholesale

2

4

Major café"

I

14

Retail Lesser café"

17

4-

27 45

Chefs, waiters

37

38

Market-gardener Others

11 16

2

103

41d

Non-work Force Students, Dependants

Total a b

r: d

206

206

clerical workers cafés employing one or more help café not employing help including four retired

The following is an attempt to explain the situation through

mobility analysis by cross tabulating present occupation by occupation on arrival.

.r

PROCESS A N D OCCUPATIONAL ADJUSTMENT

Table 6.3:

89

POST-ARRIVAL MOBILITY AMONG MELBOURNE CHINESE,

FOREIGN-BORN MALES ONLY, MELBOURNE SURVEY,

(N

1968

l 65)" Present Occupation

Occupation arrival

Australian

O11

A

Australian Major prof. Minor prof White collarb

B

C

E

Chinese G F

1

1

2

1

3

3

14

19 2.1

5

2 28

1

2 4 10

18

51

2

D

Total

A B

2

C

Blue collar Chinese Employer

D

Self-employed Employee

E F G

1

NOR-YVOfk-FUFCC

SDODSDIEC1

Dependants Students

Total c b

H

14

I

3

3 2

2

1

1 5

5 16

11

26 40

17

7

4

3

26

69

39

165

1

persons not in work force excluded from table clerical workers

Only two who had Chinese occupations on arrival moved to Australian occupations, i.e. 2 per cent of the total 99 persons who had some occupations OD arrival. In contrast, 15 per cent who had Australian occupations on arrival moved to Chinese occupations, many being war-time refugees. The remaining 82 stayed within their Chinese or Australian occupations on arrival. Among dependants who were sponsored, the proportion who later took up Australian occupation was much lower than that of the-se who entered Chinese occupation-8/40 or 20 per cent versus 32,/40 or SO per cent, In contrast to this, the private students were mainly engaged in Australian occupations (18/26 or 69.2 per cent) and the proportion who entered Chinese occupatrons was relatively low (8/26 or 31.8 per cent).14 Although both groups had enrolled in some Australian educational institutions, the sponsored group being fundamentaiiv under the influence of their sponsors, did not exhibit a tendency towards 14 The contrast between dependants and private students is statistically sig-

nificant. X2

= 16.00, df=1, p < .001.

go

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

professional occupations as did the private students. In fact, some of these dependants were only nominally students, while in fact spending a large part of their time working for their sponsors. The occupational pattern for the foreign-born Chinese, except students, is then very clear, while the sponsored migrants stayed very much within Chinese occupations, the war-time refugees actually moved from Australian blue-collar to Chinese occupations, notably the café business. The explanation of this concentration in Chinese occupations can be found first in language and

educational barriers which limit Chinese migrants to relatively low class occupations and severely curtail advancement and promotion. Moreover, as was noted before, some unions exclude Chinese from their membership, thereby limiting also the choice

of blue-collar occupations. A second reason is that Chinese occupations, especially the cat's, offer an attractive alterative. Indeed, it is very common for a Chinese assistant or cook to save enough in a short time to start his own small café, usually in one of the outer suburbs. In the present sample, among those whose movements were confined to Chinese occupations, twenty-one moved from the status of employee (cooks, waiters, assistants, etc.) to that of self-employed (lesser café owners, fruit and vegetable retailers, etc.). Ten others moved to the status of employers (major cafe owners, grocers etc.). In contrast to this, only five cases moved from the status of self-employed to become employees, four of these were market-gardeners (self-employed) who became chefs in cafés. The significance of such occupational change is ap.parent if the conditions of entry of the sponsored migrants are considered. Legally tied to their sponsors, these migrants were admitted on

the condition, among others, that they remained in their admission categories unless permitted to move by the Department of Immi-

gration. In practice, this Department rarely gave its approval unless the new occupation was also in a special non-European category (i.e. the change of employment must not result in a position which a non-Chinese could easily hold). This permitted, however, upward mobility within the Chinese occupational hierarchy, as from café assistant to café owner or from marketgardening assistant to owner. In this sense, t h , though Chinese

did not have a free choice of employment but worked very much alongside their sponsors, they could move up the ladder egs Chinese occupations. On.ce up, they might gain further rights,

such as that of themselves sponsoring assistants or of eventually gaining permanent residence and bringing in wives and children.

PROCESS A N D OCCUPATIONAL ADJUSTMENT

91

The change of occupation status from employee to self~employed, then, signifies as important change in the opportunities of Chinese migrants. Not only does it indicate the achievement of a certain level of economic success, but also an alteration of the legal status imposed on entry. The Position of tfze Australian-born Chinese

We have shown earlier that the scarcity of Chinese women resulted in slow growth of the Australian-born Chinese population. Even today, a large proportion of the Australian-born Chinese population are relatively young, most being the children of Chinese families re-united or newly formed since the war. The Melbourne survey hicludcd 285 Australian-born full~Chinese and 152 part-Chinese. Only 97 (34.3%) full-Chinese and 41 (27-0%) part-Chinese were adults over 20 years of age. Most of the adult Australian-born Chinese are descendants of well~esta`blished Chinese migrants who were entitled to have their wives with them. Of the 46 Australian-born full~Chinese, nearly half are from grocers', merch ants' and vegetable wholesalers' families. Table 6.4 gives fathers' occupation. The interesting point here is that, though Chinese men marrying European-Australian women were mainly in Chinese occupations (19/28), they were scattered through them all and not concentrated in any particular one. Of the twenty-eight fathers of partChinese, eight had non-professienal Australian occupations. Only five were grocers and vegetable wholesalers. The other 14 were scattered in other Chinese occupations, including four herbalists and two cabinet makers.

The iaet that Australian-horn Chinese came mainly from families of high social status is important in understanding their present social position in both the Chinese community

and the

Australian society. Coming from families which were capable financially of supporting their higher education, many of them had the opportunity to receive post-secondary education and h a l l y to move to professional occupations. Even when they stayed within Chinese occupations, they mainly succeeded to their

fathers' business and did not move downwards to become employees in Chinese concerns. Compared with the foreign-born Chinese, there were relatively more Australian-born Chinese in the major professions (twenty full-Chinese and six part-Chinese or 34 per cent of gainfully

em-l

ployed), more in whitecollar occupations (Eve full Chinese and twelve part-Chinese or 22 per cent), more in blue collar occupa-

92

CHINESE M I G R A T I O N A N D SETTLEMENT I N A U S T R A L I A

Table 6.4:

FAT1-1ERS' OCCUPATION or AUSTRALIAN-BORN CHINESE wi-10 WERE ACTUALLY BMPLOYED AT THE TIME OF THE SURVEY, MELBOURNE SURVEY,

Fathers' Occupation

1968 (N

Full-Chinese

Australia Major prof. Minor prof.

White collar" Blue collar Chinese

Chinese grocers Fruit and vegetable wholesalers Major café

Fruit and vegetable retailers Lesser café owners

Chefs Market gardeners Assistants I-Ierbalists Cabinet-makers Total

=

74)"

Part-Chinese

3

Total

3

4

1 5 4

13

1

14

8 2

4

12 2

3

3 2 1 3 1U

1

2 1 1

1 4

2 3 4

'If'44

2

8 6

46

28

'74

a two 'not stated' cases excluded

*' clerical workers

sons (five full-Chinese and nine part-Chinese or 19 per cent), and fewer in Chinese occupations (seventeen full-Chinese and two part-Chinese or 24 per cent). None were chefs and waiters which were major occupations for foreign-born Chinese. A father-to-son mobility analysis shows the exact changes in occupations among the Australian-born. Movement from Chinese to Australian occupations is 68.8 per cent for the Australian-born (as contrast with only 2 per cent for the foreign-born). There is no movement at all from Australian to Chinese occupations (as contrast with 15 per cent for the foreignfoorn). Table 6.5 shows diet sixteen out of twenty-eight sons of Chinese employers, seventeen out of twenty-two sons of self-employed, and nine out of eleven sons of Chinese employees moved to Australian occupations.

Movements within Chinese occupations showed little change from fathers' occupations. Fourteen (74 per cent) had occupa-

PROCESS A N D OCCUPATIONAL ADJUSTMENT

Table 6.5: FATHER-TO-SON

93

MOBILITY AMONG MELBOURNE CHINESE,

AUSTRALIAN-BORN MALES ONLY, MELBOURNE SURVEY,

1968

(N = 74)"

Occupation of

A

Father Australian Major prof, Minor prof. White collar" Blue collar

A B C D

Occupation of son Chinese Australian D G F E C B

3

3

1 1

Total

1 5

....

3 1

1 3 2 3 3

9

12

9

4

Chinese Employer Scif-employed

E

7

7

F

9

5

Employee

G

6

Total a

26

17

1 4 1

1

I

28 22 11

6

4

74

2

two cases whose fathers' occupations were unknown were excluded

** clerical workers

sons similar to their fathers', most of these in the f l i t and vegetable distribution business having inherited their fathers' firms. It is a common phenomenon that migrants tend to concentrate in some occupations and that this concentration is influenced to a large extent by the backgrounds of the migrants, the form of migration and the environment of their settlement. The present pattern of occupational concentration of the Chinese is at once the result of all these three factors. The rural background of the Chinese migrants is, perhaps, not different from most of the peasant migrants in Australia, for example, the southern Europeans. But the process of migration among the Chinese is uniquely characterized by two important factors: (1) the restrictive sponsorship system which limited the occupational choice on arrival and injiuenced later the mobility away from Chinese traditional occupations; (2) the commuting system which forced upon the migrants a continued link with their home villages and, therefore, facilitated the formation of regional settlements. This unique migration process produces a situation not conducive to rapid integration into the Australian society. The environment is also favourable to the expansion of Chinese cafés. In so far as Melbourne and other Australian cities are affluent, the continued

existence of large numbers of Chinese cafés seems likely, and the accommodation of the foreign-born Chinese is attained by the

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formation of the complementary occupational structure within Australian society. The pattern of occupational distribution among the Australianborn, however, shows that assimilation at the economic level is possible and easier for subsequent generations. There is little in this aspect to distinguish Melbourne's Australian-bom Chinese ».

from their fellow Australians.

VII

Marriages and Intermarriages

The importance of marriage and intermarriage in the field of migrant assirniletien has often been stressed. Those so doing argufy that intermarriage is the severest test of group cohesion) that .' .. : §st stage in the total assimilation of two or more ethnic groups? and that even if intermarriage ratios may not be directly relevant to economic, residential or other types of social integration, they are still the most useful index for complete assimilation? Hence the use of intermarriage ratios as a measure of assimilation. Those who question the high value of intermarriage ratios argue that a high rate of intermarriage is not always accompanied by a high rate of assimilation in other aspects: thus Marcson noted that some old 'assinlilated' migrant groups in the United States had maintained lower intermarriage ratios than new ones, suggesting that intermarriage might be a function. of factors other than assiinilationfi Or they question the underlying assumptions that intermarriage occurs when ethnic group relations have reached a deeper, more intimate, level than economic accommodation, and that intermarriage greatly increases the frequency and intimacy of contacts with the- host society.5 While these assumpw

tions are true in many cases, some special studies have shown

important deviations. Richardson, tor example, studied ten intermarried couples and contrasted them with ten in-married couples, the results led him to maintain that, because of friction at home, at least some intermarriages 'were more likely to slow down the The earliest attempt in this direction is probably Julius Drachsler's study of the marriage records of Manhattan and Bronx of New York City 1908-1912. Imfermarrfage in New York City, New York 1921, pp. Q8-19. 2 Romano Adams, Inter-racial Marriage-gg in Hawaii, * 1937, PP. 312-13. 3 C. A. Price and J- Zubrzycki, 'The Use of Intermarriage Statistics as an Index of Assimilation', Population Studies, XVI, November 1962, p. 59. 4 Simon Marcson, 'A Theory of Intermarriage and Assimilation', Social

]

Forces, XXIV, 1950-1, pp. '77-8. 5 For example, this assumption was

made in I. Zubrzyclds Polish Immi-

grants in Britain, The Hague 1956, pp. 159-60.

95

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A N D SETTLEMENT I N AUSTRALIA

rate or assimilation than to increase it'.6 Again, Glazer and Moynihan pointed out that intermarriages occurring between diilerent religious groups did not weaken religious identity, but often resulted in an increase in the number of one of the groups? In short, the relationship between intermarriage and assimilation depends on the coherence of the migrant group, on their numbers, and on the isolation of the migrant from his or her ethnic group. Although there is no agreement among scholars on the exact strength of intermarriage as a measurement of 'assimilation' there is, however, a general recognition that intermarriage is an important aspect which needs special treatment; witness the numerous articles and books on this subject.8 In the case of Chinese migrants in Australia where the migrant group has noticeably distinct features, intermarriage represents a significant stage in the assimilation process.

Marital Status Among the Chinese 19/ I -68

We have seen earlier that in periods before World War II, the proportion of males in the Chinese population was very high and there was a great disparity between the number of married males and females. This disparity indicates that an overwhelming majority of Chinese men had their wives and families in China. This phenomenon continued after the war although it became less remarked. Not only were married females scarce among Chinese, single females were also few compared with males. In 1933, for example, there were 2,608 single males and 410 single females, or a ratio of 6.38 males to one female. The post-war situation showed a slight increase of single females, the ratio for 1954 was 3.42 and for 1961, it was 3.37.

In 1968, at the time of the Melbourne survey, much of the discrepancy between males and Females had disappeared. Many of those who did not have their wives with them had now been joined by their wives and families, and many who came single had either married in Australia or visited China or Hong Kong to marry and had returned with their brides. "Alan Richardson, 'A Note on Mixed-Marriages

as a Factor in Assimila-

tion Rate', R.;r8.m.p. 8uflerfrx, x, December 1962, pp. 115-19. 7 N. Glazer and D. Moynihan, Beyond the Aflelting Pot, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1963, pp. 313-14. 8 For a list of American studies before 1950, see bibliography notes to August 1-iollingshcad's article, 'Cultural Factors in the Selection of

Marriage Mates', American Sociological Review, 15 October 1950,

619-27.

MARRIAGES AND INTERMARRIAGES

97

The survey showed that a large number of the Chinese 311 the sample--'72 out of a total of 206 foreign-born males--were married or widowed on a r r i . A majority, I her, came as single persons (134/206). For the females, almost the same pattern is shown, 60 out of 161 arrived married. The majority of the foreign born Chinese in the sample arrived after the war. Post-1947 arrivals constituted 88.2 per cent of total

male arrivals and 86.9 per cent of total female arrivals. Sixty per cent of the females arrived after 1956 when the right of naturalization was granted to the Chinese, while only 27 per cent of the males came during this period. The pattern of marital status on arrival is very different for the males and for the females during the recent periods 1947-56 and 1957-68. Forty out of 65 married men (61.5 per cent) arrived during 1947-56, this proportion decreased to 10.8 per cent in 1957-68. Married g e n e arrivals, however, were more concentrated in the 1957-68 period during which 66.2 per cent (45/68 ) arrived. The granting of naturalization rights to Chinese migrants eertainly influenced the above pattern., because it enabled the reunion of long-separated families. But other factors are also important. The establishment of the Communist Chinese Government in 1949 made it more diiiicult for Chinese to emigrate, at first because China had a tighter emigration control and later because the major outlet of Chinese emigrants, Hong Kong, adopted in 1956 a policy of restricting Chinese entry.9 After 1956, Chinese in Australia faced four difficulties in introducing their wives from China: the saving of enough money for the trip; the long period of waiting for naturalization in Australia, the great ditliculty in

obtaining an exit permit from China for their wives; and the delay in obtaining an entry permit into Hong Kong. The Melbourne survey shows the effects of these difficulties.

In the Melbourne survey, about one quarter (2.0/87) of the foreign-born husbands who married outside Australia did not have their wives with them. Fifteen of these were over 50 years of age. Only two of these wives were, at the time of the survey, in Hong Kong preparing to come to Melbourne, the rest being still in China with little chance of emigration. Only nine of the eightyseven men migrated with their wives, or arrived in the same year, of which Eve were visit marriages contracted after 1960. This 9 The number permitted to enter Hong Kung from China was determined by the number who departed from Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong

Government, Hong Kong Annual Report, 1956, p. 5-6, ibid., 1957, p. 235.

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contrasts with the Carlton. Italians, one-fifth of whom migrated as family units."

Forty-tive came ahead of their wives, the average interval being thirteen years. The average interval, including those arriving with their wives, was eleven years. More specifically, eighteen out of eighty-seven (20.7 per cent) of the wives arrived after three years separation. Even by the ninth year of separation, only 27.6 per cent (24/87) of all wives were reunited with their husbands. This interval is long when compared with Borrie's 1951 Queensland and is extremely long if compared with sample of Italians Jones' 1960 sample of Italians in Carlton." The difference in the extent of separation seems to lie in the time of arrival of the husband. As a general rule, those who

arrived early had longer periods of separation than those who arrived recently. It is for those who came after the war, and particularly after the naturalization relaxation in 1956, that wives started to arrive in Australia within a reasonably short period of separation. It is not unusual, in cases of migration involving long distance, that adult males emigrate first and then consider bringing out their families after establishing themselves and after having been assured of the suitability of their new adopted home. In fact, the arrival of wives and dependants is so important that some students of migration consider it a critical point after which large-scale migration streams may follow. What is significant among the Chinese, however, is the exceptionally long period of separation. The arrival of wives and dependants is a major force in changing the nature of Chinese settlement in Australia. Demolining Chinese population received new graphically, impetus, changing it from a predominantly male and ageing settlement to a more youthful and sexually more balanced comensures a more r e g r o w t h of Chinese numbers. munity. Economically, the assistance offered by their wives -.._, children has enabled the establishment of family-operated cafés and shops, mostly in various suburbs of the metropolitan area. This provides 1

,nn-'wwe

10 F. L Jones, The Italian Population of Carlton, PhD thesis, Ausiraiian

National University, 1962, p. 235. W. D. Berrie, Italians and Germans in Ausrraifa, Melbourne 1954, p. ST. The Queensland sample showed that 60 per cent of all wives were united with their husbands by the end of the ninth year of separation. 12 Jones, Italian Popalaaon of" Carlton, p. 326, Table IX.4. The average interval is 3-77 years which is considerably lower than the Chinese .001). 5.192, df = 100, p average of 11 years ( t 13 C. A. Price, Southern Europeans in Australia, Melbourne 1963, 11

=

pp. 180-1.