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Chinese in the Northern Territory: Review of
Tim Jones, The Chinese in the Northern Territory, Diana Giese,
Beyond Chinatown and Sweet and Sour
Michael Williams
The Northern Territory and the history of the Chinese within it
have been well served in the number of historical studies that they
have received. Tim Jones' Chinese in the Northern Territory
(Darwin: NTU Press, [1988] 1997) is the most significant, but this
work is well supplemented in their own ways by both Diana Giese's
Beyond Chinatown: Changing Perspectives on the Top End Chinese
Experience (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1995) and
the committee authored, Sweet & Sour: Experiences of Chinese
Families in the Northern Territory (Northern Territory, Museums
and Art Galleries Board, Darwin: Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern
Territory, 1997).
Each of these three works takes a different approach to both the
writing of history in general and to the history of Chinese people
in the Northern Territory in particular. Each attempts to develop
what their authors consider a gap in our historical perception and
each helps to further our understanding. Yet each work suffers from
a particular limitation, which it can only be hoped future research
- such as may appear in this journal - will begin to overcome.
Chinese in the Northern Territory is the most substantial
work of the three with the author drawing on his detailed knowledge
of the history of mining in the territory to give this aspect particular
weight. Tim Jones gives us a through history of Chinese people in
the Northern Territory, one that understands the limitations in
perspective inherent in the European sources upon which he relies.
Beginning with the first arrivals of Chinese people, we are made
aware of the importance of contracts and connections with Singapore
and Hong Kong and of the role of merchants such as Ping Que. Growing
hostility and the imposition of various restrictions on Chinese
people by Europeans are examined in depth, especially for how they
pushed Chinese people to react in various ways, ways for which they
were then often criticised. Jones is able to use his excellent research
in various government archives to reveal that some European observers
were often sympathetic and that their observations are quite capable
taking us beyond the simple stereotypes of European racism and Chinese
victimhood. The changes brought about when the Commonwealth took
over the administration of the Northern Territory from the South
Australian government in 1911, are particularly well dealt with.
The story is then taken up to WWII, as the old Chinese communities
shrink in the years leading to the Depression, until after Darwin's
evacuation and the subsequent destructive behaviour of troops.
While Tim Jones' work can be described as traditional archival-based
research, that of Diana Giese in Beyond Chinatown takes a
very different approach. Relying on oral history Giese attempts
to avoid the limitations of European-based archives by emphasising
'what is important to the speaker'. We are presented with a series
of interesting interviews with mainly elderly people of Chinese
decent who share with us their memories of growing up and living
in the Northern Territory, usually during the 1920s and thereafter.
The advantage of this approach is that we get a much more human,
intimate and individual approach that takes us past labels such
as 'Chinese' and 'Europeans'. When read in conjunction with a work
such as Chinese in the Northern Territory a great deal of
depth is added to our overall understanding.
Unfortunately, if read independently, Beyond Chinatown is
rather patchy in its coverage. While successfully avoiding the 'distancing
effect of academic expression', this work's lack of awareness of
the context within which people lived means that few questions are
asked that might have brought out a more complex history. Those
few hints of such complexity that do go beyond the interviewers
conceptions cannot be followed up. Instead the author's stereotyped
ideas of 'struggle' against the odds and of 'victims' overcoming
oppression are largely imposed as people do what people have always
done and tell their listeners what they think they want to hear.
The final work in this northern trilogy is largely pictorial in
approach. Sweet and Sour relies on gathering a large number
of interesting images, loosely tied up with a series of individual
histories and backgrounds. Originally created to accompany an exhibition
of the same name, this book is an interesting work but one that
also lacks sufficient awareness of context to bring out all that
its sources might have to offer. Again, read in companionship with
other works much can be gained from Sweet and Sour, but too
little if read alone, despite the potential of its images.
These three works together have much to tell us about Chinese people
in the Northern Territory. While each can also be criticised in
various ways, I could like to focus on one that all three have in
common. All lack a comparative context. By this, I do not mean they
could display a deeper understanding of the overall history. This
is especially obvious in the last two. Rather, I mean that none
of the three works show any awareness of the history of Chinese
people in other parts of Australia, or anywhere else, including
China. This is not something to be considered a fault of these particular
authors, rather it is a problem of 'regional' and 'national' histories
as such.
Using modern political boundaries familiar to the researchers own
times, be it the 'Northern Territory' or 'Australia' or wherever,
to encapsulate history is always problematic. In dealing with groups
such as Chinese people were in the 19th and early 20th century,
that is, travellers, migratory workers, men with families usually
elsewhere; such an approach generates a high potential for leaving
out much of their story. This leaving out of much of the story,
often the essentials of peoples lives, is unfortunately all too
common.
Of course I cannot and do not wish to criticise these three works
for not doing more research in villages in China or for not using
Chinese language sources that are inaccessible to their authors.
Short of these (in the future necessary) steps, it is still possible
to look at the wider context within which a regional history can
be placed. In the case of the Northern Territory, this includes
not only other regions within Australia, but I would suggest, profitable
comparatives with such places as Hawaii.
Chinese people in northern Queensland, especially around Cairns
would be the most obvious comparative with those in the Northern
Territory. However, for the purposes of giving these researches
greater depth and awareness of context, comparatives with the history
of Chinese people anywhere in Australia would be of great value.
However, it is with Chinese people in Hawaii that the most interesting
comparatives can be made. Chinese people in Hawaii also arrived
by contracts, for which prominent Chinese merchants were largely
responsible. For many years the Chinese dominated Hawaii demographically
and were gradually discriminated against by a growing European political
community, greatly re-enforced at a certain point by a central government.
Discrimination and other factors gradually shrink the community
in size and strength.
For Tim Jones such comparatives would have allowed him to demonstrate
his general theme that the Northern Territory was different from
the southern states. Undoubtedly it was, but how and why it is impossible
for his narrow range of research to tell us. Diana Giese would undoubtedly
have been able to ask much more informed questions about families
and the ideals of those families that would have taken her and us
beyond the 'victims' stereotype that pervades her work. Finally,
the many interesting images contained in Sweet and Sour would
have been given a broader context that might perhaps allow us to
understand them better, their nature and purpose, and most interestingly
their exceptionalism.
Many excellent works of regional and local history are being written
in Australia. For people, however, who maintained complex links
with places beyond the region, much of their story must remain missing
unless a broader context is sought. [A very recent and excellent
example of a work that does apply this broader context is Henry
Reynolds', North of Capricorn: The Untold Story of Australia's
North, reviewed in this issue by Amanda Rasmussen.] Naturally,
researchers with a largely local expertise and interest will wish
to maintain their focus. However, this does not preclude a necessity
to look further a field when developing their backgrounds, formulating
their questions and explaining their images. Regional and local
histories, particularly of Chinese people can only benefit from
such an approach.
About the author
Michael Williams has been researching the history of the movements
of Chinese people in the 19th and early 20th centuries with particular
reference to ongoing links with their villages of origin in south
China and the impact this had on people's lives. His doctoral thesis,
entitled: "Destination Qiaoxiang - Pearl River Delta Villages
& Pacific Ports, 1849-1949", examined these links around
the Pacific with particular reference to the people of Long Du locality
in Zhongshan County, south China. Michael is currently living in
Taipei working as an independent researcher.
Discussion
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