South Flows the Pearl

South Flows the Pearl
Author: Mavis Gock Yen
Publisher: Sydney University Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2022-02-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1743327234

South Flows the Pearl is a fascinating journey through the history of Chinese Australia. Taking the reader from Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta to Sydney, Perth, Cairns, Darwin, Bendigo and beyond, it explores the struggles and successes of Chinese people in Australia since the 1850s, as told in their own words. This unique book was written by an insider. Mavis Yen was born in Perth in 1916, the daughter of a Chinese father and an Australian mother. She lived in both countries and understood what it meant to navigate two worlds, to live through war and revolution, and to experience racial discrimination. In the 1980s she began interviewing elderly Chinese Australians, recording hours of conversations. Her intimate understanding of their languages and life experiences encouraged them to share their stories. Published here for the first time, they will change how you think about Australian history. “This is a book that offers a new way to be Australian in this country, and casts Chinese Australians as the protagonists in their own stories... When people agree to tell their stories, they speak to the future. Whether or not we listen is up to us.” — Dr Sophie Loy-Wilson, University of Sydney

Journey to the West (2018 Edition - PDF)

Journey to the West (2018 Edition - PDF)
Author: Wu Cheng'en
Publisher: Asiapac Books Pte Ltd
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 9812298894

The bestselling Journey to the West comic book by artist Chang Boon Kiat is now back in a brand new fully coloured edition. Journey to the West is one of the greatest classics in Chinese literature. It tells the epic tale of the monk Xuanzang who journeys to the West in search of the Buddhist sutras with his disciples, Sun Wukong, Sandy and Pigsy. Along the way, Xuanzang's life was threatened by the diabolical White Bone Spirit, the menacing Red Child and his fearsome parents and, a host of evil spirits who sought to devour Xuanzang's flesh to attain immortality. Bear witness to the formidable Sun Wukong's (Monkey God) prowess as he takes them on, using his Fiery Eyes, Golden Cudgel, Somersault Cloud, and quick wits! Be prepared for a galloping read that will leave you breathless!

Heritage and History in the China–Australia Migration Corridor

Heritage and History in the China–Australia Migration Corridor
Author: Denis Byrne
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2023-03-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 9888805622

Heritage and History in the China–Australia Migration Corridor traces the material and social legacy of migration from China to Australia from the 1840s until the present day. The volume offers a multidimensional examination of the material footprint of migration as it exists at either end of the migration corridor stretching between Zhongshan county in south China and Australia. Spanning the fields of heritage studies, migration studies, and Chinese diaspora history, Denis Byrne, Ien Ang, Phillip Mar, and the other contributors foreground a transnational approach to the history and heritage of migration, one that takes account of the flows of people, ideas, objects, and money that circulate through migration corridors, forming intricate ongoing bonds between those who migrated to Australia and their home villages in China. ‘This is an excellent new addition to the growing literature on the history, heritage, and archaeology of the Chinese diaspora and transnational Chinese migration. This book is poised to be a major contribution to the history and heritage of the Chinese diaspora.’ —Barbara L. Voss, Stanford University ‘The quality of the research and writing is very high, and the theoretical framing is sophisticated and original. This book makes a much-needed contribution to overseas Chinese heritage studies, Chinese Australian history, transnational theory, and migration history. It also provides a model for how to work respectfully and successfully with descendants and community.’ —Sophie Loy-Wilson, University of Sydney

Growing Up Asian in Australia

Growing Up Asian in Australia
Author: Alice Pung
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2015-01-29
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1458798682

Asian - Australians have often been written about by outsiders, as outsiders. In this collection, compiled by award - winning author Alice Pung, they tell their own stories with verve, courage and a large dose of humour. These are not predictable tales of food, festivals and traditional dress. The food is here in all its steaming glory - but listen more closely to the dinner - table chatter and you might be surprised by what you hear. Here are tales of leaving home, falling in love, coming out and finding one's feet. A young Cindy Pan vows to win every single category of Nobel Prize. Tony Ayres blows a kiss to a skinhead and lives to tell the tale. Benjamin Law has a close encounter with some angry Australian fauna, and Kylie Kwong makes a moving pilgrimage to her great - grandfather's Chinese village. Here are well - known authors and exciting new voices, spanning several generations and drawn from all over Australia. In sharing their stories, they show us what it is really like to grow up Asian, and Australian. Contributors include: Shaun Tan, Jason Yat - Sen Li, John So, Annette Shun Wah, Quan Yeomans, Jenny Kee, Anh Do, Khoa Do, Caroline Tran and many more.

Did Ancient Chinese Explore America

Did Ancient Chinese Explore America
Author: Charlotte Harris Rees
Publisher: Light Messages Publishing
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2014-04-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1611530814

A Chinese classic, the Shan Hai Jing, reportedly from 2000 BC claimed travels to the ends of the earth. However, today many, while accepting the antiquity of this account, believe it was just mythology. But was it?Testing the hypothesis that the Shan Hai Jing described actual surveys of North America, Charlotte Harris Rees, author of books about early Chinese exploration, followed an alleged 1100 mile Chinese trek along the eastern slope of the US Rocky Mountains. The Chinese account should have been easy to disprove. In the travelogue Did Ancient Chinese Explore America? Rees candidly shares her initial doubts then her search and discoveries. She weaves together history, subtle humor, academic studies, and many photographs to tell a compelling story.

Chinese Australians

Chinese Australians
Author: Sophie Couchman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2015-01-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004288554

In Chinese Australians: Politics, Engagement and Resistance key scholars explore how Chinese Australians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries influenced the communities in which they lived on a civic or individual level. With a focus on the motivations and aspirations of their subjects, the authors draw on biography, world history, case law, newspapers and immigration case files to investigate the political worlds of Chinese Australians. The book also introduces current literature and thinking about the history of the Chinese in Australia and includes a postscript that reflects on the importance of historical analysis to current day political science.

Decent People

Decent People
Author: David Jellie
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-07-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781743057520

Decent People tells the story of David Jellie's ancestors from their arrival in Australia up to his parent's generation. They came from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England and Croatia - all arriving between 1835 and 1861. Three of them were sailors who jumped ship, and all gravitated to the Western District of Victoria where they became pioneer farmers. Their families are still rooted there. Some prospered and none failed. These pioneer Australians were not dwelling on the past when they left the shores of their homelands, but were looking to a new future for themselves and their successors. They were touched by the vicissitudes of the time and place of their lives - shipwreck, infant mortality, pandemic, untimely death, human frailty, drought, economic depressions and wars. They were all decent people. In Decent People David Jellie tells their stories with tenderness, intimacy, humour and gratitude.

The Transnational Voices of Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press

The Transnational Voices of Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press
Author: Catherine Dewhirst
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2020-11-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 303043639X

This edited collection invites the reader to enter the diverse worlds of Australia’s migrant and minority communities through the latest research on the contemporary printed press, spanning the mid-nineteenth century to our current day. With a focus on the rare, radical and foreign-language print culture of multiple and frequently concurrent minority groups’ newspaper ventures, this volume has two overarching aims: firstly to demonstrate how the local experiences and narratives of such communities are always forged and negotiated within a context of globalising forces – the global within the local; and secondly to enrich an understanding of the complexity of Australian ‘voices’ through this medium not only as a means for appreciating how the cultural heritage of such communities were sustained, but also for exploring their contributions to the wider society.

Journey Across the Four Seas

Journey Across the Four Seas
Author: Veronica Li
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781931907439

This is a true and touching story of one Chinese woman's search for home. It is also an inspiring book about human yearning for a better life. To escape poverty, Flora Li fought her way through the education system and became one of the few women to get into the prestigious Hong Kong University. When the Japanese invaded, she fled to unoccupied China, where she met her future husband, the son of China's finance minister (later deputy prime minister). She thought she had found the ideal husband, but soon discovered that he suffered from emotional disorders caused by family conflicts and the wars he had grown up in. Whenever he had a breakdown, Flora would move the family to another city, from Shanghai to Nanking to Hong Kong to Bangkok to Taipei and finally across the four seas to the U.S. Throughout her migrations, Flora kept her sight on one goal-providing her children with the best possible education. Author of a thriller, Nightfall in Mogadishu, Veronica Li grew up mostly in Hong Kong and moved to the U.S. with her parents at fifteen. She has a B.A. in English from University of California, Berkeley and a master's in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University. Li was a journalist for seven years, working for the Asian Wall Street Journal and other news organizations. She later joined the World Bank, for which she traveled extensively and got her inspiration for her novel and other writings. Her most recent book is a novel called Confucius Says.