Chinese Through the Americas Panel Title: Traveling Despite the Red

The 5th WCILCOS International Conference of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies Chinese through the Americas May 16‐19, 2012 Vancouver, B.C. Canada Panel Title: Traveling Despite the Red Tape of the White Australia Policy Panel Abstract: Much of the history of the Chinese overseas in the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century is a history of capital and global actors in constant motion through and within the waters of the Pacific. As myriad migrant merchants, traders, and laborers moved across the oceans, they built long-standing and complex economic, social, and cultural relationships which resulted in a far-reaching web of global networks constructed for purposes of trade and migration. Colonies in Southeast Asia, villages in South China, state capitals in a young post-federation Australia, and port cities in the Americas were all connected by the travels of migrants at that time. In order to land at their destinations or be guaranteed entry upon return, travelers had to navigate varying systems of policies and ensure that they had the correct documents before embarking on each voyage. This panel takes into focus the travels between South China and the South Pacific. Together, the papers explore the experience of overseas travel and the negotiation of bureaucratic processes under the White Australia Policy. One paper discusses, in detail, the early twentieth century travels of Anglo-Chinese Australians, primarily to Hong Kong and China, on holidays, for education, business, and to visit family. Like other ‘non-white’ Australians, Anglo-Chinese Australians were subject to the regulations of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, under which they did not have an automatic right of return to Australia, even though they were Australian-born British subjects. Another paper presents the stories of migrants who traveled between Kaiping, China and Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. After Australia’s invasion and subsequent occupation of New Guinea in 1914, the laws of Australia were put in place, effectively extending the reach of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 onto this newly acquired territory. One such family that was affected by this legislation was the Situ family, many of whom had settled in the area from Kaiping, China. Although life was difficult in Rabaul, the Situ family generously donated their income to the development of their hometown in China. The third paper suggests that the primary concerns of migrant merchants were simply to navigate a space bounded by the confines of their decisions, interactions, and activities, all the while, attempting to accumulate the most capital at the least amount of expense. Like Anglo-Chinese Australians traveling abroad, Chinese overseas merchants in Australia also had to comply with immigration restrictions under the White Australia Policy. Furthermore, business transactions which required travel across state lines within Australia were subject to additional taxation. These expenses were merely figured into the cost of doing business, and the policies were understood and navigated, much like how the seas were divided into travel routes and traversed, entirely for the sake of capital accumulation. As the bureaucratic processes controlling travel under the White Australia Policy evolved, so too, did the responses of the migrant travelers. Despite the restrictive policies that were put in place to regulate and inhibit the movement of capital and bodies during this time, global actors were still able to forge ahead, plotting their courses across the Pacific, all the while, making connections between far-away lands and distant homes. Panel Papers: “Paper trails: Anglo-Chinese Australians and the White Australia Policy.” Kate Bagnall Editor / Web content developer / Historical researcher “Situ Family’s Experience between Papua New Guinea and China (1920s to 1930s).” Selia Jinhua Tan Ph.D. Candidate, University of Hong Kong; Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Wuyi University “Navigating Policies and the Seas: Migrant Merchants of the Wing On and Sincere Department Stores.” Heidi H. Kong Ph.D. Candidate, History, The University of British Columbia, Canada Visiting Scholar, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore .

Load more