Little China

Australian Chinese

Chinese Australians are Australian citizens of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Australians are one of the largest groups of Overseas Chinese people, and is the largest Overseas Chinese community in Oceania. Many Chinese Australians are immigrants along with their descendants from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, as well other countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore who have immigrated from Southeast Asia that include large populations of the Chinese diaspora. Chinese Australians are also a subgroup of East Asian Australians and represent the single largest minority in the country constituting approximately forty-percent of the Asian Australian population. As a whole, Australian residents identified themselves as having Chinese ancestry make up around four percent of Australia's population or approximately 865,000 people as of 2011. Citizens of Chinese ancestry made up 6.5 percent of the population of Melbourne.
The early history of Chinese Australians had involved significant immigration from villages of the Pearl River Delta in Southern China. Less well known are the kind of society Chinese Australians came from, the families they left behind and what their intentions were in coming. Many Chinese were lured to Australia by the gold rush. (Since the mid-19th century, Australia was dubbed the New Gold Mountain after the Gold Mountain of California in North America.) They sent money to their families in the villages, and regularly visited their families and retired to the village after many years, working as a market gardener, shopkeeper or cabinet maker. As with many overseas Chinese groups the world over, early Chinese immigrants to Australia established Chinatowns in several major cities, such as Sydney (Chinatown, Sydney), Brisbane (Chinatown, Brisbane) and Melbourne (Chinatown, Melbourne).
In spite of cultural transition difficulties, language barriers, and a strong fortitude from racial discrimination, Chinese Australians have evolved dramatically from working as indentured labourers to being one of the most well-established immigrant ethnic groups in Australia compared with the earlier immigrant arrivals.[citation needed] They record high levels of educational attainment that match and occasionally surpass the national average. With a high degree of upward academic and socioeconomic advancement and achievement, Chinese Australians are among the most well educated groups in Australia and comprise a large percentage of Australia's educated class, and hold higher educational records achievement among most demographic groups in the country. Sources

History

Chinese peoples have a long and continuing role in Australian history. There were early links between China and Australia when Macau and Canton were used as an important trading ports with the fledgling colony. Mak Sai Ying (also known as John Shying) was the first officially recorded Chinese migrant in 1818. After his arrival he spent some time farming before, in 1829 he became prominent as, the publican of The Lion in Parramatta. Early 19th Century migration was in limited numbers and sporadic, primarily those who came in this period were free merchants or adventurers and, the more common, indentured labourers.
The Australian Gold Rushes are what first lured thousands of Chinese to the country. In 1855 in Melbourne there were 11,493 Chinese arrivals.[9] This was startling considering that barely five years previous, Melbourne's entire population had only been around 25,000 people. Due to the widespread racists sentiments in parliament and on the goldfields, the first of many immigration restrictions and Chinese targeting laws was passed in late 1855. However, due to the long, poorly regulated borders between the colonies of Australia the numbers of Chinese on the goldfields continued to swell. Upon the goldfields Chinese peoples faced many hardships. There were violent anti-Chinese riots; the Buckland Riot, the Lambing Flats Riots, as well as general discrimination and prejudice. However, there were many establishments in this period that would have a lasting effect on the history of Australia and the history of Chinese in Australia. One of these establishments were the Chinese camps, which often, later, became Chinatowns in Australia. There was also the establishment and the consolidation of power for Chinese societies, many of these are still active in Australia today. These societies provided support and community for the Chinese in the colonies.
After the gold rushes the numbers of Chinese living in the cities swelled and their businesses and industries contributed much to growth of Melbourne and Sydney in the late 19th century. Mei Quong Tart was a prominent business figure in Sydney. However there were very few Chinese women migrating to Australia. At one point in the 1860s the numbers of Chinese in Australia was around 40,000. Of these, it is believed only 12, were women. This gender imbalance meant that some Chinese men married women of European descent but many had it in their hearts to return to China.
In 2005-6 China (not including Hong Kong or Macau) was the third major source of permanent migrants to Australia behind the United Kingdom and New Zealand but with more migrants than from India. Between 2000–01 and 2005–06, the number of skilled migrants coming to Australia from China more than tripled, from 3,800 to 12,500 people.Sources