‘Aspirational’ Chinese: Achieving Community Prominence on Thursday Island, Northeast Australia

Abstract

The experience of the Chinese diaspora in Australia has been the subject of much academic attention in the past three decades. The prevailing narrative of the Chinese presence, which dates from early White occupation of Australia, has highlighted discourses of marginalization and exclusion for the Chinese pioneers who contributed so significantly to the economic development of the nation. Yet, despite their economic success, few Chinese gained regard and standing in mainstream colonial society and, of these, the best known resided in southern cities. Across northern Australia, far from the major population centers and seats of government, Chinese also became economically successful as agriculturists and merchants. Again, only a handful sought and obtained wider community acceptance, even local prominence. Our study draws on the diasporic experience of Chinese on Thursday Island in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to elucidate strategies employed by a minority to achieve social status within the general community. Through exploration of the socio-cultural forces influencing their choices — the dominant ethos of Thursday Island, multi-ethnicity and the consequences of anti-Chinese legislation — a unique portrait of the Chinese diasporic experience emerges, narrated through multiple sites of cultural collusion and contestation.