The SMH explains that this year marks an anniversary in Chinese-Australian history - the creation in 1917 and subsequent collapse of the China-Australia Mail Steamship Line- a story that reveals how a community has flourished despite institutional and cultural obstacles.
This year marks an important anniversary in Chinese-Australian history; the creation in 1917 and subsequent collapse of the China-Australia Mail Steamship Line; a story that reveals how Chinese Australians have faced institutional, cultural and cyclical obstacles; how they have been knocked down; yet how they have got up again.
In his notable history Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia, John Fitzgerald tells how the China-Australia Mail Steamship Line was born in 1917 of the desire and ingenuity required to counter profiteering by Japanese shipping companies.
Three otherwise contradictory Chinese community bodies here joined forces: the republican Kuo Min Tang, the Sydney Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese Masonic society. They found in seeking cheaper shipping options what Fitzgerald calls "a patriotic motive sufficiently powerful to bring the disparate organisations together".
But the venture succumbed eventually to what Fitzgerald calls "a dispute over control of the board between rival factions in Sydney commercial circles", with families, regional and "native place-lines" laid bare by 1922.
Yet the broader Chinese community survived in Sydney and thrives a century later, having battled deportations, immigration bans, discrimination, business breakdowns, community fissures and often the burden of being associated - in most cases incorrectly - with decisions made in mainland China.
We thank all Australians of Chinese heritage for their ability to remain upbeat and work hard to achieve a better way of life here, to make Australia a more exciting and vibrant nation, to everyone's benefit.
