Sinophone Australia edited by Craig A. Smith

Format:

Book

Series:

China and the West in the modern world

Language:

Chinese

English

Subjects (All):

Chinese--Australia--History--Sources.

Chinese.

Australia--History--Sources.

Australia.

Chinese prose literature--Translations into English.

Chinese prose literature.

Genre:

History

Sources

Translations

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Sydney Sydney University Press [2026]

Summary:

"Sinophone Australia opens a new window onto Australian history by foregrounding Chinese-language sources as a lens through which to reinterpret the nation’s past. Understanding Australian history through sources written in a different language offers a familiar yet fundamentally different perspective on the Australian experience. This groundbreaking volume brings together a rich collection of primary sources – letters, essays, travelogues – written in Chinese and now translated into English, spanning from the gold rush era of the 1850s to the postwar reflections of the 1950s. Each chapter includes primary sources translated into English and preceded by an academic introduction written by a historian who has engaged with these sources. In this respect, Sinophone Australia revises the Anglo-hegemony of historical writing, providing glimpses of non-English historical documents with the hopes that this will lead to the expansion of Australian history, just as a new multilingual generation of historians stands up to interpret the vast amount of source documents written in other languages. Beyond its contribution to Australian history, Sinophone Australia positions these narratives within the broader framework of the global Sinophone, addressing themes that resonate across settler colonies and Chinese-speaking communities worldwide. Sharing analysis from historians who have extensive experience working with Chinese-language sources on Australian history, Sinophone Australia invites scholars and readers to reconsider the intersections of language, migration and identity in shaping historical knowledge"-- JSTOR

Contents:

Introduction : A multilingual people and a monolingual state / Craig A. Smith

Bespattered with Chinese hieroglyphics : Rewriting Chinese into nineteenth-century Australia / Ely Finch and Michael Williams

The dynamics of publishing Chinese-language newspapers in White Australia / Mei-fen Kuo

Liang Qichao’s visit to Australia / Sophie Loy-Wilson

Sinophone writings on Indigenous Australians / Austin Tseng

The Sino-Japanese War in Sydney’s Sinophone theatre and literature, 1943 / Chao Guo and Josh Stenberg

The traveller : Elite voyages to Australia / Craig A. Smith

Narratives of Chinese Australian history : Taam Sze Pui and Liu Wei-ping, 1925 and 1956 / Craig A. Smith

Dismantling the White Australia Policy / Craig A. Smith

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (JSTOR, viewed May 27, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version Sinophone Australia

ISBN:

9781761540608

1761540602

9781761540615

1761540610

OCLC:

1592614104

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license