Mei-Fen Kuo

The period I particularly interest is the Chinese Australia history in the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century.

And the reason I'm particularly interested in this period is because I argued that this was a turning point of the Chinese-Australian identity.

And for quite a few reasons.

The first reason is because in this period, the Chinese-Australian in Sydney and Melbourne, they established the new Chinese newspapers and the new social organizations.

So I find these Chinese newspapers are very fascinating material to understand how the Chinese and Australian think about themselves, but also how they represent themselves to the mainstream.

Also, in this period, we can see how these Chinese, they fight against the Huaycha policy, and also they reconsider themselves as a modern subject.

And also, that period is quite interesting because, as we know, China had went through

quite few revolution at that time.

So how these Chinese Australia, they consider their identity in the late 19th century to the first half of 20th century was very important.

I think definitely.

And I think in the gold field history, it's quite important to understand how this first generation of the Chinese Australia settle in Australia and interact with other community groups in the colony society.

I discovered this novel when I was a PhD student.

So this novel was published in 1909 and 1910.

It was written by a Chinese nationalist journalist in Melbourne.

So the novel was first published in the Chinese Times in Melbourne.

In the very beginning, the novel was used to attract more readers to buy the newspapers.

And this novel possibly could be the earliest Chinese language novel published in the English-speaking country.

And it was very unique because it talked about the Chinese experience in Goldfield and also the later community building in Melbourne, but also very frustrating story about the families apart in Melbourne and China, so how they connect to each other.

Yes.

When I turned the book on, in the very first page, it mentioned the year 1877.