Mei-Fen Kuo

And in fact, that was a very important year of the Chinese community in the North Queensland.

Because according to the colonial record, by 1877, there were about, I think, 17,000 Chinese on the North Queensland gold field.

And it's probably to say that more Chinese than European at that time.

And 1877 was also an important year that the Queensland government inherited the Chinese Immigrant Relocation Act, which limited the number of the Chinese arriving on any one ship and taxed them £10 per head.

And the £10 at that time is roughly about $1,400 today, so it's quite a lot of money.

But you can see the Chinese

they come to the North Queensland quite a lot.

So 1877 was really a turning point of the Chinese ultra history.

But also I think it's quite important in this novel really bring us, bring the attention to the North Queensland Chinese community in 1877.

I really like this book when I read this.

And these two characters, these two siblings,

They represent very different characters when they land to a strange land.

And I think the first thing, they run away from their family, their poor family in China.

because the mother sell their siblings to other families.

So the Ying and Lei Yun, the two siblings, they also hear about Australia and they thought they can find the function in Australia.

So that is a very important thing they consider if they migrate to Australia, then they can earn the money.

And after they save the money, they return home, they can repay all the damages.

Yes, I think back to the main 19th century, China, particularly the South China, was in chaos.

And, you know, China was forced to open door to the imperialists.

And also China went through the civil wars and famine.