Labour History

Footnotes

*The author would like to thankLabour History’stwo anonymous referees. Google Scholar

1.According to a report by the Inspector of Factories, W. H. Ellis, a society of Chinese furniture makers was established in 1888. SeeReport of the Chief Inspector of Factories, Work-Rooms and Shops for the Year Ended 31st December 1888(:Government Printer, 1889), Victorian Parliamentary Papers, no.30(1889):10, accessed October 2017,https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/vufind/Record/66040.Chinese Australian Herald, 19 December1903, 2. The Chinese Cabinetmakers’ Union was calledXijia hangorXijia muhangin Chinese. Google Scholar

2.Andrew Markus andKen Carr, “Divided We Fall: The Chinese and the Melbourne Furniture Trade 1870–1900,” Labour History, no.26(March1974):1–10;Liam Ward, “Radical Chinese Labour in Australian History,” Marxist Left Review, no.10(Winter2015), accessed October 2017,http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php/no-10-winter-2015/123-radical-chinese-labour-in-australian-history;Peter Gibson, “Voices of Sydney’s Chinese Furniture Factory Workers, 1890–1920,” Labour History, no.112(May2017):99–117. Google Scholar

3.SeeJohn Fitzgerald, Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia(:University of New South Wales Press, 2007);Adam McKeown, “Conceptualizing Chinese Diasporas, 1842 to 1949,” Journal of Asian Studies 58, no.2(1999):306–37;Elizabeth Sinn, Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong(:Hong Kong University Press, 2013). Google Scholar

4.M. B. Hammond, “Judicial Interpretation of the Minimum Wage in Australia,” American Economic Review 3, no.2(June1913):268. Google Scholar

5.Henry Bournes Higgins, “A New Province for Law and Order: Industrial Peace through Minimum Wage and Arbitration,” Harvard Law Review 29, no.1(November1915):13–39. Google Scholar

6.Marilyn Lake, “Challenging the ‘Slave-Driving Employers’: Understanding Victoria’s 1896 Minimum Wage Though a World-History Approach,” Australian Historical Studies 45, no.1(2014):87–102. Google Scholar

7.John Anthony Leckey, Low, Degraded Broots? Industry and Entrepreneurialism in Melbourne’s Little Lon, 1860–1950(:Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2004), ch. 9, 256–307. Google Scholar

8.Further discussions on Chinese Australian politics seeSophie Couchman, “Introduction,”inChinese Australians: Politics, Engagement and Resistance, ed.Sophie Couchman andKate Bagnall(:Brill, 2015), 1–21. Google Scholar

9.Markus andCarr, “Divided We Fall”;Fitzgerald, Big White Lie, 126–52;Ward, “Radical Chinese Labour.” Google Scholar

10.I adopt approaches from scholarship on modern Chinese labour politics.Elizabeth J. Perry, Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor(:Stanford University Press, 1993);Elizabeth J. Perry, ed., Putting Class in Its Place: Worker Identities in EastAsia (:Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1996);Michael Tsin, Nation, Governance, and Modernity in China: Canton, 1900–1927(:Stanford University Press, 1999). Google Scholar

11.Anne Atkinson, “Chinese Labour and Capital in Western Australia, 1847–1947”(PhD diss.,Murdoch University, 1991), 226. Google Scholar

12.Sing-Wu Wang, The Organization of Chinese Emigration, 1848–1888, with Special Reference to Chinese Emigration to Australia(:Chinese Materials Center, 1978), 112–18. Google Scholar

13.See the memoirs of Gock Lock, a Sydney Chinese merchant.Gock Lock, Huiyilu(:publisher unknown, 1949). Google Scholar

14.For a comprehensive study on the Chinese furniture industry in Melbourne and the discriminatory regulation against Chinese furniture workers, seeLeckey, Low, Degraded Broots, 256–307;C. Y Yong, The New Gold Mountain: The Chinese in Australia 1901–1921(:Raphael Arts, 1977), 41–45. Google Scholar

15. Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories, Work-Rooms and Shops for the Year Ended 31st December 1897(:Government Printer, 1898), Victorian Parliamentary Papers, no.22(1898):10–11, accessed October 2017,http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/vufind/Record/49432. Google Scholar

16. Ibid. Google Scholar

17. The Argus, 11 August1897, 5. Google Scholar

18.Francis G. Castles andJohn Uhr, “The Australian Welfare state: Has Federalism Made a Difference?” Australian Journal of Politics and History 53, no.1(2007):96–117;Philip Mendes, “The Australian Trade Union Movement and the Welfare Sector: A Natural Alliance?” Journal of Australian Political Economy, no.42(1998):106–28. Google Scholar

19.Elizabeth J. Perry, “Chinese Conceptions of ‘Rights’: From Mencius to Mao – and Now,” Perspectives on Politics 6, no.1(2008):37–50. Google Scholar

20.Mei-fen Kuo, Making Chinese Australia: Urban Elites, Newspapers and the Formation of Chinese-Australian Identity, 1892–1912(:Monash University Publishing, 2013), ch. 6. Google Scholar

21.SeeMarkus andCarr, “Divided We Fall,” 9. Google Scholar

22.The CFEU’s Chinese name wasDongjia hangorDongjia muhang, which literally translated as Furniture Employees’ Union; seeChinese Australian Herald, 19 December1903, 2. Google Scholar

23. Ibid. Google Scholar

24. Chinese Times, 10 June1903, 10. Google Scholar

25. The Argus, 29 September1903, 5; 30 September1903, 8; a letter from a Chinese worker, The Argus, 3 October1903, 19. Google Scholar

26. The Argus, 29 September1903, 5. Google Scholar

27. The Argus, 3 October1903, 19. Google Scholar

28. The Argus, 6 October1903, 5. Google Scholar

29. The Argus, 30 September1903, 8. Google Scholar

30.They refused other clauses which included: covering expenses connected with the strike; excluding European workmen from employment; excluding the incorporation of glass and timber merchants from their union; furnishing a guarantee that the employers would not breach the rules of the CCU; payment of £2 cash by each employer to the CCU to cover union running costs; and the donation of two roast pigs for use as offerings for worship.Chinese Times, 7 October1903, 3; 21 October1903, 3;The Argus, 10 October1903, 17. Google Scholar

31.The Argus, 30 September1903, 8. Google Scholar

32. Chinese Australian Herald, 19 December1903, 2. Google Scholar

33. Chinese Times, 28 October1903, 3;The Argus, 3 December1903, 7. Google Scholar

34. Chinese Times, 4 November1903, 3. Google Scholar

35. Chinese Australian Herald, 28 November1903, 5. Google Scholar

36. The Age, 19 November1903, 6. Google Scholar

37.The Argus, 3 December1903, 7. Google Scholar

38.Ward, “Radical Chinese Labour,”8–11. Google Scholar

39.Bo Leong Society established branches in Bendigo and Ballarat where there was strong membership of the Yee Hing Society.Yong, The New Gold Mountain, 159. Google Scholar

40. Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories, Work-Rooms and Shops … 1897, 9–11. Google Scholar

41.Yong, The New Gold Mountain, 159. Google Scholar

42. The Argus, 21 November1903, 17; 24 February1905, 9. In October 1904, violence erupted between members of the Bo Leong Society and the Yee Hing Society over the distribution of illegal gambling and opium profits.Chinese Australian Herald, 17 September1904, 5; 8 October1904, 2; 20 October1904, 3;Sydney Morning Herald, 27 September1904, 5. Although the Bo Leong and the Yee Hing Societies made peace in court, another fight broke out in Little Bourke Street on 14 March 1905;Chinese Times, 11 March1905, 3. This time, 120 Chinese from Geelong attacked a gambling house in Melbourne’s Chinatown, causing what theTung Wah Timesdescribed as the largest fight yet in Melbourne’s Chinese community;Tung Wah Times, 11 March 1905, supplement. Google Scholar

43. Chinese Times, 7 October1903, 3; 21 October1903, 2. Google Scholar

44.Yong, The New Gold Mountain, 267. Google Scholar

45. Chinese Times, 4 January1905, 3; 21 January1911, 7–8;Weekly Times, 25 April1903, 12–15. Google Scholar

46.Louey Pang arrived in Melbourne in 1888 and worked in the furniture trade. He changed to the fruit wholesale trade in 1917.Weekly Times, 25 April1903, 12;Chinese Times, 7 October1903, 3. Google Scholar

47.SeeFitzgerald, Big White Lie, 138–139; Samuel Wong was a leading member of the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia in the late 1910s and 1920; seeMei-fen Kuo andJudith Brett, Unlocking the History of the Australasian Kuo Min Tang, 1911–2013(:Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2013), 49–50. Google Scholar

48. North West Champion, 15 September1927, 1. Google Scholar

49.Also known asChung Hua Kung Hwei. Google Scholar

50. Chinese Times, 20 February1910, 2;Tung Wah Times, 6 February1904, 4; 13 February1904, 2; 30 April 1904, supplement; 7 May1904, 7; 16 July1904, 2; 5 June1909, 2, 7. Google Scholar

51. Chinese Times, 4 May1904, 4; 11 May1904, 2; 8 October1904, 3; 3 March1906, 3. Google Scholar

52.Chen Zhiming, Zhongguo Guomindang Aozhou dangwu fazhan shikuang[Historical outline of the development of Chinese KMT party affairs in Australasia] (:Zhongguo Guomindang zhu au zongzhibu, 1935), 163. Google Scholar

53.In Chinese, Xinminqi zhihuiliterally translates as New People’s Knowledge Society. Google Scholar

54. Chinese Times, 12 October1904, 2. Google Scholar

55. Chinese Times, 18 January, 4; 25 February 1905, supplement; 22 September1906, 3. Google Scholar

56.See entry for 2 November 1905, Letterbooks of Cheok Hong Cheong, 1897–1918, Bib ID 85213, National Library of Australia, Canberra.Chinese Times, 30 November1904, 2; 27 May 1905, supplement. Google Scholar

57.Chinese Times, 29 December1906, 2. Google Scholar

58.Leckey, Low, Degraded Broots, 301. Google Scholar

59.Kuo, Making Chinese Australia, ch. 4. Google Scholar

60. Tung Wah Times, 16 July 1904, supplement. Google Scholar

61.Mei-fen Kuo, “The Making of a Diasporic Identity: The Case of the Sydney Chinese Commercial Elite, 1890s-1900s,” Journal of Chinese Overseas 5, no.2(2009):336–63. Google Scholar

62. Chinese Times, 11 March1905, 1; 18 March1905, 1. Google Scholar

63.Kuo, Making Chinese Australia. Google Scholar

64.For example, seeChinese Times, 6 April1906, 6; 26 October1907, 6; 7 December1907, 2–3. Google Scholar

65. Tung Wah Times, 17 June 1905, supplement. Google Scholar

66. Tung Wah Times, 12 August 1905, supplement;Chinese Times, 28 October 1905, supplement; 4 November 1905, supplement. Google Scholar

67. Chines Times, 18 November1905, 1; 6 January1906, 1. Google Scholar

68. Tung Wah Times, 3 February1906, 6; 21 July1906, 6. Google Scholar

69. Chinese Times, 10 March 1906, supplement. Google Scholar

70. Chinese Times, 21 July1906, 6. Google Scholar

71. Chinese Times, 30 June1906, 1; 21 July1906, 3. Google Scholar

72. Tung Wah Times, 9 September 1905, supplement. Google Scholar

73.Yong, The New Gold Mountain, 19. Google Scholar

74. Chinese Times, 18 August1906, 3. Google Scholar

75. Chinese Times, 25 August1906, 3. Google Scholar

76. Chinese Times, 18 August1906, 4;Tung Wah Times, 1 September1906, 6. Google Scholar

77. Chinese Times, 8 September1906, 2. Google Scholar

78.W. Ah Ket, A Paper on the Chinese and the Factories Acts, to Which is Added a Report of a Meeting of the Public Questions Committee of the Council of the Churches, Held on the 3rd September, 1906 to Discuss the “Chinese Employment Bill” then before the Legislative Assembly(:Arbuckle, Waddell & Fawckner, 1906). Google Scholar

79. Chinese Times, 20 July1907, 2. Google Scholar

80. The Argus, 23 August1907, 9. Google Scholar

81. The Argus, 30 October1907, 11. Google Scholar

82.W. Shi Geenet. al., Petition to the Honourable, the Speaker, and Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Victoria, Presented on 15th August 1906, Bib ID 2138980, National Library of Australia, Canberra. Google Scholar

83. Chinese Times, 26 October1907, 2. Google Scholar

84. Chinese Times, 2 November1907, 2;The Argus, 23 October1907, 7. Google Scholar

85. Chinese Times, 7 December1907, 7. Google Scholar

86. Tung Wah Times, 16 November1907, 7. Google Scholar

87. Chinese Times, 16 November1907, 6. Google Scholar

88. Ibid., 4–5. Google Scholar

89. Chinese Times, 23 May1908, 8. Google Scholar

90. Chinese Times, 4 July1908, 2; 24 April1909, 2. Google Scholar

91. Chinese Times, 4 July1908, 2; 10 April1909, 2; 24 April1909, 2. Google Scholar

92.Kuo, Making Chinese Australia, ch. 7. Google Scholar

93. Chinese Times, 30 October1909, 10. Google Scholar

94. Chinese Times, 25 September1909, 9–10; 18 December1909, 9. Google Scholar

95. Chinese Times, 5 December1909, 8. Google Scholar

96. Chinese Times, 15 January1910, 8. Google Scholar

97.Margrit Pernau andHelge Jordheim, “Introduction,”inCivilizing Emotions: Concepts in Nineteenth Century Asia and Europe, ed.Margrit Pernau, et. al.(:Oxford University Press, 2015), 2. Google Scholar

98. Chinese Times, 27 March1909, 2. Google Scholar

99. Tung Wah Times, 27 May1899, 2; 19 July1899, 2;Chinese Australian Herald, 13 May 1905, supplement. Google Scholar

100. Chinese Times, 27 March1909, 10. Google Scholar

101. Chinese Times, 11 April1908, 10. Google Scholar

102. Chinese Times, 15 July1911, 2. Google Scholar

103. Chinese Times, 15 May1909, 9. Google Scholar

104. Chinese Times, 17 October1908, 10. Google Scholar

105. Chinese Times, 15 July1911, 4. Google Scholar

106. Chinese Times, 31 December1909, 2. Google Scholar

107. Chinese Times, 28 January1911, 6. Google Scholar

108. The Age, 24 January1911. Google Scholar

109. Chinese Times, 22 April1912, 3.Kuo andBrett, Unlocking the History of the Australasian Kuo Min Tang, 3. Google Scholar

110. Chinese Times, 11 October1911, 6; 11 May 1912; 18 May1912, 3; 27 July1912, 3. Google Scholar

111. Chinese Times, 4 May1912, 2–3. Google Scholar

112. The Age, 28 December1910, 7. Google Scholar

113.Kuo andBrett, Unlocking the History of the Australasian Kuo Min Tang, 49–50. Google Scholar

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