Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia

The central purpose of John Fitzgerald's book is to show how this new defence of White Australia rests on nothing more substantial than the revival of the original fantasy on which the exclusion was based: the myth of the servile, hierarchical, secretive and sinister "John Chinaman". As antidote, Fitzgerald provides, for the first time in our historical literature, a colourful, sometimes quirky and frequently surprising individual and collective portrait of the community of the Chinese who migrated to Australia before Federation. Many we discover were principled democrats and nationalists. Many became deeply involved in the struggle to liberalise and modernise China. Some became the most important figures of Shanghai business before the Communist victory of 1949. Several served Australia nobly both in peace and in war. Although dwindling in numbers and driven to the margins of the society by the White Australia Policy, many continued, despite everything, to feel great affection for Australia and for the values of the society that had needlessly turned its back on them.