KMT Australia

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Brief History of Chinese Consulate-General in Australia 1908-1932

A Chinese Consulate-General to Australia was established in Melbourne by the Imperial Chinese government in 1909. It was the first permanent official contact between China and the new Commonwealth of Australia.

The process then took a more leisure pace. The first Chinese Consul-General for Australia, Liang Lan-hsun, was nominated in May, 1908. After the nomination was acceded to by Whitehall, his appointment was confirmed in October of that year. Liang Lan-hsun arrived in Melbourne in February 1909, and established the first Chinese consular office shortly after.

Liang Lan-hsun served from February 1909 to November 1910. Two more Imperial government appointees followed him: Tong Ying-tong from November of 1910 to May 1911, and Hwang Yung-liang from June 1911 to June 1913. During the latter’s tenure, in October 1911, the Wuhan Revolution occurred toppling the Imperial government. And in January 1912, China formally became a Republic – though not a revolutionary one.

There were high hopes amongst the Chinese residents that a forceful diplomatic representation on their behalf by the Chinese government would improve their situation in Australia. They were to be disappointed. All three imperial Consuls-General were uniformly unsuccessful in their efforts to get Australia to relax restrictions on Chinese immigrants. The parlous state of the government they represented would not have been helpful to them. None lasted more than two years.

The brief tenures and poor performance of successive imperial Consuls-General created new opportunities for Chinese nationalists to promote anti-Manchu attitudes and sympathy for Chinese revolutionaries linked to Sun Yat-sen’s movement. After the Chinese Republican government was established in 1912, reflecting the political situations in China, a confusing network of established and new associations emerged in contest for dominance of the Melbourne (and the Sydney) Chinese communities. The Kuo Min Tang Society was particularly successful and dominated community social alliances and patterns of leadership not only for Melbourne Chinese but also Chinese in Australia in the first half of twenty century. (Mei-fen Kuo, Making Chinese Australia, La Trobe University, 2008)

The situation would have been particularly difficult for Hwang Yung-liang, the last imperial Consul-General. In 1913 he resigned his position and returned to China. William Ah Ket, a second-generation Chinese Australian who grew up in Wangaratta in country Victoria, was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Victoria where he was for three decades the only Chinese lawyer in Victoria, was appointed as acting Consul General. William Ah Ket had a remarkable life as a successful lawyer and campaigner for Chinese rights, but is practically unknown amongst the Chinese community of today. He served as honorary consul-general until the first republican Consul-General – Tseng Tsung-kien - arrived in Melbourne in late 1913.

Tseng Tsung-kien served from November 1913 to August 1917, without, it appeared, much notable effect. When Tseng left, William Ah Ket once again became acting Consul-General, from September to December 1917, until the new appointee, Quei Tze-king, duly arrived in Australia.

Quei Tze-king was Consul-General for 11 years, from December 1917 to 1928, a record of longevity that remains unbroken to date. He appeared to have been a good representative of his nation, developing much goodwill with many elements of his host community, and with his diplomatic and consular colleagues. He was one of the founders of the Melbourne Consular and Trade-Commissioners’ Association in 1923, established in order to promote Australia’s international trades. He also achieved the distinction of being the first and only Chinese dean of the diplomatic and consular corps in Australia, a record that is now impossible to be broken since the diplomatic corps and the consular corps had been separate entities when the Commonwealth Government relocated to Canberra and that city became the only place with a diplomatic corps.

While he might have done well in his endeavour to promote China-Australia relationship by increasing commercial, cultural and educational exchanges, Quei was less successful in reducing the political tensions that existed in the Chinese community due to the different political sympathies of the different groups in the community. Indeed, there exists evidence that Consul-General Quei might have himself caused some of these tensions by his actions as official spokesman of the Chinese government against the Kuo Min Tang Society which was regarded as a renegade group opposed to the Beijing government.

In 1915 the Society had changed its official tile to become a branch of Chinese Nationalist Party, which was then in political opposite to the war-lords dominated Peking government in China. In 1921 after it had relocated to its new premises in Little Bourke Street, the Society sought formal registration with the Melbourne City Council in order to claim a legitimate political and civic role. It did not accomplish this official recognition until 1939; nevertheless by the late 1920s the Society had 500 members including most of the leading business and community figures in Melbourne’s Chinese community.. After the Nationalists in China took power in China in 1927, for a time the Australian branches of the Nationalist Party, specifically the Kuo Min Tang Society of Melbourne, combined a political and even quasi-governmental role, and its relationship with the Chinese Consul-General apparently improved dramatically. This did not seem to have extended Consul-General Quei’s tenure.

Consul-General Quei was recalled to China in April 1928, he was succeeded by Wu Chin-shung as acting Consul-General.

In late 1928 Sung Far-tsan arrived in Melbourne to take up the post of Consul-General. For possibly a number of reasons he decided Sydney was now a more appropriate location for the Consulate-General. One reason might be that as the Commonwealth Parliament and government departments had started to relocate to Canberra, Sydney was a closer location. Another might be that the Sydney Chinese community was, then as now, substantially larger than the one in Melbourne. Another might be that the Sydney branch of the Chinese Nationalist Party had finally, after a number of years of at time bitter dispute with the Melbourne branch, persuaded the central executive of the national organisation to designate it as the headquarter branch for all of Australasia. It would have made sense for the new Consul-General to want to be close to the ascending branch of the ruling party of the government. The move occurred in October 1929.

However, this was not the end for Melbourne; a reduced consular office was to be established here, and Selwyn Hong Nam (also known as Selwyn Woo), a second-generation Chinese Australian and a leading member of Melbourne’s Chinese community, was to be acting Consul. No money was allocated to the office, however, and Selwyn Hong Nam was very much left to his own device and whatever support he could generate from the local community, especially the Kuo Min tang Society, of which both Selwyn and his father Peter Ng Hong Nam were leading members.

In April 1930, Hong Li, Deputy Consul-General, was sent from Sydney to Melbourne to carry out consular duties with the support of the Kuo Min Tang Society. He was replaced by Pao Chun-hao in March 1931. Pao served until September 1032, when official Chinese representation in Melbourne ceased.


List of Chinese Consul-General in Melbourne from 1908 to 1932

Liang Lan-hsun: February 1909 – October 1910

Tong Ying-tung: November 1910 – April 1911

Hwang Yung-liang: May 1911 – June 1913

William Ah Ket (acting): August 1913 – October 1913

Tseng Tsung-kien: Nov 1913 – July 1917

William Ah Ket (acting): September – December 1917

Quei Tze-king: 14 December 1917 – April 1928

Wu Chin-shung: April 1928 – December 1928

Sung Far-tsan: December 1928 – September 1930 (moved to Sydney)

Selwyn Woo (acting): October 1930 – April 1930

Li Hong: April 1930 – March 1931

Pao Chun-hao: March 1931 – September 1932




www.kuomintang.org.au/en/en_introduction.aspx

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Brief History of the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia Inc

Chinese republican movement started much later in Sydney than it did in Melbourne. Comparatively, the Sydney Chinese community was more a stronghold of the monarchist “Emperor Protection Society” started by the former imperial tutor Kang Youwei and his disciple Liang Qichao following the failure of the “Hundred Days Reform” (戊戌變法) in 1898. This situation persisted for sometime even after the overthrow of the imperial government. So it was not until 1914 that the first discernable move was made toward establishing a public organ of republican sympathy in Sydney’s Chinese community.

In that year an alliance of leading Chinese citizens representing quite diverse interests came together to publish the Chinese republican News (“Guomin Yuebao”). Notable participants included George Bew (of the Wing On Company), Wong Yu-kong, the Rev John Young Wai (the grandfather of the 1996 Australian of the Year Professor John Yu, AC), and James Chuey (Grand Master of the Chinese Masonic Society). In the following year the group became the Chinese Revolutionary League, based at 43 Smith Street, Surrey Hills; and a year later it renamed itself the Chinese Nationalist League.

In 1920 the League finally adopted the Chinese name Kuomintang (KMT) and the English name Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia by which it is better known outside of the Chinese community, and became the main branch of the Party in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Throughout the 20th Century the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia was a major Chinese community organisation Sydney and played a key role in maintaining community solidarity during the years of the Chinese National Defence War against Japan which merged into the Pacific War after Pearl Habour. The KMT building at 75 Ultimo Road, Haymarket, which was acquired in 1921 was the centre of social and cultural activities for the Chinese community – the site for dances, dinners, social gatherings and the screening of Chinese movies. It also was – and is – the home of one of Sydney’s main Chinese language schools, the Yu Mei School.

After 1972, when the Australian Government shifted diplomatic recognition from the nationalist Republic of China to the communist People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia inevitably lost some of its influence in the community, and in response it curtailed many of its activities to concentrate on providing for the social and welfare needs of its members and the still substantial part of the community that looked to it for leadership and support.

In the 1980, with the influx of large number of Indo-Chinese refugees and with Taiwan and Southeast Asia becoming a major source of migrants who were wary of the threats posted by communist regimes, the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia again became an important player in the affairs of Sydney’s Chinese community. At about this time, the organisation’s leadership also came to realise that there was another important community role in helping the Chinese community to define its place in the Australia nation.

Over the years, because of its pre-eminent position in the Kuomintang organisation in Australia and the South Pacific, the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia in Sydney office has collected and preserved a large collection of records, documents, publications, photographs and artefacts of historical significance, not only to the Chinese community but also to the Australian nation as a whole. With the intention of making the organisation, in the words of its current CEO, Mr Eugene Seeto, “[to] become a force again in maintaining the local Chinese community in peace and harmony”.

The archival collections of the Chinese Nationalist Party of Australasia in Sydney have been the subject of a number of grants for significance assessment, including one from the National Library of Australia in 2006, and a NSW Small Heritage Grant in 2005.

Brief History of the Kuo Min Society of Melbourne and its archives

The Kuo Min Tang Society of Melbourne was established in 1904 by a group of leading citizens of Melbourne’s Chinese community, amongst them Albert Honan and Wong Shi Geen, as the Chinese Empire Reform Association. It was reorganised and took its present name in 1915.

The original name of the Society was an interesting one given the direction it subsequently took as the leading light in Australia for the revolutionary actions for the overthrow of the old Imperial government. This choice of name probably reflected the cautiousness of the founders, who were, as a rule, successful business people.

The Chinese name of the Society, the Xinminqizhihui (新民啟智會), meaning a “new society for [helping Chinese] people to gain knowledge”, or perhaps a “society of new people with knowledge”, was more challenging and probably more revealing of the intent of its founders: knowledge, especially New Knowledge, almost always implies challenge to the Old Order. The Revive China Society (興中會) formed by Dr Sun Yat-sen, China’s leading revolutionary figure, in Honolulu in 1894, was similarly mild sounding, but equally subversive, as the term “中華” – China - amongst common Chinese during the Qing Dynasty implicitly excluded the ruling Manchus. In any case, from its formation till 1921, the Society shared the same premises – 189 Russell Street - with a locally published Chinese-language newspaper, the Chinese Times, which was the leading voice in the republican movement in Australia’s Chinese community, so its political sympathy was clear.

The Xinminqizhihui probably maintained close links with similar organisations in other overseas Chinese communities during the following tumultuous decade of modern Chinese history which saw the replacement of Imperial China by the republic of China. In the meantime, Dr Sun Yat-sen had first formed, in 1905, the Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui同盟會); then, in 1912, Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang). In 1915, the Society reformed as the Kuo Min Tang Society of Melbourne, and formally affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party as one of its Australasian branches. It is probably an indication of how far the Society had moved from its conservative origin that it had taken this action, because politically it was an extremely poor move, since in China Dr Sun Yat-sen had long since been supplanted by the military adventurer Yuan Shi-kai who was about to proclaim himself the new emperor. Nevertheless, it is consistent with the way the Society had always saw itself as a community organisation working to achieve the greater good of the larger community.

Unlike other, more traditional Chinese community organizations, Xinminqizhihui was open to all people of Chinese heritage, without the usual, restricted membership requirement of: clan, religion, occupation, native-place, or sworn-brotherhood affiliation. Exceptionally, there was also no gender exclusion. No record remains of the purpose and intent of the founders of the Society. However, oral tradition passed down amongst the members and supported by examples of newsletters of the Society – under its later name - published in 1920s and 1930s indicate that these founders aimed to promote awareness of their civil and political rights amongst members of Melbourne’s Chinese community, with an emphasis on replacing or modifying traditional Chinese community views and behaviours with modern and democratic ideas and values. Thus, it may be said to be the first Chinese community group to represent modern values.

Historically the Society has been one of the more important – arguably the most important – community organisations to be formed in and by the Chinese community in Australia during the Age of White Australia. As the first Chinese-Australian community organisation to be set up without the restricted membership that characterised traditional Chinese community organizations, the Society was the first modern Melbourne Chinese institution as already noted. As well as an important bearer of modern values of freedom and public participation, it was also an important agent in the construction of a modern Chinese identity in the context of White Australia.

Together with – and sometimes in opposition to – the Chinese Consulate-General which officially represented China, The Society played a major role in linking the Australian Chinese community to the affairs of China during that nation’s turbulent transition from dynastic empire to modern nation state. From it inception under enormous pressure from both foreign invasive forces and internal dissents, the fragile Chinese Republic (1912-1945) naturally turned to the large diasporic Chinese population which had overwhelmingly supported the republican movement, for support in its state and nation building efforts. By and large, it may be said that until the ideological differences in Chinese politics descended into the bloody civil wars of 1946-1049, the diasporic community never failed to respond the calls for help from the homeland. The Australian Chinese community was no exception to the rule, providing generous aids on many occasions and for a range of purposes. The Society’s key role in these mobilising efforts was both indicated in archival materials held in its custodianship, and also well documented elsewhere.

From 1949 and through the early Cold War years, the Society continued to be an influential organisation within Melbourne’s Chinese community. It continued to perform a prominent cultural function to the community, through such activities as a weekly movie show, a monthly news magazine, community dinners on special days, and Chinese opera shows. The changes in the Australian society at the end of the Vietnam conflicts coincided with the ageing of the Society’s membership, had contributed to a graduate curtailing of the Society’s activities. Nevertheless, today the Society retains a belief that because of the Society’s historic significance as a contributor to the development of the Chinese community of Australia, it has still a particularly important role to play as custodian of that historic memory, which as all memories serves as wise guidance for future directions. It will continue as one of the many sources of modern Australia’s diverse and vibrant multiculturalism.