Kira Brown, Gill Oxley, Paul Macgregor, Ely Finch and I are devastated at the loss of our dear friend and colleague and Our Chinese Past committee member Malcolm Oakes.Read More
Caption: Sam Bow’s store at Rocky River. Image courtesy of Janice Wilton, Heritage Futures Database project supported by the Heritage Futures Research Centre, University of New England, Armidale, 2009. Leslie Alan Bow (1903 – 1983) Leslie Alan Bow was born in Uralla in 1903. His parents’ names at the time of his birth appear in the New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages online index as Sam and Minnie Bow.[1] Leslie was the eldest of five boys born to Sam and Minnie, of whom only four survived to adulthood. He married Queensland-born Ching Choy Lan, then known as “Jessie” Ching Sum, at Uralla in 1929, a year after the death of his mother, Minnie in 1928.[2], [3] Choy Lan Bow née Ching then appears to have adopted this westernised first name, “Jessie”, for most of her adult life, reverting to her Chinese given name only at the time of her death in 1999. Accordingly, she will be referred to throughout...Read More
These stelae are inscribed with thousands of Chinese characters, and list the names of the organisers, community representatives, and individual donors who brought about the building's 1866 reconstruction.Read More
The Our Chinese Past Temples Project is looking at artefacts from at least 8 Chinese temples in the New England North West region. None of these temples still exists, but a number of their artefacts do.Read More
My name is Malcolm Oakes and I am a member of Our Chinese Past. I’m the historian in the family, but my wife Beverley is the connection to Chinese history. Bev is Australian born Chinese.Read More
Our English name “Our Chinese Past” was selected to reflect our view of Australia’s Chinese history as an integral part of Australian history, something that belongs to all of us as AustraliansRead More
My name is Ely Finch and I have the honour to be the translator for the first Our Chinese Past project. I hail from a sheep farm in far western Victoria and have an abiding passion for Chinese languages and traditional Chinese literature. At present, I am working full time as a historical Chinese linguist and consultant translator, specialising in old texts written in Literary (Classical) Chinese, Cantonese, and other southern Chinese languages, particularly ones that pertain to the nineteenth-century Chinese diaspora. My largest translation to date is of Australia’s – and possibly the West’s – first Chinese-language novel, The Poison of Polygamy, which was published last year by Sydney University Press. Incidentally, this unusual novel makes for an entertaining read, and its front matter, footnotes and appendices – which can be skipped initially – turn it into a good introduction to Chinese Australian history. First page of Bew Chip’s register—National Parks and Wildlife Services, Old Visitors Centre, Beyers Ave,...Read More
