Chinese-Australian collections

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The National Library actively collects materials created by the Chinese communities and organisations in Australia, as well as Australia-related works published in China. This includes both historical materials and contemporary works. 

Early Chinese newspapers in Australia

The four earliest known Chinese-Australian newspapers are digitised and available through the National discovery service Trove. Links to the online newspapers are listed below.

• Chinese Advertiser (1856) / English and Chinese Advertiser (1856-1858)
• Chinese Australian Herald (1894-1923)
• Tung Wah News (1898-1902) / Tung Wah Times (1911-1936)
• Chinese Times (1902-1922)

Current publications deposited with the Library

Legal deposit is a requirement for Australian publications to be deposited with the National Library of Australia. In line with the Library’s preference, many works are now deposited and delivered in digital format through the National eDesposit service. Legal deposit enables the Library to collect, preserve and provide access to a comprehensive collection of Australia’s documentary heritage. Through legal deposit, a collection of Chinese-language publications including books, newspapers, magazines, community newsletters, reports and yearbooks is acquired. Examples include:

• Australian Chinese daily 澳洲新報
• Yearbook of Chinese in Australia 澳大利亚华人年鉴

Chinese publications related to Australia

Chinese-language works about Australia or by Australian authors published in China, for instance:

• Chinese journal of Australian studies;
• Lonely star on lonesome nights: a history of the Chinese Australians 1860-1940

Oral history

The Library’s oral history collection includes a rich and diverse collection of interviews and recordings with earlier ones dating back to the 1950s. There are hundreds of individual interviews and recordings by Chinese migrants, Australians with Chinese background, Australian diplomats, politicians, academics, delegations and others who lived or visited China. Projects of particular note include:

• Post-War Chinese Australians and Chinese Australian Oral History Partnership from the Diana Giese Collection

These two projects were initiated and organised by Diana Giese. These collections comprise 77 interviews with Chinese Australians, recorded between 1992 and 2002 in Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Innisfail, Townsville, Broome and Hobart. They include interviews with some notable public figures, such as Professor Mabel Lee, Dr John Yu, Bishop George Tung Yep, Henry Nan Hung Pan, Senator Bill O’Chee, King Moo Fong, Helen Sham-Ho, Annette Shun Wah, Marjorie Ho, Richard Lim and Helene Chung Martin. Interviewees also include pioneers and community leaders, businesspeople, artists and intellectuals, politicians, and members of the large Kwong, Chin, Fong, Yuen and Tong families.

• Australia-China oral history project

This project was conducted in association with the Australia-China Council and the Museum of Chinese Australian History. It includes 13 interviews with Australians living in China and Chinese Australians born in Australia before WWII.

• Beyond the cables - Australian Ambassadors to China oral history project

The former Australian ambassadors to the People’s Republic of China are interviewed to mark the 40^th anniversary (1972-2012) of diplomatic relations between China and Australia.

Voices of Chinese Australian communities and China knowledge gained by Australia-China bilateral relations and cultural exchange are also represented in many other oral history projects. Relevant oral histories include interviews with early official and cultural delegations to China in the China Maytime Festival Tour 1971 project, with unemployed Indochinese refugees featured in the Cultural context of unemployment oral history project, and the Australian diplomacy 1950-1990 project where former diplomats, many of whom spent some time in China share their experience and stories, and many more.

Archival collections

Apart from the extensive oral history collection, you will find Chinese-related content in personal papers, diaries, documents, photographs, images, maps, rare books, and ephemera held by the Library, for example:

• Papers of the Chau family, 1893-1998 [manuscript]
• Records of the Committee for Australia-China Relations, 1972-1989;
• Papers of Myra Roper, 1958-1981;
• Papers of Dennis Argall, 1984-1988;
• Papers of Diana Giese, 1990-2014;
• Communist Party of Australia: ephemera material collected by the National Library of Australia;
• The Chinese question analyzed: with a full statement of facts by One who knows them