'South Flows the Pearl is a fascinating journey through the history of Chinese Australia. Taking the reader from Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta to Sydney, Perth, Cairns, Darwin, Bendigo and beyond, it explores the struggles and successes of Chinese people in Australia since the 1850s, as told in their own words.
'This unique book was written by an insider. Mavis Yen was born in Perth in 1916, the daughter of a Chinese father and an Australian mother. She lived in both countries and understood what it meant to navigate two worlds, to live through war and revolution, and to experience racial discrimination. In the 1980s she began interviewing elderly Chinese Australians, recording hours of conversations. Her intimate understanding of their languages and life experiences encouraged them to share their stories. Published here for the first time, they will change how you think about Australian history.'
Source : publisher's blurb
'In the last ten years, family history has breached the divide between community and professional history. Increasingly, academic historians are producing scholarly work exploring their own family histories. These narratives are contexualised within broader historical forces such as empire, migration, trade, nationalism, and forms of social exclusion based on gender, race, and class. In a 2020 seminar at Princeton University, Stéphane Gerson called this variety of history, ‘history from within’ (‘A History From Within: When Historians Write About Their Own Kin’). The term ‘autoethnography’ is sometimes used.' (Introduction)
'There are few Australians who would have a better claim to the title of “battler” than the post-gold rush Chinese immigrants and first-generation Australian-born Chinese whose stories are told in South Flows the Pearl. In fact, they tell their own stories, as oral histories are at the heart of this book.' (Introduction)
'There are few Australians who would have a better claim to the title of “battler” than the post-gold rush Chinese immigrants and first-generation Australian-born Chinese whose stories are told in South Flows the Pearl. In fact, they tell their own stories, as oral histories are at the heart of this book.' (Introduction)
'In the last ten years, family history has breached the divide between community and professional history. Increasingly, academic historians are producing scholarly work exploring their own family histories. These narratives are contexualised within broader historical forces such as empire, migration, trade, nationalism, and forms of social exclusion based on gender, race, and class. In a 2020 seminar at Princeton University, Stéphane Gerson called this variety of history, ‘history from within’ (‘A History From Within: When Historians Write About Their Own Kin’). The term ‘autoethnography’ is sometimes used.' (Introduction)
