Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 Poisons and Antidotes : Staging a Chinese-Australian Morality Play
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The Poison of Polygamy originally appeared serially in Melbourne’s Chinese Times in 1909–10. Wong Shee Ping’s novella is a kind of Cantonese Rake’s Progress by way of Rider Haggard, relating the wanderings and misadventures of a man sojourning in Australia, and the yearnings of the wife he leaves behind at home. Subtitled as social fiction, its chief concern is not migration but the moral ills afflicting Chinese society. Accordingly, the opium-smoking rotter of a protagonist is finally punished for his lust, slovenliness, avarice, and addiction: throttled by his slatternly concubine, who has only just dispatched his wife and child in a bid to improve her social position. Along the way, thylacines attack, business partners are rescued from collapsed mines, and thinly veiled Christian moralism excoriates traditional medicine and religion.' (Introduction)   

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Book Review no. 455 July 2023 26471652 2023 periodical issue 'Welcome to the July issue of ABR! This month ABR examines questions of politics, history, and immigration. Bain Attwood’s cover feature offers a nuanced examination of the Voice referendum from a historical perspective, drawing on the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal rights. Other major features include David Rolph on the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case and the vindication of investigative journalism, Jack Corbett on sovereignty games in the Pacific Islands, and ABR Laureate’s fellow Ebony Nilsson on the ALP’s uneasy history with immigration. Sheila Fitzpatrick examines a new history of East Germany and Michael Hofmann reviews Anna Funder’s major repositioning of Eileen O’Shaugnessy, George Orwell’s first wife. Also in the issue, Helen Morse takes us backstage, Brenda Walker reviews a collection of essays from critic Helen Elliott, Geordie Williamson appraises a new short story collection from J.M. Coetzee, and Patrick Mullins looks at transformations in the Australian media.' 

    (Publication summary)

    2023
    pg. 58
Last amended 3 Jul 2023 10:20:52
58 https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/arts-update/101-arts-update/10372-the-poison-of-polygamy-staging-a-chinese-australian-morality-play-by-josh-stenberg Poisons and Antidotes : Staging a Chinese-Australian Morality Playsmall AustLit logo Australian Book Review
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