By being ethnically Chinese, I have been welcomed into the Chinese "communities?in Western Australia with very little trouble.  Members of the "communities?adopt a teaching role, with me as their adopted girl-child.  The "communities?have explained to me, that I have access to information that would not be available if not for my ethnicity.  However, by being ethnically Chinese, I am denied certain rites of passage into the "communities?previously afforded to non-Chinese researchers.  To the "communities? my research takes second place to my ethnicity, my Chineseness, my loyalty to them.  As a researcher, this has meant an active exercise to maintain a level of objectivity and distance, along with control over my research and my personal identity.

Introduction
        This paper will eventually form a chapter on methodology in my thesis provisionally entitled: "The making of "community?and identity: an historical ethnographic study of the Chinese "community?in Perth, Western Australia, 1970-2000.?The aim of this paper is to examine challenges of conducting fieldwork within one's own ethnic group.  While issues that I have faced are not unique to fieldwork and research, I would like to take the opportunity of this conference to learn for other researchers and to share some my experiences.  The paper will briefly outlined the history of the Chinese "communities? in Perth along with an introduction to my doctoral thesis.  It will provide some anecdotal accounts of my 10 months in the field and conclude with some potential areas for joint research.

        Like many Chinese in the diaspora, I come from a long line of immigrants.  I was born in Malaysia and attended an international school where children of all nationalities mingled.  There was no such thing as "being normal?  When I was 10, we moved back to Perth and suddenly I was different.  My sister, myself and two other girls in my year group were the only Asians.  We grew up learning French, Italian, German and Japanese.  My parents would have liked us to have grown up learning Chinese but there were no facilities easily available.  Besides, they themselves grew up in the diaspora and spoke very little Cantonese.  As immigrant numbers increased during my teens, I started questioning my identity.   Was I Chinese?  Or was I Australian?  At 18 I decided I was Australian.  I did not eat "real?Chinese food, I had little knowledge of the language and I had no ties to the wider Chinese "community?  I had never experienced much anti-Asian sentiment and felt safe within my white middle-class "community?

        In 1999, at 22 I began my research.  I spent the first half the year in total confusion.  My subjects were now telling me that I was Chinese.  It didn't matter if I didn't feel too Chinese, I eventually would.  They were partly right.  My first experience of participant observation highlighted this.  I spent Easter Saturday at the cemetery celebrating Ch'ing Ming.  I had never gone to a Chinese "community?function before.  Standing there in the middle of the cemetery with the incense from the joss sticks floating around me and people mingling, pulling out roasted piglets, ducks, steamed chickens and bok choy from vans, I felt truly Chinese for a few moments.  I struggled with the pronouns "us?and "them? getting confused as to when to use the words appropriately.  A fellow Ph.D. student was the first to point out that I used "us?meaning Australian and "them?meaning Chinese.  That confused me even more.

        As an individual, I now consider myself multicultural in every sense of the word.  My formative years were spent as an Australian, my ethnic heritage is predominately Chinese, I speak French and my favourite food is Italian.  These aspects are all a part of me; they are inseparable and make me unique as an individual.
Thesis

        The thesis is an historical ethnographic study of the Chinese "community?in Western Australia from 1970 to 2000.  The importance of this time frame is that the 1970s marked the end of the White Australia Policy and a distinct increase in Chinese immigration to Australia.  This increase has changed both the cultural, social and political landscape of Australia and the identities of Western Australian Chinese.  The Chinese began settling in Western Australia in 1829.  They arrived as either free settlers or indentured labour but their history has never been adequately documented.   Past researchers focused mainly on the economic history of the early Chinese settlers.  My research takes a broader historical ethnographic approach by exploring the shaping of Chinese identity in the understudied post-1970 period.  Through a combination of archival, oral historical and ethnographic sources, it will examine the diversity of the Chinese experience in Western Australia, concentrating on the intersection of language, class and national origin in identity formation.

The objectives of the thesis are to:

· Examine the changing composition of the Chinese population in Western Australia between 1970-2000.  This will be done by exploring how the Chinese "community?has changed and redefined itself since the end of the White Australia Policy with mass immigration and the growth in the immigrant Chinese population in Western Australia.

· Chart the progress of the Chinese community's move into mainstream Australian society.  This will be achieved by exploring the relationship between the Chinese "community?and the Australian federal and state governments? policies towards immigration and Chinese settlement and the Chinese community's response and reactions to those policies.

· Examine the shifting relationships between the various groups which make up the Chinese "community? Particular attention will be given to the intersection of class, language and national origin in the structuring of identity.

        Contrary to popular belief, the Chinese did not arrive in Western Australia because of gold.  They arrived as indentured labour when the Western Australian economy was in need of cheap and plentiful labour.  The Western Australian government continued importing Chinese labour from the 1800s until Federation in 1901.  When the State joined the Federation of Australian states, the new federation imposed the "Restrictive Immigration Act? or as it is more popularly known, "The White Australia Policy?

        From 1829 to 1847, Moon Chow was the only recorded Chinese person to be in Western Australia.  In 1847, Chinese from the South of China were being shipped in from Singapore to fill the gaps in the labour market. They were mainly employed as market gardeners, farm labourers, laundrymen and shop assistants.   By the turn of the century, there were 1521 Chinese males and 18 Chinese females in WA.   Unlike Chinese settlers in the Eastern States who were found in concentrated numbers at various gold mining towns, the Chinese in Western Australia were scattered across the countryside and the vast metropolitan area due to their work contracts. This dispersion across the state made them easy targets for discrimination and reduced their ability to respond to discrimination.  The Chinese were not only far away from their own homeland but they were also isolated from other Chinese in Western Australia.

        Discrimination occurred in the form of access to citizenship, work conditions and business regulations.  The greatest impact on settlement was the denial of citizenship.  The development of Australian citizenship as we see it today can to be divided into four periods; the colonial experience, followed by Federation and life is a British subject, then as an Australian citizen under the Nationality and Citizenship Act of 1948 and finally, as a multicultural Australian citizen of post 1970.

        On settlement, Australians were held together by what they termed as a "common culture?  This "common culture?was Anglo-Saxon in origin, this ensured that they saw themselves as a part of the British Empire and had a shared language.  The gold rushes in the 1850s saw this culture come under threat.  Migrants from many countries arrived in Australia with the largest group being the Chinese.  Though the Chinese were divided through language, clanship and ethnic subgroups between themselves, they were seen as a collective threat to the established common culture and economy.

        At Federation, Australian citizenship meant being a British subject, there were also permanent residents who were Aliens or Foreigners.  Foreigners the Europeans, while Aliens were people of a different race and culture meaning Asiatic or coloured races.  Aliens could become British subjects if they could demonstrate successful assimilation into the Anglo-Celtic society; however, the Naturalisation Act of 1903 denied non-whites naturalisation.  Chinese who had been here since the 1850s and their children, who were born in Australia, and in many cases with Anglo-Celtic mothers, were also deprived of the right to be British subjects.  The place of birth was seen as not being as important as blood; by being Asiatic meant being inassimilable.  This meant that that they did not have the right to vote or to buy land.

        In 1948 the Nationality Citizenship Act was implemented.  This was part of the nation-building plan to increase the immigrant intake in Australia.  Aliens had to apply for naturalization, proving assimilation, while British and Irish citizens had only to register to be granted Australian citizenship.  The Chinese between 1948-1958, however, rarely applied for citizenship because those who did were usually rejected.  The rejection of application was due to individual officers as opposed to legislation.  Nonetheless, in that time period to 1973, 8347 Chinese became Australian citizens, with most of the citizenship is granted only after 1958.  However, by being an Asian-Australian citizen at that stage meant that they had to carry with them their naturalization papers which had to be displayed on demand by authorities.

        From 1969 the White Australia Policy was being dismantled and its eventually demise in 1972 saw Australia moving from a policy of assimilation to multiculturalism which meant that by 1973 Australian citizenship was available to all residents having fulfilled the required terms and conditions.

        In 1909 the Chung Wah Association was founded to cater for Western Australia's Chinese population.  Its aim was to promote culture, education and welfare for the Chinese "community?  Today it is the oldest ethnic association in Western Australia.

        " Unity is strength and an Association is vitally necessary ... We are like scattered sand, it is no wonder that the Westerners are bullying us ... With our united strength, we can even move mountains.  It is hoped that members will work for the good of the " community?as a whole.?
                                                                                            Translated Extract from Minutes 1909 .

        The Association celebrated traditional festivals, set up language programs to teach its members Chinese as well as English, raised funds to return aging members home to China, and kept a keen interest in the social and political activities in their homeland.  Nonetheless, during the 1950s, the Chinese population in Western Australia declined to its lowest level, leaving only a handful of families to keep the Chung Wah Association alive and to keep the Chinese "community?together.  Many of the Chinese chose to return to their homeland rather than face further hostilities in Western Australia.  The Chinese who chose to stay were usually the ones with families.  Parents who chose to remain and raise their families in Australia decided not to teach their children the Chinese language or to teach them to observe many of the traditional Chinese customs.  They hoped that their children, who were Australian born, would be accepted and assimilated into Australian society if they did not carry the "baggage?of being Chinese.

        The most significant change to the demographics of the Chinese population in Western Australia, and Australia at large, was the end of the Restrictive Immigration Policy.  With the election of the Whitlam Government in 1972, the 1970s saw the end of the White Australia Policy and Chinese immigrants from all over Asia made their way to Australia.  Some were refugees, others professionals, entrepreneurs and students.  In the 1980s, the Australian government launched a business immigration scheme which saw an influx of affluent and educated Chinese immigrants from South East Asia.  This increased immigration provided an impetus to the revival of the Chung Wah Association, the formation of new Chinese groups and the emergence of the Chinese "community? as a part of mainstream Australian society.  However, this has created new problems for the Chinese "community?as a whole.

        The Chinese-Australians who have been here for generations, who only speak English and with mixed genealogy, but who maintained the Chung Wah Association and pride in their heritage, now face a number of problems.  To the new immigrants, these people are not truly Chinese; they are Australian.  As a result, many of these new immigrants have formed their own groups and associations separate from the Chung Wah Association.  Another factor causing the proliferation of "community?groups is that the new immigrants are not from Mainland China.  They are predominantly from Chinese diasporas in South East Asia.  These new arrivals have a different sense of identity and history. In the South East Asian diaspora, they too have adapted traditional Chinese rituals to suit their conditions.  Thus, we are seeing the growth of a range of Chinese associations and interest groups catering for the various nationalities, national languages, Chinese dialects and religions.

        The study of the ethnic Chinese in Australia is a relatively new area of research.  Early commentaries on the Chinese were largely anti-Chinese propaganda.  No official attempts were made to understand these "aliens?with their strange customs, dress and socially unacceptable habits, for example, gambling, spitting and opium smoking.   The first academic research in this field began in the 1960s when writers such as Arthur Huck explored the history and experience of the Chinese in Australia.   The research concentrated on the Eastern States of Australia and the Northern territory that had the largest Chinese populations.   This research either ignored Western Australia or assumed that the experiences of the Chinese in Western Australia were identical to those of their counterparts in the East.   In more recent research, Ryan has questioned this view, arguing that the Western Australian experience is different and that past research does not acknowledge these differences.   My research will add to this debate by examining local experiences in Western Australia.

        Contemporary studies of the Chinese experience since the end of the "White Australia Policy?have largely been framed within anthropological/sociological studies of a multicultural Australia.  Questions of ethnicity, identity, race and racism have been briefly explored in comparative studies of all major ethnic groups which form this so-called "new?face of Australia.  Many of these studies have focused on the experience of Asian refugees from the 1960s onwards.

        Detailed studies of the Chinese in Western Australia have been carried out by a few researchers, namely, Jan Ryan, Anne Atkinson and Tian Ming Cai .  Ryan's research covers the area of Chinese indentured labour in the period before Federation, Atkinson examines Chinese labour forces from Federation to 1910, while Cai focuses his research on the notion of citizenship and the Chinese from Federation to 1973.  No other academic research on the Chinese in Western Australia has been undertaken.

        The strength of past research lies mainly in providing a solid empirical and conceptual basis for the study of Chinese settlement and experience in Australia.   For example, Yong's work deconstructs the myth that early Chinese settlers were all gamblers and opium smokers by placing it into the social and cultural context of the time and Atkinson challenges the notion that the Chinese accepted the economic condition placed on them by highlighting the way that early Chinese settlers created and managed their own economic conditions However, there are limitations to these studies.  They do not examine the complex divisions within the Chinese "community?  Ryan's thesis acknowledges the different groups of Chinese by their dialect and economic divisions but she does not explore the relationships among those divisions.  Rather, she concentrates on describing stereotypes associated with selected clans.  Thus, by speaking generally about the Chinese "community? or merely acknowledging differences in the Chinese "community? the complexities of Chinese "community?and identity were not fully examined.

        My research aims to build on these earlier works in the following ways.  It concentrates on the understudied post 1970 period.  It gives greater attention to the broader cultural context of Chinese life.  In particular, it examines the diverse notion of what it means to be Chinese through an analysis of how class, language, national origin and other factors interact to modify existing identities and generate new ones.  Another important aspect of this research is that in Western Australia, early Chinese settlers from the 1920s and 1930s are beginning to "return to heaven?(die).  Thus, there is an urgency to this research to ensure that their experiences are recorded.
 

The significance of the research will be to:
· Deconstruct the notion of a common Chinese identity and highlight the internal divisions, changes and struggles within the Chinese "community?
· Contribute to the developing field of historical ethnography as well as adding to the literature on Australian multiculturalism.
· Provide a service to the Chinese "community?by adding to their understanding of their own history and place in Australia.

Fieldwork, Ethics and Power

Norbert Elias in his work Involvement and Detachment uses the analogy of the young fisherman in the maelstrom to describe fieldwork.   Fieldwork requires the detached formation of ideas and theories to navigate the wreckage and to avoid the abyss.  When I first began my research, I did not believe that involvement would be a problem for me.  I was to study "communities?with which I had no emotional links.  The grand plan was to go in as the researcher, coolly observe the scenes before me, leave, and write my thesis.  In my original application, I even stated:

        "A methodological theme that arises from this participation will be the relationship between the observer and those being observed.  I am ethnically Chinese though I grew up away from the Chinese "community?in Western Australia.  Physically I blend in at the functions but because of my outsider status, I am able to maintain a certain level of intellectual distance from the people I am observing.?

        Was I naive?  Was I ill prepared for fieldwork?  Or did I merely assume that researchers before me were allowed a level of detached involvement? On hindsight, I believe that I would have entered fieldwork more psychologically prepared had the "field?been somewhere other than my own home city or country.

        When I first began fieldwork it had not occurred to me that I was not going to be seen as a researcher to the majority of the people I was observing and questioning.  To them I was a Chinese girl-child who had grown up like a Westerner.  I was to be made Chinese again; I was to be taught what it meant to be a "good?Chinese.  The research that I was conducting was secondary.  Many would agree to meet me, and before anything could proceed, question me about my personal status and before deciding to speak to me usually on the basis of, "You are Chinese, one of us, if this is what you want to do, then we will help you?

An example of the prelude to my interviews is as follows:
        CCL: So, you grow up here?
        FL: Yes, I have lived in Perth most of my life.
        C: Married?
        F: No.
        C: Getting married?
        F: No.
        C: You live with your parents, don't you?
        F: Yes.
        C: They know you were doing this thing?
        F: Yes, they are very supportive.
        C: Strange parents, letting you have an Arts degree.  Cannot get a job.
            Why didn't you do commerce?  Accounting?
            Then you will be in an office, not running around like this.
        F: I enjoy my work.  (Pause)
        C : Where is your boyfriend?
        F: Don't have one.
        C: Oh... shame.  (Pause) okay, why you interested in the Chinese?
        F: Because it is research that hasn't been done fully, yet.
        C: My children are not interested in Chinese stuff.  They are Aussie.  You are Aussie.
            (Pause)  Okay, I help you.  What you want to know?  I'll teach you, you need to learn.
            Good for us to have Chinese face writing books.  Better then the others writing ... at least
            you know what it feels to be Chinese.

Though many accept unquestioningly my claim to my ethnicity, other question its validity:

        LKY: Are you sure you are Chinese?  You peranakan?  Rojak?
                  [Malay mixed salad] Where is your village?
              F: I don't have a village.
              L: Everybody has a village even if you haven't been there.
                  Where is your ah yeah's [paternal grandfather] village?
              F: I don't have an ah yeah, my ah mah [maternal grandmother] raised her sons by herself.
              L: * slightly uncomfortable *  Did anyone tell you where his village was?
              F: My ah mah doesn't talk about him ?he was Anglo-Indian and my ah mah raised her sons
                  as Chinese, so we are Cantonese.  My ah mah has a village in Canton but I am not sure where.

        Despite initial questioning of my identity, they usually discard any other aspect of my identity which is not Chinese.  This highlights the pragmatism of the Chinese identity in the diaspora ?if you acknowledge it and respect it, you are usually granted rights to it.  The boundaries of Chineseness becomes flexible.

        Some even state in their interviews that they are not interested in my research, they are seeing me in the hope of aiding the greater cause of promoting Chinese faces in mainstream Australian society, especially in areas where the Chinese are not highly visible.  While a subject's self interest may be promoted before academic research in ethnographic fieldwork, the impact, in this case, was mainly on my personal identity.

        ASW: I agreed to be interviewed because you are Chinese - isn't that dreadful?
                  But we must help each other, it is good to see you doing things most people
                  your age aren't interested in.  They are ashamed or something.  Nonetheless,
                  we must get the Chinese perspective out there.

        With many informants who are from Chinese speaking backgrounds, my place of birth and Chinese language skills are the focus of their attention :

        M.J.H.: How shameful if you do not speak Chinese and only English when their whole
                     face is a Chinese face.  At Malaysia, Singapore could speak Hakka, Cantonese,
                     Mandarin.  Good.  But they won't speak Chinese. We say we cannot understand
                     but they say we have to speak English.  This is wrong.  We are Chinese people,
                     we have to speak Chinese.  You not good, but you try, good.  Not like the others from Malaysia.

        As the academic researcher I was initially appalled.  My work was not of primary interest to the people I was researching.  Many people were seeing me out of curiosity and because of my ethnicity and nothing else.  I was to be taught things that their children did not want to know.  I feared wasting hours interviewing people for useless information.

        After a month of visiting the associations and speaking to past researchers, it occurred to me that my knowledge of the "communities?was assumed; because I was Chinese, it was assumed that I knew about festival rituals, traditional rituals and most importantly, about past feuds between the various "communities?and individuals.  I did not have the luxury of being guided through rituals and politics.  After all, I was Chinese - I should know these things.  A significant proportion of information I have gathered is a result of putting pieces of puzzles together.  Many interviews and conversations allude to past events but when pressed for information, the response is usually, "Oh, you know, you must have heard about that.  Anyway, it's old news and everybody already knows that story.?nbsp;  To my informants, they see a Chinese face, therefore I must know what has happened, the "communities? are small, news travels fast, I am Chinese, I should know.  They forget or reject the fact that I am, in fact, a stranger to the "communities?  Non-Chinese researchers are usually assisted through the minefield of interpersonal politics.

        In 1986, the Chung Wah Association started its Historical Group.  If it consisted mainly of descendants from the founders of the Chung Wah at of the turn-of-the-century.  One of the greatest difficulties was to convince people to share oral histories.  Chinese traditionally look forward or reminisce only about the pleasantries of the past.  Many felt that their life histories were insignificant compared to 5000 years of Chinese history.  Over the years the group have made headway and have assisted other researchers, namely Jan Ryan, Anne Atkinson, Tian Ming Cai & Diana Giese with their work.   The Historical Group was to be a vehicle in promoting the long and often heartbreaking history of the Chinese in Western Australia.  When I first began conducting interviews, I expected the same type of detached professional assistance, instead, I was welcomed into their homes, and told that they would now tell me the "real?history of the Chinese in Western Australia.  When asked what they meant by the "real?history, it is explained to me that I was Chinese, I would understand how it really felt to be the Chinese in Western Australia.  Some had participated in other interviews with other researchers but according to my informants, that was only to give them the "facts?and be cooperative, I was to understand the emotions.

        By being Chinese, I have been welcomed into the "communities? I have been introduced as an adopted daughter, I have swept graves at Ch'ing Ming, danced with the God of Fortune at New Year celebrations and shared moon cakes at the mid-Autumn festival without ever looking like I did not belong.  By being Chinese many things are expected of me - that I understand and practice "face? that I understand Chinese relational politics, that I am Chinese before all else.  In relation to my research, this status I have with the "communities? highlights interesting predicaments  in the  research process and  my ability to comply with the standards of  an impartial observer and a receptive "community?

        At my very first interview, my informant refused to sign my consent and confidentiality form.  I asked several times, assuring him of I would maintain confidentiality and anonymity.  He shook his head and explained to me that I did not understand.  He was happy to do the interview but he was not going to sign the form.  I explained that the form was to protect him and not me, but he still declined.  We completed the interview and I went home downcast.  I had written an ethics statement declaring I would ensure the privacy of my informants and keep all information collected confidential.  I had sent information sheets explaining the form and I could not believe that this man would refuse to sign my form.  I was a researcher, an ethical researcher, I had guidelines.

        I did several more interviews with the same response, no one would sign my forms.  I thought that they all suffered from a phobia of legal documents.  It was not until a very direct gentleman, D.A.P., explained things to me that I understood.  It was cultural, not phobic!

        By being Chinese I had transcended consent and confidentiality forms and certain boundaries.  My informants had declined to sign the forms because they had in fact given me "face?  They trusted me not to break my promise of confidentiality, I was a "good? Chinese girl, I would never  betray them.  It was at this moment that the impact of my ethnicity occurred to me.  I was bound to these people not by legal documentation, I was bound to them by face which was far more committing in their eyes.  I told D.A.P. that I knew these people had signed consent forms with other researchers, his reply was "But they were not good Chinese girls, were they??

        As a researcher, I felt even more responsibility towards the protection of the confidentiality of my informants.  Their trust or perhaps, the consequences of the loss of their trust was overwhelming.  D.A.P. was correct, face was much more binding that legal documentation.  Later that year I was introduced to other informants by D.A.P. He introduced me as "my daughter?or "my goddaughter?  He explained that it meant that I could be trusted to people who did not know me.  They knew he was a man of honour and as his "daughter?I would share that level of honour and face.  D.A.P. was a "community?leader and on more than one occasion I had felt uncomfortable with being introduced as his daughter.  I explained this to him and he laughed, "They know you are not really my daughter, silly girl! But they trust me and I trust you.  They will tell you things that no one else will ever be able to get.  It is an honour for you and a service to the Chinese.  You will tell the real story.?nbsp;  Initially, I did feel honoured, that I would be welcomed by the "community? while making a significant contribution to academic studies.  Nonetheless, I soon felt powerless.

        It felt as though my research had been taken away from me, that my objectiveness was being weathered away so that I would eventually write a history that the informants like to see written rather than what I felt should be written.  I felt betrayed that my informants had not respected my wish to conduct fieldwork according to the boundaries that I had set for myself.  They wanted me to be the "good Chinese girl?and respect their confidentiality but they were not going to respect my role as a research.  On a personal level, I felt emotionally drained and miserable as attempts were constantly made to forge me into the "good Chinese girl?  I did not know what it meant to be the "good Chinese girl?and more importantly, I had no wish to be the "good Chinese girl?

Further Work
        My experiences in fieldwork amongst the Chinese "communities?in Western Australia have highlighted certain issues that I will pursue in my thesis to complement my initial objectives :

· The flexibility of being Chinese :
- Notions of the purity of blood and its validity in the diaspora.
· "Measurable?levels of Chineseness :
- The effect the South East Asian diaspora in shaping Chinese identities and stereotypes in Western Australia.
· An ethnogenesis of Chinese culture in the diaspora :
- Methods utilised by the Chinese "communities?and individuals to integrate being Chinese and being Australian.
· Methodology :
- Conducting fieldwork in one's own ethnic group.
- Conducting fieldwork in one's own "home?
- Ethnographic researcher as insider/outsider.
- Impact of fieldwork on my own identity.

Areas for Joint Research
1. History of changing identities in the Chinese diaspora in Australia.
2. Historical ethnography methodology.
    a. use of oral history to build change
    b. use of anthropology to critique archival material
    c. use of the pronoun "I?to reflect reality
3. Study of archival sources in Western Australia.
 

References
1. Atkinson, Anne. "Chinese Labour and Capital in Western Australia, 1847-1947.?DPhil, Murdoch University, 1991.
2. Cai, Tian Ming. "Astride Two Worlds : The Chinese response to changing citizenship in Western Australia (1901-1973).?MA, Edith Cowan University, 1999.
3. Elias, Norbert. Involvement and Detachment. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987.
4. Giese, Diana. Beyond Chinatown : changing perspectives on the Top End Chinese experience. Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1995.
5. Giese, Diana. Astronauts, Lost Souls & Dragons : voices of today's Chinese Australians in conversation with Diana Giese. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1997.
6. Huck, Arthur. The Chinese in Australia. Melbourne: Longmans, 1968.
7. Huck, Arthur. The Assimilation of the Chinese in Australia George Ernest Morrison - Lecture in Ethnology. Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1970.
8. Kee, Poo-Kong. Chinese Immigrants in Australia : construction of a socio-economic profile. Canberra: Office of Multicultural Affairs, 1988.
9. Lack, John, and Jacqueline Templeton. Bold Experiment : A Documentary History of Australian Immigration since 1945. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1995.
10. Ryan, Janice. "A Comment on Historical Source Materials Held in Western Australia Relating to Chinese Emigration to Western Australia.? A paper delivered at the Symposium on the History of Chinese Emigration, University of Hong Kong, 14 to 17 December 1984.
11. Ryan, Janice P. "A Study of the Origins and Development of Chinese Immigration into Western Australia : the colonial recruitment system and its effects on the Chinese from the different dialect groups, as evidenced in the areas of law, morbidity and mortality, 1880-1901.?Ph.D., University of Western Australia, 1989.
12. Su, T.S., ed. Chung Wah Association 1910-1995 85th Anniversary Commemorative Magazine. Perth: Chung Wah Association, 1995.
13. Werbner, Pnina , and Tariq Modood, eds. Debating Cultural Hybridity : Multi-Cultural Identities and the Politics of Anti-Racism. London: Zed Books, 1997.
14. Yong, C.F. The New Gold Mountain : The Chinese in Australia 1901-1921. Richmond: Raphael Arts, 1977.