Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-14-11 04:53
兩個華人淘金者在澳洲 The two Chinese gold diggers In Australia
The year was the eighth year reign of Emperor Xian Feng (咸豐皇帝) of the
Qing Dynasty (1644AD to 1912AD) or 1858AD, that Chung Pinyuan (鄭品源 my
grandfather), was born in the village called Fengguang (鳳港), where for
many generations, his ancestors had lived. His parents were poor peasants
who had no land of their own - instead they rented about an acre of land
from the landlord in the village. By planting rice and some cash crops in
the field they managed to escape starvation.
The following year, Pinyuan's mother gave birth to a baby boy who was called
Chung Pinsheng (鄭品勝 my granduncle). Now, the produce from the rented
acre of land had to support a family of four, including the rent, in the
form of produce, to the landlord. To them life was a constant struggle,
but somehow they managed to scrape through year after year. They must have
been working very hard to sustain themselves, otherwise they could have starved.
This was the adverse environment under which Pinyuan and Pinsheng grew up.
Although Pinyuan and Pinsheng had never had any formal education they knew
that life was tough, and as peasants, they could not rid themselves of their
persistent poverty stricken fate. By the time they were in their teens,
the brothers began toiling the fields, helping their parents. They disliked
farming, but they had no choice as they were too young to do anything else.
At the age of about twenty, Pinyuan got himself a job as an assistant to
a businessman who lived in the same village. Pinyuan followed his boss traveling
from village to village buying pigs and cows, transporting them to be sold
to the butchers in the towns, not far from his village. Pinyuan was young,
tough and strong and had no problems carrying the animals. He discovered
that life was not much better off than growing rice and vegetables.
On many occasions, when he was in town Pinyuan heard strange stories about
the lands across the ocean. Occasionally, he saw a " Hong Mao Ren 紅毛人
" or an European, wearing tight costumes with a piece of colour cloth tied
to his neck. There were a few rich men in town who had returned home after
working for many years in a faraway foreign land called Jiu Jin Shan (舊
金山) in the country was called Hua Ji Guo (花旗國 flowery flag country)
[California U.S.A.]. Pinyuan wished he could go there too and make a lot
of money so that he could buy some land for his parents.
Not long afterwards, Pinyuan heard that there were people coming to the
town to recruit workers to work in a place called Xin Jin Shan (新金山)
[Melbourne, Australia]. They offered to pay for all the expenses to go to
the foreign land. The stories of Xin Jin Shan were unfamiliar to him, having
only heard about Jiu Jin Shan.
Pinyuan went home and told his parents about going to work in a foreign
land and also told them the stories he heard on how a few rich men made
their fortune by working in foreign lands. To his surprise his parents allowed
him to go. They even asked him to take his younger brother along. His parents
must have been sick of their poverty stricken lives and they did not want
their children to follow their foot steps and remain poor as peasants all
their lives.
When the contractors arrived in the town the two brothers signed up or put
their thumb prints on the marked dotted lines on the contract, not knowing
that they had signed away their freedom for three years. Under the conditions
of the contract they had to work for the contractors for three years without
any pay, but food, shelter and clothing would be provided. The contractors
would pay for their passage to get to Xin Jin Shan. They would be free to
embark upon their own undertakings after they had given three years of free
labour to their contractors as indentured labourers[1A*] or "human pigs
賣豬仔". For their sons, Pinyuan's parents received twenty silver-coin dollars
from the contractors, ten dollars for each son.
A month later, the two brothers bade farewell to their parents and promised
to send money home regularly. The two brothers and many others followed
the contractors on their journey to the strange land.
The contractors took them to Hong Kong, then a British territory, and from
there they embarked on a British steamer and sailed for Australia.
After sailing for several weeks they arrived at Port Melbourne and were
immediately transported to Bendigo, which was about 150 kilometers northwest
of the city of Melbourne. They were sheltered in tents which were to become
their homes for a few years.
Pinyuan and Pinsheng began their lives as indentured labourers in a new
and strange land, Australia. Life was harsh - they panned for gold throughout
the day and often into the night. There were many thousands of Chinese miners
digging for gold in that region. In the small colony of Victoria, in Eastern
Australia, it was estimated that at that time there were 9,377 Chinese in
a population of 1,150,000. Pinyuan and Pinsheng worked and lived among the
Chinese who were aliens in language, thought and customs, from the European
inhabitants who seldom came into contact with them. They maintained their
Chinese way of life.
Pinyuan and Pinsheng did not receive any wages but they managed to borrow
some money from their bosses and sent them regularly to their parents who
were overjoyed to receive their remittances.
Soon after, the two brothers' three year contract was over and they were
free from their slave bondage. They continued to pan for gold. However,
this time the gold they obtained did not go to the contractors but to themselves.
Pinyuan and Pinsheng worked hard and very industriously, making significant
sums of money, some of which they to their parents.
Somehow, Pinsheng married an English girl by the name of Mary. As far as
Pinyuan was concerned he was quite happy to remain single. But after ten
years of marriage Mary bore no children and Pinyuan began to worry because
their parents in the Old Mountain of the Ancestors (China) were longing
for grandchildren. Pinyuan's parents urged him to return to Tang Shan (唐
山 or China) to get married since the Hong Mao (紅毛 red hair) daughter-in-law
was 'barren'. Pinyuan's parents sent him a message saying that they had match-
made him a young and beautiful Hakka girl from the neighbouring village.
As a filial piety son Pinyuan agreed to go home.
In 1903, Pinyuan left Australia for home after twenty five years in gold
diggings. He was a true-blue Aussie gold-digger. Several months after returning
to his village Pinyuan married a beautiful Hakka girl called Chen Ermei
(陳二妹 my grandmother). Pinyuan was 45 years old and his bride was only
21. Ermei was willing to marry Pinyuan because her family was poor. Ermei's
parents died when she was only a child. She had an elder brother, an elder
sister and a younger sister. The three sisters and the brother lived with
their father's younger brother and his wife.
Pinyuan, a Kim Shan Hak (金山客) or a returnee from the New Gold Mountain,
was supposed to have brought home a lot of money from Australia. With the
money Pinyuan bought a few mus (畝 mu= a Chinese land-measure of area) of
fertile land and built a big house (which was later used as a primary school
by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution). The following year Pinyuan
became a father and he named his first born son Guanlin (觀鄰 my father).
Pinyuan's parents were very happy as their dreams had come true - they saw
their first grandson before they died. Guanlin was the 24th generation of
the Chung family.
Pinsheng and his English wife, Mary, also returned to the ancestral village.
It was very hard for the 'Red-Hair' lady as she had to adopt the Chinese
way of life. However, she was happy because she loved her husband very much
and Pinsheng loved her too. Love indeed is a many-splendoured thing that
conquers everything.
Pinsheng became a vegetable gardener. Mary helped her husband. To them life
was not so hard since they grew vegetables on their own land and they did
not have to pay rent. Of course, they were much better off in Australia
than they were now.
As Mary had no children of her own she loved her nephew, Guanlin, dearly.
She adored him and loved him as if he was her own son. Mary was semi-lietrate
as she had only a few years of elementary education. She tried her best
to learn Hakka dialect. Luckily, Pinsheng could communicate with her in
broken English, otherwise she could be lost in a new environment. Guanlin
could easily pick up a limited command of English from Mary who was not
much of a teacher.
Pinyuan's father died in 1907 and his mother passed away in 1908. Since
he was a teenager Pinyuan disliked tilling the fields. He did not want to
become a farmer, but he did not possess the know-how to do business. With
nothing much to do, Pinyuan became restless and wanted to go back to Australia
with his family. Permission was not granted in spite of having lived in
Australia for a quarter of a century, because under the White Australian
Policy Pinyuan was not allowed to return to Australia with a Chinese wife.
Instead, Pinyuan went to Malaya where there were many of his ancestral folks
working in the tin mines. Pinyuan promised his wife that he would send for
her and their son, soon.
Pinyuan went to Hong Kong and embarked for Malaya on a Chinese junk that
sailed to Singapore. The junk sailed through the South China Sea along the
coast of French Indochina and Siam to Singapore. It took the junk two months
to complete a distance of 5,000 kilometers. During the journey the passengers
had to provide food for themselves. Most what of the passengers had during
the whole journey were rice, salted pork, salted fish and bean sprouts which
they grew under their bunk berths.
Finally, the junk arrived at Singapore. To Pinyuan's surprise Singapore
was a Chinese city though it was governed by the "Red-Hair" men like those
he had worked with in Australia. Many of the Chinese who came to Singapore
had arrived as indentured labour (human pigs 豬仔). Pinyuan found that very
few Chinese in Singapore wore queues or pigtails. In Singapore the British
ruled and the Chinese worked. The Britishers needed more industrious and
hardworking "human pigs" to go into Malaya and work in the Federated States
of Malaya which had come under the British rule.
At that time, the railroad from Johore Bahru, across the Straits of Johore,
to the shore opposite Penang Island was still under construction. It was
not completed until the following year 1909. It was impossible for Pinyuan
to travel by land to his destination. So, from Singapore Pinyuan took a
small boat that sailed through the Straits of Malacca. The boat anchored
at Lumut jetty, in the south in the state of Perak. Pinyuan disembarked.
With a pole swinging with two bundles of clothes and foodstuffs on his shoulder,
Pinyuan began his journey on foot to his destination, a little village
called Kampong Sayap (沙葉村) where many of his ancestral-village folks
had settled. After walking for about two days Pinyuan finally arrived at
the village in the state of Perak.
In Fenggang (鳳港村) village there were many married women with children
awaiting for their husbands to return. Many years ago, in search of wealth,
many men left the village leaving their families behind. They never returned.
Ermei (二妹 my grandmother) was afraid of becoming another one married
woman who waited in vain for her husband to return home, like many other
women in the village. It had been two years since her husband, Pinyuan (品
源) left home and she yet had to receive news from him.
Having no news from Pinyuan in Malaya, Mary (Ermei's English sister-in-law)
suggested to Ermei, that they should all go to Malaya to look for Pinyuan.
Ermei consulted her brother-in-law, Pinsheng (品勝), the younger brother
of Pinyuan, who gladly agreed to sell off the land. (They did not sell their
newly built big house which is still standing there today). Mary was happy
to relocate herself to a land which was governed by her countrymen. With
the proceeds from the sale of the land they bought themselves four steamer
tickets bound for Malaya. The year was the second year of the reign of Emperor
Xuan Tong (宣統皇帝) 1910 or the year before the Double-Ten Revolution when
Dr Sun Yat-Sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty (清朝 1644 to 1911).
The four of them, Ermei, Mary, Guanlin (my father) and Pinsheng sailed from
China for Malaya in an English steamer. Guanlin was only six years old.
During the journey the English stewards were surprised to find a little
Chinese boy who could speak English with a strong Australian accent. Guanlin
made friends with them and he was introduced to the shipmaster. To their
surprise, the crew found out that Mary was a member of the Chung family.
Unfortunately, when Guanlin grew up he forgot all the English he had learned
from his 'red hair' (紅毛) Aunty, Mary.
The Chung family arrived safely in Singapore. They crossed the ferry to
Johore Bahru and took a train to Batu Gajah which was about four kilometers
east of Kampong Sayap in Perak.
At that time, the present day causeway, linking the island of Singapore
to the mainland, was not constructed yet, but the previous year,1909, the
railway was extended from Johore Bahru to the shore opposite Penang Island,
in Province Wellesley in the north. In later years, the British constructed
the causeway, costing them four million pounds Sterling and several years
to build.
Eventually, the Chung family arrived safely at Kampong Sayap and Pinyuan
was overjoyed to be reunited with his family. They lived temporarily with
the village-head by the surname of Hong (洪) until they built their hut.
When he was a young man, village-head Hong (洪村長) was a soldier in the
army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (天平天國). His wife had fought in
the Taiping Big-Foot-Lady-Regiment (大腳蠻婆 or Big Foot Savage Women Soldiers
as the Qing Government called them, because their feet were unbound) under
the leadership of Hong Xuanjiao (洪宣嬌), the younger sister of Hong Xiuquan
(洪秀全), the leader of the Taiping. Husband and wife managed to flee to
Malaya after the collapse of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 1864. One of
Hong's grandsons was called Hong Zhenchang (洪振昌) who was later known
to Guanlin's children as Chang Bo (昌伯).
With the help from village-chief Hong and a bit of money they brought from
China the Chung family built themselves a hut thatched with atap [2B]. During
that period all the Chinese houses (菜園屋 vegetable garden huts) in the
villages in Malaya were built on government land without permission. The
Chinese living in these villages were called squatters. (In early 1951,
during the Emergency 1948 - 1960, all the 600,000 Chinese villagers in Malaya,
including my parents and their children, were relocated to new settlements
called New Villages 新村).
http://yn.chung.id.au/KampongSayap1942.jpg
Pinyuan moved back to live with the family. He, then, walked to work since
his new attap house was slightly more than one kilometer away from his
work place. Ermei also found casual work in the British owned tin mine.
However, Pinsheng and his European wife (紅毛婆) were unemployed.
Everybody living far and near Kampong Sayap knew that there was a European
woman living in the village. The British administrators in the British owned
tin mines came to know about Mary too. Apparently, the kepala (a Hakka slang
borrowed from the Malay, or the head of the Chinese work-force) in a British
tin mine told his manager about Mary. In turn the manager told the British
District Officer in Batu Gajah, who was the Administrator of Kinta District.
That was how the British Authorities knew about Guanlin's Red Hair Aunty.
Marriage between Asians and Europeans was strongly disapproved at that time.
The British owned tin mines refused to employ Pinsheng. They hoped that
being unemployed for a long time Pinsheng would have no means to support
his English wife and she would leave him. Though there were quite a few
Chinese owned tin mines in the area, mine owners did not employ Pinsheng
because they knew he had problems with the British Authorities and they
did not want to be implicated. Therefore, Pinsheng could not get a job even
in the Chinese tin mines.
The Britishers assumed that the presence of Mary living with a poor Chinese
family damaged their prestige of a ruling power. They considered Mary's
marriage to Pinsheng was imprudent, though they knew the couple were not
married in Malaya but in Australia in the late nineteenth century. Besides,
Mary and Pinsheng had not expected that they would leave Australia and would
end up living in Malaya. Since Mary had no schooling she did not know that
coming to live with her husband in a country ruled by her countrymen would
endanger their prestige. The sight of Mary, one of their own kind, living
in a little attap hut mingling with the poor Hakka Chinese was considered
a disgrace to them. On many occasions the Britishers came to see Mary to
discuss about her precarious social environment and circumstances. Mary
refused to listen to them but stayed on with her husband and the Chung family.
The Britishers could not give Mary employment because she was illiterate.
In fact they tried to talk to her into leaving Malaya and her Oriental husband.
Mary and Pinsheng could not live on love and fresh air alone. Within a few
months, they were in financial difficulties as they did not have a lot of
saving and their future was uncertain. Knowing that Pinsheng had no means
to support his English wife, an administrator of a British tin mine offered
Pinsheng a job as a peon in the company's headquarters in Singapore. Actually
the Britishers wanted the couple to leave the district and to be far away
from Pinyuan's family's influence. In desperation Pinsheng accepted the offer.
Reluctantly, they bade farewell to the Chung family. whose members saw them
off at the Batu Gajah railway station.
Pinsheng was not happy with the job as he had never worked in an office
before. As a result of this he was clumsy with office chores. Within a few
years Pinsheng wasted away and died of disappointment. To show compassion
the company sent Mary back to her people in Australia. The last news that
the Chung family heard about Mary was that she died of breast cancer.
[1A*]
Indentured labour (賣豬仔 human pigs)
The records of indentured labour or "human pigs" could go back to 1519AD.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans who kidnapped Chinese for use on
their ships. They also sent the kidnapped Chinese to work in their tiny
colony in Goa in India. The Portuguese made raids along the sea coasts from
India to China to capture natives, living near the coastal regions, to work
in their colonies. They sold off their surplus to the Dutch who needed labour
for their colonies in the East Indies (present day Indonesia).
Holland was the first nation that organized indentured labour or "human-pigs"
system of contract to recruit Chinese labourers. At that time, the Qing
Government (清朝) did not allow any Chinese to leave China without permission.
If any Chinese were caught leaving China without permission he would be
put to death. However, due to poverty and suppression by the Qing Government,
many Chinese men risked their lives leaving China.
In 1860, the Western Powers forced the Qing Government to sign a treaty
allowing Chinese to leave China. After this treaty, the trade of "human
pigs" flourished. According to the estimate, the cost to recruit one indentured
labourer was about forty silver dollars, including payment to his family
and his transport. The man signed a contract which stated that he would
work for three years or four years sometime seven years. A friend of mine
told me that her grandfather was so desperate that he signed himself off
for seven years. Most of these "human pigs" were illiterate and they did
not understand what was written on the contract. All they did was just simply
put their thumb marks on the contracts. To redeem himself, an indentured
labourer had to work for the the number of years that he had signed on the
contract for the contractors without wages. Food, shelter and clothing were
provided for by the contractors.
After the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國 1851AD to 1864AD)
in 1864AD, the Qing Government put all the Hakkas, men, women and children
with the surname Hong (洪) to the sword to extirpate the breed. Why only
the surname of Hong? It was because the surname of the leader of the Taipng
Revolution was Hong. He was Hong Xiu Quan (洪秀全), a Hakka from Hua county
(花縣) in Guangdong province (廣東省). Many Hakkas with the surname of Hong
fled to Nanyang (南洋 present day Malaysia, Singapore).
Due to the massacres by the Qing Government the remnants of the Taiping
Revolution fled to Nanyang. Many non-Taiping revolutionist Hakkas migrated
to Nanyang as well. Not only the Hakkas but there were also other Chinese
dialect groups signed up with the Western contractors to become indentured
labourers to work on railways, canals, plantations and other development
projects in Nanyang, U.S.A., West Indies, Mauritius, Panama, Brazil and
even in Africa. Your ancestor could be one of them. Go and make a search
to find out if that was the way how he settled in the country where you
were born. I know most of the Mauritan Chinese are Hakkas. They could be
the ex-fighters of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851AD to 1864AD).
[2B]
Explained by Noel Barbar, the author of the book "Malaya 1948 - 1960. The
War of the Running Dogs":
[Atap or attap are the leaves of the nipah palm growing in the swamps. Unlike
coconut, the attap palm has no trunk and therefore no climbing is required.
The fronds spread upwards and outwards from the base and it is a simple
matter to cut fronds off, split them down the spine and lay over-lapping
half sections across into frame to make a completely weather-proof shelter].
An excerpt from my new book, "A Chinese Family In Colonial Malaya 1858 to
1960"
first published in June 2010
http://yn.chung.id.au/IMG_0797.JPG
BTW
If you want to obtain a copy of this book, please email to Miss Julie Boon
who lives in New York City, USA and her email address is:
"Julie Boon" <julie.wenyue@gmail.com>,
Thank you
I live in Australia
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
All rights reserved
|
|
The Asiawind forums are provided to you by
InTechTra Inc.
