Made in Chinatown : Chinese Australian Furniture Factories, 1880-1930 /

Gibson, Peter Charles,

Made in Chinatown : Chinese Australian Furniture Factories, 1880-1930 / Peter Charles Gibson. - Sydney NSW : Sydney University Press, (c)2022. - 1 online resource (228 pages) - China and the West in the Modern World .

Includes bibliographical references.

Made in Chinatown delves into a little-known aspect of Australia's past: its hundreds of Chinese furniture factories. These businesses thrived in the post-gold rush era, becoming an important economic activity for Chinese immigrants and their descendants and a vital part of Australia's furniture industry. Yet, owing to an exclusionary vision for Australia as a bastion of 'white' industry and labour, these factories were targeted by anti-Chinese political campaigns and legislative restrictions. Guided by Chinese manufacturers' and workers' own reflections and records, this book examines how these factories operated under the exclusionary vision of White Australia. Historian Peter Gibson uses previously untapped archival sources to investigate the local and international factors that boosted the industry, and the business and labour practices associated with factory operation. He explores the strategies employed in efforts to resist injustice, and the place of Chinese furniture factories within the contexts of Australian enterprise, work and consumerism more broadly. Made in Chinatown argues that Chinese Australian furniture manufacturers and their employees were far more adaptable, and the White Australia vision less pervasive, than most histories would suggest. - Publisher's description.



9781743328491 9781743328453


Furniture industry and trade--History.--Australia
Furniture making--History.--Australia
Chinese--History.--Australia
Cabinetmakers--History.--Australia
Furniture workers--History.--Australia


Electronic Books.

HD9773 / .M334 2022