Chinese Sydney beyond Chinatown - from temples to a war memorial and centres of cultural exchange
- The Chinese influence is visible across Sydney, Australia, in places that reflect and explain the relationship between the city and its diaspora residents
- Downtown, a steel monument remembers Chinese soldiers who fought for Australia, while respite can be taken at the Chinese Garden of Friendship
Sydney is Australia’s most Chinese city. The capital of New South Wales is home to nearly 500,000 people of Chinese descent and, beyond its Chinatown, a variety of locations highlight this cultural connection.
The following places reflect and explain the deep relationship that exists between Sydney and its Chinese residents.
Australian-Chinese Ex-Services Monument
In downtown Sydney, a short walk from the city’s harbour, a tall steel monument glows each evening, lights lining its modern, swirling form.
Less eye-catching, yet hugely significant, are the many Chinese names – there are 13 Chins, 14 Wongs and 14 Youngs, among many others – etched into the stone slab that flanks this memorial.
Being at war is a terrifying and confusing experience. Now imagine being on a blood-soaked battlefield while representing a country that doesn’t appear to even want you.
From 1901 until the 1960s, the Australian government enforced the openly racist White Australia policy, under which most non-British people were banned from migrating to Australia while those already in the country had the threat of deportation hanging over them.
Australia doesn’t need Chinese tourists, apparently … or does it?
The Asians who stayed in Australia faced regulations that made it difficult to find good employment or run a business.
Yet Chinese-Australians still enlisted. As well as those who bore arms in World War II – volunteers as well as conscripts – another 550 or so joined the war effort as non-combatants.
Etched with the words “Their Service, Our Heritage”, the Australian-Chinese Ex-Services Monument also honours those who fought with Australia’s military forces during the Boer war, World War I, the Korean war and the Vietnam war, as well as those who have served since.
This tribute is located at the eastern edge of the Darling Harbour entertainment and shopping precinct, which is once again buzzing after being quietened by the pandemic.
China Cultural Centre in Sydney
While the Ex-Services Monument salutes the bravery of Australia’s Chinese, a nearby gallery celebrates their creativity. Just 250 metres (820 feet) from the western fringe of Hyde Park, the China Cultural Centre in Sydney was opened by the Chinese government in 2014.
On a recent visit, while some public facilities were still closed thanks to the pandemic, I was relieved to find the doors open at this large complex. Spread across 850 square metres (9,100 square feet), the centre showcases Chinese art, film and music, and provides education on Chinese culture, history and language.
The Chinese-Australian women breaking down race barriers
A single theme – the fostering of the relationship between China and Australia – is evident throughout the centre. Visitors can join classes on kung fu, Mandarin and Chinese painting and calligraphy.
The centre hosts talks on Chinese cuisine, religion and philosophy, screenings of new Chinese films, and performances by Chinese-Australian musicians and dance troupes.
The comprehensive library houses more than 8,000 texts, in English and Chinese, which delve into Chinese history, law, medicine, sports, literature, arts and social sciences.
Temples
Perhaps surprisingly, Sydney has few historical Chinese temples. The oldest in the city is Sze Yup Temple, a Taoist structure in Glebe, in Sydney’s Inner West. Although Glebe was a hotspot during the peak of New South Wales’ January Omicron outbreak, when new infections in the state reached 92,000 a day, the caseload has since diminished.
The small red-brick cottage that houses Sze Yup’s prayer hall was built in the 1890s and is dedicated to Guan Yu, the revered warrior of the Three Kingdoms era (AD220-280).
About a decade after that building was completed, the Yiu Ming Temple was erected in Alexandria, south Sydney. It stands as one of the city’s largest Chinese places of worship. Both temples have been helping to connect members of Sydney’s Chinese communities and provide a soft landing for new immigrants for more than a century.
Chinese, however, had been moving to Australia for generations before either of these temples opened – the first known settler in Australia arrived in Sydney in 1818.
Numbers in the city didn’t begin to swell until the 1850s, when significant communities grew up in Alexandria and Surry Hills, where the petite, modern Kwong Im Temple now offers a Buddhist place of worship.
The Chinese Presbyterian Church
Just 150 metres east of the Kwong Im Temple is the lofty, red-brick tower of the Chinese Presbyterian Church.
Adorned by arched, stained-glass windows and intricate stonework, Australia’s oldest Chinese church was built in 1884 as the headquarters of the Chinese Mission of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, missionaries converted many Chinese immigrants to Presbyterianism.
“Whether you are looking for a spiritual home, transiting through Sydney, or just visiting, we sincerely welcome you,” promises the church’s website.
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The Chau Chak Wing Museum
Although the aforementioned religious structures are handsome, Sydney’s most striking piece of architecture with a Chinese connection is modern and avant-garde.
Contrasting with the graceful Victorian Gothic Revival architecture of the adjacent Quadrangle building, the A$50 million (US$37.4 million) Chau Chak Wing Museum – located within the University of Sydney – is a giant box of raw concrete punctuated by slit-like windows, and stands out in the traditional environment of Australia’s oldest university.
Funded by Chinese-Australian property developer Chau Chak Wing, the museum is free to enter.
One of the biggest attractions to have opened while Australia’s borders were closed, the museum brought together three of the university’s collections – the Nicholson Collection of antiquities, the University Art Collection and the Macleay Collections of natural history, ethnography, science and historic photography – in late 2020.
Displayed across its 2,000 square metres of exhibition space is an eclectic mix of Australian paintings, Asian artworks, modern art installations, scientific artefacts and Australian indigenous pieces.
The Chinese Garden of Friendship
Like Chau Chak Wing, many of Sydney’s earliest Chinese immigrants were from Guangdong province in southern China, which has had a sister-state relationship with New South Wales since 1979. The connection is celebrated at the sprawling Chinese Garden of Friendship.
A gift from Guangdong in 1988, for Australia’s bicentennial, this one-hectare green space of arched bridges, ornate pagodas, koi ponds and shady willows is reminiscent of Diamond Hill, Hong Kong’s Nan Lian Garden. Beside Sydney’s central business district, its quiet nooks are popular with office workers seeking lunchtime peace.
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It is fitting that this proud example of artistry flanks the area now known as Chinatown, where the Chinese influence on Sydney is most palpable.
This neighbourhood was like a ghost town during New South Wales’ several strict lockdowns, with only food delivery staff seen coming and going, but now, locals and tourists are again passing beneath the large, ornate paifang gates at either end of the enclave.
The bakeries, tea houses, hotpot venues, yum cha restaurants, karaoke lounges and grocery stores selling Asian products and ingredients are bustling.
Almost 100 years since Chinese immigrants began setting up shops in the suburb of Haymarket, Chinatown has been woven into the fabric of Sydney and its Chinese population.
