2016 International Symposium on Transnational Migration and Qiaoxiang Studies

Photograph copyright Dr. Michael Williams 2016.

I delivered this presentation, entitled “華僑文海拾珍 A Treasure of Chinese Diaspora Literature from the Late Qing”, at the International Symposium on Transnational Migration and Qiaoxiang Studies, which was held at Wuyi University, and organised by the university’s Guangdong Qiaoxiang Culture Research Center; the Chinese Institute for Overseas Chinese History Studies, Beijing; and the University of British Columbia, Canada. Little did I know that it was to be the first in a long series I was to give about the early Chinese-language Australian novel The Poison of Polygamy, and my translation thereof, which I was in the midst of writing, having received the happy news that the State Government of Victoria had awarded the proposal to translate and republish it a Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV) Local History Grant. I spent the week leading up to the symposium in the affable company of historian Dr. Michael Williams and Assoc. Prof. Denis Byrne, exploring the nearby See Yip region, from which the author of The Poison of Polygamy hailed, and in which much of the novel was set. It was an illuminating and most enjoyable experience seeing the landscape of the region, visiting its cities, towns and villages, and encountering the locals. The conference was an opportunity to meet with scholars from around the world whose research relates to the history of the Chinese diaspora, or in some cases to other diasporas. There were many impressive presentations, but one of the highlights for me was a talk by Larry Grant, an elder of British Columbia’s Musqueam Nation who is of part Chinese ancestry.