Who was Lowe Kong Meng?
Lowe Kong Meng was a British subject of China heritage, who lived in Penang. He went to school in Penang and Mauritius and later became a successful businessman by trading goods in Mauritius, Singapore, and Calcutta. When he heard about the gold rush in Australia, he rushed there too and established the Little Bourke Street, late buying some gold minds and accumulating ships and wealth, and even sitting on the boards of New Commercial Bank of Australia. He was revered by the Chinese people, as he pushed for their rights to be allowed to immigrate. He was a diplomatic man; he used to encourage the Chinese people to obey the British flag so that they can live in harmony with the British.
When was the first Opium War, and which countries were involved? What was its outcome?
First Opium War, most times referred as the opium war took place between 1839 and 1842. A battle ensued after China tried to abolish the trading of Opium for silver. The queen had noted with worry the number of Chinese men who were getting addicted to the drug. The Dauguang Emperor came into the fierce fight with the British when he rejected the passage of taxation on Opium and pushed for its abolishment. The British retaliated after 20,000 chests of opium were confiscated by Lin, who had been assigned the abolishment task by the Emperor, by sending naval ships to gun down China, forcing an early surrender.
Anti-Chinese Racism
Apart from people on the goldfields, which other influential group of people opposed the Chinese in Australia?
The Chinese people brought a lot of competition on their Australian counterparts, prompting a crude type of racism that resulted in the killing and mistreatment of Chinese. The government of Australia and influential business people worked hard to strip the Chinese their rights, by passing the Anti-Chinese Laws in 1870s. Chinese people became targets for evictions forced vaccinations and recipients of immigrants’ policies that denied them re-admission once they left Australia.
b) What, according to critics such as Daniel Deniehy, was the ideological basis of this opposition?)
The anti-Chinese racist attacks were based on fear of competition because the Chinese people had grown from small stakeholders to owners of mines and big farms.
What arguments against discrimination did Lowe Hong Meng put forward in his book?
Lowe argued that the British government should have allowed Chinese people to enter the British territories freely, the way the British were allowed to enter China, as documented in the 1860 Peking Treaty. Lowe was frustrated by the double standards extended by the British, and he used his understanding of diplomacy and business to call for a fair treatment of his people in his book, The Chinese Question in Australia. He was requesting the reciprocation of the treaty.
What obstacle or objection was raised in response to immigration restriction in Victoria and California?
The Supreme Court ruled against immigration in California, saying that the restrictions encroached ‘on federal jurisdiction’ over international business and immigration. On the other end, in Victoria, the Chinese dodged the rules, by alighting at the border and walking to the mines by foot. The actions of the Supreme Court and the Chinese passengers made the restrictions ineffective.
What obstacle or objection was raised in response to immigration restriction in Victoria and California?
Vigilante - the people who controlled the behaviors of the Chinese, after they started receiving threats from natives and government agencies
In concert – The combination of efforts to fight off the enemy, or make a statement about a particular issue that is considered as infringing
Manhood suffrage – This is the privation of human beings such that they cannot meet basic needs.
Contraband – The illegal sneaking of Chinese into Australia with their merchandise.
Homogeneity – The aspect of fitting together of the Chinese with the local communities in Victoria and California
