The Poison of Polygamy: A Social Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Serialised in 190910, The Poison of Polygamy is a rare gem of Australian literature.

The first novel of the Chinese Australian experience, it is a roller-coaster tale of blackmail, murder, betrayal and even thylacine attack, partly based on real people, places and events. Revealing the human face of migration between imperial China and colonial Australia, it recounts the story of a man from southern China who tries his luck on the Victorian goldfields, the wife he leaves behind, and their eventual fraught reunion.

In this bilingual parallel edition, Australias and possibly the Wests earliest Chinese-language novel is presented in English translation for the first time. Illuminating introductions explore the works historical, cultural and linguistic context, and establish its unique significance in Australias literary and social history.

A shiny little nugget has been disinterred from the tailings of our literary past The Poison of Polygamy is an exciting addition to our literary history that deserves to be widely discussed and analysed in both China and Australia. David Walker, Emeritus Professor, Deakin University and author of Anxious Nation

The discovery of The Poison of Polygamy and its publication in this highly informative bilingual edition is a double happiness. It gives readers a highly entertaining new novel, replete with drama, emotion and intrigue. At the same time it documents Chinese Australian life in a key period of history. Nicholas Jose, author of Avenue of Eternal Peace

Reviews

Listen to the surprising story of author Wong Shee Ping on Radio National's "The History Listen", https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-history-listen/wong-shee-ping/11134898.

-- Rebecca Huntey * Radio National's The History Listen *

"Fundamentally, this novel is a treasure of Australian literature. The
outstanding translation of this work of late Qing literary Chinese and its
unique position within the history of the Chinese diaspora make The Poison
of Polygamy of great interest to international scholars also."

-- Jocelyn Chey * Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia *

Author Bio

Wong Shee Ping was a writer for Melbournes Chinese Times, a Christian preacher, a Chinese revolutionary and a member of a prominent family in Victorias Chinese business community. He is reported to have spoken little English, yet he made it his mission to espouse Western-influenced values and ideas.

Ely Finch is a consultant translator and linguist who specialises in historical documents and inscriptions written in literary (classical) Chinese, Cantonese, and other southern Chinese languages. His expertise and work on Australian Chinese-language historical material has been of assistance to historians, archaeologists, museums and other institutions, and has garnered widespread academic and community attention in recent years.

Mei-fen Kuo is a scholar of Chinese Australians from a diasporic perspective. Her Making Chinese Australia: Urban Elites, Newspapers and the Formation of Chinese Australian Identity, 18921912, was shortlisted for the W K Hancock Prize, and, with Judith Brett, she authored Unlocking the History of the Australasian Kuo Min Tang, 19112013. Mei-fen was an ARC DECRA Fellow at the University of Queensland and is currently a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University under the MOFA Taiwan Fellowship.

Michael Williams is an historian of the Chinese diaspora and is a founding member of the Chinese Australian Historical Society. His current research involves a history of the dictation test, a history of Chinese opera in Australia, and a comparison of Australias pre-1949 Chinese-Australian history with its post-1989 history. Michael is an adjunct fellow with the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University and is the author of Returning Home with Glory (Hong Kong University Press, 2018). Michael also teaches courses in Australian history and Chinese in the world at Beijing Foreign Studies University.