Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia

(Paperback)

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Shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History
Much has been written about the White Australia Policy, but very little has been written about it from a Chinese perspective. Big White Lie shifts our understanding of the White Australia Policy and indeed White Australia by exploring what Chinese Australians were saying and doing at a time when they were officially excluded. Big White Lie pays close attention to Chinese migration patterns, debates, social organisations, and their business and religious lives and shows that they had every right to be counted as Australians, even in White Australia. The book's focus on Chinese Australians provides a refreshing new perspective on the important role the Chinese have played in Australia's past at a time when China's likely role in Australia's future is more compelling than ever.

Author Bio

John Fitzgerald is the head of the School of Social Sciences at La Trobe University. One of Australia's leading researchers on Chinese history and the Chinese in Australia, he graduated from the University of Sydney in 1976 and spent the following year in China under the Australia-China student exchange program. He was awarded a PhD in modern Chinese history at the ANU and worked at the ANU Contemporary China Centre before moving to the University of Melbourne in 1985. He joined the Department of Politics at La Trobe University in 1992, where he was later appointed Professor of Asian Studies. In 2005 and 2006 he directed the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies at the ANU.