Citation

Lovejoy V. Aust. Hist. Stud. 2011; 42(1): 45-61.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Dept. of History, University of Melbourne)

DOI

10.1080/1031461X.2010.539239

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Chinese immigrants to nineteenth-century Victoria lived in two worlds. This article explores the last words of Yick Yourn, a Bendigo storekeeper who committed suicide in 1875, revealing his life to be a complex web of local, cross-cultural and translocal connections. His suicide letters, combined with the witness statements at his inquest, provide a unique opportunity to glimpse the private world of a nineteenth-century Chinese immigrant to Victoria. This article argues that an assimilation narrative is an inappropriate way for understanding the lives of Chinese immigrants, but neither can they be dismissed as sojourners. Yick Yourn was an agent of his own making as a long-term resident intent on returning to China.

Language: en