19世纪新南威尔士殖民地的中国女性

Chinese Women in Colonial New South Wales:From Absence to Presence

据官方人口调查统计,直至1890年代,居住在澳大利亚新南威尔士殖民地的中国女性不足100人,而同期中国男性数量一直超过10000人。按照人们熟悉的从厦门、香港抵达美国、加拿大等地的全球移民模式,来到澳大利亚殖民地的主要是男性。当她们的丈夫、兄弟和儿子去澳大利亚做劳工、园丁、淘金者、商人和店主时,大多数中国女性留在南方家中。由于中国男性移民在数量上占主导地位,并且很难找到有关中国女性移民的资料记录,目前鲜有澳大利亚殖民时期中国女性移民生活的详细研究。本文试图通过微观历史传记的方法来揭示她们的生活,从而弥补这种缺憾。本文重点关注4位特殊的女性——阿璞、阿菲、金琳和沈郭,她们于1860年代从香港来到新南威尔士,占1871年殖民地华人女性人口的1/3。通过追溯1860—1880年间这些女性在新南威尔士的经历,本文意图说明在诸如19世纪华人离散的全球背景下,创新方法论在发掘女性这一研究过程中的必要性。

According to official Census statistics,until the 1890 s no more than 100 Chinese women lived in the Australian colony of New South Wales,while in the same period the male Chinese population consistently numbered over 10,000.Following familiar global patterns of migration from Amoy and Hong Kong to destinations such as the United States and Canada,Chinese immigration to the Australian colonies was primarily a male pursuit.Most women and girls remained at home in south China when their husbands,brothers and sons went to Australia to work-as rural labourers and market gardeners,as gold miners,as merchants and storekeepers.Because of the numerical dominance of Chinese men,and the difficulty of uncovering sources about Chinese women,few histories to date have considered the lives of migrant Chinese women in colonial Australia in any detail.This article seeks to redress this absence by considering what can,in fact,be uncovered about their lives through the approach of microhistorical biography.The article focuses on four particular women-Ah Happ,Ah Fie,Kim Linn and Sam Kue,who all arrived in New South Wales from Hong Kong during the 1860 s and together made up a third of the female Chinese population recorded in the colony in 1871.By tracing the experiences of these women in New South Wales between the 1860 s and 1880 s,the article suggests how innovative methodologies are necessary for uncovering women within global histories such as that of the nineteenthcentury Chinese diaspora.