Cheok Hong Cheong

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The Reverend

Cheok Hong Cheong
Cheong c. 1892
Personal details
Born(1851-11-23)23 November 1851
Foshan, Guangdong, Qing China
Died20 June 1928(1928-06-20) (aged 76)
Croydon, Victoria, Australia
Parents
  • Cheong Peng-nam
  • Yeet Kwy Phang See
Spouse
Wong Toy Yen
​
​
(m. 1869; died 1927)​
OccupationMissionary
Cheok Hong Cheong
Traditional Chinese張卓雄
Simplified Chinese张卓雄

Cheok Hong Cheong[a] (23 November 1851 – 20 June 1928), also known as Zhang Zhuoxiong (Chinese: 張卓雄),[2] was a Chinese-born Australian missionary, political activist, writer, and businessman. Originally a Presbyterian elder, he became the superintendent of the Anglican mission in Melbourne. A staunch campaigner against anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia, he co-authored a booklet titled The Chinese Question in Australia (1879) with Lowe Kong Meng and Louis Ah Mouy. He was also opposed to the British opium trade.

Early life and education[edit]

Cheong was born on 23 November 1851 in Foshan, Guangdong, China.[3] His grandfather was a banker whose business collapsed after the Taiping Rebellion.[4] His father, Cheong Peng-nam, arrived in Victoria, Australia in 1854 during the Victorian gold rush, and converted to Christianity in 1860.[5] Cheok Hong had two sisters, Fong-sen and Ah Chin;[6] in 1863, after his father had become permanently employed as a Presbyterian missionary in Australia,[5] Cheong emigrated to Victoria with his mother Yeet Kwy Phang See and his siblings.[3] They were all baptised at St John's Presbyterian Church in Ballarat in 1866.[6]

Following the death of Cheong's mother in June 1871, the family relocated to Melbourne. Cheong's studies were reportedly so exceptional that his tuition fees were borne by his teachers.[5] He spent two years at Ballarat College and another three at Scotch College.[7] He was admitted into the University of Melbourne in 1875, becoming the first Chinese in Victoria to matriculate,[5] although he did not attend, much less graduate.[8]

Career[edit]

Cheong studied at the Presbyterian Theological Hall on a scholarship from the Presbyterian Church, although he dropped out midway in 1875, after a dispute regarding the Chinese mission that he worked at.[5] From 1875 to 1885, Cheong sold bananas with his father in Fitzroy.[5] In 1879, with his father's friend Lowe Kong Meng and fellow community leader and mentor Louis Ah Mouy,[5][9] Cheong published a thirty-one-page pamphlet titled The Chinese Question in Australia,[9] which defended Chinese immigration[10] and protested against the discrimination that the Chinese had been facing in Australia.[9] According to writer Ian Welch, Cheong was the main author of the document, with Ah Mouy and Kong Meng "approving" its contents.[11] In an interview with The Essex County Standard, Cheong pushed back against xenophobic attitudes towards Chinese immigration and opined that China was a pacifist country, "having manifested no desire to covet her neighbours' territories."[12] In 1885, Cheong accepted a salaried position at the Church Missionary Society of Victoria.[5] The same year, after impressing Bishop James Moorhouse with "such a remarkable address" at the Anglican Board of Missions' annual meeting,[13] Cheong was appointed as the superintendent of the Church of England of Melbourne, which necessitated his giving up of his role as a Presbyterian elder.[14]

In 1887, two Imperial Commissioners, General Wong Yung Ho and Commissioner U Tsing, arrived in Melbourne as part of their inquiry into the treatment of Chinese subjects overseas. The trio of Cheong, Kong Meng, and Ah Mouy presented the commissioners with a petition that had forty-four other signatories, calling for the "international wrong" that was anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia to be righted.[15] Cheong was particularly opposed to the Immigration Restriction Act 1901.[16] He was the president of the Commonwealth Chinese Community's Representative Committee, which had been founded in direct response to the act.[17] He was also a vociferous critic of the British opium trade,[13][18][19] which he described as "pernicious",[4] and travelled across England to lecture on the subject.[4][20][21] Cheong claimed to have received death threats because of his anti-opium activism.[22]

Personal life[edit]

Despite the fact that he had arrived in Australia with no knowledge of the language, Cheong was eventually able to speak and write in "perfect English".[6] He was also proficient in French, German, Italian, and Spanish and "had more than a passing acquaintance" with Malay and Hindustani.[23] A March 1927 report by the Sydney-based Smith's Weekly alleged that Cheong was the "wealthiest Chinaman in Melbourne", with numerous properties to his name.[24]

In 1869, Cheong married Wong Toy Yen, with whom he had two daughters and five sons.[13] She died on 14 February 1927;[25] Cheong died a year later on 20 June 1928 at his residence "Pine Lodge", in Croydon, Victoria.[3] The Brisbane Courier celebrated him as "one of the foremost Chinese citizens in Australia".[26]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Cheong initially used his Chinese name "Cheong Cheok Hong" but "was irritated by being called Mr. Hong" and thereafter referred to himself as "Cheok Hong Cheong" when writing in English.[1]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Welch 2004, p. 160.
  2. ^ Welch 2004, p. 154.
  3. ^ a b c Welch 2015, p. 6.
  4. ^ a b c "To convert the people of England". The Pall Mall Gazette. 4 December 1891. p. 2. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Welch 1997, p. 23.
  6. ^ a b c Welch 2015, p. 8.
  7. ^ "Chinese and Aboriginal Missions". The Argus. 31 March 1874. p. 5. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  8. ^ Welch 2015, p. 9.
  9. ^ a b c Lake 2013, p. 46.
  10. ^ Stan 2019, p. 151.
  11. ^ Welch 2004, p. 174.
  12. ^ Downe, Mark (20 February 1892). "Interview with Cheok Hong Cheong". The Essex County Standard. p. 5. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  13. ^ a b c Ching 1969.
  14. ^ "Stole a Chinaman". The Oakley Graphic. 12 October 1900. p. 2. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  15. ^ Lake 2013, p. 49.
  16. ^ La Trobe Library Journal 1976, p. 22.
  17. ^ "Charm straight from Burley Griffin beckons". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 March 1997. p. 120. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  18. ^ "Cheok Hong Cheong Speaks". The Morning Journal-Courier. 28 December 1891. p. 1. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  19. ^ "Society for the Suppression of the Anglo-Asiatic Opium Trade". Belfast News Letter. 5 March 1892. p. 4. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  20. ^ "General Intelligence". Jackson's Oxford Journal. 7 May 1882. p. 5. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  21. ^ "Lecture by a Chinese gentleman against the opium traffic". Jackson's Oxford Journal. 30 April 1892. p. 8. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  22. ^ Welch 2004, p. 163.
  23. ^ "A Chinese Linguist". The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder. 31 July 1928. p. 2. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  24. ^ "Doctors who buy and sell hotels". Smith's Weekly. 12 March 1927. p. 11. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  25. ^ "Deaths". The Argus. 17 February 1927. p. 1. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  26. ^ Welch 2015, p. 398.

Sources[edit]

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