From the late 19th century to the present, Chinese Australian businesses and merchants have played an important but under-acknowledged role in bilateral trade and investment. This project aims to provide the first systematic study of how Chinese Australian enterprises and diasporic networks were developed from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Historical insights will be enhanced through extensive use of bilingual archival sources. The proposition to be explored is that Chinese business culture in diaspora was not simply oriented to economic survival and money-making, it was also an important element of building a trans-local community with diasporic aspects in everyday life.
