Sojourners: The Epic Story Of China's Centuries Old Relationship With Australia
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Long before the gold rush drew thousands of hopeful migrants to Australian shores, a quiet and enduring relationship was already forming between China and the vast southern continent — and Sojourners is its definitive chronicle. Eric Rolls masterfully reconstructs centuries of Chinese presence in Australia, tracing the journeys of merchants, labourers, and settlers who crossed the Wide Sea in search of fortune and belonging, weaving their lives into the social and cultural fabric of a nation still finding its identity. The subtitle, Flowers and the Wide Sea, drawn from the Chinese characters 华 (Huá, meaning Chinese/flourishing) and 洋 (Yáng, meaning ocean/foreign), perfectly encapsulates the poetic tension at the heart of this sweeping narrative. Rolls writes with the authority of a seasoned historian and the lyrical precision of a natural storyteller, bringing to life the triumphs, prejudices, and quiet dignities that defined the Chinese-Australian experience across generations. Sojourners stands as a landmark work in Australian historiography, challenging long-held assumptions about a monocultural colonial past and revealing a richer, more complex national story. For anyone seeking to understand the deep roots of Australia's multicultural present, this volume poses a question that lingers long after the final page: how much of what Australia became was shaped by those the history books forgot?
Author: Eric Rolls
Format: Paperback
Published: 1992, University of Queensland Press
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Long before the gold rush drew thousands of hopeful migrants to Australian shores, a quiet and enduring relationship was already forming between China and the vast southern continent — and Sojourners is its definitive chronicle. Eric Rolls masterfully reconstructs centuries of Chinese presence in Australia, tracing the journeys of merchants, labourers, and settlers who crossed the Wide Sea in search of fortune and belonging, weaving their lives into the social and cultural fabric of a nation still finding its identity. The subtitle, Flowers and the Wide Sea, drawn from the Chinese characters 华 (Huá, meaning Chinese/flourishing) and 洋 (Yáng, meaning ocean/foreign), perfectly encapsulates the poetic tension at the heart of this sweeping narrative. Rolls writes with the authority of a seasoned historian and the lyrical precision of a natural storyteller, bringing to life the triumphs, prejudices, and quiet dignities that defined the Chinese-Australian experience across generations. Sojourners stands as a landmark work in Australian historiography, challenging long-held assumptions about a monocultural colonial past and revealing a richer, more complex national story. For anyone seeking to understand the deep roots of Australia's multicultural present, this volume poses a question that lingers long after the final page: how much of what Australia became was shaped by those the history books forgot?