A new China: Using sport to expose a multi-class race through the 1923 Chinese soccer tour of Australia

Abstract

In the early 1920s, the perceptions by Australians of the Chinese race was one of a single culture and single class. Chinese Australians continuously attempted to break from the shackles of this monolithic construction. A soccer tour in late 1923 provided the local Chinese with an opportunity to alter these stereotypes. Through the performances both on the field and off, through the persistence of the organisers to promote a 'different type' of Chinese and through the development of this alternative image in the Western press, the Australian public were afforded a view of Chinese they had not experienced prior, one which included well-educated, middle-class and athletic individuals. The paper investigates the projection of a multi-class society within China to white Australians as portrayed by the soccer tour and how it challenged the entrenched negative perceptions imposed on Australians through the White Australia Policy.