Cheok Hong Cheong, Selected Documents: 1863-1928

Abstract

Cheok Hong CHEONG (he adopted the “English” name order placing his family name last) was a significant missionary, businessman, landowner and political lobbyist in the Colony of Victoria, Australia. He was born on 23 November 1851 at Fatshan, an important regional trading centre in Guangdong Province, China, not far from the provincial capital of Guangzhou—one important result being that he spoke the urban variant of Cantonese. The rural dialects of Guangdong Province, as with rural dialects throughout China, vary widely from the “standard” dialect of the provincial capital. Cheong’s grandfather was involved in some kind of traditional Chinese banking and the family was having difficulty as a result of the local insurrections that impacted negatively on trade. Show more