Sydney James Lee Soon, eldest son of Lee Soon (Li Jiquan) and Elizabeth Lee Soon, was born in Ballarat on 27th June 1875. Little is known about his early years, other than he grew up with his family around Golden Point (China Town), where his father Lee Soon owned hotels, a gaming house and ran a wine store at various times. In 1884 at the age of nine, Sydney was recorded as attending the Chinese Sabbath School, (a Chinese Sunday School).

On the 4th August 1900, Syd as he was known, married Mary Ellen Cartledge at Ballarat East and on 15th August the same year their first child was born. This child was named Sydney James Lee Soon after his father and from here on referred to as Sydney James Lee Soon 11.

Syd and Mary remained in the same district and had four more children;

• George Edward born in 1905,
• Levina Maude born in 1911 (here on referred to as Levina Maude 11),
• Maxine Elizabeth born 1912 and
• Ernest birth unknown at this point.

In 1915 at the age of four, Levina Maude11 passed away. In 1921 at the age of sixteen, George also passed away. The following year (1922), Syd’s wife Mary was to pass away at the age of forty-one.

Most of his working life Syd spent as a miner and in his spare time was known to play Iron Quoits, a common game of the time, often played between hotel patrons. Syd played in the same team as his Sister Levina’s husband, John Hustwayte.

After the death of his wife Mary, Syd moved to West Geelong where his eldest son Sydney James Lee Soon II was now living and starting his own family. It was during this time that Syd lived with a woman in Gertrude Street and fathered a child who was also named Sydney but was given the mothers surname of Jennings. After an argument with the woman he was living with, Syd left Geelong to work in the mines around the Meredith and Elaine areas with his daughter, Maxine Elizabeth (Liz)’s husband Les Latter. Syd lived with them until his death in June 1942 at the age of sixty-five., as a result of pneumonia. Syd was buried in the New Ballarat Cemetry in the same grave as his wife Mary, son George and daughter Levina.

Although slight in stature, Syd was known to be quick tempered and handy with his fists. A story is recounted of Syd drinking in a Ballarat hotel and being on the receiving end of some derogative remarks about people of Chinese origin. Syd responded by knocking the offender to the floor before anyone had time to think about it. Despite this, Mrs. Jennings described Syd as being a well liked and respected gentleman.

It is a sign of the then times and the views that were still held about the Chinese that Syd’s grandchildren, the children of Sydney James Lee Soon II, grew up not knowing their grandfather even though for a period of time he lived but a few streets away.

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As there is no record of Lee Soon entering the country and as there is also no record of the ship he lists on his naturalisation application as having travelled on, it is assumed he was one of the many Chinese immigrants tricked into paying the Victorian Immigration tax before leaving Hong Kong only to be dumped off the South Australian coast near Robe and Left to their own devices. During a large fire in Hong Kong most of the departure records were destroyed and therefore there is no official record of him leaving China.

The first record of Lee Soon in Australia is to be found in the Ballarat Star Newspaper, dated early December 1867, in which his intention to apply to the justices sitting at the court of petty sessions, to be held on January 2nd 1866, for a certificate authorising the issuing of a publicans licence to open a house situated at the Chinese township of a Golden Point. This was to be known as the Golden Point Hotel. In 1870 he applied for and was granted naturalisation, of which a copy of the correspondence and certificate are available.

On the 4th October 1871, Lee Soon married Elizabeth Houston at Ballarat. Elizabeth was the Daughter of a pastry cook named John Houston, who was also Chinese but who had changed his name upon being baptised, and Mary Houston,( nee. Naylon) of Irish Descent.

Elizabeth was born in Corio Street Geelong on the 24th December 1856 showing she was not quite 15 years of age when she married Lee Soon, disputing the age of seventeen which is shown on the marrage register. It appears this was an arranged marriage, which was customary amongst the Chinese at the time. This was later born out by their daughter who told her Children that her mother had been sold into marriage.

On the 2nd of August 1872 Lee Soon appeared before the courts on a chage a perjury for which he was found not guilty. At that time Lee Soon and Elizabeth were living in a house in Young Street, China Town.

Their first Child was born on the 8th December 1873 and named Levina Muade. Their Second child was born on 2nd June 1875 and was named Sydney James. In 1887 Lee Soon was listed as operating a gaming house, gambling being a favourite pastime of many Chinese at that time.

In 1878 Lee Soon became the publican at the John O’Groates Hotel and it was during this year their third child, James Houston was born. After the birth of James, Elizabeth was very weak and confined to bed. Each day , Catherine White, a family friend whose husband George is shown as a witness to the marriage of Lee Soon and Elizabeth, travelled the two-mile distance to nurse Elizabeth and James. As she could not continue to do so, it was agreed she would take James home to her house where she could tend to him whilst Elizabeth recovered.

James was described as a feeble child and Catherine tried to feed him a mixture of milk and maizena in order for him to gain some form of nourishment. On the 5th October 1878, James at the age of one month, died at the home of Catherine and George White. An inquest into the cause of death found he had died as a result of the administration of improper food through the ignorance of his nurse, Catherine White. (a copy of the inquest findings are available.)

It is assumed the family remained at the same location until 1881 when Lee Soon was listed as the manager of a wine shop some ten doors down the street. The premises comprised a shop and dwelling in which the family resided until the death of Lee Soon in 1883 as a result of heart disease. Lee Soon was buried in the Chinese section of the New Ballarat Cemetery where his grave can still be found today.

Lee Soon was described as being a well-groomed man, dressed in suits and wearing his hair in a ponytail, which was the custom of his native land. It is believed Lee Soon was a gambling man as it would seem there were periods during his life in Ballarat when he was quite wealthy, buying his wife jewellry etc. and running his own businesses, then later working for others.

Lee Soon and Elizabeth also adopted two children, a boy found on the steps of the Barkly Hotel and therefore named Barkley and a girl named Ethyl. Nothing is known of Barkley but it is known that Ethyl remained in contact with the family in later years.

After the death of Lee Soon, Elizabeth remarried a Chinese market gardener named Ah Lee and moved to Dimboola where they worked allotment 11. Elizabeth died in May 1904 at the age of forty-one and was listed as being buried in the Dimboola cemetery although inspection of cemetery records shows no record of this.. At this time, Ethyl was listed as the only dependant as the other children had all left home.

Ah Lee remained in contact with his stepdaughter Levina, occaisionally travelling to Melbourne to visit her and her family. On these occaisions, Levina would meet Ah Lee in Melbourne and they would travel to her home by horse and buggy. Whilst they were travelling through populated areas, Ah Lee would hide under a blanket for he was obviously Chinese in appearance and fraternisation with the Chinese was frowned upon by society of the time.

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Chinese immigration to Australia

The majority of Immigrants were poor farmers who were lured away from their villages by the agent of the Crimp, a man whose job it was to recruit workers for Australia or as it was known to them Xinjinshan, (New Golden Mountain). Some of the men who had done well sent home for brothers, sons or other men from their village to follow to this land of great wealth. Many were advanced their passage and were expected to work it off once they landed in Australia.

The ships, used to transport immigrants were so badly overcrowded, many slept three or four to a bunk. The small amount of food they were given was often rotting and the water fetid. it was not uncommon for a dozen or more men or boys to die during the trip,their bodies being dumped overboard like the carcass of an animal.

After a ten pound entry tax was placed on immigrants entering into the state of Victoria, many unscrupulous shipping captains would collect the tax before leaving Hong Kong, where almost all the immigrants departed from, with the promise of paying the tax on entry to Victoria, but then dump the immigrants off the South Australian coast at Robe, leaving them to their own devices to make their way to the Victorian Goldfields of Ballarat or Bendigo. In most cases this was done on foot. With so many being brought into the country in this manner, it is not surprising that few have official records of entry into the country or any form of shipping records.

Having landed in Australia they were to find they would be treated with despise and contempt by the majority of British and European migrants who felt threatened by the sheer numbers of these strangers they knew so little about. At one time In Australian History, There were more Chinese in Australia than any other Nationality. These other migrants also disliked the Chinese sending their gold back to China as they felt it was robbing the Country of its economy.

The Chinese were used to long monotonous toil and soon showed themselves to be good, hard workers, often reworking the claims the “white” miners had given up as useless. This also added to the distrust and contempt felt towards them and when marriages between the Chinese and white women, (mostly Irish as they were perceived only one class above the Chinese), frequent outbursts of violence began. One of these outbursts of violence occurred at the Lambing Flats In New South Wales. Chinese men were dragged behind horses by their ponytails, which were the customary hairstyle of the Chinese at the time. The ponytail would be cut off and taken as a trophy.

Not all Chinese were miners. Some took to their native trades as barbers or butchers, whilst others opened stores or worked market gardens. Hotels, drinking houses and gambling houses also became popular in the Chinese section of the towns and cities.

In 1901 as a result of the violence against Chinese and other perceived minority races, the “White Australia Policy” was introduced which prevented “non white” people from immigranting to Australia, excluding American Negroes. This policy remained in force untill the 1960′s by which time most of the Chinese bloodline and apperance was disappearing.

By the 1960′s and 1970′s many people of Chinese descent had no knowledge of their family history as names were changed to prevent persecution and harrassment due to their origins.

In many Australian towns today, the only remaining signs of the thousands of Chinese that once inhabited them is to be found in the cemeteries where there lie rows of plain humble graves, the headstone carved with Chinese characters, often so badly eroded that it is difficult to read them. In modern times, the Chinese are more readily accepted as being one of the many cultures that have combined to make Australia a Multi-Cultural country and many of the old mining towns and cities have Chinese-Australian Committees who work hard to keep this heritage alive.

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The research

This is the story of Peter Lee’s search for his roots. We are most grateful to Peter for giving us permission to reproduce it here:

The research of the Australian Descendants of Li Jiquan (Lee Soon) has been predominantly conducted by Peter Leeson, great, great grandson of Li Jiquan (李積銓). Peter’s interest in his family history began at the age of fifteen when it was revealed to him that the birth certificate of an elder relative had the name LeeSoon as their family name.

This had been kept quiet as people of Chinese origin were generally treated as second class citizens in Australia at the time, a way of thinking that had been encouraged by the White Australia Policy. When asking if it was correct, Peter was told that it couldn’t be and that family members would have known if it were. By this time the Chinese appearance had all but disappeared from family members through marriages with European spouses.

It wasn’t until two years later after the death of his grandfather, that it was revealed for the purpose of the death certificate, his grandfathers family name was not Leeson but in reality LeeSoon. This furthered the desire to find more information on the family history and during the period 1982 and 1983 Peter, with the assistance of his cousin Trevor Turner, spent many hours researching records, talking to remaining family members and chasing down any leads they could possible find.

Death, Marriage and Birth certificates were used to find vital dates, locations and next of kin. Cemetery records were used to fill in more detail and countless hours spent researching old newspapers, looking for articles or notices relating to family members, and hours spent in the repository searching records yielded information regarding the naturalisation of Li Jiquan and notice regarding the charge of perjury bought against him, for which he was found not guilty, along with details of the inquiry into the death of his son, James. Peter and Trevor travelled to Ballarat on many occaisions, speaking with the eldest remaining members of the family to obtain information and stories describing their great grandfather, Syd.

It must be remembered that all this was done in the days prior to the Internet and the access it has provided researchers of today. In 1984, Peter had reached a point where he had sufficient information pertaining to relatives since the arrival of Li Jiquan in Australia and was desperately trying to trace further back into China but with no success. After having been in contact with the Chinese Consulate and the Chinese Overseas Office based in China, he gave up trying and accepted that the information he had was all he would ever obtain.

Some seventeen years later, in 2001 however, using the Internet, Peter stumbled on a website that is used by people tracing their family origins in China. A few days after posting a notice on the bulletin board at this site, Peter received emails from two people located in Canada who offered assistance and guidance based on their own experience in doing similar research. With the assistance of Al Chinn and Kevin Lee, and their translation of the headstone of Li Jiquan’s grave in Ballarat, along with old maps in their possession, were able to pinpoint the tiny village in Guangdong Province from which Li Jiquan originated. It is now hoped that with this new information the link to distant relatives in China may one day become a reality.

By the creation of this website, Peter hopes to provide other descendants of Li Jiquan access to interesting and relevant information pertaining to their family history and other people who may be wanting to conduct similar research the inspiration and encouragement to make a start.

Points of Interest

Since the arrival of Li Jiquan in Australia, the eldest son of the eldest son has carried the name James. Ironically the only exception to this is Peter Leeson.

1. Li Jiquan (Lee Soon)
2. Sydney James LeeSoon 1
3. Sydney James LeeSoon 11
4. Geoffrey James Leeson
5. Peter Geoffrey Leeson
6. James Geoffrey Leeson.

There were three generations of Levina Maude’s. (not in direct lines)

| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |

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Kenda Gee – comments on the Australian view

The author misses the point concerning redress, entirely.

Redress is a process involving individuals who were harmed. And it holds government accountable, particularly as it continues to re-invent mistakes from the past.

On those notes – money isn’t important. Yet, it is.

If 99% of the claimants chose to donate their individual compensation back to the community, then that would be *their* decision. But they must be allowed to decide for themselves. The individual compensation is a way to allow them to reclaim their history and to be empowered, as a result. But it is their choice and no one else’s.

Secondly, what seems to escape the author is that government and our generation are the beneficiaries of those past injustices. Just as we expect citizens to pay their taxes on time, and should they fail to do, have government collect from them or their estates when they are dead and long gone, so too should we make sure that government is not unjustly enriched as a result of wrong actions. That is why I say, money is not the issue, yet it is.

If the author believes we have come a long way, then he ought to consider that shortly after Ottawa tried to renege on their promise to redress our Chinese in Canada, they introduced a $975 “right of landing fee” that would apply to all arrivals, including refugees. This was summarily denounced by the U.N. because whether or not a refugee is allowed entry should not be based on whether he or she can pay $975. In fact, the Liberal government’s party did not support the ROLF at their national convention in Ottawa.

A few months after this, New Zealand’s government tried to introduce a similar fee.

Does any of this sound familiar to you as a New Zealander and member of the Commonwealth? I would hope so.

The fact that the author believes that we should be concerned with a potential backlash just goes to show you how little we have progressed. If Chinese are indeed equal in Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, is there a reason why he should dare to hold these kind of old-time fears?

During the closing of the Sydney Olympics, Australia’s Prime Minister claimed that his country was the most open and welcoming in the world. I beg to differ. They have a huge way to overcome their White Supremacy thinking which was the precursor to copy-cats in New Zealand and Canada. What a shame.

Howard’s rationalization is pretty lame.

If Ottawa apologizes to Chinese Canadians, it will do so with compensation for a very good reason. The compensation will act as a negotiated ceiling to any future claims.

It is easy for Howard to claim that the poor old flood gates will burst open, but it’s easy to feign poverty when you (as the government) haven’t offered a dime.

This is one of a few reasons why I do have questions re. NZ’s official apology. In Ottawa, it would be rare to offer a formal acknowledgment without a settlement in money. How does the NZ government plan to defend future (arbitrary) claims if it has acknowledged guilt?

In the Speech from Helen Clark, she says that it is the first step. First step to what?

This is an example of the potential short-coming of trying to put the cart before the horse. It would not happen in Canada, since our group (HTEA) and the groups we work with (CCNC) have never claimed to speak for the entire Chinese community. We represent only those who have legitimate claims as registered HT payers and have indicated that they will not accept anything less than 3 conditions of settlement (apology, individual compensation, and collective redress).

Kenda Gee

22 February 2002

Canadian Head Tax and Exclusion Act Committee

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After my initial great and excited euphoria over Helen Clark’s apology on behalf of the NZ Government and people, I became very worried as I began to receive messages, first indicating prominent NZ commentators calling for the “next step” by way of compensation, and secondly, from the various huaren sites around the world praising the apology as a great achievement of Chinese nationalistic and ethnic spirit. I am Chinese and very proud of it, but I do not necessarily need to boast about my cultural and ethnic identity in a manner of racial and ethnic superiority. I am in fact rather worried about the new rampant Chinese nationalism and culturalism which at an international conference in Singapore in 2000 I warned would bring problems to the younger generation of overseas Chinese, who will be torn by the demand they be loyal New Zealanders or Australians, and by the strident demand they be patriotic Chinese!

Money, especially for descendents, can not compensate for the humiliation and suffering of our fore bearers in New Zealand, nor any where else. Money will not help our grandfathers or our fathers. The demand for compensation will simply damage the achievements and reputation of the Chinese community that our generation have managed to achieve in Australia and New Zealand. I would caution you and my fellow New Zealand Chinese to be careful about what the “next step” actually should be.

The present Howard Government will never apologize to the Indigenous peoples in Australia and they explain why – they fear that a government apology will lead to massive claims for monetary compensation, in many cases very justified (more so than in the case of NZ Chinese!). The majority of White Australians think that the Aboriginal peoples already receive too many benefits from the public purse in Australia and so they support the Australian government stand.

It is already being asked when will the Canadian and Australian governments now apologize to the Chinese in Canada and Australia for their poll taxes. In the Australian case I think I can safely say not in my life time and probably never!

If the NZ Chinese now pursue a claim for monetary compensation then I think it will make apologies from the Canadian and Australian government even more unlikely.

Further, though the present NZ Government is a very socially conscious one that appears favorably inclined towards Chinese and other ethnic and migrant groups, and I am much prouder to be a New Zealander than an Australian at the moment, from my observations the racial situation in New Zealand has not really improved. I can well imagine the backlash from the Pakeha and especially Maori communities if the Chinese in New Zealand appeared to be receiving special treatment and extra monetary benefit. I would think the Chinese community in New Zealand is regarded as a very rich and well-to-do one by many Pakehas and Maoris. The reality is of course very different but it is perceptions that matter most to the general public!!!!

I think you must ensure that the Chinese people who are consulted and represented are the descendants of the early Chinese migrants who suffered the poll tax. My father must have paid it, and probably my mother and I did when we arrived as war refugees in 1940? You must see that the more recent migrants do not have all the say and influence. From my understanding, organisations such as the Tung Jung, Seyip, and older Chinese groups are much more representative than the NZ Chinese Association which I gather has been taken over by more aggressive recent Chinese arrivals? ,p> Yes, I gather the NZ Government wishes some advice concerning some thing more tangible. Support for Chinese language and studies in schools and universities is worth considering. However, I would caution against specific Chinese schools that I have heard has been suggested. The ethnic specific schools that now proliferate in Australia are a great source of division and will eventually weaken multiculturalism in Australia. You would not wish that to occur in NZ?

I would suggest the establishment in New Zealand of a government body such as the Australia-China Council which encourages and funds academic, cultural, and people to people exchange between Australia, the PRC, and Taiwan. The ACC also supports research and cultural projects that promote mutual understanding of Australian and Chinese cultures and societies. It is very well funded by the Australian government and is at present chaired by the most distinguished Chinese Australia, Dr John Yu, AC.

John Yu is descended from one of the early Chinese settler families in Australia but like me was born in China! The AC, Commander of Order of Australia, is the highest honour awarded in Australia. It is closed order, in that there is a permanent set number of AC, and an AC has to die before another is appointed!

Henry Chan

18 February 2002

Dr. Henry Chan is a retired professor of Chinese in Australia

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