ELEVEN-year-old Liu Jo Wei was collected by his father and brought to live on the Ballarat goldfields, finding himself relentlessly and often violently bullied at school.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Liu Jo's mother had died about a month after his father had left China in 1883 to follow in the footsteps of his own father two decades earlier. And so, the Liu Jo was to arrive in Australia.
Author and retired educator Yvonne Horsfield has written the tale of her great-uncle, Liu Jo, as a children's book following her biographical work Chinese Roots focusing on her grandfather Reverend John Tong Way.
Ms Horsfield launched Chinese Roots in April 2023, but was not quite ready to move on.
"This is an issue that is still a talking point in schools with children picked on because of a difference," Ms Horsfield said.
"...He had a rough time and ended up not going to school but went on to do good things with his life...These are universal themes in a way."
Liu Jo Wei - a Chinese boy on the goldfields is written with what Ms Horsfield hoped could share lessons of kindness and acceptance in schools.
Her great-uncle went to Little Bendigo school where he looked different, spoke no English, wore foreign clothes and had a foreign hairstyle.
It was an account Ms Horsfield followed via newspapers that shocked her most.
Liu Jo had been attacked by a group of boys from the Brown Hill school. They split his head open with rocks. Reverend Tong Way, due to his standing in the community, was able to have a case heard in court.
The attacker fined 10 pounds, or was to be sent to jail, and his mother paid the fine.
READ MORE ON DISCOVERING BALLARAT'S HIDDEN CHINESE HERITAGE
Ms Horsfield understands a little of what it was like to be different.
Her mother was an illegitimate child of Irish heritage who was taken in by the Tong Way household with Reverend Tong Way and his wife raising her as their grandchild.
Ms Horsfield said her mother had been a "white child with the unique experience of growing up in a Chinese household".
Sharing such stories of Ballarat is important to Ms Horsfield, who has long felt an imbalance in Ballarat's history with a lack of recognition to Chinese people and their contributions.
"Nowadays, there is a lot more interest. Ballarat has a Chinese library and Victory House [in Canadian] to be made a Chinese museum," Ms Horsfield said.
Ballarat's Chinese population all-but-disappeared in the wake of the White Australia policy, which was enacted in 1901, but the legacy has been coming to the fore, particularly in sporting tales.
Liu Jo Wei is available from Shawline Publishing Group and will soon be available via book stores in Ballarat, the Chinese library in Sturt Street.
Ms Horsfield also hoped to work with historical sites, such as the Eureka Centre, and schools in Ballarat to share her story and the lessons from Liu Jo.
