Chinese performance in the Victorian goldfields from the 1850s to 1870: the contradictions of resources and representations

While much has been written about the many performers from Europe who toured the goldfields circuits in the nineteenth century, this essay examines the under-researched form of Cantonese opera that was performed widely across Chinese communities in the numerous diasporic communities that arose through the different goldrushes. We focus here on the Victoria, Australia goldrush because more information remains about the performance troupes there, playing and travelling from camp to camp, using large mobile canvas tents as their venue. We argue that a fuller understanding of the form and its reception is a necessary foundation for comprehending the historical Chinese experience in Australia, an experience that continues to be relevant today. Using existing resources and further interrogation of digitized newspaper records, we identify the types of performance, the venues in which they were performed, and provide an overview of the varying response to Chinese performance in the foundational moments of this colony and state. Our two-part aim provides a broader understanding of the Chinese experience in early Australia and develops a stronger narrative for a forgotten form of theatre history. This nexus demonstrates the value that can be found in returning to the archives with a slightly different cultural perspective.