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The Christian denominations from early on sought to convert at
least some of the Chinese in regional New South Wales to Christianity.
To this end, they established Christian Missions in areas where
there were reasonable numbers of Chinese, and they supported Chinese
missionaries or ministers who worked among their compatriots. Chinese
residents were also exposed to Christianity through their contacts
with European Australians. A number of Chinese residents and their
families became practising Christians.
 New Testament, 1856. (Inverell
Pioneer Village)
It is thought that this New Testament belonged to a Chinese resident
in Inverell in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
A translation of the title page tells us that this is a complete
book of the New Testament printed in wood block in the 6th year
of Emperor Haam Fung (1856AD). It was published by the Ying Wah
College which is still operating in Hong Kong.
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 Members of the Bathurst Chinese
Mission, about 1904. (Bathurst District Historical Society) On the
left, seated, is Reverend Soo Hoo Ten from Sydney and the other
Chinese at the table is believed to be Matthew Chung Jongh who was
a catechist. The names of the others are not known.
The Western Chinese Mission worked in and around Bathurst from
the late 1880s into the early twentieth century. According to a
local newspaper report in 1894, its purpose was;
To tell the Chinese in their own tongue the wonderful works
of God, thus transforming aliens into citizens, and helping to deliver
our fellow men out of the power of darkness by transferring them
in the Kingdom of God's dear Son.
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  Robert
Duck Chong at the time of his conversion to the Salvation Army,
1922, and with his wife, Coral, in 1990. (Private collection).
Christian missions were successful in converting a number of Chinese
immigrants and their descendants. Robert Duck Chong is one example.
He was born in Tingha in 1900. Religion did not play a large part
in his upbringing:
... mother and father never sent
us to Sunday School or church and never went themselves.
The only thing they did was, about every new moon, they'd
give a bit of a feast to the gods - roast pork, whisky
and all that, and when the gods finished, well, we helped
polish it off!
The Salvation Army was very active
in Tingha. At the age of 20, Robert Duck Chong attended
one of the Army's meetings, was converted and joined.
By the time of his retirement, he had risen to the rank
of Lieutenant-Colonel. |
