Bolin Hu is a lecturer at Huaqiao University, with research interests focusing on the history of the Chinese diaspora in Australasia, as well as the history of Sino-Australian and Sino-New Zealand relations.
Congratulations on the release of your illuminating new book, Patriots and Propaganda: Chinese Australians and the politics of loyalty 1930s–40s! This project began as a doctoral thesis – did you always plan to adapt it into a book? What was that process like?
Thank you! I had always hoped to rewrite my thesis into a book since the beginning of my doctoral studies at the University of Auckland, contributing a nuanced layer to the orthodox understanding of the Sino-Australian relationship by viewing it through the perspective of Chinese Australians.
Transforming a thesis into a book was by no means easy for someone new to academia. Many documents related to my topic had already gone missing during the Second World War or were inaccessible during the COVID-19 pandemic, when borders between Australia and New Zealand were shut down and archives in Australia were closed. I therefore had to broaden my reading list and hunt for as many historical materials as possible to fill in the gaps I had long felt dissatisfied with in my thesis.
As my understanding of Chinese Australian history in the 1930s and 1940s deepened, I spent much time re-examining my earlier findings to avoid possible misinterpretations. Yet the greatest challenge of all was language. As English is my second language, I constantly grappled with how to balance the precise expression of complex historical nuance with a style of writing that remained accessible and fluid. Each round of revisions became a process of near-total rewriting, involving endless “harassment” of my native-English-speaking friends for feedback and continual exchanges with editors over clarity, coherence and tone.
What inspired your focus on this particular era of Chinese Australian history?
My interest in exploring Chinese Australian history during China’s War of Resistance (1931–1945) largely came from an observation I often encountered among my friends in Australia, both Chinese and non-Chinese, who believed that the patriotism of Chinese residents in Australia was both innate and homogenous.
This perception intrigued me. Was patriotic sentiment towards China truly an unquestionable given among Chinese Australians? And were the many outward expressions of patriotism as homogenous as my friends assumed, even as China’s domestic and international circumstances changed dramatically over time? If not, what factors shaped the diversity of patriotic feeling within the Chinese diaspora?
I found China’s War of Resistance to be an ideal lens through which to explore these questions, as it marked an unprecedented height of patriotic fervour among Chinese communities both at home and abroad. This, in turn, led me to another line of inquiry: how did white Australians perceive and respond to such visible expressions of Chinese patriotism? And how did Chinese Australians themselves, as diasporic actors, influence both their patriotic emotions and the evolving Sino-Australian relationship?
Your research draws extensively on primary and secondary sources in both English and Chinese. What were the challenges of working across different languages?
One of the first challenges I faced working with archival materials was deciphering handwriting in both Chinese and English. While I could recognise most of the characters and letters, many were written in cursive, often with strong personal styles or unconventional forms. Identifying them took far more time than I expected, and I often had to double-check my readings with calligraphers who had more experience in interpreting such script.
But compared with that, understanding the deeper layers of meaning in the sources was even more demanding. The language of the time sometimes included expressions that, by today’s standards, would be considered offensive or politically charged. Rather than taking those words at face value, I tried to uncover what they implied within their historical context. It was crucial to stay alert – to read these materials on their own terms and to resist the temptation to judge them with the benefit (and bias) of hindsight.
How might this book contribute to contemporary understandings of China and the Chinese diaspora in Australia?
Patriots and Propaganda challenges a long-standing but oversimplified assumption that Chinese Australians were uniformly loyal to China and acted as extensions of its national power. This book reveals a much more complex picture. During the 1930s and 1940s, Chinese Australians held diverse and often conflicting views about China’s nation-building and foreign policies. These layers of historical nuance grew out of the varied diasporic experiences of Chinese Australians, resulting in a politically divided and sometimes turbulent landscape that complicated their relationship with their ancestral homeland. In many instances, Chinese Australians didn’t simply follow China’s lead; they actively shaped and even reinterpreted aspects of China’s policies towards Australia. Their significant role in shaping China–Australia relations, even at times when formal diplomatic connections were minimal, serves as a reminder of how diaspora communities can continue to influence the relationship between the two countries today.
What’s next for you in terms of research or writing?
Having completed my research on Chinese propaganda in Australia, I’m now developing several articles that build on parts of the book and continue my broader interest in how diasporas and their homelands shape one another in complex, multilayered ways. At the same time, I’m preparing a new project that looks at the history of Chinese diasporas across the wider Pacific, with a particular focus on Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Through this work, I hope to shed light on the shared patterns and distinctive experiences that connected these communities across oceans and national borders.
For readers interested in further exploring the themes raised in Patriots and Propaganda, what resources might you recommend?
There’s a wonderful range of resources for anyone who’d like to keep exploring the themes raised in Patriots and Propaganda. Trove is an invaluable reservoir of digitised historical materials, including an impressive collection of Chinese Australian newspapers that offer rich insights into community life and opinion. For readers interested in the formation and growth of Republican China’s propaganda apparatus, Wei Shuge’s News Under Fire (2017) is an excellent place to start. To understand how Australian media downplayed the threat of Japan between 1931 and 1941, Jacqui Murray’s Watching the Sun Rise (2004) provides a thoughtful and engaging analysis. While my book touches on wartime donations made by Chinese Australians, those curious about broader patterns of philanthropy and remittance of Chinese overseas will find Chinese Diaspora Charity and the Cantonese Pacific, 1850–1949 (edited by John Fitzgerald and Hon-Ming Yip) and Dear China (by Gregor Benton and Hong Liu) especially insightful. These works together illuminate the financial and emotional ties that linked overseas Chinese communities to their homeland.
Patriots and Propaganda: Chinese Australians and the politics of loyalty, 1930s–1940s is available now.
Order your copy here.