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Cheong, Cheok Hong (1851 - 1928)

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    Fr James Cheong with his family, c. 1906, courtesy of St Peter's Eastern Hill Church archive.
    Details

Born
23 November 1851
northern Taishan, Siyi district, Guangdong Province, China
Died
1928
'Pine Lodge', Croydon, Melbourne, Victoria
Occupation
community leader, interpreter, merchant and missionary

Details

Cheok Hong Cheong was a significant missionary, businessman, landowner and political lobbyist. He was born on 23 November 1851 in Guangdong Province, China. His family village was in the northern Taishan District of the Siyi (Four Districts or See Yup). He came to Australia in 1863 following the conversion of his father, Cheong Peng-nam at Beechworth in 1860. His father was employed the same year by the Presbyterian Church to act as a Cantonese interpreter in the Presbterian Chinese Mission at Ballarat. He decided, unusually for the time, to bring his entire family to Australia as permanent settlers which he achieved by 1863.

Cheok Hong CHEONG (he changed his name order to the European style) studied at the Ballarat East Common School and at Scotch College in Ballarat. In 1872 the family moved to Melbourne and Peng-nam became a fruit merchant. Cheok Hong was enrolled at Scotch College in Victoria Parade. He matriculated into the University of Melbourne in 1875. He passed the entrance examinations for the part-time Presbyterian Theological Hall and was also appointed part-time English teacher at the Presbyterian Missionary Institution, a shortlived attempt to provide training for Chinese catechists. After disagreements with the Presbyterian Chinese Mission Committee he withdrew from theological studies and worked in the family business.

In 1879 he joined the leading Chinese merchants, Lowe Kong Meng and Louis Ah Mouy in writing and publishing a Chinese response to anti-Chinese actions in the shipping industry. He became secretary of the Melbourne Chinese Residents Committee/Association and served for many years. In that role he wrote most of the English-language material dealing with anti-Chinese discrimination in immigration and employment. He was the founder of the Victorian Chinese Anti-Opium Society and Australian corresponding committee member of the British Anti-Opium Society, on whose behalf he visited Britain in 1892.

In 1882, he became a Presbyterian ruling elder at Napier St Church (now a Uniting church) in Fitzroy. During this period, he was consulted by the Anglican Chinese Mission and in 1885 was offered the post of Superintending Missionary of the Anglican Mission. A forced amalgamation brought the mission under the control of the Church Missionary Association. Following a series of disagreements Cheong and the majority of Chinese Anglicans rejected the amalgamation and 're-fromed' the Anglican mission. A period of considerable difficulty followed with two Anglican missions but in the end it was 'Cheong's Mission' that survived and continues as the Anglican Chinese Mission of the Epiphany at 123 Little Bourke St, Melbourne.

Cheong owned a number of properties in inner Melbourne and in Croydon where he lived. In 1925 he was one of a number of Chinese who invested in Walter Burley Griffin's development of the suburb of Castlecrag in Sydney. He was one of five shareholders who commissioned Burley Griffin to design them a house in the development.

In June 1928 Cheong died at his home in Croydon, Victoria. He was survived by his wife, Wong Toy Chen, who he had married in an arranged marriage, and eight of their nine children: James (1871-1941), Joshua (1873-1928), Caleb (1876-1943), Oi Chan (died at birth 1877 or 1878), Grace Mary (1879-1898), Nehemiah (1881-1884), Christina (1883-1936), Nathaniel (1886-1956) and Benjamin (1888-1970). Rev. James Cheong, one of his children became a well known public figure in his own right.

Sources used to compile this entry: Holden, Colin, ''Undoubted British Status': James Cheong the parish and Melbourne's Chinese', in Colin Holden (ed.), From Tories at Prayer to Socialists at Mass, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1996, pp. 156-168; Welch, Ian, 'The Anglican Chinese Mission in Victoria, Australia, 1860-1898', St Mark's Review, Autumn, 1995; Welch, Ian, 'Cheok Hong Cheong, 1851-1928', St Marks' Review, Spring, 1997, pp. 23-26; Welch, Ian, 'Alien Son: A Life of Cheok Hong Cheong', PhD thesis, Australian National University, 2004. Also available at http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20051108.111252.

Prepared by: Ian Welch, Australian National University

Family

Archival Collections

Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History)

  • Cheong family collection; Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History). Details

Published Resources

Books

  • Cheok Hong Cheong, et al., Chinese remonstrance to the Parliament people of Victoria, together with correspondence with Government of the same, and address to Sydney Conference, etc., W. Marshall & Co, Melbourne, 1888. Details
  • Cronin, Kathryn, Colonial Casualties: Chinese in Early Victoria, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1982. Details

Book Sections

  • Holden, Colin, ''Undoubted British Status': James Cheong the parish and Melbourne's Chinese', in Colin Holden (ed.), From Tories at Prayer to Socialists at Mass, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1996, pp. 156-168. Details

Conference Papers

  • Welch, Ian, 'Cheok Hong Cheong: Victim or Victor? [unpublished paper]', in Workshop on the Chinese in Australian and New Zealand History, University of New South Wales, 11-13 February. Details

Edited Books

  • Lowe Kong Meng, Cheok Hong Cheong, Louis Ah Mouy (ed.), The Chinese Question In Australia, 1878-79, F. F. Bailliere, Melbourne, 1879. Details

Journal Articles

  • Phillips, Walter, 'Seeking souls in the diggings: Christian missions to the Chinese on the Victorian goldfields', Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 72, no. 1 & 2, 2001, pp. 86-104. Details
  • Welch, Ian, 'The Anglican Chinese Mission in Victoria, Australia, 1860-1898', St Mark's Review, Autumn, 1995. Details
  • Welch, Ian, 'Cheok Hong Cheong, 1851-1928', St Marks' Review, Spring, 1997, pp. 23-26. Details

Theses

  • Tsiatsias, Manuel, 'A celestial parade: The Chinese celebration of Australian nationhood, Melbourne, May 1901', BA (hons) Thesis, Department of History, La Trobe University, 1999. Details
  • Welch, Ian, 'Alien Son: A Life of Cheok Hong Cheong', PhD thesis, Australian National University, 2004. Also available at http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20051108.111252. Details

Online Resources

See also

  • Cole, E.W. (Edward William), Better Side of the Chinese Character: Its Relation to a 'White Australia' and the Development of Our Tropical Territory, Second edition c.1912 edn, Cole's Book Arcade, Melbourne, 1905c. Details

Images

Title
Cheok Hong Cheong, supt Chinese Missionary
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 2 September 1899
Place
Australia - Victoria
Details
Title
Collection of pictures from a picnic in Aspendale Park
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 7 February 1905 - c. 18 February 1905
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - Aspendale
Details
Title
Fr James Cheong with his family
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1906 - c. 1928
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Portrait of Cheok Hong Cheong
Type
Painting
Details
Title
Unidentified prominent Chinese citizens at the Jumble Carnival at Princes Court in aid of the Women's Hospital
Type
Photograph
Date
1907
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details

Created: 11 July 2001, Last modified: 1 November 2005