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death and burials

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    Chinese headstone & grave in the Beechworth Cemetery, Vic. a portion is specially set aside for Chinese ... [picture], c. 1914 - c. 1941, by Carroll, James, 23 Etnam, West Preston, courtesy of State Library of Victoria - Picture Collection.
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    Chinese ovens in the old Beechworth Cemetery, Vic. ... [picture], c. 1914 - c. 1941, by Carroll, James, 23 Etnam, West Preston, courtesy of State Library of Victoria - Picture Collection.
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    Ernest Wong Chee with unidentified group at graveside, courtesy of M. Mar (private hands).
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    Funeral of Charles Ah Moon, Shekki, China, 1932, courtesy of Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History).
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    Grave of Ruby Fay, 1945, courtesy of M. Mar (private hands).
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    Grave of Pow Loong (RLB Grandfather grave). Coburg General Cemetery, courtesy of Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History).
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    Sarah Bowman's grave in Darwin, courtesy of Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History).
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    The tomb of Charles Ah Moon in Shekki, China, 1932 - , courtesy of Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History).
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    Tomb at the Chinese Cemetery, Darwin, by Brown, Percy, courtesy of Northern Territory Library.
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    Chinese funeral, Innisfail, Queensland, 1890-1910 [picture]., c. 1900 - c. 1910, courtesy of National Library of Australia - Picture collection.
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Respecting one's deceased ancestors is a very important tradition in Chinese culture. Burial of the dead often involves a complex array of ceremonies and methods of burial that can include post-burial rites and care after burial. Acclimatisation of the deceased's spirit in its new environment in the underworld is of prime importance. Death and burial customs vary regionally but also according to the wealth of the family, marital status and age. Commonly bodies are exhumed about seven years after their first burial and the bones placed in urns. Many do not reach the second burial stage which can take many years. At this stage a geomancer is used, by those who can afford them, to determine a well-omened place for the tomb. It is important that relatives follow correct burial proceedures and take note of auspicous signs during burial rites. If done correctly a burial can bring prosperity and good fortune to the family and descendants of the deceased, conversely an ill-planned burial can lead to bad fortune.

Outside China traditional burial practices often had to be modified. A well-known Chinese saying states 'upon the roots of the tree rest falling leaves'. This saying expresses the ultimate desire of Chinese to be buried in their home village alongside their ancestors where their spirits can be attended by family members. In Australia, Chinese immigrants were often separated from their families and kinfolk which meant that funerals had to be organised by friends or benevolent associations. In some areas individuals did not have the support of dialect or district organisations as the Chinese population was so small. In some of these cases they were buried by employers or anonymously, in others funeral parlors organised the burial. Some parlours even specialised in 'Chinese style' burials. Chinese burial practices in Australia varied as in China. Many Chinese would have been buried following as closely as possible the traditions of their ancestors, with a number exhumed for subsequent reburial in their home village in China. Some Chinese either by choice or circumstance had Christian burials. Others adopted and adapted burial traditions from both cultures. However many, like 'falling leaves' returned or tried to return to their roots in China before death.

There were some specifically Chinese-only cemeteries, such as one in Darwin, however Chinese were mostly buried in 'Chinese' or 'alien' sections in general cemeteries. These sections were generally located in low lying areas of the cemetery beyond the edge of Christian burial areas. Many non-Chinese Christians refused to allow Chinese to be buried in the consecreted ground of the cemetery, even if they had converted and lived as Christians for much of their lives. Grave markers in the Chinese section of cemeteries tended to be simple wooden boards or rectangular stone markers often inscribed in Chinese characters with the name of the person and possibly the date of death and place or origin. Chinese cemeteries also commonly had shrines (large rectangular plaques with a wave shaped top) and burners (various designs), where friends and relatives burnt paper money in memory of the dead.

There are many Chinese festivals associated with cemeteries and the dead. Those commonly practiced by Australia's Chinese were Ching Ming (Qing Ming) which begins at the end of the second month (around the Christan Easter) and Chong Yang or Double Ninth held around October on the ninth day of the ninth month of the Chinese calendar. Ching Ming is the traditional time to tend to graves and also involves making offerings of foodstuffs, burning paper money and other paper articles to help the spirit in the next world, lighting incense and setting off fire crackers to scare away the evil spirits. Chong Yang is a time for communicating with the dead. At this time it is possible to appease the wandering spirits of people who have not died a natural death or have not been accorded ancestral worship. Paper money and clothing are burnt in the cemetery burners and a grand feast is organised so that wandering spirits are properly fed and clad and are not tempted to claim a living substitute as a resting place.

Sources used to compile this entry: Fading Links to China: Ballarat's Chinese Gravestones and Associated Records, 1854-1955, 1955, http://arrow.latrobe.edu.au/store/3/4/5/5/1/public/brumley/brumley.htm; Brumley, Linda; Lu Bingqun; Zhao Xueru, Fading Links To China: Ballarat's Chinese Gravestones And Associated Records, 1854-1955, History Department., University of Melbourne, Parkville, c1992; Golden Dragon Museum, Chinese Memorials and Memories: The White Hills Cemetery - Bendigo, Bendigo, Victoria, 2001; Jack, R. Ian, 'Chinese cemeteries outside China', in P. Macgregor (ed.), Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 299-306; Ryan, Jan, Ancestors: Chinese in Colonial Australia, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, WA, 1995.

Prepared by: Sophie Couchman, La Trobe University

Related Concepts

Related Families

Published Resources

Books

  • Ah Ket, Toylaan, Chinese Religious Practice in Sydney: Changes in Traditions in the 20th Century Resulting from encounter with Australian culture and Chritianity, Chinese Museum, Melbourne, 1999. Details
  • Brumley, Linda; Lu Bingqun; Zhao Xueru, Fading Links To China: Ballarat's Chinese Gravestones And Associated Records, 1854-1955, History Department., University of Melbourne, Parkville, c1992. Details
  • Golden Dragon Museum, Chinese Memorials and Memories: The White Hills Cemetery - Bendigo, Bendigo, Victoria, 2001. Details
  • Ryan, Jan, Ancestors: Chinese in Colonial Australia, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, WA, 1995. Details

Book Sections

  • Brumley, Linda, 'Turning history into people: The people on the Chinese gravestones in 19th century Ballarat cemeteries', in P. Macgregor (ed.), Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 320-326. Details
  • Jack, R. Ian, 'Chinese cemeteries outside China', in P. Macgregor (ed.), Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 299-306. Details

Online Resources

See also

  • Birtles, Francis, 'Strange Australia: A series of out-of-the-way photographs of the North, with notes, by Francis Birtles', The Lone Hand, 1 December 1911, pp. 158-165. Details
  • Bruce, Robert, '[illustration: 'Chinese rites at the graves of their countrymen']', Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers, 10 September. Details
  • Strutton, S, 'Chinese tracks through the north', Walkabout, 1 July 1942, p. 31. Details
  • Talbot, Diann, Grave Recollections: The History of the Bright Cemetery with some Brief Histories of our Early Pioneers, Diann Talbot, Bright, Victoria, 1999. Details
  • Vivian, Helen, Tasmania's Chinese heritage: An historical record of Chinese sites in North Eastern Tasmania, Unpublished report for Australian Heritage Comission and the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston, 1985. Details
  • Williams, Michael, Departed friends, Journal of Chinese Australia, October, http://131.172.16.7/jca/issue02/10Williams.html. Details
  • Winter, Wilfred, 'Burnie's Chinese', 31 January 1976, p. 14. Details

Images

Title
Funeral procession, James Street, c. 1929
Type
Photograph
Date
1929
Place
Australia - Western Australia - Perth
Details

See also

Title
Ancestral tablets in Darwin's temple
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1915
Place
Australia - Northern Territory - Darwin (Palmerston)
Details
Title
Chinese funeral
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1901 - c. 1904
Place
Australia - Northern Territory - Darwin (Palmerston)
Details
Title
Chinese headstone & grave in the Beechworth Cemetery, Victoria
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1914 - c. 1941
Place
Australia - Victoria - Beechworth
Details
Title
Chinese ovens in the old Beechworth Cemetery
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1914 - c. 1941
Place
Australia - Victoria - Beechworth
Details
Title
Ernest Wong Chee with unidentified group at graveside
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Funeral of Charles Ah Moon, Shekki, China, 1932
Type
Photograph
Date
1932
Place
China - Guangdong - Zhongshan (Xiangshan or Heongshan)
Details
Title
Grave of Ruby Fay
Type
Photograph
Date
1945 -
Details
Title
Grave with food offerings, including a roast pig
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Northern Territory - Darwin (Palmerston)
Details
Title
Pow Loong's grave at Coburg General Cemetery
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - Coburg
Details
Title
Procession in Cooktown
Type
Photograph
Date
1887 - 1890
Place
Australia - Queensland - Cooktown
Details
Title
Sarah Bowman's grave in Darwin
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Skeleton of an unidentified man who apparently died of thirst
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1914
Place
Australia - Northern Territory
Details
Title
The tomb of Charles Ah Moon in Shekki, China
Type
Photograph
Date
1932 -
Place
China - Guangdong - Zhongshan (Xiangshan or Heongshan)
Details
Title
Tomb at the Chinese Cemetery, Darwin
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Northern Territory - Darwin (Palmerston)
Details
Title
Unidentified Chinese funeral
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1900 - c. 1910
Place
Australia - Queensland - Innisfail (Geraldton)
Details
Title
Unidentified Chinese grave with offerings
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1911
Place
Australia
Details
Title
Unidentified grave with Chinese-style paper lanterns
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1928 - c. 1931
Place
Australia - Northern Territory
Details
Title
Unidentified skull in a burial container at Darwin Chinese cemetery
Type
Photograph
Date
1915
Place
Australia - Northern Territory - Darwin (Palmerston) - Stuart Park
Details