Chinn, Frank (Tung Foo) - Biographical entry - Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia

Born

April 1897
Weldborough, Tasmania, Australia

Died

c. 1986

Occupation

banana merchant

Alternative Names

Chinn, Frank (also used)
Ma Tung Foo (full Chinese)

Summary

Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn was the fourth son of Maa Mon Chinn and Lula Kow Yonn. Born in Weldborough and moved to Melbourne with the Chinn family in the 1910s. He and his family became key members of the Chinese community. In Melbourne he worked with his brothers in the fruit and vegetable business. He never married but was active in the Young Chinese League in the 1930s-1980s.
[Prepared by Paul Macgregor]

Details

Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn (1897 - c.1986), fruit and vegetable wholesaler, was born in 1897 at Weldborough, Tasmania, the fourth son of Chinese parents Maa Mon Chinn, tin miner and shopkeeper, and his wife Lula Kow Yonn. Franks father came to Australia from Guangdong province with his father and brother in the 1860s to work in the tin mines in Weldborough. His mother, also from Guangdong, migrated to Weldborough in 1886, at the age of 16, betrothed to Maa Mon Chinn. The Chinn family were part of a Chinese community of 700 miners. Frank was one of seven brothers and four daughters. As tin mining declined most of the Chinn family moved to Melbourne in the 1910s.

For many years, the family resided at 104 -106 Little Bourke Street, the former Munster Arms Hotel. Frank worked with four of his brothers as banana and fruit merchants. In the 1940s, the Chinn brothers moved their business to the Queen Victoria Markets, as did other wholesalers in Little Bourke St as part of the centralising of Melbourne's fruit and vegetable markets.

Frank was extremely proud of his Chinese ancestry and culture, but also enthusiastically adopted Anglo-Australian culture. Frank, along with fellow Chinese Australians he founded the Young Chinese League in 1932 to prosper relationships between the Chinese and Australian communities. Frank's sense of community spirit is evident in allowing early club functions and meetings to be held at the Chinn family home.

In his 34 years as president of the Young Chinese League, Frank worked hard with fellow committee members to bring people of the Chinese community, their family and friends together, in a warm and friendly atmosphere through a wide range of social, recreational, cultural and sporting activities.

Over successive generations, the club helped foster many deep and enduring friendships, with many members meeting their future partners there. Many families who settled in Melbourne particularly during the post war years benefited directly from Frank's helping hand and good advice.

Known affectionately as 'Uncle Frank' to many members over the years, Frank organised the football matches including the annual weekend away matches. In 1967, after 34 years as the League's President, he was forced to retire due to ill health. He nevertheless continued to play an active role in the leagues activities, notably the football team.

In working to build and improve relationships with the Australian community, the Young Chinese League under his guidance raised substantial sums of money for charitable causes such as the Royal Children's Hospital and the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne. During the Second World War, he and a number of Young Chinese League members rallied together and organised the raising of funds and supplies for the China Relief Fund.

Frank, along with the Young Chinese League, played a major part during the Olympic games in 1956 in welcoming Chinese athletes to Melbourne as well as representatives from the Republic of China. The club more than any other Chinese community group in Melbourne, was called upon to assist the Chinese Olympics team and prepare suitable welcomes and functions, a testament to the strengths of the club and its role in the community.

In 1969 the Young Chinese League committee wrote to the Consul for the Republic of China requesting that they offer Frank an award in recognition of his outstanding service to the Chinese people of Australia, in particular, and to all Chinese, in general. And in 1971, the Ambassador for the Republic of China presented Frank with the Hua Kuang Award of Merit in recognition of his service to the Chinese community over the past forty years at a special presentation Young Chinese League dance.

Taken from his eulogy published in a Young Chinese League newsletter in 1986:
"He promoted a strong sense of pride in our heritage and equality with others. From all these things, I am sure each of us gained something of lasting value from Uncle Frank."

Sources used to compile this entry: Museum of Chinese Australian History Collection including Young Chinese League newsletters (1961, 1969, 1971 &1986), Chinn Family archive and Russell Moy oral history transcript, 1986. Oral histories of Frank and his niece Thelma Cremin are also held at the Museum of Chinese Australian history.

Prepared by: Brendan O'Donnell, Monash University

Family member

Chinn Family

Parent

Sibling

Related Places

Archival Collections

Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History)

Photographs of Frank Chinn and his family's belongings, c. 1985 - c. 1986; Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History). Details

Published Resources

Images

Title: Albert 'Moses' (Tung Yot) Chinn, Anne Wong Hee (?), Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Reginald (Tung Hee) Chinn
Type: Photograph
Date: 1940s
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Celebrating Double Ten in the 1930s. Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn, third from left with Taiwanese consuls and the Consul General, and their wives
Type: Photograph; Details

Title: Chinese Progress Association 2nd Annual Ball
Type: Photograph
Date: 26 November 1924
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Chinn brothers at Victoria Market, ca 1960s
Type: Photograph
Date: 1960s
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - Queen Victoria Market; Details

Title: Chinn family at 62 or 66 Chaucer St, St Kilda, Melbourne, c1960s
Type: Photograph
Date: 1960s
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - St Kilda; Details

Title: Chinn family portrait
Type: Photograph; Details

Title: Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn (3rd from right?) and friends by a car at a picnic in Melbourne
Type: Photograph
Date: 1920s
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn (with flowers, possibly second from left) and friends at a picnic in Melbourne.
Type: Photograph
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Donald Lee, Melbourne
Type: Photograph
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Jan O'Hoy (a friend from Bendigo) taken in Melbourne
Type: Photograph
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Mrs Amy Mou Tong Young
Type: Photograph; Details

Title: Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and opera star Lila Pirani
Type: Photograph; Details

Title: Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn at 16 or 17 years old
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1913
Place: Australia?; Details

Title: Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn at 74, showing decoration from Taiwanese Government, 1971
Type: Photograph
Date: 1971
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details