Young Chinese League debutante balls

Summary: Young Chinese League debutante ball photographs were taken from 1938 which was the year of the first ball and run through to 1988. There was a year or two during the second world war when there was no ball.

Details

From the 1920s up until the late 1980s, the Chinese community in Melbourne held an annual debutante ball for young Australian girls of Chinese descent. A number of social clubs were set up for young Chinese Australians to meet and socialise in a supervised environment. The first social club to organise debutante balls, the Chinese Progressive Association, was established in the 1920s. This Association and later similar groups organised other balls and dances as well as debutante balls.

Debutante balls emerged in England after the Industrial Revolution. As British society changed, there was an emerging middle class ambitious to establish links with the aristocracy. A ball was the perfect environment for wealthy industrialists to parade their daughters of marriageable age to prospective wealthy and titled husbands. After several weeks of lessons in dance and instruction, the young women in the debutante set made their debut into society in white ball gowns, symbolising purity and womanhood.

The debutante ball remains a popular event for many young women of senior high school age, even today. The modern ball follows earlier traditions, but unlike then these balls have become less about presenting young women into society and more an opportunity for these young women to enjoy a night in the spotlight.

Chinese debutante balls attracted considerable coverage in the Melbourne press. Pictorial features on debutante sets were regularly published in newspapers such as The Argus and Herald Sun. Official group portraits were also taken of debutante sets at each ball. In the photos, the debutante sets wear dress typical of debutante fashions of the time. A photograph with caption published in The Argus in 1925 of the Chinese Progressive Associations ball at St Kilda shows the hall lavishly decorated with maroon and orange draperies around the balconies interspersed with maroon bannerettes carrying Chinese symbols.

To the Australian media these debutante balls were evidence of successful Chinese 'assimilation' into Australian life. There was a fascination in these young Chinese Australians who were modern, western and yet exotic. For the participants they were an opportunity to socialise and mix with other Australians of Chinese ancestry.

In 1932 the Chinese Progressive Association and another club, the Chinese Athletics Association merged to form the Young Chinese League. The League continued to organise debutante balls from 1938 until 1988. The founding committee of the Young Chinese League encouraged members to embrace Australian culture, but also be respectful to the wishes of their parents and older generations who wanted them to maintain links with their Chinese ancestry.

The Young Chinese League debutante ball took place every year at St Kilda Town Hall. Originally to be part of the Chinese set, the girl had to be of Chinese descent, but this changed in later years. The debutante girls would be presented to the Consul for the Republic of China during the ceremonial part of the ball.

In some years the Young Chinese League debutante balls had over one thousand attendees and for many years the debutante ball was the biggest event on the Melbourne Chinese community social calendar, with up to a dozen young ladies making their debut. The event was always a sell out with tickets being sold for singles and tables. Alma Quon, member of the all-woman jazz band Alma Quon & her Joybelles would train the young debutantes. Alma would train the young girls and their partners to dance as well as provide lessons in etiquette and presentation. She trained every debutante set until the last ball in 1988. Up until the 1960s Alma Quon & her Joybelles played the music at every ball.

In 1992 at a reunion to celebrate sixty years of the Young Chinese League, women from every ball that Alma had officiated were present. She played a few bars on the piano for old time’s sake.

Sources used to compile this entry: 'deb balls', The Argus, 13 November, p. 25; 'YCL deb balls', The Argus, 26 September, p. 10; 'YCL deb balls', The Age, 24 May, p. 15; Ryan, Jan, Chinese Women and the Global Village: An Australian Site, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 2003; Museum of Chinese Australian History collection - Young Chinese League newsletters (1956, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1992). Russell Moy oral history transcript + edited papers, 1986, Museum of Chinese Australian history.

Prepared by: Brendan O'Donnell, Monash University

Related Concepts

balls and parties

Related Corporate Bodies

Related Places

Melbourne (Victoria)

Archival Collections

Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History)

Lew-Boar family collection, RLB; Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History). Details
Young Chinese League Debutante sets, 1938 - 1988; Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History). Details

Published Resources

Books

Ryan, Jan, Chinese Women and the Global Village: An Australian Site, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 2003. Details

Newspaper Articles

'deb balls', The Argus, 13 November, p. 25. Details
'YCL deb balls', The Argus, 26 September, p. 10. Details
'Y.C.L. Debutantes', The Sun, 6 September 1950, p. 7. Details
'International Deb Set including two YCL members', The Sun, 17 May 1957, p. 9. Details
'Y.C.L. Debs', The Age, 7 September 1960. Details
'YCL deb balls', The Age, 24 May, p. 15. Details

Images

Title: Fashion parade
Type: Photograph
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Mabel Wang, Tue Gee Chinn and Daisy Quon at Young Chinese League Ball
Type: Photograph
Date: 1969
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Various members of the Young Chinese League
Type: Photograph
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details

Title: Young Chinese League debutantes 1957
Type: Photograph
Date: c. 1957
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - St Kilda - St Kilda Town Hall; Details

Title: Young Chinese League debutantes and Mrs. Amy Young
Type: Photograph
Place: Australia - Victoria - Melbourne; Details