- From
- Melbourne, Victoria
- Summary
The Young Chinese League was created from an amalgamation of Chinese Progress Association and the Chinese Athletics Association.
Details
The Chinese Progressive Association was set up around the 1920s as a social club for young Australians of Chinese descent. Forming the club created an outlet for young Australians of Chinese descent, to meet and form community allegiances in a supervised environment. The club provided a responsible alternative to the gambling houses and pubs in and around Little Bourke Street. Social clubs provided an outlet for young Chinese Australians to socialise and perhaps form partnerships that would meet the approval of their parents and community. Founding members included Mr B Gi Ah Moy and Frank Chinn.
The club organised regular social dances using the Manchester Unity building as a venue. In 1924 they ran a plain and fancy dress ball at the Masonic Hall in Melbourne. The club also organised debutante balls and were the forerunner for the annual Chinese debutante ball that ran from 1938 to 1988. By 1925, the Chinese Progressive Association had held its third annual debutante ball at Ormond Hall, Mowbray St in St Kilda catering for around 200 members. The club also played football and played in competition against another Chinese social club, the Chinese Athletic Association. Football matches were played at Royal Park and Princes Park.
Clubs such as the Chinese Progressive Association played Australian sports and organised western style social dances. Many young Chinese Australians had attended Australian schools and joined recreation clubs like the YMCA and had come into contact with competitive sporting codes such as football, tennis etc.
There is no evidence to suggest that clubs such as the Chinese Progressive Association were anything other than social clubs, but in existence in Melbourne around the same time were societies that were overtly political. One such club, the Young China League held regular meetings in Little Bourke Street. The society’s aims were to assist in the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty in China and support the Chinese Nationalist Party and Dr Sun Yat Sen. Some members of the Chinese Progressive Association and later the Young Chinese League did support these aims and did visit China to participate and represent Victorian Chinese in elections.
The origins of Chinese Australian social clubs could perhaps originate with clubs like Sino-Australian Association. The association formed by Mr William Ah Ket and a later founding member of the Young Chinese League - Mee How Ah Mouy in 1906. The club provided for the first time in Victoria, a forum for Chinese Australians to discuss community issues and business. Early clubs sought to prevent Chinese communities from becoming isolated from the Australian community and to preserve Chinese identity.
It is not known when the Chinese Progressive Association disbanded, although former members along with the Chinese Athletics Association did merge to form the Young Chinese League in 1932. Members from these two clubs crossed over into the new club, some taking on committee roles. Frank Chinn, for example, became the Young Chinese League’s second president and for many years allowed the club to use the Chinn families’ home on Little Bourke Street for club meetings and activities.
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Chinese Progress Association (Melbourne) ball', The Argus, 24 November, p. 16; 'deb balls', The Argus, 13 November, p. 25; Yong, C.F., New Gold Mountain: The Chinese in Australia 1901-1920, Raphael Arts, South Australia, 1977; Museum of Chinese Australian History collection - Russell Moy oral history transcript & edited papers. C.F.Yong The New Gold Mountain, Mitchell Press Pty Ltd, 1977.
Prepared by: Brendan O'Donnell, Monash University
Related Subjects
Associated with
Published Resources
Books
- Yong, C.F., New Gold Mountain: The Chinese in Australia 1901-1920, Raphael Arts, South Australia, 1977. Details
Newspaper Articles
- 'Chinese Progress Association (Melbourne) ball', The Argus, 24 November, p. 16. Details
- 'deb balls', The Argus, 13 November, p. 25. Details
Images
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- Title
- Chinese Athletic Association
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- c. 1922 - c. 1923
- Place
- Australia - Victoria
- Details
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- Title
- Chinese Progress Association 2nd Annual Ball
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- 26 November 1924
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
- Details
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-
- Title
- Dance function (possibly Chinese Progress Association dance) in Melbourne, circa 1920s
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- 1920s
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
- Details
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-
- Title
- Group photo, Carlton, near Trades Hall
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- 1920s
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - Carlton
- Details
-
-
- Title
- Unidentified group at a party
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- c. 1926 - c. 1930
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne?
- Details
Created: 19 May 2003, Last modified: 23 January 2010
