- From
- 1870s
Bendigo, Victoria, Australia - To
- 2000s
Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Details
The Bendigo Easter Fair was inaugurated in 1871 to raise funds for the Bendigo Hospital and Bendigo Benevolent Asylum. The Chinese made their first substantial contribution in 1879, and soon became indispensable. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Chinese arranged for the staging of an opera and erected a ‘Temple of Wonders’ full of Chinese curiosities in amongst the rides, side-shows and fairy-floss stands which filled the Camp Reserve over the Easter break. Each evening, they would present astounding fireworks displays representing ‘the growing and blossoming of a peach tree’ or ‘likeness of the Emperor’, but it was the Chinese contribution in the Easter Monday parade that was looked forward to with most expectation.
A legendary general on horseback announced the procession, followed by the sound of loud gongs. Marching men decked out in exotic oriental costumes and carrying brightly coloured banners, pronouncing greetings, symbolising significant moments in Chinese history or representing cordial relations between the Chinese and European Bendigo communities made up the body of the procession. Musicians with gongs, drums and small fireworks filled the air with the distinctive sounds of Chinese celebration. Important Chinese community figures, dressed in all their finery, rode in splendid buggies at the rear. Once the community’s gender imbalance was righted in the early twentieth century, a group of pretty girls on horseback became standard fare, and children dressed in embroidered silk and carrying umbrellas or lanterns in the shape of mythical animals now fill the procession. Dancing lions are made to leap and tumble by extraordinarily athletic teams of men. From 1892, a resplendent brightly coloured, glittering Chinese dragon concluded the procession, while no less than five dragons might weave through the streets in the twenty-first century.
The uniquely shared Chinese-European experience of the Easter Fair has empowered, incorporated and celebrated the Bendigo Chinese community for over one hundred years.
Sources used to compile this entry: Rasmussen, Amanda, 'Networks and negotiations: Bendigo's Chinese and the Easter fair', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 6, 2004, pp. 79-92; Bendigo Advertiser; Bendigo Independent.
Prepared by: Amanda Rasmussen, La Trobe University
Related Subjects
Published Resources
Books
- Bendigo Golden Dragon Museum, Chinese Procession: Bendigo at Easter, Bendigo, 2003. Details
Journal Articles
- Rasmussen, Amanda, 'Networks and negotiations: Bendigo's Chinese and the Easter fair', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 6, 2004, pp. 79-92. Details
Images
-
-
- Title
- Aerial view of dragon circling the Alexandra fountain
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- c. 1914 - c. 1941
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst) - Pall Mall
- Details
See also
-
-
- Title
- Norma Quon and Beverly Geechoun, Jubilee Day procession, Melbourne
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- c. 1951
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
- Details
-
-
- Title
- Unidentified women in Chinese opera costumes for Bendigo Easter procession
- Type
- Photograph
- Date
- 1920s
- Place
- Australia - Victoria - Bendigo (Sandhurst)
- Details
Created: 18 July 2005, Last modified: 28 October 2005
