I came across an eulogy at danielbowen.com and was fascinated by the story of John Quinlem, Daniel's dad. Firstly that the character of Billy Kwan in the novel may have been based on him, but more importantly some of the things that John fought against in his life.
From the Eulogy:
Some of you have known Dad since well before my sister and I were born. Many old friends of his from around Australia have been in touch over the last few days, and we are learning more about his incredibly diverse life every day. It’s not that he kept his past life a secret, but clearly there was a lot more to him than he talked about.
As a young man, Dad had a teaching scholarship taken from him when the authorities discovered he was of Chinese heritage. He felt strongly about this and it lead him to fight against the establishment for what he believed was right.
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Dad’s friend Christopher Koch wrote a well known book “The Year of Living Dangerously”. Dad used to say the Chinese-Australian photographer in the book, Billy Kwan, was partly based on him. I’m not sure I really believed it until I read it.
The character in the book calls everybody “Old man” — Dad used to call me that.
And the book describes the character:
Kwan was one of those people who rarely answer questions directly, and who start conversations in the middle.
That was very Dad.
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There is also an obituary in the Courier Mail.
There is an extract on him in Mother of Rock: The Lillian Roxon Story
And an 1949 article about his fight with authorities (name spelt wrong)
“You couldn’t have a full-blooded aborigine or Chinese teaching”
Source
Danel Bowen's Blog:-
The Funeral
'You couldn't have a full-blooded aborigine or Chinese teaching"
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