Riches, trade and sense defied White Australia

Old Belmore (Paddy's) Markets. Opened in 1869 and named the Belmore Markets after the then Governor of the colony. Chinese gardeners brought cartloads of vegetables to this market daily. The buildings were demolished in 1910. DATE c 1909. Picture: Courtesy City of Sydney Archives Source: The Daily Telegraph

THE year of the rabbit is nearly upon us and Sydney begins its Chinese New Year celebrations tonight, with a launch at Belmore Park, near Central station.

Despite some periods of anti-Chinese feeling, Sydney has mostly embraced its residents of that origin. Among them was the merchant Way Kee. Born in Canton (Guangzhou) in 1824, the son of a merchant, he came to Australia about 1853. Working at first for other merchants, he soon made a name for himself in the Chinese community -- appointed in 1857 as treasurer of the Koon Yee Tong, an organisation that returned the remains of dead people to their homeland. By 1871 he had established his own business in The Rocks and in 1876 he leased a stretch of Lower George St, demolishing the buildings and erecting three new shops and residences including his Sydney home.

Two of the shops were rented out and sometimes housed gambling operations, but at a royal commision into gambling Way Kee denied knowing anything about the practice. Having only a smattering of English, he said, through an interpreter, that "I never go out. I always sit inside my shop." He explained that the Koon Yee Tong was not a front for vice. Way Kee had often campaigned against the vices of lower-class Chinese in Sydney, particularly gambling and opium smoking.

From his shop he controlled an importing empire that included several regional shops in NSW and Queensland, a market garden in Lane Cove and business interests overseas. When he died of a heart attack in 1892, 3000 people attended his funeral. Starting with a Christian service, it then became a funeral procession, with brass bands and waving banners, that wound through Sydney for two hours. The procession ended at Smith's Wharf where an elaborate ceremony was conducted as Way Kee's remains were put aboard the Tsinan, bound for more funereal ceremonies in China.

The ceremony was organised by Quong Tart, who ran a luxurious city tea room.

By then another Canton-born man was founding his empire. Kwok (or George) Bew was born in China in 1868, the son of a farmer. After his father died he left for Sydney in 1883.

His English must have been good because he was a door-to-door salesman in Grafton before becoming a produce merchant in Sydney. He founded Wing Sang & Co, a fruit shop that sold produce grown by Chinese farmers in northern NSW, traded through the old Belmore Markets in what is today Belmore Park -- a centre for modern Chinese New Year Ceremonies. Wing Sang & Co grew to be a major player in the wholesale banana market.

Converting to Christianity, in 1896 Bew married Darling Young, daughter of a Chinese-born merchant based in Bourke. With merchants including Mark Joe, Ma Ying Piu and Choy Hing, Bew established Wing On & Co, which had operations in China and around the Pacific. In 1904 Bew became vice-president of the Chinese Merchants Defence Association, which fought the "White Australia" policy and sentiment.

He also became an avid supporter of Chinese republican revolutionary Sun Yat Sen, becoming president of the Sydney branch of the Chinese Nationalist League (Kuomintang) in 1916. In 1917 Sun invited him to return to China. In 1918 he opened Shanghai's Wing On shopping emporium, which would grow to become China's largest department store. It stood across the road from the Sincere Department Store, established by another Chinese-Australian merchant, Ma Ying-piew. Bew and Ma Ying-piew brought to China what they learned from emporia such as Anthony Hordern & Sons.

While expanding into other areas of business, Bew was also noted for his charitable and philanthropic work and in the 1920s he was appointed the director of the Central Mint of China. He died in 1932, survived by his wife and eight of his 10 children.

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