190 years of The West Australian: The sanctuary — Kaylene’s story

Background

As the fourth generation of Chinese Australians, Kaylene POON was born and raised in Perth, most of her childhood time was spent next to her father’s shops, Hop Hing and Co in the 1950s that once stood next to the Chung Wah Hall in Northbridge.

She later became the inaugural co-ordinator of the Chung Wah Historical Group formed in 1986, a year after the CWA’s 75th Anniversary Celebration and remained in the role till 2009. Her dedication and interest towards the early Chinese in Western Australia, that led her into helping to organise the visit program initiated by Catholic Education funding, ‘Restricted Entry’ to the Chung Wah Hall during the first decade of the millennium.

Before retirement in mid 2019, Kaylene worked as the Local History Officer of the City of Melville for over 11 plus years. She was also a visitor service officer in the WA Museum at the Freo site for over 11 years.

Kaylene got inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011, acknowledging her voluntary work in the Chinese Community for the past 30 years. In 2018, she accepted the appointment of Honorary Historical Advisor to the Chung Wah Association and continues to hold the role until today. She had been the go-to person for all queries to local heritage or history organisations, especially anything related to the Chinese community. Kaylene's continuous research, documents and promotion of Chinese History in WA is highly regarded by the community.

She had been the key person for Chung Wah Association to establish the relationship between National Trust Australia, especially in the conservation project of the Chinese Jacket, a discovery from the excavation of the East Perth Cemetery. This discovery is the solid evidence that Chinese migrants have their significant roles during the time as part of the community.

Transcript of the Video

“The shop actually opened in 1902 and my parents took it over in 1954, which was the last remaining Chinese grocery shop in what we now know as Northbridge. “

“During the Second World War, when they bombed Broome and a few other the northwest towns, the people got evacuated out and the Chinese was either billeted with other Chinese residents of Perth or otherwise. They stayed at the Chung Wah Hall and at that time there was still the lovely balcony at the front of the hall. Some of them slept on the balcony. When the hall kind of fell into kind of a hiatus period, the shop next door seemed to take on the role of looking after these elderly people. So previous owners to my parents had that role and I think when my parents took over, they just continued with those roles. “

“There were no Chinese interpreters or doctors at those times, so my father would go to the hospital, translate for anyone that needed to be admitted. We would write letters. Well, my parents would write letters. Mum would type them up if they needed official letters when they died, my parents would have to help arrange for the funeral and burials at Carracata. And at the time, I didn't think too much of it, but, yeah, I look back now and realise, yeah, they kind of went out of their way to help people. “

“A lot of these people was living a very kind of isolated existence. They had no way of going home to their families or anyone else. And so they would come to my parents shop, basically to socialise mix with any other Chinese who happened to be there. We were like the go to. So I think in a way, it was their way of kind of just feeling a part of being a family was coming into my parents shop and there were still quite a few elderly Chinese men living out their last days there. And at the time, I didn't realise that they were waiting to die. “

“And Wong Chu, who was the last market gardener in SouthPerth, he would come along in his horse drawn cart and put the nosebag on the horse and come in and have a cup of tea, sit down with my parents and chat and then just wait for anyone else to turn up. And quite often there'd be a couple of others there. The horse would stand out the front and I would stand there and just pat the horse and it just wouldn't move. And it was wonderful for me. My dad told me in later years that when WongChu would go home from visiting our shop, quite often, he'd be so tired, he'd fall asleep and the horse would actually take him back home to South Perth. “

The Video：

https://thewest.com.au/news/190-years-of-the-west-australian/ stories/190-years-of-the-west-australian-how-northbridge-became-asanctuary-for-chinese-australians-c-10730739

西澳大利亚人报190周年纪念：

避难所——邝彩玲的故事 序言

序言

作为第四代澳洲华裔，邝彩玲在珀斯出生长大，她的童年 大部分时间是在她父亲的店铺——20世纪50年代的合兴公司 （Hop Hing and Co）旁边度过的，这家店铺曾位于北桥中华堂 旁边。

后来，她成为1986年成立的中华历史小组的首任协调员， 即中华历史协会成立75周年庆典一年后，一直担任该职位直至 2009年。她对西澳大利亚州早期华人的奉献和兴趣，使她成为 中华历史协会的首任协调员。协助组织由天主教教育资助发起 的“千禧年第一个十年限制进入中华堂”的参观计划。

在 2019 年年中退休之前，邝彩玲担任梅尔维尔市地方历 史官员超过11年。她还在弗里奥遗址的西澳博物馆担任游客服 务官员超过 11 年。

邝彩玲于2011年入选西澳妇女名人堂，以表彰她过去30年 来在华人社区所做的志愿工作。2018年，她接受中华会馆名誉 历史顾问的任命，并一直担任至今。她一直是向当地遗产或历 史组织提出所有疑问的首选人选，尤其是与华人社区有关的任 何问题。彩玲在西澳对华人历史的持续研究、记录和推广受到 了社会各界的高度评价。

她是中华会馆与澳大利亚国民信托基金会建立关系的关键 人物，特别是在东珀斯公墓发掘中发现的华人夹克的保护项目 中。这一发现有力地证明了华人移民在当时作为社区的一部分 发挥着重要作用。

视频文字记录

这家商店实际上于1902年开业，我的父母于1954年接管了它，这是我 们现在称为北桥的最后一个华人杂货店。

第二次世界大战期间，当他们轰炸布鲁姆和其他一些西北城镇时，人 们被疏散，华人要么与珀斯的其他华人居民住在一起，要么住在其他地方。 他们住在中华会馆礼堂，当时堂前还有那个可爱的阳台。其中一些人睡在 阳台上。当大厅陷入某种间歇期时，隔壁的商店似乎承担起了照顾这些老 人的角色。因此，我父母的前任所有者就扮演了这个角色，我认为当我的父 母接任时，他们只是继续扮演这些角色。

当时没有中文翻译或医生，所以我父亲会去医院，为需要住院的人做 翻译。我们会写信。嗯，我的父母会写信。如果他们去世时需要正式信件， 妈妈会用打字机把它打出来，我的父母必须帮助安排卡拉卡塔的葬礼和埋 葬事宜。当时，我并没有想太多，但是，是的，我现在回想起来，意识到，是 的，他们不遗余力地帮助人们。

其中很多人过着一种非常孤独的生活。他们无法回家与家人或其他人 团聚。所以他们会来我父母的商店，基本上是为了与碰巧在那里的其他华 人交往。我们就像是个避难所。所以我认为在某种程度上，这是他们感觉 作为一个家庭的一部分进入我父母的商店的方式，而且仍然有不少华裔老 人在那里度过了他们的最后几天。当时我并没有意识到他们正在等死。

还有黄柱，他是南珀斯最后一个市场园丁，他会开着马车过来，把鼻 袋放在马身上，进来喝杯茶，和我父母坐下来聊天，然后就等着。以便其他 人出现。而且经常会有其他几个人在那里。马会站在前面，我站在那里，只 是拍拍马，它就是不动。这对我来说太棒了。我父亲后来告诉我，当黄柱逛 完我们的店回家时，很多时候他会很累，他会睡着，马实际上会带他回到 南珀斯的家。