Australia’s ‘Chinaman’ place names spark racism debate, calls for change

There are 253 place names containing the words “Chinaman” or “Chinamen” in Australia, think tank Per Capita found, far outnumbering other nations with a “similar history of anti-Chinese legislation and exclusion”.

“I remember playground taunting of Asian children with cries of ‘ching-chong Chinaman’ while other kids would stand there pulling their eyes to one side and making themselves bucktoothed,” he said.

“They were literally turning themselves into caricatures of Chinese people, which appeared far too often in pre-federation Australian newspapers.”

One infamous cartoon from the period predating the federation of Australia in 1901 was The Mongolian Octopus published by Sydney-based magazine The Bulletin in 1886 alongside xenophobic articles about Chinese arrivals. It depicted a Chinese man’s head with narrow eyes and buck teeth attached to octopus tentacles grasping at representations of typhoid, cheap labour and immorality, among others.

Osmond Chiu, a research fellow at Per Capita, said the tally of racially charged names in Australia would have been even higher if road and track names had been included in the count.

Unlike Australia, these countries have had “explicit discussions” about changing the names of these locations, he said.

“It is jarring how these place names are used as if there is nothing wrong with it. We would never name a place or even refer to someone as a ‘Chinaman’ today, which speaks volumes about the term.”

Mosman’s municipal council says Chinamans Beach got its name from the Chinese market gardens established there during the late 19th century, while historians like the University of Sydney’s Sophie Loy-Wilson say it could have been named after Chinese anglers who fished nearby.

Either way, they hark