The Pekin Café in Sydney: enterprising Chinese Australians and cafe sociability in the early twentieth century

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contributionpeer-review

Abstract

By focusing on the case of the Pekin Café in Sydney, this paper investigates the relationship between consumption, sociability and nationalism of the Chinese-Australian community in the early twentieth century. The paper examines the development of the Pekin Café in Sydney as a pleasant example of how Chinese Australian learned to establish a new style of enterprise in their urban life. By analyzing the connection between the Pekin Café and the Chinese nationalists, the second part of the paper demonstrates that the consumer culture of the Chinese diaspora community not only refers to the process of exchanging money for goods and services, but also to the experience of ethnic identity formation and of community organization. The paper argues that café sociability matters as a way to understand how Chinese Australians innovated new sociability to reshape their enterprise, social relationship and identity. Beyond kinship obligations and fraternal alliances, the organizing efforts of Chinese-Australian merchants constructed new spaces in which friendship, ethics, good citizens and gastronomy merged in a new sociability of Chinese diaspora community life.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHistory of consumer culture: objects, desire and sociability
Subtitle of host publication23-25 March 2017, Gakushuin University, Tokyo: conference proceedings
EditorsShinobu Majima, Satomi Ohashi, Hiroki Shin, Yusuke Tanaka
Place of PublicationTokyo
PublisherForum for History of Consumer Culture
Pages160-167
Number of pages8
ISBN (Print)978990820220
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes
EventHistory of Consumer Culture: Objects, Desire and Sociability (2017) - Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan
Duration: 23 Mar 201725 Mar 2017

Conference

ConferenceHistory of Consumer Culture: Objects, Desire and Sociability (2017)
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityTokyo
Period23/03/1725/03/17

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