| Historical notes: | This site forms part of the land of the Gadigal people, the traditional custodians of land within the City of Sydney council boundaries. For information about the Aboriginal history of the local area see the City’s Barani website: http://www.sydneybarani.com.au/
The building at 82-84 Dixon Street was constructed for and occupied by the merchants, Kwong War Chong & Co. Kwong War Chong store and headquarters moved to 84 Dixon Street in 1910, where it operated as a general store and trading company until 1987. The adjoining site of 82 Dixon Street was rented out to a number of individuals for restaurants, stores and meetings throughout the same period.
On 13 September 1909, Philip Lee Chun, of Sydney, Storekeeper, purchased the subject site from the City Mutual Life Assurance Society for £1300. This was one of the earliest acquisitions of land by a Chinese person in what would later become Sydney’s Chinatown district in Haymarket from the 1920s. The site consisted of 13 1/2 perches (341sqm) being Lots 24, 25 and part of Lot 26 of Dickson’s subdivision. Philip Lee Chun immediately made an application under the Real Property Act, and was subsequently issued a Certificate of Title (Vol 2034 Fol 209) on 8 February 1910.
Philip Lee Chun, a partner of Kwong War Chong, was one of Sydney’s most successful Chinese merchants and a prominent member of the Chinese Australian community. He migrated to Australia in 1875. Philip is the western name added to his birth name of Lee Chun, where Lee is the surname. Kwong War Chong was first established in 1883 in Campbell Street. The firm moved to the new location at 84 Dixon Street in 1910-11, where it continued to trade until 1987. The store also had branches in Hong Kong and Shekki, the capital city of Zhongshan. The company was linked closely to the Zhongshan county in south-east China. Philip Lee Chun eventually bought out all his partners in the Kwong War Chong and converted it to a family-owned business.
The land was vacant at the time of the 1909 purchase. The City of Sydney rating assessment for the site in 1907 recorded the owner as Margaret Cook and described the site as ‘land’. However, as late as 1900, there was a group of three two-storey houses on the site. Two of these houses, all constructed about 1870, were the subject of an incendiary attack in 1897. The rear facades were intact in 1900 when the houses were photographed during cleansing operations in response to the outbreak of bubonic plague. Whether the houses were demolished as a result of cleansing operations has not been determined.
In March 1909, the Chinese Australian Herald reported that the Kwong War Store purchased a large parcel of land of 45 by 80 foot, as the first Chinese merchants of many expected to relocate after the markets moved to Hay Street.
In September 1909, the City approved plans by Evan Evans, architect, for a pair of three-storey stores on the site, prepared for Mr Lee Chun (BA 1909/0599). Each floor was essentially an open space, with the front half of each floor level marked ‘Store’ and rear half ‘Living Room’. A hatch connected the ground and first floors. Evans advertised tenders for construction of the store premises on 21 September 1909. The builder was reported in the Chinese Australian Herald in February 1910 as Grace and Boulton (https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/168078435).
In October 1909, the laying of the building's foundation stone was also reported in the Chinese Australian Herald. The contemporary report noted plans to build two shops, each 20-29 feet wide, by a western firm for 2,000 pounds, over three months. A dragon flag was raised at the laying of the foundation stone, attended by Chinese and European guests. Philip Lee Chun's eldest son of 8 years old laid the stone. This report noted that the foundations were cement due to issues of groundwater.
In February 1910, Philip Lee Chun gifted his sons with a commemorative silver trowel, to mark the completion of the building construction. An advertisement in the Chinese Australian Herald at the same time noted the new location of the shop opened in the building. This indicates the shop then specialised in teas, rices, oils, necessaries, preserved seafood’s, silks, satins, porcelain and lacquer ware, as well as fruit and vegetables, offering home deliveries. It also advertised they will send remittances to home, guarantee delivery and immediate confirmation.
In November 1910, the firm of Kwong War Chong advertised its new location in the Chinese Australian Herald with an illustration of the building. In 1911, the first occupants of the new building were listed in the Sands Directory: Moon Hong Jam & Co restaurant and Kwong Hop, butcher, at no. 82, and Kwong War Chong & Co, tea merchants, at no. 84, where Philip Lee Chun, importer, was also listed individually. The rate assessment of the same year describes the properties as constructed of brick with iron roof with three storeys. The house & shop at no. 82 had eight rooms, and no. 84 had only seven.
Stores such as Kwong War Chong acted not only as traders (both importing and exporting) and merchants, they also acted as agents for Chinese residents in Sydney and country districts. Kwong War Chong transmitted remittance monies to relatives in China, provided a postal service between China and Australia, assisted with immigration paperwork and taxes, scribe and translation services, purchasing tickets to travel by boat, provided accommodation, and even repatriating the remains of Chinese diaspora persons who died in Australia, for the community from the Zhongshan county. The Kwong War Chong store's link to a particular locality or county in China was essential to its operation. It was not sufficient that the owner of these stores were ‘Chinese’ and sold largely to other ‘Chinese’. Philip Lee Chun was from Long Du, a small district within the County of Zhongshan in the Pearl River Delta region of China. This meant he could speak the Long Du dialect, as well as having sufficient contacts to guarantee the transfer of remittances back to the villages and families of his customers.
Kwong War Chong was important to the Chinese Australian community for maintaining social and cultural links between their native places of origin and their adoptive homeland, during a period of some cultural isolation as a result of the migration restrictions of the White Australia Policy and political changes in China. Kwong War Chong & Co established and maintained links between places of origin and its diaspora communities in the Haymarket district, the greater Sydney market gardens, and rural NSW communities, particularly the New England region. This was particularly important for Chinese migrants before World War II who commonly migrated, initially for the gold rushes, to ensure the survival and prosperity of their family in the home village from China, with the intention of returning to the home village or Hong Kong, where their wives and families remained. Australian migration restrictions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries prevented the bringing of wives from China except for merchant families. During the twentieth century, the movement of Chinese Australians between the two countries was interrupted by the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, the occupation of Hong Kong in 1941 (the embarkation port to Australia) and then suppressed by the Chinese Communist party which came to power in late 1949. During this twentieth century period of migration restrictions of the White Australia policy and changes in China, the cultural and community functions of the Kwong War Chong were critical to the evolution of a distinct trans-cultural Chinese Australian identity and culture.
Until recently, the majority of Chinese migrants to NSW came from Zhongshan (Chung Shan). The villages of that county were/are their ancestral ‘native place’. According to the late Professor Henry Chan of Sydney University, this home place was, by comparison with Cantonese migrant origin places, particular known for producing people with entrepreneurial talent. The high number of general stores and grocery stores owned and operated by Zhongshan migrants across Australia testifies this, particularly those in NSW and Queensland. One such general store in Tingha was the Wing Hing Long. Since it ceased operation in 1998, it has become a living shop museum.
The Chinese in Australia were generally divided into two classes: owner-operators who belonged to the literate so-called “upperclass”, and less literate Chinese diaspora who wished to transfer remittances and needed help with writing letters that often accompanied money transfers. Kwong War Chong represents the coming together of both. It functioned as one of the key remittance agencies in Sydney. Kwong War Chong also operated as a social club or meeting room for Long Du-speaking migrants from Zhongshan. This indicated that the place was socially significant in its time. It also continued to be a gathering place of then-contemporary Chinese immigrants. One recollection of the Kwong War Chong store is that it hosted Sunday lunches for market gardeners from the Long Du district. The gardeners would stay overnight in upstairs dormitories after selling vegetables at the markets on the Saturday. The Sunday lunches were an important opportunity for the market gardeners to socialise before returning to their often-isolated gardens.
Remittances to the family in the village were a significant part of the lives of Chinese people in Australia before 1949. This was the system used by most 'huaqiao' with small amounts to remit. It was a system that relied on family-like connections among people from the same village or locality; something banks could not offer. Nineteenth century remittances may have been in gold, but by the 1930s, bank drafts were more common. In this case, a store collected the individual remittances from its customers and a standard letter was written to the family, usually by the store’s clerk, to accompany the payment. The Kwong War Chong charged a small commission on each remittance and consolidated them into a single draft drawn on the English, Scottish and Australian Bank in pounds sterling. The draft was then sent to the Hong Kong branch of the Kwong War Chong, where it was converted to Hong Kong dollars and then into Chinese dollars for the money to be sent to the Zhongshan County capital Shekki. The store’s branch in Shekki then distributed the money to the families, either by collection or delivery to the villages by the firm’s clerks. A receipt would be signed and returned to the shop in Dixon Street, where it was set up on a rack in the front window for people to collect.
A personal account of 2019 from a community member recalls how important this remittance function was in their lives, for more than finances. The sent remittance and response were always accompanied by a letter. This account mentions how the community member still has the return letters from his mother in small red envelopes. At this time, Norman Lee handled the remittance. In the 1960s and 1970s, the adjacent Hingara Restaurant and Kwong War Chong was also a popular community gathering place.
A remittance customer once complained his family had not received their money and accused Philip Lee Chun of stealing it. Philip Lee Chun was sitting outside his shop in Dixon St one evening, “taking the air” when, according to his son Norman Lee, he was suddenly struck on the head by a piece of “two by four”. The man later apologised when his family sent word that they had received the money.
Philip Lee Chun and the Kwong War Chong was able to bridge the racial and language barrier for the Chinese diaspora community from this county to provide these services. For travel, the average Chinese person had little choice as shipping agents preferred not to deal with Chinese people directly. The store clerks had sufficient skills in English and knowledge of European ways, and their merchant’s class position to override, to some extent at least, racial bias. As a result of his role in assisting both his fellow Chinese and the Immigration Restriction Act administrators, Philip Lee Chun became very well known to the Customs officials, described in their documents as a ‘well known Chinese’.
In addition to these services for the local community, the Kwong War Chong company was invested in maintaining the trade relationship between Australia and China, and in Chinese politics. Kwong War Chong was one of eight Chinese trading concerns that contributed funds for the establishment of a shipping line between Australia and China in 1917. (Philip) Lee Chun received a medal and diploma from China in recognition of his efforts in fundraising £640 for the Chinese republican rebellion led by Sun Yat-sen of 1913.
Philip Lee Chun owned the site until December 1925. All but the eldest of their eight children were born in Australia. This indicates the standing of the family in Australia at the time because Philip Lee Chun's wife from China was permitted Australian residency. Two of Lee Chun's Australian-born sons became lawyers: William and Arthur. William Jangsing Lee (1912-2010) became the first Chinese-Australian barrister in New South Wales and the second in Australia. He was an influential practitioner of immigration law in New South Wales, including the treatment of Chinese refugees, and the practice of detention rather than imprisonment of illegal immigrants following the 1953 case of Chu Shao Hung versus the Queen.
In 1925 Philip Lee Chun sold the property to Lee Loy, a market gardener from Botany, who leased it back to Chun immediately. This lease remained operative on the certificate of title until 1971. In July 1929, Loy sold to Harry Lee Hing Yee, merchant, and Arthur Lee Hing Won, law student, both sons of Philip Lee Chun. Philip Lee Chun's sons carried on the Kwong War Chong store after their father relocated to Hong Kong in about 1932. In 1965, Arthur Lee Hing Won was registered as the sole proprietor following the death of Harry Lee Hing Yee. Eva Lee (widow of Harry) and So Lin Wang Pang leased no. 82 from December 1970.
Before Dixon Street had the archways designating its identity as Chinatown, it had the community of Chinese stores, including the Kwong War Chong store. This early Chinatown has disappeared except for 82-84 Dixon Street. This building, with its historic façade, is the last remaining link to the earlier Dixon Street which was once the centre of the Chinese-Australian business community and its cultural heart.
In the 1970s, a personal account recalls how families of Chinese descent would visit Dixon Street for yum cha and Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year in the early 1970s was only celebrated by the small remnant Chinese Australian population who would crowd into Dixon Street to enjoy the festivities of lion dances accompanied by drumming. There were no restrictions on fireworks at that time, so restauranteurs would hang whole strings of giant bungers from the building lintels. People on the second and third floor of the restaurants would lean out of the windows to watch the activity on the street.
In 1975, prominent Australian fashion designers, Linda Jackson and Jenny Kee, held their first Flamingo Follies fashion parade in the Hingara restaurant at 82-84 Dixon Street. Honoured as Officers in the Order of Australia for their contributions to Australia’s fashion industry, Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson transformed the nation’s fashion with their pioneering style inspired by Australia’s cultural and natural landscape, melded with their global influences. (Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, https://maas.museum/event/step-into-paradise/, downloaded 6 November 2019)
The close of Kwong War Chong in 1987 coincided with the consequences of the post-1970s opening up of China and the Chinese government’s economic reform policies. Remittance agencies thereafter were replaced by official bank transactions managed by the Bank of China. Kwong War Chong represents a migrant undertaking that met these unique needs of an ethnic population in Australia for a large part of the twentieth century.
82 Dixon Street building history:
In 1912, a fatal fire occurred at the Moon Hong Jam restaurant at 82 Dixon Street. The newspaper account of the fire provides a description of how the building was occupied:
"Fatal City Fire / Chinese Restaurant Destroyed / Employee Burnt to Death.
The three-storey restaurant of Moong, Hang, Jan and Co., 82 Dixon-street, was early this morning destroyed by fire, and Ung Gow, the cook, was burnt to death. The restaurant was part of a fine structure erected and occupied within the last six months, and known as the Canton Buildings. Next door to Moong, Hang, Jan and Co.’s is the shop of Kwong, War, Chong and Co., and opposite stands the bulk stores of Anthony Hordern and Sons…All over the locality may be seen the signs of Chinese merchants, who do most of the wholesale trade for their country. The restaurant was closed at midnight and the two partners, Choy Shick and York Sing, who comprise the company that conducts the place, went over the three floors to see that everything was all right. The cook, Ung Gow, went to his bedroom on the first floor, while the partners left for their homes at Glebe … The fire … gained a big hold, and the destruction of the interior was a certainty. the flames had eaten up everything on the ground floor[,] burnt out the first floor, and were attacking the third section of the building. The shop next door was in danger…which was only separated by a red-hot brick wall. The work the men did to prevent the destruction of Kwong War and Co.'s was praiseworthy, for the damage is only estimated at a few pounds…The building was owned by Philip Lee Chun, and was insured in the Union Insurance Co. for £1250.”
Plans by architect LS Robertson to reinstate no. 82 following the fire (BA 1912/0048) show the ground floor partitioned into two shops, one on either side of the central front door, and partitioning on the first floor to create several rooms, all with direct access to the stair.
Kwong Sing, dealer, occupied no. 82 in 1913, and the Council rate assessment books show that between 1913 and the early 1930s, various occupants operated from the site (consistently described as a three-room store), including:
• Lee Frou (1918)
• Yee Hop (1921, 1924, 1927)
• Kwong Hop (1930)
• Lee Chick (1931)
• Lee Jack (1932)
• Yee Hop (1933)
The Xiangyi Long Du Tong Sen Tong (‘same place society’ for people from Zhongshan) met upstairs at no. 82. Typical of the mutual benevolent societies based on geographical kinship found throughout the Chinese diaspora, it was formed in 1906 and functioned until the 1930s. Similar societies for people from Zhongshan were established in other Pacific ports, including San Francisco and Honolulu, where they still exist to the present day. A photograph of a gathering of this society hung in the Kwong War Chong shop premises for many years.
Changes to no. 82 occurred in three general phases—the mid-1940s, the mid-1950s and the early 1970s. In 1947, the ground floor of the shop was partitioned (to plans submitted by Peddle Thorp & Walker) to create an office, kitchen and butcher’s shop.
In 1955, Henry Henry Lum Mow proposed to use ground floor as a cafe involving internal alterations and installation of kitchen equipment, cool room and mechanical ventilation. City building inspectors recorded in 1956 that the work, which included new stairs, was not completed to the approved plans. Amended plans were subsequently submitted and approved, but not executed as late as October 1960 when new occupiers carried out new unauthorised work, superseding the outstanding work.
Eva Lee and So Lin Wang Pang opened the Hingara Chinese Restaurant in 1971, and the current configuration of no. 82 is a result of the alterations made at this time. When the restaurant closed 46 years later in 2017, it was described as a ‘stalwart’ of Chinatown’s restaurant scene.
In 1988, the City received a development application to use the front ground floor of the premises as an aquarium and florists. The old Kwong War Chong store’s bench top was reported in the 1990s to remain in place, despite the changed retail nature of the shop.
Chinatown expansion:
The year 1971 marked the beginning of Council discussions with a Dixon Street Chinese Committee on the identity of a larger Chinatown district extending beyond Dixon Street into the area of the soon-to-be-vacated Sydney market houses. By the mid-1970s some Chinese-style street lighting was installed in Dixon Street, and in 1979 the street was pedestrianised. The Lord Mayor officially opened the new Chinatown, complete with damen arches, in 1980. |