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y separately published work icon The Chinese Boy single work   novel   historical fiction   young adult  
Issue Details: First known date: 1973... 1973 The Chinese Boy
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Ho is a young Chinese boy on the turbulent Australian goldfields, where his people are distrusted and despised - and feared. He is an interpreter for five humble men from Wild Pheasant village, in Lwantung Province, led by his indomitable uncle, Chan Hong. Together with a bony horse they call Yo Fei, they set out to find a golden fortune. Against the ever-changing, frenetic, and often violent background of gold fever, this story relates what happened to the Chinese in the ice-bound Snowy Mountains where they were used as human camels, known as the Celestial Transport Company; and on the Lambing Flat diggings, where they broke out from Blackguard Gully before the tragedy of the great roll-up.' (Source: Back cover)

Notes

  • Dedication: To the Honourable Committee and Members of the See Yap Society, Melbourne.

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has Chinese characters, and has a Chinese translation.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: Tao Jin Lei
Alternative title: 淘金泪
Language: Chinese

Other Formats

  • Also braille, sound recording.

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Re-Visiting Historical Fiction for Young Readers : The Past through Modern Eyes Kim Wilson , New York (City) : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group , 2011 Z1886683 2011 single work criticism 'This study is concerned with how readers are positioned to interpret the past in historical fiction for children and young adults. Looking at literature published within the last thirty to forty years, Wilson identifies and explores a prevalent trend for re-visioning and rewriting the past according to modern social and political ideological assumptions. Fiction within this genre, while concerned with the past at the level of content, is additionally concerned with present views of that historical past because of the future to which it is moving. Specific areas of discussion include the identification of a new sub-genre: Living history fiction, stories of Joan of Arc, historical fiction featuring agentic females, the very popular Scholastic Press historical journal series, fictions of war, and historical fiction featuring multicultural discourses.

Wilson observes specific traits in historical fiction written for children — most notably how the notion of positive progress into the future is nuanced differently in this literature in which the concept of progress from the past is inextricably linked to the protagonist's potential for agency and the realization of subjectivity. The genre consistently manifests a concern with identity construction that in turn informs and influences how a metanarrative of positive progress is played out. This book engages in a discussion of the functionality of the past within the genre and offers an interpretative frame for the sifting out of the present from the past in historical fiction for young readers.' (Publisher's blurb)
Australia's Social History: Understanding Our Past John Foster , E. J. Finnis , Maureen Nimon , 1995 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Children's Literature : An Exploration of Genre and Theme 1995; (p. 105-120)
David Martin : Alienation and Belonging Walter McVitty , 1981 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 163-190)
David Martin's Writing for Children June Factor , 1980 single work criticism
— Appears in: Overland , April no. 79 1980; (p. 47-54)
Off and Away Eve Pownall , 1974 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : New Books for Boys and Girls , January no. 50 1974; (p. 23-28)

— Review of Wildfire Mavis Thorpe Clark , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Chinese Boy David Martin , 1973 single work novel ; The Flame Takers Lilith Norman , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Way Home Joan Phipson , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Nargun and the Stars Patricia Wrightson , 1973 single work children's fiction
Truth and Fiction Michael Cannon , 1974-1973 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Summer (1973-1974) no. 57 1974; (p. 58-59)

— Review of The Chinese Boy David Martin , 1973 single work novel
Untitled Ursula Coleman , 1974 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , July no. 52 1974; (p. 37)

— Review of The Chinese Boy David Martin , 1973 single work novel
Off and Away Eve Pownall , 1974 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : New Books for Boys and Girls , January no. 50 1974; (p. 23-28)

— Review of Wildfire Mavis Thorpe Clark , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Chinese Boy David Martin , 1973 single work novel ; The Flame Takers Lilith Norman , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Way Home Joan Phipson , 1973 single work children's fiction ; The Nargun and the Stars Patricia Wrightson , 1973 single work children's fiction
David Martin's Writing for Children June Factor , 1980 single work criticism
— Appears in: Overland , April no. 79 1980; (p. 47-54)
David Martin : Alienation and Belonging Walter McVitty , 1981 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 163-190)
Australia's Social History: Understanding Our Past John Foster , E. J. Finnis , Maureen Nimon , 1995 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Children's Literature : An Exploration of Genre and Theme 1995; (p. 105-120)
y separately published work icon Re-Visiting Historical Fiction for Young Readers : The Past through Modern Eyes Kim Wilson , New York (City) : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group , 2011 Z1886683 2011 single work criticism 'This study is concerned with how readers are positioned to interpret the past in historical fiction for children and young adults. Looking at literature published within the last thirty to forty years, Wilson identifies and explores a prevalent trend for re-visioning and rewriting the past according to modern social and political ideological assumptions. Fiction within this genre, while concerned with the past at the level of content, is additionally concerned with present views of that historical past because of the future to which it is moving. Specific areas of discussion include the identification of a new sub-genre: Living history fiction, stories of Joan of Arc, historical fiction featuring agentic females, the very popular Scholastic Press historical journal series, fictions of war, and historical fiction featuring multicultural discourses.

Wilson observes specific traits in historical fiction written for children — most notably how the notion of positive progress into the future is nuanced differently in this literature in which the concept of progress from the past is inextricably linked to the protagonist's potential for agency and the realization of subjectivity. The genre consistently manifests a concern with identity construction that in turn informs and influences how a metanarrative of positive progress is played out. This book engages in a discussion of the functionality of the past within the genre and offers an interpretative frame for the sifting out of the present from the past in historical fiction for young readers.' (Publisher's blurb)
Last amended 4 Sep 2013 11:29:56
Subjects:
  • c
    China,
    c
    East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • Lambing Flat, Young, Cootamundra - Young - Harden area, Southeastern NSW, New South Wales,
Settings:
  • ca. 1860
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