Gordon Mar our first guest speaker for 2014 delivered an
enthralling talk at our January General Meeting. Gordon delivered his talk in the Ku-ring-gai Library Meeting Room that had been his First Class classroom when he was a student at Gordon Public Room over sixty years ago.
Gordon described himself as an ABC (Australian Born Chinese) as his parents migrated to this country around 1920. In his broad ranging talk "One Small Step out of the Village - The Australian-Chinese story through the eyes of one family" Gordon told of of the history of Chinese people in Australia who first arrived in the 1840s from the Canton region. He described the living conditions and prejudices they have endured and reminded us that Chinese are a hardworking, peaceful and loyal people whose culture has strong family relationships, the Chinese value education. Coming to Australia for these people was like taking "a giant leap to another planet".
We learnt that there are presently 700, 000 ethnic Chinese in Australia and 300, 000 in Sydney many of whom are more recent arrivals than the Mar family.
Gordon's family were merchants who ran a successful business, Wing, Sang & Company in Sydney's Haymarket for over 50 years. As in many Chinese families
the Mar children gained tertiary qualifications and entered various professions. Gordon, who was an accountant, took over the family firm but sold it in 1984.
During his talk that was illustrated with photographs from his collection Gordon explained various traditions from Confucianism to bound feet. His talk that was at times serious was laced with humour and jokes.
It was an excellent start to the year for our educational program at KHS.
 |
| Gordon Mar at KHS |
Gordon described himself as an ABC (Australian Born Chinese) as his parents migrated to this country around 1920. In his broad ranging talk "One Small Step out of the Village - The Australian-Chinese story through the eyes of one family" Gordon told of of the history of Chinese people in Australia who first arrived in the 1840s from the Canton region. He described the living conditions and prejudices they have endured and reminded us that Chinese are a hardworking, peaceful and loyal people whose culture has strong family relationships, the Chinese value education. Coming to Australia for these people was like taking "a giant leap to another planet".
We learnt that there are presently 700, 000 ethnic Chinese in Australia and 300, 000 in Sydney many of whom are more recent arrivals than the Mar family.
Gordon's family were merchants who ran a successful business, Wing, Sang & Company in Sydney's Haymarket for over 50 years. As in many Chinese families
 |
| Sign from Powerhouse Museum Collection http://from.ph/380423 |
During his talk that was illustrated with photographs from his collection Gordon explained various traditions from Confucianism to bound feet. His talk that was at times serious was laced with humour and jokes.
It was an excellent start to the year for our educational program at KHS.
So very pleased to find this info from Gordon Mar, my first cousin/ Gordon's father was my mother's ( Alice) eldest brother and to see the various photos of her family home and of Wing Sang, bought back so many memories of the stories which my mother (now deceased) related to us.
ReplyDeleteMy daughters Karen and Jacqui are keenly interested in following up on the Mar story as their grandmother ( Pau Pau} was so very proud being a Mar and told vivid stories of her life - living in Campbell Street , studying in Sydney and travelling back and forth from Sydney to her home in China.
I would appreciate my email address being given to Gordon as we have lost touch with him. My daughter Karen who manages Haymarket Chamber of Commerce is also trying to make contact with Gordon.
I look forward to hearing Gordon so that we can learn more of our ancestors .
Vivienne Scott ( nee Lee)