Title: Marginal Men in Australian Literature of the National Period: The Image of the Chinese in Henry Lawson’s Works

Abstract: During the time of the Australian National Period, Australian intellectuals were creating a national literature and seeking Australian-ness. In the literary works of this time, the Chinese were marginalized. In Henry Lawson’s works, the Chinese, the sojourners, were confronted by dual predicaments of racial discrimination and being far away from home. Although they were skilled in business and hard workers, they were mostly represented through such negative images as drug traffickers, drug addicts, and gamblers. The Chinese became scapegoats of the lower classes who had the same problems of taking opium and gambling in the Gold Rush Period: “Orientals” were assumed by Australians to be invaders. Images of the Chinese were over-simplified and stereotypical. Some of them became servile and submissive “White Chinese,” and the mirror of “the other” that enabled “the self” of whites in the National Period pursue self-identification. These examples pushed Australian writers such as Henry Lawson to define and construct cultural and racial priorities under the Australian “cultural cringe.”

Keywords: Henry Lawson, Chinese image, discrimination, scapegoat, the other

Authors: Jiasheng Zhang, Associate Professor, School of Foreign Studies, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, China；Baoqi Lin, School of Foreign Studies, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, China.