Archival images provided by Jun Bin Lee.
Ham Hop the Gold Mountain Wife
SAT 19 OCT
TWO PERFORMANCES
DURATION: 60 MINS (NO INTERMISSION)
TICKETS: FREE
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SAT 19 OCT, 2.00PM
SAT 19 OCT, 5.00PM
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General Admission FREE
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Platform Arts is wheelchair-accessible via our Gheringhap St entrance. Unlocked, accessible bathrooms are available on both ground and first floors.
For accessibility enquiries, please directly contact us at hello@platformarts.org.au
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Ham Hop was a ‘gold mountain wife’ who moved from China to Australia in 1910 to begin a new life in Geelong.
Small Ripples Theatre presents a performance lecture and mini exhibition that traces Ham Hop's journey as a Chinese migrant, which began with Ham Hop selling fruits and vegetables at Geelong Market Square with her husband, a market gardener and businessman. She became highly engaged in the church community and other philanthropic activities, where she connected with other Chinese migrants. Although having started a new family in their home at 268 Moorabool Street, she was eventually deported due to a discriminative immigration act under the White Australian Policy—despite overwhelming support for Ham Hop from the Geelong community.
The project was inspired by the article "Exception or Example? Ham Hop’s Challenge to White Australia," written by social historian Kate Bagnall in 2021. The article is one of a few published pieces that centre Ham Hop's perspective as a migrant woman. For context, she features in thousands of newspaper archives, but most reference her as ‘Mrs Poon Gooey’ (she was married to Poon Gooey) and never as Ham Hop, portraying her as mostly voiceless.
Jun Bin Lee (Co-writer, Composer, & Musician)
Chi Vu (Co-writer)
Bingyao Liu (Co-Producer & Musician)
Lauren Cheok (Artist)
IG: @smallripplestheatre FB: @smallripplestheatre
This project is funded by a City of Greater Geelong Arts Project Grant. Supported by Platform Arts and the Geelong Chinese Association. Jun Bin Lee was a participant in Platform Arts’ Creative Development Program, 2023.
Banner images:
Top left: Ham Hop, her husband Poon Gooey and their two daughters just before they left Australia, 1913 (National Archives of Australia: A1, 1913/9139)
Lower left: MM 53190 – Glass Stereograph Negative - Federation Celebrations, Chinese Dragon Procession, by G.H. Myers, Melbourne, Victoria, 1901
Centre: Photograph of Ham Hop by Yeoman & Co. Melbourne. C.1911
Top right: Custodians of the Bay: A brief History of Geelong Port
Lower right: Archival image supplied by Jun Bin Lee
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Jun Bin Lee (Co-Creator, Writer/Composer/Director)
Jun Bin Lee is a Melbourne-based composer, writer, and director of Chinese-Malaysian descent who works across film and theatre to explore migrant stories and the multiple barriers to economic and social participation in Australia.
Jun has worked with various community-based organizations, academic researchers, historians, and advocacy groups to unpack social issues including family violence, gambling addiction, and racism as experienced by the migrant community.
Jun is the recipient of Creative Victoria’s Creator’s Fund in 2021 where he collaborated with PHD scholar, Ellen Cho from Monash University to produce, compose, and co-direct a 3-part video series to raise awareness about family violence within the Asian community in Australia. Jun is also the recipient of City of Melbourne’s 2021-2022 & 2022-2023 Arts Grant where he is partnering with the Museum of Chinese Australian History to creative-develop an original musical based on the history of the Chinese cabinet makers in the 19th century Melbourne, featuring multiple languages and traditional Chinese instruments.
Jun’s most recent project is the Ham Hop historical + arts project which is as part of Platform Art’s artist residency program in 2023.
Chi Vu (Co-writer)
Chi Vu is an award-winning writer and director whose works span genres such as the postcolonial gothic, horror, magic-realism and comedy. Her prose works have appeared in various publications, including ‘Joyful Strains,’ ‘Growing Up Asian in Australia,’ and the ‘Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature’ (also published as ‘The Literature of Australia’). Chi’s novella ‘Anguli Ma: a Gothic Tale’ was shortlisted in a NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
Chi has been creating translingual performances with multilingual artists for over 25 years, with many works undertaken at Footscray Community Arts Centre. She was a founding artistic co-director of Western Edge Youth Arts and has mentored culturally-diverse emerging artists for the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne’s Student Theatre Department, and Westwords (Parramatta, NSW).
In 2019, Chi co-created 'Geelong Sweats,' a participatory work-in-progress performance that involved the gym-goers and trainers from Water World Gym (Corio) which was developed in partnership with Geelong Arts Centre. More recently, she facilitated creative writing workshops for various arts organisations including Back to Back Theatre (Theatre of Speed; CAMP), Arts Centre Melbourne (including workshops at the St Thomas Aquinas Primary School in Norlane) and Geelong Arts Centre (drama workshops about immigration). Chi has taught scriptwriting at Deakin University, Waurn Ponds. Chi moved to Geelong in 2016. www.chi-vu.com
Bingyao Liu (Musician, Yangqin player)
Bingyao is a Geelong-based musician and producer. She is originally from Hunan, China and has been playing the Yangqin for the last seventeen years. She has a bachelor’s degree in music from the Mount Holyoke College in the US. She has performed with ensembles of various music styles in the US and Australia. Bingyao is also a Music Therapist who graduated from the University of Melbourne. She is passionate about creating access to arts for people of all backgrounds and abilities. Bingyao is the producer and band leader of an upcoming original musical ‘Best Cabinet Maker musical’.
