South Flows the Pearl: Chinese Australian Voices

Sydney Lunar Festival Associated Event

Date: Saturday 29 January 2022

Time: 2.30pm to 3.30pm (AEDT)

Venue: Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney. This presentation is also by Zoom

RSVP to email   lowekelley@bigpond.com

Cost: FREE

In the 1980s Mavis Gock Yen began interviewing elderly Chinese Australians, recording hours of
conversations. These conversations and stories of the lives of Chinese in Australia, told in their own
words, have been edited by Siaoman Yen and Richard Horsburgh. They form the basis of South Flows
the Pearl, to be published by Sydney University Press in February 2022.

Perth-born Mavis Gock Yen (1916-2008), moved with her family to Shanghai in 1925 and spent time in
China and Australia over the next twenty years. In 1946 she settled in China where she worked
as a journalist and English teacher until after the Cultural Revolution, eventually returning to Australia
in 1981 with her daughter Siaoman Yen. Mavis then settled in Canberra and completed a Bachelor of
Arts degree, majoring in professional writing.

Learn more about South Flows the Pearl: Chinese Australian Voices from editor Richard Horsburgh,
historian Sophie Loy-Wilson who wrote the introduction and Professor Kam Louie who wrote the
foreword.

Donations: to CAHS is appreciated:

BSB: 012071 – Account: 111211003

Or by cheque payable to the Chinese Australian Historical Society and posted to Treasurer, CAHS Inc, PO Box K556, Haymarket NSW 1240