It reviews historical accounts of Chinese entrepreneurs in Australia before presenting the results of recent research. The paper argues that it is necessary to investigate how ethnicity, gender and class have intersected to shape changing patterns of Chinese entrepreneurship in the Australian Chinese Diaspora. It also suggests that the dynamics of Chinese immigration and Chinese entrepreneurship in Australia have been shaped by the changing dynamics of globalisation, the state and the racialisation (Miles, 1982) of Chinese immigrants in the Australian labour market and society as a whole.
The paper first looks at the early history of Chinese immigration in the nineteenth century and the role of Chinese entrepreneurs in that period. It then presents an overview of the recent history of Chinese immigration in Australia, before presenting data on the rate of Chinese entrepreneurship from the past three Australian censuses. During this period, many Chinese entered Australia under the business migration programme. This is discussed in the next section. The paper then reviews recent Australian research into Chinese entrepreneurs before an attempt to explain different rates of entrepreneurship among different birthplace groups of Australian Chinese and some concluding remarks.