Cheok Hong Cheong

Cheong was born on 23 November 1851 in Foshan, Guangdong, China.^[2] His grandfather was a banker whose business collapsed after the Taiping Rebellion.^[3] His father, Cheong Peng-nam, arrived in Victoria, Australia in 1854 during the Victorian gold rush, and converted to Christianity in 1860.^[4] Cheok Hong had two sisters, Fong-sen and Ah Chin;^[5] in 1863, after his father had become permanently employed as a Presbyterian missionary in Australia,^[4] Cheong emigrated to Victoria with his mother Yeet Kwy Phang See and his siblings.^[2] They were all baptised at St John's Presbyterian Church in Ballarat in 1866.^[5]

Following the death of Cheong's mother in June 1871, the family relocated to Melbourne. Cheong's studies were reportedly so exceptional that his tuition fees were borne by his teachers.^[4] He spent two years at Ballarat College and another three at Scotch College.^[6] He was admitted into the University of Melbourne in 1875, becoming the first Chinese in Victoria to matriculate,^[4] although he did not attend, much less graduate.^[7]

Cheong studied at the Presbyterian Theological Hall on a scholarship from the Presbyterian Church, although he dropped out midway in 1875, after a dispute regarding the Chinese mission that he worked at.^[4] From 1875 to 1885, Cheong sold bananas with his father in Fitzroy.^[4] In 1879, with his father's friend Lowe Kong Meng and fellow community leader and mentor Louis Ah Mouy,^[4][8] Cheong published a thirty-one-page pamphlet titled The Chinese Question in Australia,^[8] which defended Chinese immigration^[9] and protested against the discrimination that the Chinese had been facing in Australia.^[8] According to writer Ian Welch, Cheong was the main author of the document, with Ah Mouy and Kong Meng "approving" its contents.^[10] In an interview with The Essex County Standard, Cheong pushed back against xenophobic attitudes towards Chinese immigration and opined that China was a pacifist country, "having manifested no desire to covet her neighbours' territories."^[11] In 1885, Cheong accepted a salaried position at the Church Missionary Society of Victoria.^[4] The same year, after impressing Bishop James Moorhouse with "such a remarkable address" at the Anglican Board of Missions' annual meeting,^[12] Cheong was appointed as the superintendent of the Church of England of Melbourne, which necessitated his giving up of his role as a Presbyterian elder.^[13]

In 1887, two Imperial Commissioners, General Wong Yung Ho and Commissioner U Tsing, arrived in Melbourne as part of their inquiry into the treatment of Chinese subjects overseas. The trio of Cheong, Kong Meng, and Ah Mouy presented the commissioners with a petition that had forty-four other signatories, calling for the "international wrong" that was anti-Chinese sentiment in Australia to be righted.^[14] Cheong was particularly opposed to the Immigration Restriction Act 1901.^[15] He was the president of the Commonwealth Chinese Community's Representative Committee, which had been founded in direct response to the act.^[16] He was also a vociferous critic of the British opium trade,^[12][17][18] which he described as "pernicious",^[3] and travelled across England to lecture on the subject.^[3][19][20] Cheong claimed to have received death threats because of his anti-opium activism.^[21]

Although he had arrived in Australia with no knowledge of the language, Cheong was eventually able to speak and write in "perfect English".^[5] He was also proficient in French, German, Italian, and Spanish and "had more than a passing acquaintance" with Malay and Hindustani.^[22] A March 1927 report by the Sydney-based Smith's Weekly alleged that Cheong was the "wealthiest Chinaman in Melbourne", with numerous properties to his name.^[23]

In 1869, Cheong married Wong Toy Yen, with whom he had two daughters and five sons.^[12] She died on 14 February 1927;^[24] Cheong died a year later on 20 June 1928 at his residence "Pine Lodge", in Croydon, Victoria.^[2] The Brisbane Courier celebrated him as "one of the foremost Chinese citizens in Australia".^[25]