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Mark Wang reflects on his father's impact on Melbourne

Mara Moustafine and Mark Wang.

Mark Wang reflects on his father's impact on Melbourne

Created:

unknown

Date Added:

16 February 2009

Source:

source not available

Format:

mov (Quicktime);

File size:

9 MB

Length:

03min27sec

Transcript

Wang:

00:05

This is a very unusual situation, my grandfather was a friend of Arthur Calwell’s, who was a very White Australia Policy person. And he was – my grandfather was friends with Arthur Calwell and so my father would have been one of the very few people who was able to migrate here. But it was- he didn’t actually migrate here as a citizen, between 1950 or you know, the early ‘50s to 1966, my father wasn’t a citizen of Australia, he was here on a business visa.

00:40

And every year he had to go to the immigration department and show them that he was doing – he was a legitimate business person, trading with – between China and Australia. Between overseas and Australia even it was difficult to show that you were trading with China because China wasn’t recognised by the Australian Government. So he would be having to front up every year to say, “Look I’m a – I’m a legitimate alien who’s actually travelling to Australia for the purposes of doing trade.” Although he had an Australian wife and he had four children, he owned a house, he had businesses in Australia, right up until 1966 he wasn’t an Australian citizen so, then the White Australia Policy sort of got dismantled around about that time and then –

01:26

- he was one of the very few Shanghainese (sic) people in Australia. There weren’t – most of the people were from Quandong Province so he sort of found that – he found it quite easy to mix with Australian people as a – as he was quite an astute business person so he established lots of contacts in business and became quite successful in business in the local community. And I suppose he was one of the very few people who connected with the Australian – as Australian community, in the way that he wasn’t one of those people who just kept within their community. All of our business as a family business was selling things to Australian people, not selling things to Chinese people.

02:13

So he said to me once, well we used to advertise on the front page of The Age, every month, once a month and we would have an ad on the front page of the age. And that went from about 1970 for about – or 1965 for about 30 years. And so he became a very well-known figure – I don’t know whether you know Dick Smith who’s the electronic – we used to advertise on the front page of the age every month, once a month and we would have an ad on the front page of the age. And that went from about 1970 for about – or 1965 for about 30 years. And so he became a very well-known figure.

02:55

My father’s head was also part of the logo of our name.

What is the name?

Wang:

02:59

David Wang. David “Wong” but spelt, W-A-N-G. His face became a sort of Melbourne institution through his advertising, you know. He then became a city councillor in Melbourne and was quite successful as a civic leader and also a business person, so. But under quite a lot of duress because he couldn’t speak English that well, and – but he seemed to get his message across.

03:26

End transcript