Red Tape, Gold Scissors: The Story of Sydney’s Chinese
I have been after this book for a while. As an ABC (Australian Born Chinese), I have always had some interest in the history of Chinese in Australia and especially Sydney because it’s my hometown. This book first came to my notice when I attended a talk by the The Chinese Heritage Association of Australia in 2007. I looked for the book on amazon but it was not available. Luckily today I went to the State Library to see the World Press Photo 08 exhibition (still have time to do things I enjoy - yah). Of course I went to the book shop afterwards. Red Tape, Gold Scissors: The Story of Sydney’s Chinese was on the shelf. (Actually I also saw it in a glass display box in a hidden corridor upstairs while looking at old photos of Sydney with the bridge half built, but anyhoo). There were 2 versions, the only difference were the covers - green or red. I thought, if any Chinese person is making the choice, they’re going to take the red one of course. As I was paying for the book, a dude (aka a grey haired gentleman) comes out of the back and says “Oh, would you like the author to sign it?”. I thought he was the author (duh - he didn’t look like a Shirley, I didn’t realise the name of the author at the time of purchase). So he gets a lady to come from the next room and she is Shirley Fitzgerald! How random! She signs the book for me with best wishes and I decide to have a chat with them on their way out. This chance meeting really spurs me onto writing about my family history and how they came to Australia even more now.