I met the Leong and Lim families in 2012 when I was curator at the Museum of Chinese Australian History and took them on a guided tour of the museum as part of their fourth family reunion. Gary Leong had been researching his maternal grandfather Lim Kee Tey’s involvement in Melbourne’s cabinetmaking industry and he was keen to share this history with the rest of the family. Gary and I stayed in touch, and in 2021 the Leong and Lim families commissioned me to work with them to write their history.

Their family story, like many others, starts with two young men from the Pearl River Delta region in China making the long journey to Australia in the late 19th century. Each man married two wives and between them raised 17 children. The families grew up in Kwangtung, Australia and Hongkong. Now members live all over the world. This book shows how a simple family story can help you understand the importance of the overseas Chinese diaspora in the economic development of Australia, the growth of villages and towns in Kwangtung province, and the role of Chinese Australians in building the cosmopolitan character of colonial Hongkong.

I’m excited to launch this book on the 12 October 2024 at a banquet marking the seventh reunion of the family in Hong Kong. I’ll also be joining the family in a visit to their home villages.

Book blurb

In the closing decades of the 19th century, Joseph Kee Tey Lim and George Yip Wing Leong journeyed from their home villages in Kwangtung to seek their fortunes in Australia. Kee Tey built a successful career as a cabinetmaker in Melbourne, while George Yip Wing made his money in retail and mining speculation in Queensland, and then as a banana merchant in Melbourne.

Both men relocated their families to the cosmopolitan British colony of Hongkong in the early 20th century. Hongkong provided rich opportunities for Chinese entrepreneurs with English-language skills and knowledge of British business methods. Kee Tey became a building contractor in Kowloon, and George Yip Wing worked for The Chosen Company department store on Des Voeux Road Central, Hongkong. In the 1940s, the two families’ prosperity was fractured by the Japanese occupation of Hongkong. Many family members returned to Australia. It was in Melbourne that the Lim and Leong families were joined together when Hongkong-born Jean Mary Lim married Heungshan-born Richard Thomas Wai Cheong Leong in 1944.

The Old Reliable Firm explores the complexity of Chinese Australian identities and experiences through these two family histories, highlighting the ways that Kwangtung, Australia and Hongkong shaped their lives, loves and businesses.

Melbourne launch: Thur 30 Jan, 6-7pm, Chinese Museum, 22 Cohen Pl, Melbourne, free: register here (sold out!) $20 from the proceeds of books sold on the night will be donated to the See Yup Temple Recovery Fund.

Sydney launch: Thur 6 Feb, Charles Darwin University, Haymarket, $15: register here.

Copies available for purchase from the Leong-Lim family for $50 plus postage using the form below.