Gold Mountain Dragon

Gold Mountain Dragon is my ongoing humanist, sociologically driven photographic project that explores the vulnerability and resilience of Chinese culture within Australia. Through cultural photography of Chinese migration and the living ties between South China and Chinese Australian communities, the work traces how identity is carried, suppressed, rediscovered and reimagined across generations. It examines both fragility and strength: the quiet erosion of language and ritual through assimilation, and the enduring persistence of family, memory and cultural practice despite exclusion.

At the heart of the project is my own family history. My great-grandfather migrated to Australia during the Gold Rush era, part of the wave of men who travelled from South China to what they called “Gold Mountain”. His story, like many others, was shaped by hardship, racial hostility and the discriminatory structures that later hardened under the White Australia Policy. That history left gaps. Cultural knowledge was muted, stories were lost, and identity became partially obscured across generations. This project is, in part, an act of discovery: a search for the cultural inheritance that was never fully explained yet quietly endured.

Gold Mountain Dragon also speaks to a broader Australian condition. Many Australians carry unknown or under-acknowledged Chinese heritage within their family histories, shaped by migration, intermarriage and historical silence. By photographing both contemporary Chinese Australian communities and ancestral landscapes in South China, I attempt to bridge geographic and emotional distances. Portraits, community spaces and landscapes become visual markers of connection, linking present-day Australia with origins in South China and illuminating the intergenerational negotiation of belonging.

Black and white photo of an old courtyard with a hanging coat or dress on a line, surrounded by worn stone and brick walls and a small building with a tiled roof in the background.
Black and white photo of five children standing outdoors in a dirt area, with clothes hanging on a line behind them and older buildings in the background.
Black and white photo of an older man with a cane walking on a cracked street in an urban neighborhood, with buildings and a few people in the background.
A woman in a uniform jumps in the air holding a drink in her right hand on a curved park pathway lined with trees and bushes, with three men walking along the opposite side of the path.
Black and white photo of a large crowd of people, including women and children, gathered outside a two-story building with some on the roof, in what appears to be a rural area.
People in a large open square, with children flying a drone, and a tall monument and traditional Chinese buildings in the background.
A woman carrying two baskets filled with vegetables, balanced on a pole across her shoulders, walking through a narrow, worn alleyway in a rural village. The scene is in black and white, showing old buildings with textured walls and overhead power li
Three people gathered around a well on a narrow alleyway, washing clothes by hand. One person is using a bucket and a rope, another is squatting and reaching for a bucket, and the third is bent over laundry on a rock.
Black and white photo of the Great Wall of China with a curved pathway, brick wall, trees, and mountains in the background.
A young man with glasses riding a bicycle with a large stack of boxes attached to the back, on a street in front of an old building with laundry hanging on a line.
An old, weathered small building with a flat roof and two small barred windows, situated in a rural area.
A large group of children and a few adults gathered outdoors, some on a raised platform, with clear skies overhead.
Two children sitting at a table in a park surrounded by trees and high-rise apartment buildings, with benches and walking paths.
Group of people gathered outdoors, many holding cameras, some taking photos or recording, in front of old buildings with worn walls and small windows.
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A group of elderly women wearing traditional hats and clothing sitting on a bench under a large tree in an outdoor setting.
Black and white photo of a two-story house with tiled exterior, multiple windows with bars, a small front yard with bushes, and a paved pathway. Mountain landscape in the background.
Black and white photo of an urban scene with high-rise apartment buildings, a school building labeled 'H.K. & K.L.N. Chiu Chow School', construction work, and a taxi on the street.
Black and white photo of two women walking down an alleyway with old brick and concrete buildings on either side. One woman is carrying baskets on a pole across her shoulders, and the other woman is walking behind her.
A woman in casual clothing washing something in a bowl on a stone surface outside an old, textured building with a small window and a pipe, with a cat partially visible in the background.
Black and white photo of old tiled rooftops with plants growing among the tiles and in the foreground, against a cloudy sky.
Interior of a traditional Chinese temple or shrine with a table holding incense burners and candles, overlooking a tiled roof through a decorative window with hanging lanterns and flags.
Black and white photo of an old, broken iron window with a single pane of glass, missing a piece, set in a weathered concrete wall with peeling paint and cracks.
Street scene in black and white with road signs, including a speed limit of 15, a motorcycle lane, and a no smoking sign, next to a sidewalk and trees.
A young child with a shaved head standing on a paved public square with a large monument and many people walking and standing in the background
Black and white photo of the Great Wall of China stretching over mountains with a cloudy sky.
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