Kids' Audio Guide: Ancestral portrait of Quong Tart’s mother

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Ancestral portrait of Quong Tart’s mother

A painted portrait depicting an older woman with Vietnamese features and dress.

Ancestral portrait of Quong Tart’s mother, ca.1888 by Unknown artist

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DONALD_190923.mp3

Transcript

This is an ancestral portrait of Mei Quong Tart’s mother. Mei Quong Tart was one of the most famous and successful Chinese migrants in Australian history. He came from China during the gold rush at the age of 9 to join his uncle on the Braidwood Goldfields. As I am now also nine, I can’t imagine leaving my mother and father to go somewhere so far away. After making his fortune in gold, Quong Tart began importing Chinese tea and silk and set up tearooms and restaurants in Sydney. Eventually, he moved to the Victorian mansion, Gallop House, in Ashfield which is near where I now go to school at Summer Hill.

You can see a portrait of Mei Quong Tart alongside this painting. Quong Tart was presented with fifth civil rank status by the Chinese Emperor in 1888. He had this portrait of his mother painted and then brought it back along with a portrait of his father. He would have brought these paintings to place on the family altar, in order to bring them good luck.

When I saw the painting, I was attracted to the emblem that was on the rank badge embroidered on her costume. I think it is a silver pheasant, a symbol of beauty and good fortune, Different rank badges signify status and respectability in Chinese society. One of the reasons I chose this painting is because I am from a Chinese heritage and enjoy studying history and mythology.

If I could speak to Quong Tart’s mother, I would ask, “do you miss him and are you proud of his success?”. I would tell her that over a hundred years later, children like me would be learning about her son using the internet!

Curators/Speakers

Donald