Exoticism

Chinese were often objects of fascination as fear and hatred to white Australians and this often led to strange assumptions.

An interesting and little-considered aspect of Chinese Australian history is how Chinese people were not only subjected to racism but also to a kind of exoticism. All kinds of things were attributed to them as mysterious people of the East—inscrutable and strange—based on ignorance of their culture or the need to fill a vacuum in knowledge of the origins of things

Whenever people did not know where something came from, they looked for an explanation, and the Chinese, seen as something other and exotic, seemed to fit the bill. The result was a whole series of misapplied assumptions about Chinese people building wells, dams, wool sheds, stone walls, and all sorts of things around the landscape. Anything that lacked a ready explanation was often attributed to the Chinese. It is an interesting aspect of history, one that helps explain many of the myths and assumptions that have developed.

Robe walk myths