Chinese Youth League of Australia

Chinese Youth League - The current location of the CYL, upper Dixon Street, Haymarket, Sydney

Image Courtesy of: CAHS

According to the Chinese Youth League itself:

The Chinese Youth League (CYL) was first established as the Sydney Chinese Youth Drama Association on 1 July 1939. It was formed by a group of patriotic Australian Chinese Youth gathering regularly in the Shanghai Cafe on Campbell Street, Sydney. Three years later, the name was officially changed to the Chinese Youth League in August 1942. Today it is one of the oldest Chinese Community Organisations in existence in Australia.

CYL 1945 - Originally closely associated with the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party

Image Courtesy of: City of Sydney Archives

The Chinese Youth League began in association with the then governing party of China—the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party)—which was also an ally of Australia in the war against Japan. After 1949, however, the CYL supported the new government of China under the new dominant party, the Chinese Communist Party.

Hong Sing & CYL - 1965: 56-66 Dixon Street, Haymarket. The Chinese Youth League at the far right.

Image Courtesy of: CAHS

The Kuomintang itself, at the other end of Chinatown, supported the Republic of China government on Taiwan. The refusal of the Australian government to recognise the new government in Beijing until 1972 and the politics of the Cold War meant that the membership of the CYL was suspect and continually under ASIO observation. This led to those who frequented its film nights and other activities being suspect of pro-Communist sympathies. This was a not inconsiderable threat at a time when many Chinese Australians were only just become eligible to apply for citizenship. Such applications required ASIO clearance and were often all too easily denied.

As Cold War tensions waned and the Beijing Government was finally recognised by Canberra, the political dimensions of the CYL also faded. Still headquartered on Dixon Street, Haymarket, though now further north, the Chinese Youth League now offers courses in lion dancing and martial arts, hosts a Cantonese Opera troupe, as well as many other cultural activities.

For more on the Chinese Youth League see the online lecture:

A History of the Chinese Youth League in Australia from its inception until the Liberation of China in 1949 by Dr Drew Cottle