Gate, Chinatown Sydney

Gate, Chinatown Sydney

Gate, Sydney Chinatown

Image Courtesy of: City of Sydney Archives

Looking south along Dixon Street pedestrian mall from near the corner of Goulburn Street in Chinatown. View showing crowds of pedestrians at re-opening of Dixon Street after closure and beautification. Dragon entrance gateway with Chinese characters and the words Understand Virtue and Trust. Nine Dragons Restaurant (39-45 Dixon Street) and Lin Roc Restaurant at right.
Source: City of Sydney Archives

Sydney’s Chinatown gateway is perhaps one of the most obvious and defining Chinese features of Chinatown, other research on Chinatown pointed out that the gateways were connected with the ‘orientalisation’ of the area, becoming a tourist site, and perhaps signalled a definitive end to Dixon Street as a certain kind of enclave where people lived, worked, worshipped etc. The gateway’s construction not only symbolises the renewal of Chinatown but also demonstrates the import of a distinctive Chinese concept and architectural feature from China to Australia.

The gateway architecturally represents the most basic post and lintel construction. In China, the pai fong is typically seen at the entrance of each village to announce to those coming there its name, much like a street sign, and to signify one’s arrival. In a sense, it was a boundary marker. What is ‘Chinese-Australian’ about the pai fong in Sydney is that the aspirational messages are bilingual, in Chinese and English. This enables both the older Chinese migrant generation and the younger Australian-born to grasp the key messages. Accompanying one pai fong are stone lions, and it is also a distinctive Chinese feature worth noting.

Source: The China-Australia Heritage Corridor research team