20/10/2026
In the heart of Sydney stands a building most people walk past without a second glance. It was the Kuomintang's Sydney headquarters, and it is now heritage listed.
So what does it mean when a Kuomintang headquarters becomes part of Australia's heritage? More than the story of one political organisation, this unlikely heritage asks us to rethink migration, belonging, and the place of Chinese Australians in Australia's shared past.
Drawing on a decade of archival research, Dr Mei-fen Kuo opens up records that have sat quiet for generations. They reveal two histories tangled together: one of community, mutual aid and civic life, the other of political loyalty, party discipline and transnational networks. Neither can be pulled free of the other.
History is not always written from the centre. Some of its most revealing stories come from the margins. Under the White Australia Policy, Chinese Australians were never fully excluded and never fully accepted. Caught between an imagined homeland and a country that kept them at arm's length, they built their own associations, businesses and political organisations.
Dr Mei-fen Kuo is a historian at Macquarie University, where she lectures in Chinese Studies and International Studies. Her research covers Chinese diaspora politics, Taiwan Studies and Cold War Asia-Pacific history. She is the author of Making Chinese Australia and Unlocking the History of the Australasian Kuo Min Tang 1911-2013, and held a National Library of Australia Fellowship in 2023.
The talk runs for about an hour, including a Q&A session, and is proudly presented (in English) as part of History Week by Museum of Chinese in Australia.
8 September 5:30 - 6:30pm. Cost: $10.
MOCA, 744 George Street, Haymarket, NSW
Booking link: https://buff.ly/YjpgZXO
For more great History Week events see our Events Calendar. https://historycouncilnsw.org.au/whats-on-2/
