Sojourners: Flowers and the Wide Sea

The Epic Story of China’s Centuries-Old Relationship With Australia.

Bristling with character and drama, with lively incident and the clash of civilisations, Sojourners is the story of China’s centuries-old relationship with Australia. The result of twenty-five years of research, Eric Rolls’s magnificently written book is an epic in the tradition of The Fatal Shore. Sojourners combines rich detail with the power of a compelling narrative which sweeps, Michener-like, across time.

Amongst the first visitors to Australia, the Chinese initially were involved in business with the Aborigines. When thousands of Chinese flocked to this country in the 1850s with the discovery of gold, they encountered men from all over the world. The result was fear and widespread racism towards the Chinese.

As well as the high drama of history, Sojourners covers the important themes of health and sickness (in particular opium, and the spread of leprosy and smallpox in alarming proportions), and the passion for gambling which the Chinese shared with European Australians. One of the book’s highlights is Eric Rolls’s description of the Chinese preoccupation with food and cooking, from the complex art of noodle throwing, to the way victims of the Cultural Revolution trapped mice.

The author’s deep acquaintance with his subject, and the surprising links he forges between past and present, make this book an unprecedented work of Australian literature and scholarship.