AGHS Sydney - Chinese Vegetable Growers

What does it mean to rebuild a history when the very people who nourished a community were rendered invisible in official records? As historian Janis Wilton observed in Golden Threads (2014, p.29), the daily worlds of Chinese market gardeners remained largely unseen - “their homes rarely visited, their social lives unknown, and their identities hidden under generic, often meaningless names.” Building on this insight, Dr Christopher Cheng’s talk uncovers stories revealed through Parramatta City Council’s History, Culture, and Stories Fund. For decades, the labour of Chinese market gardeners went unrecognised, and the plots they tended left behind only scattered traces of their identities.

Yet recent oral history interviews—conducted in Cantonese with growers across Sydney and in English with their descendants in Parramatta—begin to illuminate what mattered most to these men: a steady, collective labour that grew—quite literally—against the grain. Their work nourished local families in Sydney while sustaining relatives in Guangdong through the remittances they sent home.

The legacy of these market gardeners endures today, not only in the post-war flourishing of Chinese restaurants but in the enduring presence of Chinese flavours, vegetables, and foodways that continue to enrich our communities.

Dr. Christopher Cheng is a plurilingual oral historian at Western Sydney University and the University of Sydney, whose work centres on giving voice to communities long left at the margins of the historical record. In partnership with the Chinese Heritage Association of Australia, he co-leads Listening to Cantonese Growers: Re-telling Parramatta’s Past, a project supported by the City of Parramatta Community Grants that brings to life the stories of those who once quietly toiled. His research has appeared in Australian Garden History, including “Growing Against the Grain” (2025) and “Nurturing Gardens of Opportunity” (2026), both revealing how Chinese growers cultivated not only vegetables, but opportunity and resilience as well as lasting community connections.