Join Liverpool Regional Museum and Liverpool Genealogy Society for our History Week presentation to learn about Australia’s First Celestial*.
Presented by Historian and Author Bruce Shying, the talk will feature the extraordinary tale of Mak Sai Yin known also as John Shying, the first Chinese man on record to live in Sydney Town. John emigrated to the colony as a young man in 1818. A skilled tradesman, he was employed as a carpenter for Gregory Blaxland and the Macarthur’s before moving out west and becoming a publican.
John became a keen property developer, buying and selling land and building houses and hotels. Property and grog two sure-fire ingredients for success in the early days of the colony.
Come and listen to John’s interesting story as he made his way in colonial Sydney.
*In the 19th century, English-speakers referred to China as the ‘Celestial Empire’, reference to the emperor’s status as the ‘Son of Heaven’. Chinese people were known at the time as ‘Celestials’.
