Chinese immigrants first came to Victoria in large numbers during the goldrushes of the 1850s and Melbourne's Chinatown began as a staging post for the many thousands of Chinese passing through Melbourne on their way to the goldfields. The overwhelming majority came from small farming villages in the Sze-Yap (meaning Four Districts) area of Kwangtung, China's southernmost province. Since the late eighteenth century, young men from this region had been accustomed to migrate temporarily to …showed first 75 words of 1657 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1657 total…typically located in small mining towns or on the fringes of city centres. Here, the Chinese were able to concentrate their own social institutions and, in some cases, develop a light industry base (cabinet-making in Melbourne, clothing in Boston, boot and shoe manufacturing in San Francisco). The enclaves were seen by outsiders as 'a city within a city' with strange people, shops, dress, smells and with the reputation as centres for sinister and illegal activities.