Chinese Australians
As a whole, Australian residents identifying themselves as having Chinese ancestry made up 5.6% of those nominating their ancestry at the 2016 census and numbered 1,213,903. At the 2016 census, 509,555 people declared that they were born in Mainland China, 86,886 declared that they were born in Hong Kong, while 46,882 declared that they were born in Taiwan. There are also a large number of persons of Chinese ancestry among those born in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam.
History of Chinese Australians
The fall of the Qing dynasty was met with mixed emotions by Chinese Australians. Some of the older Chinese born men were supporters of the reform movement and in Sydney Chinese conservatives got together for a dragon flag parade in support of the old regime. Others, however, supported Sun Yat-sen. Some Chinese Australians even returned to China to fight for the KMT both before the Xinhai Revolution and afterwards during the Northern Expedition. The KMT had quite a following in Australia. There were many KMT branches around Australia. During the Second Sino-Japanese War the Darwin branch of the KMT was a valuable source of information for Chinese Australians. Chinese Australians also showed the support for the republic with monetary donations. In 1913 Chinese Australians, Chinese New Zealanders and others in the Chinese diaspora in the Pacific, donated ₤36,000 to China. A letter of thank you to the Chinese Australians from the Finance Minister of the Republic is on display at the Golden Dragon Museum.