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Chinn, Frank (Tung Foo) (1897 - c. 1986)

Gallery

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    L-R: Albert 'Moses' (Tung Yot) Chinn, Anne Wong Hee(?), Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Reginald (Tung Hee) Chinn, in Melbourne. ca 1940s.
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    Celebrating Double Ten in the 1930s. Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn, third from left with Taiwanese consuls and the Consul General, and their wives
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    Chinese Progress Association. 2nd Annual Ball, 26/11/24., 26 November 1924, courtesy of Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History).
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    Chinn brothers at Victoria Market, ca 1960s, by Unknown creator (see disclaimer)
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    Chinn family, Melbourne ca 1960s. Front: Ming Balintong. Middle: Tue Gee Chinn. Back (L-R): Albert 'Moses' (Tung Yot) Chinn and Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn. Taken at 62 or 66 Chaucer St, St Kilda., by Unknown creator (see disclaimer)
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    Chinn family portrait
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    Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn (3rd from right?) and friends by a car at a picnic in Melbourne, 1920s
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    Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn (with flowers, possibly second from left) and friends at a picnic in Melbourne.
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    Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Donald Lee, Melbourne
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    Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Jan O'Hoy (a friend from Bendigo) taken in Melbourne.
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Born
April 1897
Weldborough, Tasmania, Australia
Died
c. 1986
Occupation
banana merchant
Alternative Names
  • Chinn, Frank (also used)
  • Ma Tung Foo (full Chinese)
Summary

Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn was the fourth son of Maa Mon Chinn and Lula Kow Yonn. Born in Weldborough and moved to Melbourne with the Chinn family in the 1910s. He and his family became key members of the Chinese community. In Melbourne he worked with his brothers in the fruit and vegetable business. He never married but was active in the Young Chinese League in the 1930s-1980s.
[Prepared by Paul Macgregor]

Details

Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn (1897 - c.1986), fruit and vegetable wholesaler, was born in 1897 at Weldborough, Tasmania, the fourth son of Chinese parents Maa Mon Chinn, tin miner and shopkeeper, and his wife Lula Kow Yonn. Franks father came to Australia from Guangdong province with his father and brother in the 1860s to work in the tin mines in Weldborough. His mother, also from Guangdong, migrated to Weldborough in 1886, at the age of 16, betrothed to Maa Mon Chinn. The Chinn family were part of a Chinese community of 700 miners. Frank was one of seven brothers and four daughters. As tin mining declined most of the Chinn family moved to Melbourne in the 1910s.

For many years, the family resided at 104 -106 Little Bourke Street, the former Munster Arms Hotel. Frank worked with four of his brothers as banana and fruit merchants. In the 1940s, the Chinn brothers moved their business to the Queen Victoria Markets, as did other wholesalers in Little Bourke St as part of the centralising of Melbourne's fruit and vegetable markets.

Frank was extremely proud of his Chinese ancestry and culture, but also enthusiastically adopted Anglo-Australian culture. Frank, along with fellow Chinese Australians he founded the Young Chinese League in 1932 to prosper relationships between the Chinese and Australian communities. Frank's sense of community spirit is evident in allowing early club functions and meetings to be held at the Chinn family home.

In his 34 years as president of the Young Chinese League, Frank worked hard with fellow committee members to bring people of the Chinese community, their family and friends together, in a warm and friendly atmosphere through a wide range of social, recreational, cultural and sporting activities.

Over successive generations, the club helped foster many deep and enduring friendships, with many members meeting their future partners there. Many families who settled in Melbourne particularly during the post war years benefited directly from Frank's helping hand and good advice.

Known affectionately as 'Uncle Frank' to many members over the years, Frank organised the football matches including the annual weekend away matches. In 1967, after 34 years as the League's President, he was forced to retire due to ill health. He nevertheless continued to play an active role in the leagues activities, notably the football team.

In working to build and improve relationships with the Australian community, the Young Chinese League under his guidance raised substantial sums of money for charitable causes such as the Royal Children's Hospital and the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne. During the Second World War, he and a number of Young Chinese League members rallied together and organised the raising of funds and supplies for the China Relief Fund.

Frank, along with the Young Chinese League, played a major part during the Olympic games in 1956 in welcoming Chinese athletes to Melbourne as well as representatives from the Republic of China. The club more than any other Chinese community group in Melbourne, was called upon to assist the Chinese Olympics team and prepare suitable welcomes and functions, a testament to the strengths of the club and its role in the community.

In 1969 the Young Chinese League committee wrote to the Consul for the Republic of China requesting that they offer Frank an award in recognition of his outstanding service to the Chinese people of Australia, in particular, and to all Chinese, in general. And in 1971, the Ambassador for the Republic of China presented Frank with the Hua Kuang Award of Merit in recognition of his service to the Chinese community over the past forty years at a special presentation Young Chinese League dance.

Taken from his eulogy published in a Young Chinese League newsletter in 1986:
"He promoted a strong sense of pride in our heritage and equality with others. From all these things, I am sure each of us gained something of lasting value from Uncle Frank."

Sources used to compile this entry: Museum of Chinese Australian History Collection including Young Chinese League newsletters (1961, 1969, 1971 &1986), Chinn Family archive and Russell Moy oral history transcript, 1986. Oral histories of Frank and his niece Thelma Cremin are also held at the Museum of Chinese Australian history.

Prepared by: Brendan O'Donnell, Monash University

Family member

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival Collections

Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History)

  • Photographs of Frank Chinn and his family's belongings, c. 1985 - c. 1986; Chinese Museum (Museum of Chinese Australian History). Details

Published Resources

See also

  • '[unidentified article]', Australasian Post, 23 October 1947. Details

Images

Title
Albert 'Moses' (Tung Yot) Chinn, Anne Wong Hee (?), Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Reginald (Tung Hee) Chinn
Type
Photograph
Date
1940s
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Celebrating Double Ten in the 1930s. Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn, third from left with Taiwanese consuls and the Consul General, and their wives
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Chinese Progress Association 2nd Annual Ball
Type
Photograph
Date
26 November 1924
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Chinn brothers at Victoria Market, ca 1960s
Type
Photograph
Date
1960s
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - Queen Victoria Market
Details
Title
Chinn family at 62 or 66 Chaucer St, St Kilda, Melbourne, c1960s
Type
Photograph
Date
1960s
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - St Kilda
Details
Title
Chinn family portrait
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn (3rd from right?) and friends by a car at a picnic in Melbourne
Type
Photograph
Date
1920s
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn (with flowers, possibly second from left) and friends at a picnic in Melbourne.
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Donald Lee, Melbourne
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Jan O'Hoy (a friend from Bendigo) taken in Melbourne
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Mrs Amy Mou Tong Young
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and opera star Lila Pirani
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn at 16 or 17 years old
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1913
Place
Australia?
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn at 74, showing decoration from Taiwanese Government, 1971
Type
Photograph
Date
1971
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn at about 19 or 20 years old
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1916
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn making a presentation to Taiwanese Consul at a function in the 1950s
Type
Photograph
Date
1950s
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn, 22 years old
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1919
Place
Australia?
Details
Title
Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn, Chinese Consul and wife
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Leslie Kong, Consul from Taiwan, his wife and Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn
Type
Photograph
Date
1940s - 1950s
Details
Title
Members of the Chinn family
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1903
Place
Australia - Tasmania - Weldborough
Details
Title
Mrs How Kee in Melbourne
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Unknown function showing: Chinese Consul's wife, Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn and Tue Gee Chinn
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Wedding of Edward Chung Gon and Gladys Sym Choon, in 1939
Type
Photograph
Date
1939
Place
Australia - South Australia - Adelaide
Details
Title
Wedding portrait of Mr Lew Fatt in Melbourne
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Wedding portrait of Norman Wong Hee and Dolly Chang (half Chinese)
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1955
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details
Title
Wedding portrait of Sylvia Chew and Roy Lee Dow
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Young Chinese League football team, 1947
Type
Photograph
Date
1947
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne - Little Bourke Street
Details
Title
Young Chinese League sports team
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 1947
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details

See also

Title
Donald Lee
Type
Photograph
Date
c. 10 October 1943
Details
Title
Friends of Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Wedding of friends of Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn from NSW in Sydney
Type
Photograph
Place
Australia - New South Wales - Sydney
Details
Title
Wedding portrait of Peter Louey, friend of Frank (Tung Foo) Chinn
Type
Photograph
Details
Title
Young Chinese League debutantes, 25 September 1945
Type
Photograph
Date
25 September 1945
Place
Australia - Victoria - Melbourne
Details