The stories of the Chinese merchants who built Sydney’s Chinatown. With Dr Shuxia Chen and Bob Carr. MOCA’s inaugural History Forum.
Chinese merchant families, working across generations and continents, built the businesses, buildings and communities that still define Sydney’s Chinatown today. Their stories sit at the heart of MOCA’s inaugural exhibition, Merchants of Haymarket: The Making of Sydney’s Chinatown.
In this talk, exhibition curator Dr Shuxia Chen tells the stories at the heart of Merchants of Haymarket: Chinese families who crossed oceans to build businesses in a young Sydney, the kinship networks that linked Haymarket to ports across Asia, and generations of trade, ambition and legacy. She also takes the audience behind the exhibition itself: how the records were uncovered, what was chosen to tell, and how visual art, animation and design were used to bring each story to life.
The Hon. Bob Carr served as Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005 and later as Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs. A long-standing public figure in Australian cultural and political life, he has been a consistent advocate for strengthening ties between Australia and the Asia-Pacific. He launches the History Forum and joins Dr Chen for the Q&A.
Dr Shuxia Chen is a historian and the curator of Merchants of Haymarket. Her work brings together historical research, curatorial practice and creative storytelling, drawing on visual art and animation to give archival material new shape and reach.
Ann Toy was MOCA’s then Director and Chair of its Exhibition Committee. She moderated the forum and the Q&A.
3 Nov 2026
MOCA, 744 George Street, Haymarket
