Brisbane’s Night of Broken Glass 布里斯班的碎玻璃之夜
On Saturday night, 5 May 1888, a mob reaching some 2,000 at its height stoned the glass fronts of most buildings tenanted by the Chinese in Brisbane. The Chinese were defenceless. They hid themselves in their buildings, out of harm’s way, as looting took place. All through that night the police showed little volition to quell the mob, until towards midnight when a mounted contingent dispersed the depleted mob.
Just one person was charged, for malicious damage to property, and on 30 May 1888 was pronounced “Not guilty”, in the Brisbane Supreme Court, by an all-white jury after 30 minutes’ deliberation. Aye, it was just a riot; nobody was at fault.
Afterwards the Chinese petitioned the Queensland Government for compensation, but it refused.
Brisbane’s Night of Broken Glass happened 50 years before the much-memorialised Kristallnacht that took place in Berlin in 1938. Ours is not widely known or even remembered, especially on occasions in the decades, since the 1973 introduction of multiculturalism, when the Chinese in Australia have been vilified and scapegoated.
Whence this forgetfulness?
1888 年 5 月 5 日星期六晚上，一群为数约二千人的暴徒，用石块砸碎了布里斯班华人租用的大多数建筑物的玻璃门窗。 中国人手无寸铁。 他们躲在自己的建筑物内，以免在抢劫发生时受到伤害。 那天晚上，警察几乎没有表现出镇压暴乱的意愿，直到午夜时分，一队骑警才驱散余下的暴民。
只有一人因恶意破坏财物而被法庭起诉。 1888年5月30日，布里斯班最高法院的全白人陪审团经过30分钟的审议后宣布他“无罪”。 是的，这是一场骚乱; 没有人有错。
事后，华人社区向昆士兰州政府提出赔偿要求，但遭到拒绝。
布里斯班碎玻璃之夜发生在1938年备受关注的柏林Kristallnacht事件之前50年。 这个澳大利亚版本并不广为人知，甚至没有被记住，即使在1973年引入多元文化主义后的几十年中，当澳大利亚华人遭到诽谤和当作替罪羊时。
这种健忘从何而来？
William Lane’s novella, ‘White or Yellow, the Race War of 1908 AD’ was aimed at influencing the populace into feeling existentially threatened.
The book was serialised during the election campaign in Lane’s own weekly paper, The Boomerang, with the last instalment being published on the morning of the election.
That last chapter described the killing of all the “evil Chinese characters” and the throwing of their bodies into the sea.
威廉·莱恩 （William Lane） 的中篇小说《白色或黄色， 1908年的种族战争》旨在影响民众，让他们感到生存受到威胁。
这本书在竞选期间在Lane自己的周报 The Boomerang 上连载，最后一期在选举当天早上出版。
最后一章描述了杀死所有〝邪恶的华人〞，并将他们的尸体扔进海里。
