Prison Food
Prison food consisted of a bowl of porridge in the morning, cooked meat stew with potatoes or rice at lunch and bread in the evening. Tea or coffee were only given to prisoners on special occasions such as Christmas. Men received more food than women. Prisoners’ punishments for breaking the strict prison rules could be extra work, solitary confinement and withdrawal of their food. They would be given only bread and water for a number of days. The records show that the Chinese men tried to smuggle in food such as onions and also cigarettes.
Many Chinese stopped mining and started vegetable gardens as they realized they could earn more money supplying vegetables to miners and town people.
Activities
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Imagine you are a lawyer preparing a case in support of Ah Chuck, a market gardener. Reflect on what you know about the life of the Chinese in Victoria generally at this time as presented on this website and other resources you have read. What evidence would you use to justify Ah Chuck’s actions, and why? Think about reasons why Ah Chuck would be angry about the loss of cabbages. Now imagine you are preparing the case against Ah Chuck. What evidence would you use and why? If you were the judge what decision would you have made? What sentence would you have given? Was the penalty of four month’s hard labour the right decision using the facts we know? Justify your position.
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List the main foods that the Chinese and other prisoners ate. In your own words, explain how this might have been different to the types of food they would normally eat with their family.
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Record the food that you eat for one day (or for one week). Compare this with the daily food ration for Victorian prisoners in the late nineteenth century and today. Students could be asked to eat the food given to the Chinese prisoners for one day. Make the prisoners’ lunchtime meal at school. Discuss the nutritional values of these foods and whether or not students had enough energy to concentrate on their school work and undertake physical activities that day. How might this have affected prisoners such as Ah Chuck?
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Describe how Chinese cooking has influenced the eating habits of Australians today. As a class, discuss how the Chinese food we eat has been ‘westernised’. Try to compare this with the Chinese food eaten in China today. Does this help to explain why Chinese food in the nineteenth century was less acceptable to European Australians at that time?
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Investigate Chinese customs about food. A useful website to get you started is http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/curriculum/monkey/food/index.asp?grade=3 Which of these customs do you think should be taken into account when preparing food for a Chinese prisoner, and why? Are some customs more important than other customs? Justify your point of view.
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