 I'd like to introduce Holly Nguyen. She's from the ANU College of Asia in the Pacific, and the title of Holly's three-minute presentation tonight is Charlon, a Chinese city in French rural Vietnam. There are famous Chinatowns around the world in cities like Sydney, London, or San Francisco. These are popular places to eat and shop, but have you ever wondered how Chinatown became Chinatown? From the 16th century, Chinese merchants established small colonies in other countries. These trading posts expanded into the port cities of colonial times. My third study is about one of these cities, Charlon, in what is now Vietnam. Originally, five kilometers upstream from Saigon, Charlon is now a district of Ho Chi Minh City. In colonial times, Charlon was much more diverse than Saigon. Half of the population included Vietnamese, French, Indians, Malays, Cambodians, and the other half, Chinese. My research traces how Charlon became the economic center of the French colony while remaining recognizably Chinese. Many boats, ship, rice, fish, fruit, salt, pepper, rubber, and many other goods to waterfront warehouses where labor coolies loaded them onto steamships that inset sail to cities like Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong, maybe even Sydney, but probably not Canberra. Chinese merchants managed rice mills, shophouses, and markets along the canals to rent through the urban center. That case later, many of these canals were turned into streets. The curious thing about Charlon is that the city remained Chinese, but its people had changed. The offspring of these Chinese merchants adopted French Catholic names and gave their children a French education. They built houses, temples, schools, and hospitals. Unfortunately, we know very little of this process. Their lives and voices remained obscure. When we don't know the history of a place, we tend not to value it. Vast parts of old Vietnam continue to be bulldozed because we have forgotten. Since being Chinese and colonial isn't considered part of the Vietnamese national heritage, Charlon's history is among the first to be lost. My study searches for the hidden voices of Charlon. I use old newspapers, colonial records, travel books, diaries, among other sources, in English, Vietnamese, French, and Chinese. I want to know who they were and how they lived. It is said that the past is a foreign country and doing history helps us recognize the profound influences of the past on our present no matter how strange. So next time you're walking through a Chinatown, remember my project and appreciate the generations of works and lives it took to make such a vibrant place. Our city is worth much dollar without them. Thank you.