Vivian Yung Chow (Chinese: 周成貴; pinyin: Zhou Chenggui; 1906–1941)[1] was a Chinese-Australian journalist, who has been called "one of the key newspaper editors in China in the 1930s.
He enjoyed close family connections with the Hung League: he would later claim his grandfather, Stephen King was the Grand Master of a Chinese revolutionary lodge in Australia.
[5] Vivian's father, who was influenced by King in the towns of Grafton and Casino, was a native of Chin Mei village in Doong Goong County.
By 1932, Chow had held positions such as foreign affairs editor for the Shanghai evening newspaper Sin Wan Pao (Xinwenbao) and co-editor of United China Magazine[8] During his term as editor, United China came to be known for its anti-Japanese editorials and stubborn opposition to the Chinese Nationalist government.
[11] Also in 1932 Vivian Chow edited a collection of short stories with the title of his contribution, What Happened to Riley, in which a confrontation between a British spy and a Chinese army intelligence officer is actually between two Australian-born men.
Chow was deeply offended: "Even if I were a Communist practical and theoretical," he reflected, "the Commonwealth of Australia has no power to deport from the country a native born son."
It is unknown if Lyons replied, and once again Chow was saved from prosecution in Australia and possibly execution in China by his Australian heritage.
Historian and biographer John Fitzgerald, who wrote on Chow, condemned many of his claims as "self-serving and tendentious", but acknowledged that "Vivian Chow’s reflections reveal a young man proud of his... heritage and with an acute interest in what it meant to be counted Australian in the era of White Australia.