Mulan star Yoson An on how New Gold Mountain exposes the ugly side of Australia’s gold rush

Mulan star Yoson An explores Australia’s racist past in New Gold Mountain and explains why he hopes we won’t have to talk about diversity any more.

The Covid-19 pandemic wrought havoc with movies and television last year, with productions grinding to a halt around the world and then having to completely rethink their safety measures when filming finally resumed.

But for the new SBS historical drama New Gold Mountain, there was a something of a silver – or perhaps rather a golden – lining. The gold-rush-set murder-mystery was mostly filmed in Sovereign Hill, an open-air museum in the regional Victorian city of Ballarat, and the tourism restrictions in place at the end of last year meant they pretty much had the run of the joint.

Instead of competing with busloads of schoolchildren on excursions and gaggles of tourists from around the world at the famous and educational attraction that brings to life the nation’s richest gold rush, all the cast had to do was slip into costume and wander out into the expertly restored streets, shops and buildings.

“It was a pretty sweet deal because everything was already built, all these 1800s structures and buildings and whatnot so we just had to step on to set in our costumes,” says Yoson An, who plays the lead character, Wei Shing, the leader of the Chinese mining camp. “It was as if we had a time machine and went back to the 1800s. The whole place to me, especially the long strip where you walk down with the shops on two sides, looked real and authentic and raw and organic.”

Actor Yoson An in a scene from the SBS gold rush drama New Gold Mountain.

An, who shot to global fame as the title character’s love interest and comrade in arms in last year’s live-action remake of Mulan, says he didn’t know much about the Australian gold rush before he signed on to New Gold Mountain. He knew even less about the integral part that Chinese diggers played and their often shabby and racist treatment at the hands of rival European miners and tax-hungry authorities. An was born in China, but mostly raised in New Zealand, and was fascinated to discover through his research that the pivotal period in Australia’s history was in fact a melting pot of different cultures – including Irish, Indian and Afghan among many others – the saddened by the seemingly inevitable conflicts that ensued.

“History has its ugly moments doesn’t it?,” he says. “It’s an age-old saying where, as human beings, we fear what we don’t know. And when there is fear, there is conflict and conflict leads to tension and to violence. And it’s a time in history where people from different cultures from around the world are together for the first time – they were probably not aware of each other’s backgrounds so a lot of tension and conflict arose from that. Drama on screen is good – and I hope we can learn from that part of history and not have to repeat ourselves.”

Ballarat tourist attraction Sovereign Hill became the perfect set for New Gold Mountain.

An’s character Wei Shing was based on the real-life figure Fook Shing, who worked as a head man in the goldfields and went on to become Australia’s first Chinese detective in Melbourne. Wei Shing, whose main job is to be a conduit between the Chinese miners and the European authorities, might best be described as ethically flexible. Driven by fear and greed, having seen his impoverished parents die violently in China, his true aim is to line his own pockets and build a better life for him and his brother in their adopted country.

“He doesn’t really take sides,” says An. “He takes the side of him and his money because he sees that as how he is going to build his empire and his future. It was a lot of fun diving into a morally ambiguous character because as an actor I got to really dive deep into a side of me that’s not typically explored. Not on a daily basis anyway.”

Yoson An (right) in a scene from Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan.

An gives SBS credit for embracing diversity and representation in creating shows such as New Gold Mountain, as well as their 2018 detective thriller Dead Lucky, in which he also starred opposite Rachel Griffiths. And with the success of global blockbusters including Mulan, Crazy Rich Asians and the latest Marvel hit Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, he hopes the tide is turning for projects featuring predominantly Asian casts. Above all else though, he’s hoping we all get to a place soon where it’s not even a topic of conversation.

“To me the end goal isn’t really just about diversity,” he says. “To me the end goal is that we shouldn’t have to talk about it anymore because it’s so ingrained in our conscious mind that diverse casting is just an organic thing to do. And me as an artist, that I’m in a movie or show isn’t because of the colour of my skin it’s because I am right for the role. That’s the reason I got into this industry – because I fell in love with acting, not because I saw the industry and thought ‘oh, they need more Asian actors on screen’.”

New Gold Mountain, Wednesday, Thursday. 9.30pm, SBS