Born and raised in Australia, many Chinese descendants were as eager as their European-descended peers to serve for their home during the First World War.
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None more so than those in Ballarat, Victoria, with more than one in ten Chinese Anzacs tied to the city.
However, they were turned away due to their Chinese heritage, as the Defence Act of 1909 stated that those 'not substantially of European origin or descent' were ineligible to enlist.
They had to find various ways to overcome the racial rule.
Some persevered through repeated rejections, others changed their names, while some travelled to different towns in search of a chance.
Among the 420,000 Australians who served in World War One, more than 200 servicemen of Chinese heritage enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force.
Local man Samuel Tong-Way was one of them, alongside 25 other Chinese Anzacs commemorated in Ballarat's Avenue of Honour.
Applied to enlist three times
Mr Tong-Way was born in Ballarat East on August 25, 1894.
He was the eldest of four surviving children born to Chinese-born parents, John (Lue) Tong-Way and Mary Kong. His father migrated to the Victorian goldfields around 1885.
Mr Tong-Way applied to enlist and was rejected twice in 1916.
On his third attempt, he succeeded, enlisting in Daylesford on June 1, 1917, as wartime demands led to a relaxation of restrictions based on ethnicity.
On his First World War attestation paper, question three asked, "Are you a natural-born British subject or a naturalised British subject?"
Mr Tong-Way said he was a "natural-born British subject", which meant he was born in Australia.
For question 12, it asked, "Have you ever been rejected as unfit for His Majesty's Service? If so, on what grounds?"
He responded yes, because of his 'non-European origin'.
Mr Tong-Way and his brother, Hedley David Tong-Way, served as engineers in the 3rd Division Signal Company during WWI.
'This is their home'
Ballarat's WWI researcher, Garry Snowden, said the law required soldiers to be 'substantially of European descent', meaning at least one parent was of European heritage.
To be able to serve the country, some Chinese-Australians chose to hide their background.
"Some changed their name from an obviously Chinese name, anglicised it and turned it into something else," Mr Snowden said.
"You can imagine when the recruiting officers were under pressure to get more and more soldiers.
"When [Chinese descendants] said to them their names. [They might say] 'Are you sure about that?'."
In response to these unspoken barriers, some changed their names and got enlisted, though their Chinese appearance still made their heritage apparent.
Shirley Doon has been gathering information on Ballarat's Chinese Anzacs over the past 20 years.
Ms Doon said some of them would also try to enlist in other towns, as some recruiting officers could get desperate and turn a blind eye.
"They wanted to serve the country. This was their home. This was the only country they knew," she said.
"They believed it was a country worth fighting for."
