Her wedding venue is on the verge of collapse, but Ruby Chan is still positive she will get married in Christchurch on March 26.
The 14th floor of the Hotel Grand Chancellor was set to be the venue for Ruby Chan and James To's wedding, but the deadly earthquake has left it on a lean and uninhabitable.
The disaster is not getting in Ms Chan's way, however, with the former Nelson College for Girls student busily reorganising her big day.
However, she is yet to find a venue big enough to accommodate the 400 guests.
Mr To was born and educated in Christchurch. The couple fell in love there after being introduced by Miss Chan's uncle during her visit home from London three years ago.
Mr To is based in Palmerston North for work and Miss Chan is staying at her mother's Nelson home where she is reorganising the wedding, including accommodation for guests and finding somebody to do her hair and makeup.
She started planning the wedding last year and is expecting guests from Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, London and all over New Zealand.
However, some have pulled out as they are worried about the aftershocks and the state of the shattered city.
Miss Chan is a dancer, teacher and choreographer who has an MA in dance, has danced professionally and taught in many countries. She was born in Taiwan but moved to Nelson when she was 14.
The 31-year-old said she wants to carry on with plans to wed in Christchurch because of Mr To's link to the city he was brought up in. It will also make things easier for his elderly Christchurch relatives. "During difficult times we want to bring something joyful and happy.
"We are very lucky that our friends and family in Christchurch are OK."
The special occasion will feature various performers to entertain the guests. A piece of music about the South Island composed by Miss Chan's Nelson friend John Mathieson will be played.
The wedding will also have a recycled theme. Instead of expensive flowers there will be recycled decorations. The wedding dress, groom's suit and three bridesmaid dresses will be made from recycled materials including paper and cardboard.
Inspiration for the theme came from Miss Chan's artist friend Yun-Lin Lian, who makes art from recycled materials.
The low-cost approach will also mean they will save money which the couple are considering donating to an earthquake relief fund.
- The Nelson Mail
ALICE COWDREY
Last updated 12:30 05/03/2011
With a guest list of 400, Ruby Chan needs a big venue to replace the leaning Hotel Grand Chancellor in Christchurch.
MARION VAN DIJK/The Nelson Mail
BIG LISTING: With a guest list of 400, Ruby Chan needs a big venue to replace the leaning Hotel Grand Chancellor in Christchurch.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Mayme Chanwai
Chanwai Duo
Talented Raumati Artist and her Daughter
By Helen Tristram
February 16, 2011
Raumati resident Mayme Chanwai, a third generation Chinese New Zealander, began studying art relatively late in life, in her fifties.
She is a talented artist using a variety of mediums and last year some of her works were exhibited at the Mahara Gallery.
A few years ago Mayme suffered a severe stroke, “a disaster” in her words. But that opened up “different opportunities” and she now combines computer graphics with painting and other mediums to produce artforms.
At present she is working on a major artwork, “The Kiwifruit Odyssey”.
In the meantime a play by her daughter Linda Chanwai-Earle, `Heat` is at Circa, theatre 2 .
Linda is a poet and Playwright and last year was short-listed for the Bruce Mason Award.
The play `Heat` was a one year Circa Theatre commission which premiered at Circa in 2004, winning best actor for penguin.
She was first published as a poet with `Honeypants` which was listed for both Penn book awards and New Zealand Book awards.
And her one-act plays, Foh-Sahn and Ka-Shue are used as prescribed texts at Auckland University by Professors Witi Ihimaera and Peter Simpson.
Ka Shue was the first theatrical work to focus on the experiences of Chinese New Zealanders.
She has also been involved with theatrical projects created in Arohata and Christchurch Women`s prisons.
And has also been a TV Journalist for Asia Down Under for Channel1!
Hamish Tristram, visiting from London and a former Drama Reviewer was very happy to accompany Alan and myself to see `Heat`.
Here is his review……………..
Heat gives new meaning to the phrase “Menage a Trois”.
In this play the third party to an increasingly fractious relationship is a penguin.
And what a penguin!
After a halting start, the appearance of Bob-the-Penguin sparks conflict between man and wife mourning their dead child. The atmosphere, emotionally and physically is claustrophobic as the action takes place in an Antarctic cabin where the couple, two scientists, are documenting the effects of climate change.
The play`s tempo rises to a crescendo as the Antarctic winter sets in, the gales howl and the presence in the cabin of the ailing Bob recalls to mother Stella the need, suffering and loss of her child.
Implausible? Well yes. Original? Certainly. A play worth your committing 90 minutes? Up to a point.
Go because this is a work of a playwright with potential, who with some stringent editing and a demanding director is capable of creating dynamic theatre.
Talented Raumati Artist and her Daughter
By Helen Tristram
February 16, 2011
Raumati resident Mayme Chanwai, a third generation Chinese New Zealander, began studying art relatively late in life, in her fifties.
She is a talented artist using a variety of mediums and last year some of her works were exhibited at the Mahara Gallery.
A few years ago Mayme suffered a severe stroke, “a disaster” in her words. But that opened up “different opportunities” and she now combines computer graphics with painting and other mediums to produce artforms.
At present she is working on a major artwork, “The Kiwifruit Odyssey”.
In the meantime a play by her daughter Linda Chanwai-Earle, `Heat` is at Circa, theatre 2 .
Linda is a poet and Playwright and last year was short-listed for the Bruce Mason Award.
The play `Heat` was a one year Circa Theatre commission which premiered at Circa in 2004, winning best actor for penguin.
She was first published as a poet with `Honeypants` which was listed for both Penn book awards and New Zealand Book awards.
And her one-act plays, Foh-Sahn and Ka-Shue are used as prescribed texts at Auckland University by Professors Witi Ihimaera and Peter Simpson.
Ka Shue was the first theatrical work to focus on the experiences of Chinese New Zealanders.
She has also been involved with theatrical projects created in Arohata and Christchurch Women`s prisons.
And has also been a TV Journalist for Asia Down Under for Channel1!
Hamish Tristram, visiting from London and a former Drama Reviewer was very happy to accompany Alan and myself to see `Heat`.
Here is his review……………..
Heat gives new meaning to the phrase “Menage a Trois”.
In this play the third party to an increasingly fractious relationship is a penguin.
And what a penguin!
After a halting start, the appearance of Bob-the-Penguin sparks conflict between man and wife mourning their dead child. The atmosphere, emotionally and physically is claustrophobic as the action takes place in an Antarctic cabin where the couple, two scientists, are documenting the effects of climate change.
The play`s tempo rises to a crescendo as the Antarctic winter sets in, the gales howl and the presence in the cabin of the ailing Bob recalls to mother Stella the need, suffering and loss of her child.
Implausible? Well yes. Original? Certainly. A play worth your committing 90 minutes? Up to a point.
Go because this is a work of a playwright with potential, who with some stringent editing and a demanding director is capable of creating dynamic theatre.
Street name doubles up - in English and Cantonese
By Edward Gay
1:15 PM Monday Aug 27, 2007
In what could be a first for New Zealand, a street on the Kapiti coast has a bi-lingual street sign in Cantonese and English.
Jean Hing Place on a new subdivision has been named after local Jean Young whose family arrived in Otaki about 100 years ago.
Mrs Young, whose Christian name is Hing, said it was a tribute to the Chinese community who have worked hard in the area since the turn of the 19th Century.
"We know my parents paid the poll tax but couldn't find the records," Mrs Young said.
The Hing's market garden is now the site of a new subdivision, said Kapiti Coast District Council historian Ron Proctor.
"It's a tribute to the Chinese who have been a part of Otaki over the years," Mr Proctor said.
Local history was rich with personalities, like Te Rauparaha, but the council was acknowledging that the history is multi-cultural.
He said the market gardeners came to the area after the railroad between Foxton and Wellington was opened.
"They supplied Wellington markets and, later on, the American forces and other armed forces during World War Two," Mr Proctor said.
Mr Proctor said there were also Italian market gardeners in the area and they may be researched in the future.
By Edward Gay
1:15 PM Monday Aug 27, 2007
In what could be a first for New Zealand, a street on the Kapiti coast has a bi-lingual street sign in Cantonese and English.
Jean Hing Place on a new subdivision has been named after local Jean Young whose family arrived in Otaki about 100 years ago.
Mrs Young, whose Christian name is Hing, said it was a tribute to the Chinese community who have worked hard in the area since the turn of the 19th Century.
"We know my parents paid the poll tax but couldn't find the records," Mrs Young said.
The Hing's market garden is now the site of a new subdivision, said Kapiti Coast District Council historian Ron Proctor.
"It's a tribute to the Chinese who have been a part of Otaki over the years," Mr Proctor said.
Local history was rich with personalities, like Te Rauparaha, but the council was acknowledging that the history is multi-cultural.
He said the market gardeners came to the area after the railroad between Foxton and Wellington was opened.
"They supplied Wellington markets and, later on, the American forces and other armed forces during World War Two," Mr Proctor said.
Mr Proctor said there were also Italian market gardeners in the area and they may be researched in the future.
By Edward Gay
Bilingual sign a first for Otaki
A new street in the Kapiti Coast town of Otaki has both an English and a Chinese name to celebrate the town's multicultural and multilingual status, its mayor says.
Alan Milne said Jean Hing Place commemorated the contribution the Chinese community made to Otaki for more than 80 years and celebrated one of the district's oldest Chinese families.
On the Kapiti Coast considerable effort went into ensuring street names reflected the history and settlement of the area, he said.
Jean Young, nee Hing, unveiled the sign earlier this week.
- NZPA 4:47 PM Friday Aug 24, 2007
Alan Milne said Jean Hing Place commemorated the contribution the Chinese community made to Otaki for more than 80 years and celebrated one of the district's oldest Chinese families.
On the Kapiti Coast considerable effort went into ensuring street names reflected the history and settlement of the area, he said.
Jean Young, nee Hing, unveiled the sign earlier this week.
- NZPA 4:47 PM Friday Aug 24, 2007
Friday, February 18, 2011
Mu Yuming
http://www.capitaltimes.co.nz/article/3067/Artistsfamilythoughthedbeabusdriver.html Artist's family thought he'd be a bus driver
26/05/2010 10:40:00 a.m.
WHEN Mu Yuming was 15 years-old he rode up the Himalayan mountainside near his home with the intention of killing himself.
Now he travels the world and creates art in public places wearing a silver space suit.
In Wellington he has been painting the portraits and videoing the decedents of early Chinese settlers. He has been the resident artist at Wellington’s Bolton Street Cottage for two months and has spent five months travelling the length of the country exploring Chinese identity.
But life wasn’t always this exciting.
Mu is of the ethnic minority Naxi and comes from Lijiang, a village in south-west China where his identity card marks him the one hundredth resident and his parents expected him to be a bus driver.
Contemplating the conservative life his family wanted for him led him to the mountains that day.
“It’s not because my family didn’t understand, they just thought you couldn’t have more than this, so I made the decision that I’d die, and my life was of no interest,” says Mu.
Cycling up a mountain to his final destination the young Mu was engulfed by the beauty of life around him.
“I heard everything in the world – music, water, birds; it was so wonderful for a minute. I asked myself, is there anything I want to do before I die? And yes, I’d like to make paintings.”
However, his family was worried about who would support them financially.
They were placated by Mu’s older sister who vowed to support her brother in times of need.
Now a youthful looking 39 year-old, Mu has made it and incorporates his philosophies into his painting.
“The artist should not be focused on the self for a long time. Once you find yourself then you need to give the experience to other people. It’s like a martial art, you have the sword in your hand but you don’t feel it, it’s like a dance when I paint,” he says.
26/05/2010 10:40:00 a.m.
WHEN Mu Yuming was 15 years-old he rode up the Himalayan mountainside near his home with the intention of killing himself.
Now he travels the world and creates art in public places wearing a silver space suit.
In Wellington he has been painting the portraits and videoing the decedents of early Chinese settlers. He has been the resident artist at Wellington’s Bolton Street Cottage for two months and has spent five months travelling the length of the country exploring Chinese identity.
But life wasn’t always this exciting.
Mu is of the ethnic minority Naxi and comes from Lijiang, a village in south-west China where his identity card marks him the one hundredth resident and his parents expected him to be a bus driver.
Contemplating the conservative life his family wanted for him led him to the mountains that day.
“It’s not because my family didn’t understand, they just thought you couldn’t have more than this, so I made the decision that I’d die, and my life was of no interest,” says Mu.
Cycling up a mountain to his final destination the young Mu was engulfed by the beauty of life around him.
“I heard everything in the world – music, water, birds; it was so wonderful for a minute. I asked myself, is there anything I want to do before I die? And yes, I’d like to make paintings.”
However, his family was worried about who would support them financially.
They were placated by Mu’s older sister who vowed to support her brother in times of need.
Now a youthful looking 39 year-old, Mu has made it and incorporates his philosophies into his painting.
“The artist should not be focused on the self for a long time. Once you find yourself then you need to give the experience to other people. It’s like a martial art, you have the sword in your hand but you don’t feel it, it’s like a dance when I paint,” he says.
Poll tax survivors
Being Chinese in NZ has always been a challenge, writes Merilee Andrews
Barry Wah Lee still has the unpaid grocery tabs clocked up in his grandfather's time. Many Chinese immigrants arrived in town with little more than the shirts on their backs, and in these tough times, the story goes that the elder Wah Lee, owner of the now iconic Chinese emporium on Hobson St, would cover not just people's food bills, but even the tax the government of the day charged to new Chinese migrants ? the sum of ?10. Prime Minister Helen Clark formally apologised at Chinese New Year in 2002 to descendants of Cantonese settlers who were singled out for the poll tax to enter the country and other punitive laws. Following the apology, a $5 million trust fund was established to promote the history, culture and language of the Chinese in New Zealand. ''Everything was against them,'' says Barry Wah Lee. My grandfather used to pay for most of the Chinese, and set them up to live.'' Selling everything from fireworks to silk to cooking utensils, the shop has a proud history of 102 years, and is a focal point not just for the Chinese but all Aucklanders. ''We're Aucklanders rather than just Chinese sort of thing,'' he says. ''There's a new generation that might not know us.'' -Barry Wah Lee has recently made oral recordings of his family's history, as part of a study called 21 Voices.
The research on early settler life is sponsored by the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, and the search is still on to find others whose ancestors had to pay the entry tax to live here. For Aucklanders whowant to preserve their own family, work or community history, training workshops will run on August 26 and 27, September 23 and November 4. Contact Lorna Wong, 444 4310. 22nd August 2006
Barry Wah Lee still has the unpaid grocery tabs clocked up in his grandfather's time. Many Chinese immigrants arrived in town with little more than the shirts on their backs, and in these tough times, the story goes that the elder Wah Lee, owner of the now iconic Chinese emporium on Hobson St, would cover not just people's food bills, but even the tax the government of the day charged to new Chinese migrants ? the sum of ?10. Prime Minister Helen Clark formally apologised at Chinese New Year in 2002 to descendants of Cantonese settlers who were singled out for the poll tax to enter the country and other punitive laws. Following the apology, a $5 million trust fund was established to promote the history, culture and language of the Chinese in New Zealand. ''Everything was against them,'' says Barry Wah Lee. My grandfather used to pay for most of the Chinese, and set them up to live.'' Selling everything from fireworks to silk to cooking utensils, the shop has a proud history of 102 years, and is a focal point not just for the Chinese but all Aucklanders. ''We're Aucklanders rather than just Chinese sort of thing,'' he says. ''There's a new generation that might not know us.'' -Barry Wah Lee has recently made oral recordings of his family's history, as part of a study called 21 Voices.
The research on early settler life is sponsored by the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, and the search is still on to find others whose ancestors had to pay the entry tax to live here. For Aucklanders whowant to preserve their own family, work or community history, training workshops will run on August 26 and 27, September 23 and November 4. Contact Lorna Wong, 444 4310. 22nd August 2006
Friday, February 04, 2011
Chinese choosing NZ for retirement
New Zealand is becoming a popular destination for retiring Chinese, with more than 1200 over-50s relocating here in the past year and numbers rising fast.
Despite an effort to attract the rich, skilled workers and students from China, the only rise in numbers for Chinese migrants are those who came through the family categories.
The increase has led to fears that elderly Chinese, many of whom cannot speak English and do not work, could end up straining services here.
For the third consecutive year, China has topped Immigration NZ's parent and sibling/adult child stream, with 1632, and a further 1264 others qualifying through the parent policy.
"China was the largest source country of residence approvals through the parent policy in 2009-10 ... The proportion of parent-policy approvals from China increased from 25 per cent in 2007-08 to 37 per cent in 2009-10," the Department of Labour said in its latest annual migration trends and outlook report.
"China accounted for more than one-third of residence approvals in the parent and sibling/adult stream ... up 16 per cent from the previous year."
A total of 1289 mainland Chinese who gained residency last year were aged 50 and over.
Over the same period, the number of students from China continued to slide, from a peak of 41,510 in 2003 to 14,998.
Work visa approvals also dropped from 15,294 in 2008 to 10,866 last year.
Licensed immigration adviser Jimmy Lee says that having too many elderly Chinese migrants here "could end up a liability" for the country.
"Most of them cannot speak English, are unable to get a job and are dependent on their children to support them," said Mr Lee, who heads the immigration division at Alex Lee Lawyers.
"They will not be able to contribute much economically, but could add a strain to our health and support services."
Asian studies professor Manying Ip, of Auckland University, has warned that if the trend continues, it would bring new health, housing and socio-economic challenges.
Immigration researcher Professor Paul Spoonley says the Chinese trend was not unexpected.
"New Zealand has had a period of skill recruitment, and now we've got a period of family relocation," he said.
"Once a migrant spends a few years here and becomes established, then they start looking at bringing their parents over. With China's one-child family policy, it's going to be more impacted by that than most other immigrant sources."
Nearly every new resident from China is able to sponsor his or her parents to live in New Zealand permanently because of China's one-child policy and Immigration NZ's "centre of gravity" rule, which allows parents to be sponsored if they have half or more of their children living here.
Professor Spoonley said many Chinese moved here so that they could have more than one child and wanted their parents here to help with raising their children.
He said the adverse economic conditions globally had dampened overall migration movements, which explained why Chinese migration numbers fell in other categories.
Kai Luey, the Auckland branch chairman of the New Zealand Chinese Association, says family reunions through migration "can be good socially" for immigrant Chinese families.
"Having their parents here provides stability within individual families, allowing them to go out to work knowing their kids are being well cared for at home," Mr Luey said.
"But many of these older Chinese migrants do not integrate well because of language and cultural adaptation, and many end up lonely or having to live within their own enclaves."
Last year, 14,570 approvals - 32 per cent of the total - were through the department's family migration categories. That was a 10 per cent increase on the previous year.
By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Friday Feb 4, 2011
Despite an effort to attract the rich, skilled workers and students from China, the only rise in numbers for Chinese migrants are those who came through the family categories.
The increase has led to fears that elderly Chinese, many of whom cannot speak English and do not work, could end up straining services here.
For the third consecutive year, China has topped Immigration NZ's parent and sibling/adult child stream, with 1632, and a further 1264 others qualifying through the parent policy.
"China was the largest source country of residence approvals through the parent policy in 2009-10 ... The proportion of parent-policy approvals from China increased from 25 per cent in 2007-08 to 37 per cent in 2009-10," the Department of Labour said in its latest annual migration trends and outlook report.
"China accounted for more than one-third of residence approvals in the parent and sibling/adult stream ... up 16 per cent from the previous year."
A total of 1289 mainland Chinese who gained residency last year were aged 50 and over.
Over the same period, the number of students from China continued to slide, from a peak of 41,510 in 2003 to 14,998.
Work visa approvals also dropped from 15,294 in 2008 to 10,866 last year.
Licensed immigration adviser Jimmy Lee says that having too many elderly Chinese migrants here "could end up a liability" for the country.
"Most of them cannot speak English, are unable to get a job and are dependent on their children to support them," said Mr Lee, who heads the immigration division at Alex Lee Lawyers.
"They will not be able to contribute much economically, but could add a strain to our health and support services."
Asian studies professor Manying Ip, of Auckland University, has warned that if the trend continues, it would bring new health, housing and socio-economic challenges.
Immigration researcher Professor Paul Spoonley says the Chinese trend was not unexpected.
"New Zealand has had a period of skill recruitment, and now we've got a period of family relocation," he said.
"Once a migrant spends a few years here and becomes established, then they start looking at bringing their parents over. With China's one-child family policy, it's going to be more impacted by that than most other immigrant sources."
Nearly every new resident from China is able to sponsor his or her parents to live in New Zealand permanently because of China's one-child policy and Immigration NZ's "centre of gravity" rule, which allows parents to be sponsored if they have half or more of their children living here.
Professor Spoonley said many Chinese moved here so that they could have more than one child and wanted their parents here to help with raising their children.
He said the adverse economic conditions globally had dampened overall migration movements, which explained why Chinese migration numbers fell in other categories.
Kai Luey, the Auckland branch chairman of the New Zealand Chinese Association, says family reunions through migration "can be good socially" for immigrant Chinese families.
"Having their parents here provides stability within individual families, allowing them to go out to work knowing their kids are being well cared for at home," Mr Luey said.
"But many of these older Chinese migrants do not integrate well because of language and cultural adaptation, and many end up lonely or having to live within their own enclaves."
Last year, 14,570 approvals - 32 per cent of the total - were through the department's family migration categories. That was a 10 per cent increase on the previous year.
By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Friday Feb 4, 2011
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Chinese celebrate their 'special day'
Chinese people living in Marlborough will celebrate their most important festival, Chinese New Year, with family, friends and food this week.
One of those is Lei Zhang, from the Anhui province in Eastern China, who last night put on a huge traditional dinner for about 40 Chinese people living in Marlborough.
Spare ribs, sweet pork and vegetables, and chicken dishes were on the menu as the group of friends and family got together to celebrate the New Year's Eve, and gave smaller children in the group money for good luck.
Chinese New Year marks the beginning of the lunar year, and is normally in the first week of February. Celebrating the festival was even more important now Mr Zhang and his family did not live in China, he said.
"If you're overseas and you have a special day, it's your country's day – you want to remember it. It's the most important day of the year because it's about family, just like Christmas here."
Mr Zhang said five years ago there were about 200 Chinese people living in Blenheim, but that was now down to about 50 because of the economic climate.
The Chinese no longer came to New Zealand for working holidays because the recession had made travelling expensive, he said.
Mr Zhang moved to Blenheim in 2003 to work as a vineyard supervisor. He now plans to open a Chinese restaurant, in Alfred St, on February 10.
Bamboo Garden Restaurant, on Maxwell Rd, Blenheim, also has a special Chinese New Year menu starting tonight and running until Saturday night.
Food includes dumplings, duck and barbecue kebabs, and bookings are essential.
This year marks the year of the rabbit, but a restaurant spokesman said no rabbit was on the menu.
At the time of the 2006 Census, 180 people of Chinese ethnicity were living in Marlborough, and 639 people in the district identified with being of Asian decent.
Chinese New Year is celebrated across Asia by many countries that have a large number of Chinese living there.
Ad Feedback
- The Marlborough Express CLAIRE CONNELL
Last updated 12:00 03/02/2011
HAPPY NEW YEAR: Lei Zhang, of Blenheim, welcomes in the Chinese New Year. Photo: BEN CURRAN
One of those is Lei Zhang, from the Anhui province in Eastern China, who last night put on a huge traditional dinner for about 40 Chinese people living in Marlborough.
Spare ribs, sweet pork and vegetables, and chicken dishes were on the menu as the group of friends and family got together to celebrate the New Year's Eve, and gave smaller children in the group money for good luck.
Chinese New Year marks the beginning of the lunar year, and is normally in the first week of February. Celebrating the festival was even more important now Mr Zhang and his family did not live in China, he said.
"If you're overseas and you have a special day, it's your country's day – you want to remember it. It's the most important day of the year because it's about family, just like Christmas here."
Mr Zhang said five years ago there were about 200 Chinese people living in Blenheim, but that was now down to about 50 because of the economic climate.
The Chinese no longer came to New Zealand for working holidays because the recession had made travelling expensive, he said.
Mr Zhang moved to Blenheim in 2003 to work as a vineyard supervisor. He now plans to open a Chinese restaurant, in Alfred St, on February 10.
Bamboo Garden Restaurant, on Maxwell Rd, Blenheim, also has a special Chinese New Year menu starting tonight and running until Saturday night.
Food includes dumplings, duck and barbecue kebabs, and bookings are essential.
This year marks the year of the rabbit, but a restaurant spokesman said no rabbit was on the menu.
At the time of the 2006 Census, 180 people of Chinese ethnicity were living in Marlborough, and 639 people in the district identified with being of Asian decent.
Chinese New Year is celebrated across Asia by many countries that have a large number of Chinese living there.
Ad Feedback
- The Marlborough Express CLAIRE CONNELL
Last updated 12:00 03/02/2011
HAPPY NEW YEAR: Lei Zhang, of Blenheim, welcomes in the Chinese New Year. Photo: BEN CURRAN
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Exotic food: Pig's head
Unless you are prepared to eyeball your meal, this dish is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
The Chinese believe you won't starve if you eat everything, and indeed, the Chinese eat every bit of a pig: intestines and stomach, brains and feet.
But nothing looks quite as gruesome as a pig's head.
Chinese student Millie Zhang, who came from Guangzhou in 2009, says roasted pig head is her "favourite part" of a porker.
"You get different textures and flavours, and most definitely the tastiest part of the pig," she said.
"The cheeks are my favourite, but some of my flatmates love the eyes and nose, and we just zero in on the parts we like."
Miss Zhang said some Chinese also believe that eating pig brains will make them smarter.
Pigs' heads retail for about $6 at Asian butcher shops but cost an additional $2 if the ears (usually sold separately) are left on.
In China and other parts of Asia such as Vietnam and Cambodia, pig heads are displayed at Chinese restaurants hanging from hooks.
They're not usually on the menu at eateries here, but most Chinese restaurants would serve them if an advance order was made.
Lonely Planet Guide's advice on how to eat "pig face" is: "Snap off the ear and eat it like a thick, crispy, chewy, greasy potato chip. Offer the eyeball to your elder or your lover. Be cheeky and eat the most tender bit of the cheek. Look for the brain scraps and eat your way to a higher IQ."
- Lincoln Tan
KIWIFIED VERSION
Pork cheek, podded peas, goats cheese and pappardelle.
Chef: Paul Jobin, executive chef at SkyCity. Paul has featured in several food programmes, and contributes to several publications including the Weekend Herald.
A chef at Kauri Cliffs when it first opened, he has since established his own business, Pure Tastes, in Kerikeri.
HERALD VERDICT
The pig's head lay there staring at me - well, it would have done if its eye had not been gouged out.
Its mouth was baked into a wry half-smile and whiskers protruded from its upper lip.
Childhood memories of loveable swine such as Babe and Charlotte flooded back to me and I suddenly felt guilt and disgust at the same time.
However, the delicious smell of roast pork and crackling was motivating enough for me to attack its face with my knife.
For future reference, it is not a good idea to go straight for the apple of the cheek.
As I slid my knife through the thin skin, it popped like a boil and a stream of clear liquid fat poured out.
After I had learned that lesson, I attacked it from the side.
The skin was easy enough to peel back off, but I could not get over the feeling that I was skinning Babe.
Under the skin was a thick layer of fat which needed to be scraped away to get to the tender cheek meat.
At this point, the smell of fresh crackling was overwhelming and I would be lying if I said I was not looking forward to trying it.
I cut off a bite-sized portion of dark pink meat from right beside the pig's cheek bone.
It was so tasty. It was just like eating crackling without the crisp skin, and I love crackling so I really was not complaining. I even had seconds. And thirds.
As with tastes tests on some other exotic foods, the pig's cheek was very easy to eat after being professionally prepared.
The dark pink meat was cut into circles about the size of an old 50 cent coin and the smell of cinnamon from the pasta overpowered the crackling scent.
It was very, very easy to eat - the flesh had a strong pork flavour and was very tender. However, the cinnamon was the main flavour I could taste, with the occasional pea thrown in for good measure.
I actually ate quite a bit of this dish. It was much easier to eat when you did not have to attack Babe's face with a knife.
I would definitely recommend both versions to anyone.
It was very tasty tender meat, but skinning a cooked swine's face should perhaps be left to those with a strong stomach.
- Amelia Wade
By Lincoln Tan and Amelia Wade | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Friday Jan 14, 2011
The Chinese believe you won't starve if you eat everything, and indeed, the Chinese eat every bit of a pig: intestines and stomach, brains and feet.
But nothing looks quite as gruesome as a pig's head.
Chinese student Millie Zhang, who came from Guangzhou in 2009, says roasted pig head is her "favourite part" of a porker.
"You get different textures and flavours, and most definitely the tastiest part of the pig," she said.
"The cheeks are my favourite, but some of my flatmates love the eyes and nose, and we just zero in on the parts we like."
Miss Zhang said some Chinese also believe that eating pig brains will make them smarter.
Pigs' heads retail for about $6 at Asian butcher shops but cost an additional $2 if the ears (usually sold separately) are left on.
In China and other parts of Asia such as Vietnam and Cambodia, pig heads are displayed at Chinese restaurants hanging from hooks.
They're not usually on the menu at eateries here, but most Chinese restaurants would serve them if an advance order was made.
Lonely Planet Guide's advice on how to eat "pig face" is: "Snap off the ear and eat it like a thick, crispy, chewy, greasy potato chip. Offer the eyeball to your elder or your lover. Be cheeky and eat the most tender bit of the cheek. Look for the brain scraps and eat your way to a higher IQ."
- Lincoln Tan
KIWIFIED VERSION
Pork cheek, podded peas, goats cheese and pappardelle.
Chef: Paul Jobin, executive chef at SkyCity. Paul has featured in several food programmes, and contributes to several publications including the Weekend Herald.
A chef at Kauri Cliffs when it first opened, he has since established his own business, Pure Tastes, in Kerikeri.
HERALD VERDICT
The pig's head lay there staring at me - well, it would have done if its eye had not been gouged out.
Its mouth was baked into a wry half-smile and whiskers protruded from its upper lip.
Childhood memories of loveable swine such as Babe and Charlotte flooded back to me and I suddenly felt guilt and disgust at the same time.
However, the delicious smell of roast pork and crackling was motivating enough for me to attack its face with my knife.
For future reference, it is not a good idea to go straight for the apple of the cheek.
As I slid my knife through the thin skin, it popped like a boil and a stream of clear liquid fat poured out.
After I had learned that lesson, I attacked it from the side.
The skin was easy enough to peel back off, but I could not get over the feeling that I was skinning Babe.
Under the skin was a thick layer of fat which needed to be scraped away to get to the tender cheek meat.
At this point, the smell of fresh crackling was overwhelming and I would be lying if I said I was not looking forward to trying it.
I cut off a bite-sized portion of dark pink meat from right beside the pig's cheek bone.
It was so tasty. It was just like eating crackling without the crisp skin, and I love crackling so I really was not complaining. I even had seconds. And thirds.
As with tastes tests on some other exotic foods, the pig's cheek was very easy to eat after being professionally prepared.
The dark pink meat was cut into circles about the size of an old 50 cent coin and the smell of cinnamon from the pasta overpowered the crackling scent.
It was very, very easy to eat - the flesh had a strong pork flavour and was very tender. However, the cinnamon was the main flavour I could taste, with the occasional pea thrown in for good measure.
I actually ate quite a bit of this dish. It was much easier to eat when you did not have to attack Babe's face with a knife.
I would definitely recommend both versions to anyone.
It was very tasty tender meat, but skinning a cooked swine's face should perhaps be left to those with a strong stomach.
- Amelia Wade
By Lincoln Tan and Amelia Wade | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Friday Jan 14, 2011
Exotic food: Silkworm pupae
Fancy a feed? Grab yourself some grubs...
In Auckland some Korean grocery stores sell the canned version. Photo / Greg Bowker
Expand
In Auckland some Korean grocery stores sell the canned version. Photo / Greg Bowker
While you munch on chips and peanuts while watching your favourite summer sport on television, there are others in Auckland who could be snacking on beondegi - silkworm pupae.
It is a popular snack in South Korea, where street vendors sell them by the cupful.
In parts of China the "pre-formed" insect is added alive and squirming to steaming hot pots to be eaten as part of a soup.
Immigrant Korean housewife Juliana Kim said that as local Korean grocery shops started stocking the canned variety, the snack was growing in popularity with many local Koreans.
"Many Koreans, including my New Zealand-born son, just love beondegi," Mrs Kim said.
"But I think many Kiwis still find it a little bit of a Fear Factor food and my son refuses to let me add it to his lunch box because he says friends will be shocked."
Korean grocery shops, such as New Mart on Queen St, sell cans of silkworm pupae for about $2.50.
Mrs Kim said the pupae needed to be boiled, washed and then cooked - the best method was frying with seasoning to taste.
Her husband loves to eat beondegi with his soju (Korean rice wine); she said crispy fried silkworm pupae goes down well with any white wine.
- Lincoln Tan
HERALD VERDICT
The smell of the silkworm pupae slowly crept up on me.
At first I thought it was the studio but then I noticed the peeled-back lid on the can of grubs.
"Ugh! Is that smell coming from those things?" I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
"Nah, someone just farted," the photographer said.
I wasn't laughing - the joke was on me.
The can looked innocent enough from a distance and someone not looking too closely could easily have mistaken it for an odd brand of tuna.
The centimetre by half-centimetre pupae sat in a brown liquid which, quite frankly, stank.
I held the can close to my face and the unique odour filled my nostrils.
It smelt like fresh, dirty, fishy compost.
I could fit about six of the light brown insects - legs and heads still attached - on my teaspoon. A perfect mouthful.
With my eyes squeezed tightly shut, I quickly shoved them in.
I tried to chew, but when some unknown juice squirted on my tongue it was the end of the game. The taste of dirt was overwhelming.
I spat them out and a little of the juice dripped on my shirt; a white shirt was not a wise wardrobe option and all I could smell for the rest of the night was fresh, dirty, fishy compost.
The professionally prepared grubs' odour was much more pleasant.
It is very hard to hide partially developed insects no matter how you serve them and even though the chef had created a beautiful and colourful dish, it was still pretty obvious what they were.
Being able to hide the grubs beneath the pickled vegetables helped and this time I was able to actually chew the critters.
It was not great. They just felt and tasted like gritty dirt which got stuck in the cracks of my teeth so I would be enjoying their flavour hours later.
I would not recommend these from the can or cooked - eating insects should be left to the birds.
- Amelia Wade
KIWIFIED RECIPE
Crunchy silkworm pupae salad.
SkyCity executive sous chef Tim Plowman made a salad of pickled vegetables, ginger, mango and coriander, with chilli and garlic-seasoned pupae.
By Lincoln Tan and Amelia Wade | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Wednesday Jan 12, 2011
In Auckland some Korean grocery stores sell the canned version. Photo / Greg Bowker
Expand
In Auckland some Korean grocery stores sell the canned version. Photo / Greg Bowker
While you munch on chips and peanuts while watching your favourite summer sport on television, there are others in Auckland who could be snacking on beondegi - silkworm pupae.
It is a popular snack in South Korea, where street vendors sell them by the cupful.
In parts of China the "pre-formed" insect is added alive and squirming to steaming hot pots to be eaten as part of a soup.
Immigrant Korean housewife Juliana Kim said that as local Korean grocery shops started stocking the canned variety, the snack was growing in popularity with many local Koreans.
"Many Koreans, including my New Zealand-born son, just love beondegi," Mrs Kim said.
"But I think many Kiwis still find it a little bit of a Fear Factor food and my son refuses to let me add it to his lunch box because he says friends will be shocked."
Korean grocery shops, such as New Mart on Queen St, sell cans of silkworm pupae for about $2.50.
Mrs Kim said the pupae needed to be boiled, washed and then cooked - the best method was frying with seasoning to taste.
Her husband loves to eat beondegi with his soju (Korean rice wine); she said crispy fried silkworm pupae goes down well with any white wine.
- Lincoln Tan
HERALD VERDICT
The smell of the silkworm pupae slowly crept up on me.
At first I thought it was the studio but then I noticed the peeled-back lid on the can of grubs.
"Ugh! Is that smell coming from those things?" I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
"Nah, someone just farted," the photographer said.
I wasn't laughing - the joke was on me.
The can looked innocent enough from a distance and someone not looking too closely could easily have mistaken it for an odd brand of tuna.
The centimetre by half-centimetre pupae sat in a brown liquid which, quite frankly, stank.
I held the can close to my face and the unique odour filled my nostrils.
It smelt like fresh, dirty, fishy compost.
I could fit about six of the light brown insects - legs and heads still attached - on my teaspoon. A perfect mouthful.
With my eyes squeezed tightly shut, I quickly shoved them in.
I tried to chew, but when some unknown juice squirted on my tongue it was the end of the game. The taste of dirt was overwhelming.
I spat them out and a little of the juice dripped on my shirt; a white shirt was not a wise wardrobe option and all I could smell for the rest of the night was fresh, dirty, fishy compost.
The professionally prepared grubs' odour was much more pleasant.
It is very hard to hide partially developed insects no matter how you serve them and even though the chef had created a beautiful and colourful dish, it was still pretty obvious what they were.
Being able to hide the grubs beneath the pickled vegetables helped and this time I was able to actually chew the critters.
It was not great. They just felt and tasted like gritty dirt which got stuck in the cracks of my teeth so I would be enjoying their flavour hours later.
I would not recommend these from the can or cooked - eating insects should be left to the birds.
- Amelia Wade
KIWIFIED RECIPE
Crunchy silkworm pupae salad.
SkyCity executive sous chef Tim Plowman made a salad of pickled vegetables, ginger, mango and coriander, with chilli and garlic-seasoned pupae.
By Lincoln Tan and Amelia Wade | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Wednesday Jan 12, 2011
Exotic food: Moon snails
In Asia and France, watch those escargot.
Moon snail and summer pea risotto by chef Richard Ross. Photo / Dean Purcell
Expand
Moon snail and summer pea risotto by chef Richard Ross. Photo / Dean Purcell
If you think the French are the only ones who love their escargot, well, you are wrong.
Asians, too, have their own version of a snail delicacy, although it's of the marine variety.
Moon snails - named because of their big round shells - are a popular side dish or appetiser for many in the Asian community, especially those from Southeast Asia or Korea.
"We love collecting them at the beach, and we usually find many of them after a storm in Thailand," said Lovey Somchai, originally from Chiang Mai.
The snails are not available fresh here, but are sold in cans at Asian, mainly Korean, grocery outlets for about $8.50.
Miss Somchai says they are usually eaten in a salad, and the dish is "great for summer".
"The snails are sliced thinly, and mixed with onions, fresh cut chilli and sliced cucumber," she says.
"All that's needed to be added on is a dash of fish sauce and lemon juice, and it tastes simply divine."
- by Lincoln Tan
KIWIFIED VERSION
Moon snail risotto.
Chef: Richard Ross, executive chef casino.
Originally from Scotland, Richard has worked in the UK, including at the Ivy in London and the Balmoral in Edinburgh, and was the chef de cuisine at SkyCity's Orbit restaurant. He now oversees all VIP Casino operations at SkyCity and the hotel's in-room dining.
HERALD VERDICT
Three large, shrivelled, dark brown, fleshy snails lay there taunting me, challenging me to both chew and swallow them.
Right from the moment they were put in front of me from a can, I doubted I would be able to do either.
I should have heeded my mother's advice not to play with food before eating it. I poked a snail with my finger and it felt like wet spongy rubber.
It also seemed like a good idea to smell it. It was not.
I cannot really describe the odour because I had not smelt anything like it before. All I know is that it was pungent and I did not want to eat the snails.
Someone told me to convince myself they were field mushrooms, and it was quite easy to deceive myself that they were.
In denial, believing that the curled-up snail on my fork was just a mushroom, I quickly popped it in my mouth. It was no mushroom.
The creature was thick, horribly chewy and tasted strongly of rotten pork.
For the record, I really tried to swallow it, as I did not want to be defeated by a garden gastropod.
But I failed.
After gagging more than three times before realising I would have to digest it if I swallowed, I gave up and spat it out.
Professionally prepared snails were nothing like the hunks of curled-up pungent snail flesh, however.
They were cut into small pieces of dark meat and presented in a delicious-smelling creamy risotto.
I love risotto and I was not going to let a few slimy creatures stop me from enjoying it.
In fact, I could hardly taste the snails and almost forgot they were there. I noticed them only when I had a slightly chewy mouthful. The taste of cream and peas hid any flavour of rotten pork.
I am not sure if I would order the professionally prepared dish, but if it was given to me again I would eat it quite happily.
But if I had to eat the shrivelled-up snails from a can again I would definitely complain.
- by Amelia Wade
By Lincoln Tan and Amelia Wade | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Thursday Jan 13, 2011
Moon snail and summer pea risotto by chef Richard Ross. Photo / Dean Purcell
Expand
Moon snail and summer pea risotto by chef Richard Ross. Photo / Dean Purcell
If you think the French are the only ones who love their escargot, well, you are wrong.
Asians, too, have their own version of a snail delicacy, although it's of the marine variety.
Moon snails - named because of their big round shells - are a popular side dish or appetiser for many in the Asian community, especially those from Southeast Asia or Korea.
"We love collecting them at the beach, and we usually find many of them after a storm in Thailand," said Lovey Somchai, originally from Chiang Mai.
The snails are not available fresh here, but are sold in cans at Asian, mainly Korean, grocery outlets for about $8.50.
Miss Somchai says they are usually eaten in a salad, and the dish is "great for summer".
"The snails are sliced thinly, and mixed with onions, fresh cut chilli and sliced cucumber," she says.
"All that's needed to be added on is a dash of fish sauce and lemon juice, and it tastes simply divine."
- by Lincoln Tan
KIWIFIED VERSION
Moon snail risotto.
Chef: Richard Ross, executive chef casino.
Originally from Scotland, Richard has worked in the UK, including at the Ivy in London and the Balmoral in Edinburgh, and was the chef de cuisine at SkyCity's Orbit restaurant. He now oversees all VIP Casino operations at SkyCity and the hotel's in-room dining.
HERALD VERDICT
Three large, shrivelled, dark brown, fleshy snails lay there taunting me, challenging me to both chew and swallow them.
Right from the moment they were put in front of me from a can, I doubted I would be able to do either.
I should have heeded my mother's advice not to play with food before eating it. I poked a snail with my finger and it felt like wet spongy rubber.
It also seemed like a good idea to smell it. It was not.
I cannot really describe the odour because I had not smelt anything like it before. All I know is that it was pungent and I did not want to eat the snails.
Someone told me to convince myself they were field mushrooms, and it was quite easy to deceive myself that they were.
In denial, believing that the curled-up snail on my fork was just a mushroom, I quickly popped it in my mouth. It was no mushroom.
The creature was thick, horribly chewy and tasted strongly of rotten pork.
For the record, I really tried to swallow it, as I did not want to be defeated by a garden gastropod.
But I failed.
After gagging more than three times before realising I would have to digest it if I swallowed, I gave up and spat it out.
Professionally prepared snails were nothing like the hunks of curled-up pungent snail flesh, however.
They were cut into small pieces of dark meat and presented in a delicious-smelling creamy risotto.
I love risotto and I was not going to let a few slimy creatures stop me from enjoying it.
In fact, I could hardly taste the snails and almost forgot they were there. I noticed them only when I had a slightly chewy mouthful. The taste of cream and peas hid any flavour of rotten pork.
I am not sure if I would order the professionally prepared dish, but if it was given to me again I would eat it quite happily.
But if I had to eat the shrivelled-up snails from a can again I would definitely complain.
- by Amelia Wade
By Lincoln Tan and Amelia Wade | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Thursday Jan 13, 2011
Exotic food: Migrants bring new flavours to tickle Kiwi palates
Auckland's cultural smorgasbord of cuisine has never been so varied or fascinating.
Step into an Asian grocery shop, weekend markets or some Chinese restaurants, and you'll likely find stuff you thought existed only on television shows such as Fear Factor.
Duck eggs containing fetuses, silkworm pupae, snails and durian are stocked in such locations.
Asian butchers are also selling cuts and parts unheard of for human consumption not too long ago, such as pig intestines, pig maw, beef tendon and chicken feet.
The Herald has done some shopping and over the next five days will be introducing some of the most "interesting" finds.
We have also challenged some of Auckland's top chefs to come up with recipes to help Kiwis appreciate how food items some construe as revolting are seen as delicacies by others.
Paul Spoonley, a co-author of the yet-to-be-released book Welcome to Our World - Immigration and the Remaking of New Zealand, says that New Zealand's food scene is facing an Asian invasion.
"One of the most obvious manifestations of immigrant diversity is represented by food: the appearance of restaurants and retailers, the availability of an increasing array of food products, from kimchi to fish sauce, and the way in which new cuisine and food products are being consumed by many New Zealanders," the Massey University sociologist wrote.
The British heavily influenced New Zealand's food scene - introducing Sunday roast, flour-based baking and orthodox European dishes such as scrambled eggs, roast beef and baked potatoes, which became the staples of the New Zealand diet, Professor Spoonley said.
The first wave of non-European migration from the Pacific did little to change this, but the scene is facing a different level of onslaught from the Asians.
"Asian immigrants have overlaid this base with very different products and presentations so that, as with the population, food has become much more diverse," Professor Spoonley said.
"The produce is varied and often unknown even to the more interested and experienced Pakeha foodie."
By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Monday Jan 10, 2011
Step into an Asian grocery shop, weekend markets or some Chinese restaurants, and you'll likely find stuff you thought existed only on television shows such as Fear Factor.
Duck eggs containing fetuses, silkworm pupae, snails and durian are stocked in such locations.
Asian butchers are also selling cuts and parts unheard of for human consumption not too long ago, such as pig intestines, pig maw, beef tendon and chicken feet.
The Herald has done some shopping and over the next five days will be introducing some of the most "interesting" finds.
We have also challenged some of Auckland's top chefs to come up with recipes to help Kiwis appreciate how food items some construe as revolting are seen as delicacies by others.
Paul Spoonley, a co-author of the yet-to-be-released book Welcome to Our World - Immigration and the Remaking of New Zealand, says that New Zealand's food scene is facing an Asian invasion.
"One of the most obvious manifestations of immigrant diversity is represented by food: the appearance of restaurants and retailers, the availability of an increasing array of food products, from kimchi to fish sauce, and the way in which new cuisine and food products are being consumed by many New Zealanders," the Massey University sociologist wrote.
The British heavily influenced New Zealand's food scene - introducing Sunday roast, flour-based baking and orthodox European dishes such as scrambled eggs, roast beef and baked potatoes, which became the staples of the New Zealand diet, Professor Spoonley said.
The first wave of non-European migration from the Pacific did little to change this, but the scene is facing a different level of onslaught from the Asians.
"Asian immigrants have overlaid this base with very different products and presentations so that, as with the population, food has become much more diverse," Professor Spoonley said.
"The produce is varied and often unknown even to the more interested and experienced Pakeha foodie."
By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Monday Jan 10, 2011
Exotic food: Jellyfish
It came from the deep and became a 'happy meal'
Robert Bok's tartlets of jellyfish squares and smoked salmon. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Expand
Robert Bok's tartlets of jellyfish squares and smoked salmon. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Dead jellyfish are not welcome on the beaches of New Zealand, but they do find their way to the dinner table of many Chinese and other Asians.
Malaysian immigrant Mavis Gan calls jellyfish her "happy meal".
"It's only on happy occasions, like Chinese New Year or weddings, that we eat jellyfish as part of the first dish at a 10-course Chinese dinner," said Miss Gan, a music teacher.
Jellyfish has been eaten by ethnic Chinese for centuries, in China and elsewhere. It is on the menu at most Chinese restaurants here but few non-Chinese diners order it.
Ready-to-eat jellyfish is available at the Asian DH (Da Hua) supermarket chain from $1.99 a packet, and comes with sachets of sesame oil and rice vinegar for seasoning.
Miss Gan describes the texture of jellyfish as "crunchy". It is sweet and savoury and goes well with noodles or rice porridge.
Exotic food enthusiast Eddie Lin says in his book Extreme Cuisine that jellyfish could be the "food solution" in a world of environmental concerns such as over-fishing and global warming.
Also, because jellyfish is 80 per cent collagen, it is good for treating arthritis, bronchitis and lowering blood pressure, he claims.
- Lincoln Tan
HERALD VERDICT
I made sure I hadn't eaten much before I got to work so I'd be ravenous and willing to eat anything when I got there.
The ready-to-eat packet made the jellyfish look a little intimidating with "Instant Natural Jellyfish" emblazoned across it. As if I needed reminding.
The nutritional information on the back revealed there are only 30 calories per serving, "so at least it's healthy," I found myself thinking.
Flavourings and sesame seed oil were added to the chopped-up sea creature and it smelt similar to seaweed salad. It actually looked quite appetising too. The long and thin shreds of jellyfish could easily have been mistaken for fettuccine.
"It's fettuccine which smells like seaweed salad," I repeated to myself before trying a small, stringy piece.
I don't know why I fussed; it actually tasted quite pleasant.
However, the texture was not as pleasing. Imagine trying to grind a sesame-flavoured bicycle tyre between your molars.
The professionally prepared jellyfish was nothing like a sesame-flavoured tyre.
It was presented in small canape tartlets with smoked salmon, wasabi and slightly sweet pastry.
The small squares of the sea creature could have been mistaken for the gelatine which sits on top of pate.
The first flavour to hit me was the salmon, followed by nut and sweet pastry which was followed with a hint of wasabi.
Unless I knew it was jellyfish, I would never have guessed - it was delicious and I would happily eat it prepared this way again.
- Amelia Wade
SANNAKJI
Could this be another fascinating seafood eating "trend" in Auckland?
Back in Korea, in a dish known as "sannakji", octopus tentacles are chopped into small pieces while the creature is still alive, then plated and eaten quickly with sauces.
Here, most would just have to make do with eating them raw.
This is a dish some Korean families have at home, but a restaurant that has chopped raw octopus tentacles on the menu is Korean-run Tokyo robatayaki bar in Glenfield, where "taco wasabe" is available for $5 a plate.
KIWI TWIST
"Kiwified" recipe: Jellyfish squares tartlets
* By chef: Robert Bok, executive pastry chef at SkyCity, originally from Malaysia.
* Jellyfish with smoked salmon, ratatouille and wasabi mayonnaise
By Lincoln Tan and Amelia Wade | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Tuesday Jan 11, 2011
Robert Bok's tartlets of jellyfish squares and smoked salmon. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Expand
Robert Bok's tartlets of jellyfish squares and smoked salmon. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Dead jellyfish are not welcome on the beaches of New Zealand, but they do find their way to the dinner table of many Chinese and other Asians.
Malaysian immigrant Mavis Gan calls jellyfish her "happy meal".
"It's only on happy occasions, like Chinese New Year or weddings, that we eat jellyfish as part of the first dish at a 10-course Chinese dinner," said Miss Gan, a music teacher.
Jellyfish has been eaten by ethnic Chinese for centuries, in China and elsewhere. It is on the menu at most Chinese restaurants here but few non-Chinese diners order it.
Ready-to-eat jellyfish is available at the Asian DH (Da Hua) supermarket chain from $1.99 a packet, and comes with sachets of sesame oil and rice vinegar for seasoning.
Miss Gan describes the texture of jellyfish as "crunchy". It is sweet and savoury and goes well with noodles or rice porridge.
Exotic food enthusiast Eddie Lin says in his book Extreme Cuisine that jellyfish could be the "food solution" in a world of environmental concerns such as over-fishing and global warming.
Also, because jellyfish is 80 per cent collagen, it is good for treating arthritis, bronchitis and lowering blood pressure, he claims.
- Lincoln Tan
HERALD VERDICT
I made sure I hadn't eaten much before I got to work so I'd be ravenous and willing to eat anything when I got there.
The ready-to-eat packet made the jellyfish look a little intimidating with "Instant Natural Jellyfish" emblazoned across it. As if I needed reminding.
The nutritional information on the back revealed there are only 30 calories per serving, "so at least it's healthy," I found myself thinking.
Flavourings and sesame seed oil were added to the chopped-up sea creature and it smelt similar to seaweed salad. It actually looked quite appetising too. The long and thin shreds of jellyfish could easily have been mistaken for fettuccine.
"It's fettuccine which smells like seaweed salad," I repeated to myself before trying a small, stringy piece.
I don't know why I fussed; it actually tasted quite pleasant.
However, the texture was not as pleasing. Imagine trying to grind a sesame-flavoured bicycle tyre between your molars.
The professionally prepared jellyfish was nothing like a sesame-flavoured tyre.
It was presented in small canape tartlets with smoked salmon, wasabi and slightly sweet pastry.
The small squares of the sea creature could have been mistaken for the gelatine which sits on top of pate.
The first flavour to hit me was the salmon, followed by nut and sweet pastry which was followed with a hint of wasabi.
Unless I knew it was jellyfish, I would never have guessed - it was delicious and I would happily eat it prepared this way again.
- Amelia Wade
SANNAKJI
Could this be another fascinating seafood eating "trend" in Auckland?
Back in Korea, in a dish known as "sannakji", octopus tentacles are chopped into small pieces while the creature is still alive, then plated and eaten quickly with sauces.
Here, most would just have to make do with eating them raw.
This is a dish some Korean families have at home, but a restaurant that has chopped raw octopus tentacles on the menu is Korean-run Tokyo robatayaki bar in Glenfield, where "taco wasabe" is available for $5 a plate.
KIWI TWIST
"Kiwified" recipe: Jellyfish squares tartlets
* By chef: Robert Bok, executive pastry chef at SkyCity, originally from Malaysia.
* Jellyfish with smoked salmon, ratatouille and wasabi mayonnaise
By Lincoln Tan and Amelia Wade | Email Lincoln 5:30 AM Tuesday Jan 11, 2011
SkyCity's Chinese staff angry at festival time-off ban
By Lincoln Tan
5:30 AM Wednesday Feb 2, 2011
Staff at SkyCity are preparing to strike today over claims workers are banned from taking holidays over the Chinese New Year celebrations. Photo / Dean Purcell
Expand
Staff at SkyCity are preparing to strike today over claims workers are banned from taking holidays over the Chinese New Year celebrations. Photo / Dean Purcell
Staff at SkyCity are preparing to strike today over claims workers are banned from taking holidays over the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Hundreds of Chinese employees will protest outside the casino within one hour of the entertainment establishment officially starting its Lunar New Year festivities at 7pm.
The Unite Union says Chinese casino workers have been prevented from using their legal rights to take time off over 17 days from today - a time when SkyCity will host wealthy Chinese high rollers heading into town.
SkyCity says the claims are "absolutely incorrect".
Unite national director Mike Treen says the policy is discriminatory as Chinese New Year is hugely important and a time for Chinese families to spend time together.
"We will be striking and picketing to express our anger and disgust at the way the company treats its staff," Mr Treen said. "Chinese New Year is not a public holiday and denying Chinese staff access to any time off over a period of several weeks to be with their families is discriminatory in our view."
Mr Treen called on punters to avoid the casino for 15 days.
Grainne Troute, SkyCity's human resources general manager, says Chinese New Year was an extremely busy period for the casino and one "in which more staff apply for leave than we can approve".
"SkyCity ... faces similar challenges throughout the year on occasions such as Christmas, New Year's Eve and Easter when we continue to trade," Ms Troute said. "This is the nature of the hospitality industry. However, in managing these situations all staff are treated equally and are covered by the same procedures."
She said the company tried hard to accommodate all holiday requests and understood those who were not able to take a break were disappointed.
The casino will let off firecrackers tonight to follow a Chinese belief that the noise will ward off bad luck. Staff say it is more important for the company to recognise the Chinese belief that not spending time with loved ones can also spell "bad luck".
YEAR OF THE RABBIT
When: Starts tomorrow
CELEBRATIONS
* SkyCity: Firecrackers (will be set off tonight and tomorrow at 7pm), Chinese acrobats will perform and there will be a lion dance every night until February 17.
* Chinese and Korean New Year festival will be held at Northcote Town Centre on February 4 and 5.
* Lantern Festival will be held at Albert Park from February 18 to 20.
* Chinese New Year Extravaganza at the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna will be held on February 19.
By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln
5:30 AM Wednesday Feb 2, 2011
Staff at SkyCity are preparing to strike today over claims workers are banned from taking holidays over the Chinese New Year celebrations. Photo / Dean Purcell
Expand
Staff at SkyCity are preparing to strike today over claims workers are banned from taking holidays over the Chinese New Year celebrations. Photo / Dean Purcell
Staff at SkyCity are preparing to strike today over claims workers are banned from taking holidays over the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Hundreds of Chinese employees will protest outside the casino within one hour of the entertainment establishment officially starting its Lunar New Year festivities at 7pm.
The Unite Union says Chinese casino workers have been prevented from using their legal rights to take time off over 17 days from today - a time when SkyCity will host wealthy Chinese high rollers heading into town.
SkyCity says the claims are "absolutely incorrect".
Unite national director Mike Treen says the policy is discriminatory as Chinese New Year is hugely important and a time for Chinese families to spend time together.
"We will be striking and picketing to express our anger and disgust at the way the company treats its staff," Mr Treen said. "Chinese New Year is not a public holiday and denying Chinese staff access to any time off over a period of several weeks to be with their families is discriminatory in our view."
Mr Treen called on punters to avoid the casino for 15 days.
Grainne Troute, SkyCity's human resources general manager, says Chinese New Year was an extremely busy period for the casino and one "in which more staff apply for leave than we can approve".
"SkyCity ... faces similar challenges throughout the year on occasions such as Christmas, New Year's Eve and Easter when we continue to trade," Ms Troute said. "This is the nature of the hospitality industry. However, in managing these situations all staff are treated equally and are covered by the same procedures."
She said the company tried hard to accommodate all holiday requests and understood those who were not able to take a break were disappointed.
The casino will let off firecrackers tonight to follow a Chinese belief that the noise will ward off bad luck. Staff say it is more important for the company to recognise the Chinese belief that not spending time with loved ones can also spell "bad luck".
YEAR OF THE RABBIT
When: Starts tomorrow
CELEBRATIONS
* SkyCity: Firecrackers (will be set off tonight and tomorrow at 7pm), Chinese acrobats will perform and there will be a lion dance every night until February 17.
* Chinese and Korean New Year festival will be held at Northcote Town Centre on February 4 and 5.
* Lantern Festival will be held at Albert Park from February 18 to 20.
* Chinese New Year Extravaganza at the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna will be held on February 19.
By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln
Sunday, January 23, 2011
The Golden Tide
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/documentaries/thegoldentide
he Golden Tide was produced by Sonia Yee for Radio New Zealand National. Photograph by Stan Chun.
"I have been truly inspired by the people I met on this journey. For me, as a second-generation Chinese New Zealander it brought things closer to home - real people and real stories that come from multiple and contrasting perspectives.
I interviewed more than 20 participants whose stories at times are unexpected and unsettling, funny and enlightening, but more importantly, reveal the diverse voices and experiences of one of New Zealand's long established communities. My aim for The Golden Tide is to push boundaries - culturally and creatively, to move beyond stereotypes and ultimately share this vision with a broad New Zealand audience...”
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to: The Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, all the participants who gave their time so generously, Riki Gooch, Stephen Gallagher, Darren & Jason Pat, Esther & David Fung, Peter Kohing, George & Shirley Sue, Charles Mabbett, Jason McClelland, Matt Thompson, Phil Brownlee, Helena Nimmo, and my mentors; Jack Perkins and Phil Smith.
he Golden Tide was produced by Sonia Yee for Radio New Zealand National. Photograph by Stan Chun.
"I have been truly inspired by the people I met on this journey. For me, as a second-generation Chinese New Zealander it brought things closer to home - real people and real stories that come from multiple and contrasting perspectives.
I interviewed more than 20 participants whose stories at times are unexpected and unsettling, funny and enlightening, but more importantly, reveal the diverse voices and experiences of one of New Zealand's long established communities. My aim for The Golden Tide is to push boundaries - culturally and creatively, to move beyond stereotypes and ultimately share this vision with a broad New Zealand audience...”
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to: The Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, all the participants who gave their time so generously, Riki Gooch, Stephen Gallagher, Darren & Jason Pat, Esther & David Fung, Peter Kohing, George & Shirley Sue, Charles Mabbett, Jason McClelland, Matt Thompson, Phil Brownlee, Helena Nimmo, and my mentors; Jack Perkins and Phil Smith.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
xintang and villages
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.013085,78.662109&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Doushanzhen,+Taishan,+Jiangmen,+Guangdong,+China&layer=x&g=%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%B9%BF%E4%B8%9C%E7%9C%81%E6%B1%9F%E9%97%A8%E5%B8%82%E5%8F%B0%E5%B1%B1%E5%B8%82%E6%96%97%E5%B1%B1%E9%95%87&ll=23.146279,113.644295&spn=0.034015,0.055189&z=14
Friday, January 14, 2011
Chinese New Year 2011 - Year of the Rabbit.
Chinese New Year 2011 - Year of the
Rabbit.
Happy Chinese New Year! We invite you to join us for demonstrations and workshops, Chinese Digital Community web tutorials, storytimes, plus music and dance performances.
Saturday 29 January 2011 - Friday 18 February 2011
All locations
Auckland Libraries welcomes the Year of the Rabbit with 80 events across the super city. Join in the fun and competitions! See details for library events in central Auckland:
* Chinese New Year storytimes
* Demonstrations and workshops
* Family history talk: Chinese New Year past and present
* Chinese Digital Community – website tutorials
* Music and dance events
Chinese New Year storytimes
* 1pm, Sunday 30 January – Remuera Library. Storytime and announcement of colouring competition winner.
* 11.30am, Saturday 5 February – Mt Albert Library
* 11am, Monday 7 February – Parnell Library
* 11am, Saturday 12 February – Avondale Library
* 11am, Saturday 12 February – Panmure Library. Chinese storytime and craft activities for children.
* 11am, Sunday 13 February – Central City Library. Bi-lingual storytime.
* 10.30am, Thursday 17 February – Grey Lynn Library. Katie Wang reads Chinese stories to pre-schoolers.
* 10am, Friday 18 February – Pt Chevalier Library. Bi-lingual storytime, music and dance.
Demonstrations and workshops
Calligraphy workshop and demonstration by Glen Innes Chinese Friendship Group
10am – noon, Thursday 3 February
Glen Innes Library
Lunar magic and traditions: a visual presentation
11am – noon, Thursday 10 February
Parnell Library
Chinese crafts and leisure activities for senior citizens
A chance to meet and enjoy activities such as mahjong and calligraphy.
10am, Thursday 10 February
Panmure Library
Chinese dumplings cooking demonstration with Lydia Han
11am, Saturday 12 February
Grey Lynn Library
Lantern-making workshop
3.30pm, Thursday 17 February
Avondale Library
Cooking 'Babi Pongteh' (braised pork with mushroom and bamboo shoots) with Christina McTaggart-Tie
11am, Friday 18 February
Avondale Library
Family history talk – Chinese New Year: past and present
Chinese New Year is an event of the highest importance to Chinese families. Come and hear Helen Wong discuss the past and present of Chinese New Year and its continuing importance within today’s community.
Noon - 1pm, Wednesday 16 February
Central City Library, Whare Wānanga (level 2)
>> Book a seat now.
Chinese Digital Community – website tutorials
Learn how to use the Chinese Digital Community website, a repository of historical and contemporary information for New Zealand’s Chinese community. Terrific for Chinese family history enthusiasts or general knowledge.
* 9am - 10am, Thursday 10 February – St Heliers Library. In English.
* 10am -11am, Wednesday 16 February – Parnell Library. In English.
* 10.30am - noon, Wednesday 16 February – Central City Library. In English.
Music and dance
Performance Day – Chinese instrument performances by Er Hu, bamboo flute solo, Chinese songs, Chinese cultural dance by Epsom Girls Grammar School, and dumpling making demonstration.
11am, Saturday 29 January
Remuera Library
Traditional and contemporary dances performed by Chinese Friendship Group
10.30am - 1.30pm, Tuesday 1 February
Glen Innes Town Centre
Sophie Lin plays guzheng music
4pm, Tuesday 8 February
Blockhouse Bay Library
Chinese New Year Concert – music and dance
3.30pm - 5.30pm, Friday 11 February
Panmure Library
Songs, dance and traditional music by Macang Dance Company
10.30am, Saturday 12 February
Epsom Library
Music and cultural performances
11am, Saturday 12 February
Mt Albert Library
Chinese traditional music and dance by Macang Dance Company
2pm, Sunday 13 February
Central City Library
A celebration of music, fun and treats
10.30am, Saturday 19 February
Onehunga Library
Family entertainment with musicians, stories and dances
11am - 11.30am, Saturday 19 February
Mt Roskill Library
Rabbit.
Happy Chinese New Year! We invite you to join us for demonstrations and workshops, Chinese Digital Community web tutorials, storytimes, plus music and dance performances.
Saturday 29 January 2011 - Friday 18 February 2011
All locations
Auckland Libraries welcomes the Year of the Rabbit with 80 events across the super city. Join in the fun and competitions! See details for library events in central Auckland:
* Chinese New Year storytimes
* Demonstrations and workshops
* Family history talk: Chinese New Year past and present
* Chinese Digital Community – website tutorials
* Music and dance events
Chinese New Year storytimes
* 1pm, Sunday 30 January – Remuera Library. Storytime and announcement of colouring competition winner.
* 11.30am, Saturday 5 February – Mt Albert Library
* 11am, Monday 7 February – Parnell Library
* 11am, Saturday 12 February – Avondale Library
* 11am, Saturday 12 February – Panmure Library. Chinese storytime and craft activities for children.
* 11am, Sunday 13 February – Central City Library. Bi-lingual storytime.
* 10.30am, Thursday 17 February – Grey Lynn Library. Katie Wang reads Chinese stories to pre-schoolers.
* 10am, Friday 18 February – Pt Chevalier Library. Bi-lingual storytime, music and dance.
Demonstrations and workshops
Calligraphy workshop and demonstration by Glen Innes Chinese Friendship Group
10am – noon, Thursday 3 February
Glen Innes Library
Lunar magic and traditions: a visual presentation
11am – noon, Thursday 10 February
Parnell Library
Chinese crafts and leisure activities for senior citizens
A chance to meet and enjoy activities such as mahjong and calligraphy.
10am, Thursday 10 February
Panmure Library
Chinese dumplings cooking demonstration with Lydia Han
11am, Saturday 12 February
Grey Lynn Library
Lantern-making workshop
3.30pm, Thursday 17 February
Avondale Library
Cooking 'Babi Pongteh' (braised pork with mushroom and bamboo shoots) with Christina McTaggart-Tie
11am, Friday 18 February
Avondale Library
Family history talk – Chinese New Year: past and present
Chinese New Year is an event of the highest importance to Chinese families. Come and hear Helen Wong discuss the past and present of Chinese New Year and its continuing importance within today’s community.
Noon - 1pm, Wednesday 16 February
Central City Library, Whare Wānanga (level 2)
>> Book a seat now.
Chinese Digital Community – website tutorials
Learn how to use the Chinese Digital Community website, a repository of historical and contemporary information for New Zealand’s Chinese community. Terrific for Chinese family history enthusiasts or general knowledge.
* 9am - 10am, Thursday 10 February – St Heliers Library. In English.
* 10am -11am, Wednesday 16 February – Parnell Library. In English.
* 10.30am - noon, Wednesday 16 February – Central City Library. In English.
Music and dance
Performance Day – Chinese instrument performances by Er Hu, bamboo flute solo, Chinese songs, Chinese cultural dance by Epsom Girls Grammar School, and dumpling making demonstration.
11am, Saturday 29 January
Remuera Library
Traditional and contemporary dances performed by Chinese Friendship Group
10.30am - 1.30pm, Tuesday 1 February
Glen Innes Town Centre
Sophie Lin plays guzheng music
4pm, Tuesday 8 February
Blockhouse Bay Library
Chinese New Year Concert – music and dance
3.30pm - 5.30pm, Friday 11 February
Panmure Library
Songs, dance and traditional music by Macang Dance Company
10.30am, Saturday 12 February
Epsom Library
Music and cultural performances
11am, Saturday 12 February
Mt Albert Library
Chinese traditional music and dance by Macang Dance Company
2pm, Sunday 13 February
Central City Library
A celebration of music, fun and treats
10.30am, Saturday 19 February
Onehunga Library
Family entertainment with musicians, stories and dances
11am - 11.30am, Saturday 19 February
Mt Roskill Library
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Ethnic hubs home to entrepreneurs, study finds
Housing in the South Auckland suburb of Meadowlands. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Policymakers are not doing enough to understand ethnic precincts and enclaves, such as Auckland's Asian-style Northcote Shopping Centre, academics from Massey University will tell an immigration conference today.
Sociologists Paul Spoonley and Carina Meares, who have studied two Auckland ethnic precincts - Northcote and Meadowlands near Howick - say it is important to look deeper into these ethnic enclaves because they form a hub of migrant entrepreneurship.
The report, Transforming Space and Place: The Growth of Ethnic Precincts in Auckland, will be discussed at the Pathways, Circuits and Crossroads immigration conference in Wellington.
"[The precincts] provide an access point into unfamiliar business and cultural environments for new migrants, allowing them to operate more easily without extensive local networks and fluency in English," said Dr Meares.
"They also provide migrants with the opportunity to get together, buy familiar products and services, or share a meal and celebrate important cultural events." Professor Spoonley says it is surprising that very little attention is paid to ethnic precincts in light of NZ Immigration's investment in skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants.
He said the study found many migrants became entrepreneurs operating in these precincts because of difficulties in finding jobs and gaining access to mainstream business networks.
"Such precincts epitomise a high level of immigrant entrepreneurship and ethnic retail, food and cultural activity that reflects the establishment of a distinct sub-economy that is markedly different from anything that has previously existed in New Zealand."
The conference, being run by Massey University, the University of Waikato and the Department of Labour will also address policy and economic challenges, economic integration of immigrants and the effect of seasonal migration to New Zealand on households in Tonga and Vanuatu.
By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln
5:30 AM Tuesday Dec 7, 2010
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lincoln-tan/news/article.cfm?a_id=308&objectid=10692545
Policymakers are not doing enough to understand ethnic precincts and enclaves, such as Auckland's Asian-style Northcote Shopping Centre, academics from Massey University will tell an immigration conference today.
Sociologists Paul Spoonley and Carina Meares, who have studied two Auckland ethnic precincts - Northcote and Meadowlands near Howick - say it is important to look deeper into these ethnic enclaves because they form a hub of migrant entrepreneurship.
The report, Transforming Space and Place: The Growth of Ethnic Precincts in Auckland, will be discussed at the Pathways, Circuits and Crossroads immigration conference in Wellington.
"[The precincts] provide an access point into unfamiliar business and cultural environments for new migrants, allowing them to operate more easily without extensive local networks and fluency in English," said Dr Meares.
"They also provide migrants with the opportunity to get together, buy familiar products and services, or share a meal and celebrate important cultural events." Professor Spoonley says it is surprising that very little attention is paid to ethnic precincts in light of NZ Immigration's investment in skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants.
He said the study found many migrants became entrepreneurs operating in these precincts because of difficulties in finding jobs and gaining access to mainstream business networks.
"Such precincts epitomise a high level of immigrant entrepreneurship and ethnic retail, food and cultural activity that reflects the establishment of a distinct sub-economy that is markedly different from anything that has previously existed in New Zealand."
The conference, being run by Massey University, the University of Waikato and the Department of Labour will also address policy and economic challenges, economic integration of immigrants and the effect of seasonal migration to New Zealand on households in Tonga and Vanuatu.
By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln
5:30 AM Tuesday Dec 7, 2010
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lincoln-tan/news/article.cfm?a_id=308&objectid=10692545
Happy 5 Years Old
This blog has been active for 5 years. Thank you to the 1000s who have stopped by in the years. Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous 2011
Balmoral Auckland Chinatown
http://picasaweb.google.com/109849574949840981373/BalmoralChineseInBusiness2010?feat=directlink
Mt Albert Chinatown Auckland
http://picasaweb.google.com/109849574949840981373/MountAlbertChineseInBusiness?feat=directlink
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Nothing changes - Wellington 1914
WELLINGTON A PIEBALD CITY
TO THE KDITOIt. Sir,— "The sunset o^ life gives u» mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before." I have noticed during the last few years a great increase in the number of Chinese in this city, and many of the newcomers are mere boys of 20 yea^e and under, lam frequently in the principal streets between the horn's of y and 12 a.m., and it often seems that half the men 1 meet are Chinese. The dens, shops, and laundries of these aliens exist all over the city, from tb* Tinakori Hills to Seatoun, and from. Kaiwarra to Island Bay, and the keepers of these dens, shops, and laundries seem to prosper and thrive exceedingly. Every residential Btreet where these Mongolians get a footing and congregate at once degenerates and becomes a> Chinese slum. Everybody who has any respect for themselves or their families moves away and tho street becomes tho resort of the worst of the lowest class in the city, and ultimately whciv ihe Chinese outnumber the white residents the streets or locality Binks to the level of. Haining-htrcet or Little Bourkc-streol, Melbourne, Lower George-&ti'oet, Sydney, or to the lovel of Chinatown in Now York or San Francisco, A considerable and increasing number of Chinoso and half-breed Chinese children are being educated in eomo of our State schools, and by tho close aßsociatiwi of the young of both races the creation of a mongrel race of half-breeds is thus being expedited .by the Government at tlie expense of the heavily overtaxed ratepayers of this white community. As the children of Chinamen take no part or intercii ' tho sports, etc., that takes up so-. •>>»> of the waking hours and thoughts' white youngsters, they havo so much more time and thought for study, and will, in the natural order of things, carry off all the priaes, scholarships, and bursaries provided for the young people of our own race and blood. In the great universities and colleges ot the Commonwealth, founded for and maintained by our own countrymen, an increasing number of Chinese and mongrel half-breeds are going straight for all the great prizes and beat-paid professions, doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. Thirty or forty years ago the £100 poll tax was no doubt effective, but now it is not, as there are so many wealthy Chinese settled in all our cities and towns, as well as in the great seaport towns and cities of China, who are ready to advance the poll tax, knowing that any Chinaman can save that amount m twelve months after landing here, and that they will get good interest for their ' money. Nor is the education test of much uae, as the great Chineso cities of Canton, Hongkong, Singapore, Shanghai, and others, are under British control, and, of course, the schoolmaster is abroad there, and schools, colleges, and universities are now established. Many millions of Chinese can be landed in Australia and New Zealand by the big shipping companies of Japan and other countries at £?- per head. When I was iti Cooktown, Queensland, in 1874, tho companies were landing them at therate of 1000 per month, and none of them starved, and they made for Ihft gold fields at once. That was bofoio the £100 was placed on their 'heads. A great and bitter cry has been raised by a blubbering section of the community because" it, mew handful of whits boys of our own kith and kin have been recently brought out here from our homeland, bub tho Chinese employers are at perfect liberty to import as muoh Mongolian boy labour as they requiio from Canton, Hongkong, and other Chinese cities. Vet not one word is paid in opposition to them. Hero and in Australia the while race seems to become more and more reconciled to the Chinese, and more und more inclined to receive them on equal terms and to share with them these grand young countries, which we have received 'as ( a noble inheritance from tho groat white race from which we have descended. "The prido of race" seems to be "as dead as a door nail" in the English people of this and the rising generation, and they are as ignorant of the history, traditions, and achievements of tho great race from which they have do scended as the wandering Arabs who eke out a starving existence by grazing their flocks of sheep and goats over tho ruins of tho great cities of Nineveh and Babylon. It is only the "pride of race" that can save the white people of the Pacific Ocean from gradual absorption and ultimate extinction by tho rapidly increasing 500 millions of Mongolians, Tartars, and Chinese, or the 360. millions of black-skinned vaces of India, who aro our next-door neighbours in this hemisphere. The white race here and in the Commonwealth stands to>day in exactly the same position to the Chinese as tho Maoris did to the white settlers in New Zealand in 1845. It is well within tho range of probability that the opening years of the next century will boo , a mighty struggle between tho countless millions of the yellow races of China and tho teeming millions of black races of India for the final possession and control of Australia and New Zealand.— l am, etc., J. H. COLLIER. , Northland, 16th February, 1914.
Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 41, 18 February 1914, Page 8
TO THE KDITOIt. Sir,— "The sunset o^ life gives u» mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before." I have noticed during the last few years a great increase in the number of Chinese in this city, and many of the newcomers are mere boys of 20 yea^e and under, lam frequently in the principal streets between the horn's of y and 12 a.m., and it often seems that half the men 1 meet are Chinese. The dens, shops, and laundries of these aliens exist all over the city, from tb* Tinakori Hills to Seatoun, and from. Kaiwarra to Island Bay, and the keepers of these dens, shops, and laundries seem to prosper and thrive exceedingly. Every residential Btreet where these Mongolians get a footing and congregate at once degenerates and becomes a> Chinese slum. Everybody who has any respect for themselves or their families moves away and tho street becomes tho resort of the worst of the lowest class in the city, and ultimately whciv ihe Chinese outnumber the white residents the streets or locality Binks to the level of. Haining-htrcet or Little Bourkc-streol, Melbourne, Lower George-&ti'oet, Sydney, or to the lovel of Chinatown in Now York or San Francisco, A considerable and increasing number of Chinoso and half-breed Chinese children are being educated in eomo of our State schools, and by tho close aßsociatiwi of the young of both races the creation of a mongrel race of half-breeds is thus being expedited .by the Government at tlie expense of the heavily overtaxed ratepayers of this white community. As the children of Chinamen take no part or intercii ' tho sports, etc., that takes up so-. •>>»> of the waking hours and thoughts' white youngsters, they havo so much more time and thought for study, and will, in the natural order of things, carry off all the priaes, scholarships, and bursaries provided for the young people of our own race and blood. In the great universities and colleges ot the Commonwealth, founded for and maintained by our own countrymen, an increasing number of Chinese and mongrel half-breeds are going straight for all the great prizes and beat-paid professions, doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. Thirty or forty years ago the £100 poll tax was no doubt effective, but now it is not, as there are so many wealthy Chinese settled in all our cities and towns, as well as in the great seaport towns and cities of China, who are ready to advance the poll tax, knowing that any Chinaman can save that amount m twelve months after landing here, and that they will get good interest for their ' money. Nor is the education test of much uae, as the great Chineso cities of Canton, Hongkong, Singapore, Shanghai, and others, are under British control, and, of course, the schoolmaster is abroad there, and schools, colleges, and universities are now established. Many millions of Chinese can be landed in Australia and New Zealand by the big shipping companies of Japan and other countries at £?- per head. When I was iti Cooktown, Queensland, in 1874, tho companies were landing them at therate of 1000 per month, and none of them starved, and they made for Ihft gold fields at once. That was bofoio the £100 was placed on their 'heads. A great and bitter cry has been raised by a blubbering section of the community because" it, mew handful of whits boys of our own kith and kin have been recently brought out here from our homeland, bub tho Chinese employers are at perfect liberty to import as muoh Mongolian boy labour as they requiio from Canton, Hongkong, and other Chinese cities. Vet not one word is paid in opposition to them. Hero and in Australia the while race seems to become more and more reconciled to the Chinese, and more und more inclined to receive them on equal terms and to share with them these grand young countries, which we have received 'as ( a noble inheritance from tho groat white race from which we have descended. "The prido of race" seems to be "as dead as a door nail" in the English people of this and the rising generation, and they are as ignorant of the history, traditions, and achievements of tho great race from which they have do scended as the wandering Arabs who eke out a starving existence by grazing their flocks of sheep and goats over tho ruins of tho great cities of Nineveh and Babylon. It is only the "pride of race" that can save the white people of the Pacific Ocean from gradual absorption and ultimate extinction by tho rapidly increasing 500 millions of Mongolians, Tartars, and Chinese, or the 360. millions of black-skinned vaces of India, who aro our next-door neighbours in this hemisphere. The white race here and in the Commonwealth stands to>day in exactly the same position to the Chinese as tho Maoris did to the white settlers in New Zealand in 1845. It is well within tho range of probability that the opening years of the next century will boo , a mighty struggle between tho countless millions of the yellow races of China and tho teeming millions of black races of India for the final possession and control of Australia and New Zealand.— l am, etc., J. H. COLLIER. , Northland, 16th February, 1914.
Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 41, 18 February 1914, Page 8
Monday, December 27, 2010
Goldleaf vineyard
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/wine/4/1 Goldleaf vineyard
This 1948 publication, Thames grapes and those who grow them by Anne Ah Chan, covers the history and operation of Goldleaf vineyard. Founded by Joe Ah Chan in 1925 and planted in Albany Surprise grapes, the vineyard and associated winery produced around 4,000 litres of wine a year. The vineyard was sold in 1950 and renamed Totara SYC.
This 1948 publication, Thames grapes and those who grow them by Anne Ah Chan, covers the history and operation of Goldleaf vineyard. Founded by Joe Ah Chan in 1925 and planted in Albany Surprise grapes, the vineyard and associated winery produced around 4,000 litres of wine a year. The vineyard was sold in 1950 and renamed Totara SYC.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Empress bows out gracefully
16th April 2008
Diners heading along Jervois Rd for Peking Duck will now have to fly further afield,, discovers Jacqueline Smith
Auckland diners are mourning the closing of a Herne Bay restaurant renowned for serving succulent Peking duck for 25 years. Empress Garden, a family-owned Chinese restaurant, opened in the old corner store on the no-exit end of Jervois Rd in 1983. Even though it's some distance from the other renowned eateries and bars of Jervois Rd, famous and regular faces have always flocked to the restaurant and it has been voted Metro's Chinese restaurant of the year for the past two years. Food writer Connie Clarkson, who was a regular, says the closure is a loss to the community. "There's very little Asian food in the area it was a beacon in the dark." Ms Clarkson says it won the hearts of Aucklanders because the food was consistently stunning and the owners always managed to welcome everyone through their doors. "It's always been a charming spot in that area." Paul Sharp, a wine consultant who would dine at the restaurant every couple of months, says he is left wondering where he will get Peking duck from now. "One of the things I enjoyed the most about it was when they would bring the whole duck out for you to see. People who hadn't been there before would have their eyes popping out." Mr Sharp says the restaurant must have witnessed big changes on Jervois Rd.
Longtime resident Frank Randall, 88, has seen the site change from a corner store to a dairy to a fruit shop, to a leadlight window shop. "I hope it stays a restaurant. It's pretty good," he says. There's a lot of history on the little corner, he adds. Many residents from the Jervois rest home, where Mr Randall now lives, often dined at the restaurant and he says they will miss it. Now, just like the patrons, Empress Gardens' formica tables and red paper lanterns wait to hear the fate of their building. For now, there is just a square of white paper taped to the window: "It is with regret that we advise patrons that we are closing the restaurant on Sunday April 6 having been in business for 26 years. Our immediate plans are that Joseph and I will have a holiday while we explore the sale of the business of the restaurant and the premises. We have been privileged to serve you over the years and this has greatly contributed to the goodwill and reputation of the restaurant. Many of you have become close friends and we hope these friendships can be maintained. Signed . . . Cilla and Joseph Tsui."
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/local/news/empress-bows-out-gracefully/3769663/
Diners heading along Jervois Rd for Peking Duck will now have to fly further afield,, discovers Jacqueline Smith
Auckland diners are mourning the closing of a Herne Bay restaurant renowned for serving succulent Peking duck for 25 years. Empress Garden, a family-owned Chinese restaurant, opened in the old corner store on the no-exit end of Jervois Rd in 1983. Even though it's some distance from the other renowned eateries and bars of Jervois Rd, famous and regular faces have always flocked to the restaurant and it has been voted Metro's Chinese restaurant of the year for the past two years. Food writer Connie Clarkson, who was a regular, says the closure is a loss to the community. "There's very little Asian food in the area it was a beacon in the dark." Ms Clarkson says it won the hearts of Aucklanders because the food was consistently stunning and the owners always managed to welcome everyone through their doors. "It's always been a charming spot in that area." Paul Sharp, a wine consultant who would dine at the restaurant every couple of months, says he is left wondering where he will get Peking duck from now. "One of the things I enjoyed the most about it was when they would bring the whole duck out for you to see. People who hadn't been there before would have their eyes popping out." Mr Sharp says the restaurant must have witnessed big changes on Jervois Rd.
Longtime resident Frank Randall, 88, has seen the site change from a corner store to a dairy to a fruit shop, to a leadlight window shop. "I hope it stays a restaurant. It's pretty good," he says. There's a lot of history on the little corner, he adds. Many residents from the Jervois rest home, where Mr Randall now lives, often dined at the restaurant and he says they will miss it. Now, just like the patrons, Empress Gardens' formica tables and red paper lanterns wait to hear the fate of their building. For now, there is just a square of white paper taped to the window: "It is with regret that we advise patrons that we are closing the restaurant on Sunday April 6 having been in business for 26 years. Our immediate plans are that Joseph and I will have a holiday while we explore the sale of the business of the restaurant and the premises. We have been privileged to serve you over the years and this has greatly contributed to the goodwill and reputation of the restaurant. Many of you have become close friends and we hope these friendships can be maintained. Signed . . . Cilla and Joseph Tsui."
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/local/news/empress-bows-out-gracefully/3769663/
ENCOUNTER: Passing it on
Lauren Mentjox | 29th August 2009
David Wong. MICHELLE HYSLOP
WHO: David Wong
WHAT: First Chinese-New Zealander to play rugby league for Auckland
WHERE: Ponsonby United Rugby League Club, Victoria Park
WHY: Grass roots run deep in rugby league
David Wong says he is 67 but it's hard to believe. Dressed in a bright blue tracksuit and
running shoes, he appears - and probably is - fitter than people half his age.
There's a spring in his step as he walks, and he talks a mile-a-minute. Get him started on rugby league and his eyes sparkle.
For more than half a century David has held active roles in the game as player, coach, supporter, father and grandfather. He doesn't intend to give up anytime soon.
"It's a passion that exceeds everything else,'' he says. "I lived for it. And I still do. I love the camaraderie.''
DAVID'S PARENTS did not want him to play rugby league.
Advertisement
They thought it was too brutal and rough for a Chinese kid, he says, laughing as he recalls having to wash his own gear because his mother refused to do it unless he switched to soccer.
His parents were more into school than sport. If it bothers him that they never watched him play, he doesn't let on. "It was just the way things were.''
There was no way David would have given up the game once he started, anyway. It was 1952. The Wong family had emigrated from China in the 1930s (he thinks) and were living in Westmere. The 10-year-old David became mates with Roger Bailey, who went on to play for the Kiwis from 1961-70.
The pair started playing league for Ponsonby and progressed to the senior grades. The club won the Fox Memorial Shield, the region's premier competition, in 1967, the year David represented Auckland.
"I'm the first full-blooded Chinese boy to play for Auckland and I'm proud of that,'' says David, who believes that would not have been possible without the Bailey family's support.
"They took me to all the games and they made sure I got there. If it wasn't for Roger's mum I wouldn't have been playing. She was my biggest influence.''
David played for Northcote for a few years, then Bay-Roskill as a player-coach before returning to Ponsonby.
By then, he had married Beverley, had four daughters, worked at the freezing works, the Dairy Board, bought a takeaway shop on Hobson St and set up a lawnmowing business.
He was also into motorsport. Somehow he managed to come back and play league at masters' level - and was still playing in his early 60s.
THESE DAYS David's boots are planted firmly on the sidelines at Ponsonby United's home grounds at Victoria Park - watching the seniors play and cooking their end-of-match
barbecue or running masters' modules.
He is also helping organise the International Masters competition in Auckland in October, and he's on committees for the Ponsonby and Bay-Roskill clubs.
"I do it all because I just love the game. It's really important to keep in touch with what is going on at grass roots.
"We lost a lot of players so we have to try to get the culture back and encourage them to stay here to play here.''
That is something David is instilling in his grandson and namesake, David Nathan-Wong, who plays for Ponsonby under-9s. David ferries him and his sister, Tyla - who's in the New Zealand under-15 rugby union team - from their home in Blockhouse Bay to all their games. He's their biggest fan.
That's not where the Wong family's sporty genes end.
David's eldest and youngest daughters, Sheree and Deanne, represented New Zealand in touch while the middle two, Korina and Michele were provincial touch representatives.
David's daughters all tried league after growing up on the sidelines watching him play, but they "got bashed around a bit'' because of their small size so they switched to touch.
"But that's okay because touch came out of rugby league,'' he says with that ever-present sparkle in his eyes. "They've all done really well.''
Not a bad legacy for a skinny Chinese boy from Westmere.
Fox Memorial Shield games are broadcast on Maori Television every weekend. The final will screen on September 6 at 2pm. The Sharman Cup play-offs screen on September 12 at 2pm. Details: www.maoritelevision.com
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/sport/news/encounter-passing-it-on/3903259/
David Wong. MICHELLE HYSLOP
WHO: David Wong
WHAT: First Chinese-New Zealander to play rugby league for Auckland
WHERE: Ponsonby United Rugby League Club, Victoria Park
WHY: Grass roots run deep in rugby league
David Wong says he is 67 but it's hard to believe. Dressed in a bright blue tracksuit and
running shoes, he appears - and probably is - fitter than people half his age.
There's a spring in his step as he walks, and he talks a mile-a-minute. Get him started on rugby league and his eyes sparkle.
For more than half a century David has held active roles in the game as player, coach, supporter, father and grandfather. He doesn't intend to give up anytime soon.
"It's a passion that exceeds everything else,'' he says. "I lived for it. And I still do. I love the camaraderie.''
DAVID'S PARENTS did not want him to play rugby league.
Advertisement
They thought it was too brutal and rough for a Chinese kid, he says, laughing as he recalls having to wash his own gear because his mother refused to do it unless he switched to soccer.
His parents were more into school than sport. If it bothers him that they never watched him play, he doesn't let on. "It was just the way things were.''
There was no way David would have given up the game once he started, anyway. It was 1952. The Wong family had emigrated from China in the 1930s (he thinks) and were living in Westmere. The 10-year-old David became mates with Roger Bailey, who went on to play for the Kiwis from 1961-70.
The pair started playing league for Ponsonby and progressed to the senior grades. The club won the Fox Memorial Shield, the region's premier competition, in 1967, the year David represented Auckland.
"I'm the first full-blooded Chinese boy to play for Auckland and I'm proud of that,'' says David, who believes that would not have been possible without the Bailey family's support.
"They took me to all the games and they made sure I got there. If it wasn't for Roger's mum I wouldn't have been playing. She was my biggest influence.''
David played for Northcote for a few years, then Bay-Roskill as a player-coach before returning to Ponsonby.
By then, he had married Beverley, had four daughters, worked at the freezing works, the Dairy Board, bought a takeaway shop on Hobson St and set up a lawnmowing business.
He was also into motorsport. Somehow he managed to come back and play league at masters' level - and was still playing in his early 60s.
THESE DAYS David's boots are planted firmly on the sidelines at Ponsonby United's home grounds at Victoria Park - watching the seniors play and cooking their end-of-match
barbecue or running masters' modules.
He is also helping organise the International Masters competition in Auckland in October, and he's on committees for the Ponsonby and Bay-Roskill clubs.
"I do it all because I just love the game. It's really important to keep in touch with what is going on at grass roots.
"We lost a lot of players so we have to try to get the culture back and encourage them to stay here to play here.''
That is something David is instilling in his grandson and namesake, David Nathan-Wong, who plays for Ponsonby under-9s. David ferries him and his sister, Tyla - who's in the New Zealand under-15 rugby union team - from their home in Blockhouse Bay to all their games. He's their biggest fan.
That's not where the Wong family's sporty genes end.
David's eldest and youngest daughters, Sheree and Deanne, represented New Zealand in touch while the middle two, Korina and Michele were provincial touch representatives.
David's daughters all tried league after growing up on the sidelines watching him play, but they "got bashed around a bit'' because of their small size so they switched to touch.
"But that's okay because touch came out of rugby league,'' he says with that ever-present sparkle in his eyes. "They've all done really well.''
Not a bad legacy for a skinny Chinese boy from Westmere.
Fox Memorial Shield games are broadcast on Maori Television every weekend. The final will screen on September 6 at 2pm. The Sharman Cup play-offs screen on September 12 at 2pm. Details: www.maoritelevision.com
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/sport/news/encounter-passing-it-on/3903259/
OPINION: Dis-oriented
Auckland's oldest Chinese restaurant, the New Orient, has closed after nearly 40 years in business. This follows the closure of the city's oldest Japanese restaurant, Ariake, which folded in the same week after 30 years - Lincoln Tan, NZ Herald, 6 April
Well, that's a shame. Or is it?
If there's one subject your correspondent is qualified to rabbit on about, have a beef with, not chicken out of, having an opinion on, this is it: 12 years as a professional glutton - otherwise known as a restaurant columnist - under his slightly expanded belt, now blogging about food on the country's most-visited eating-out site, www.menumania.co.nz
With the connivance of people like me, we've convinced ourselves that Auckland is a gourmet society. That folks eat out often, and expensively, and adventurously, every weekend and sometimes on school nights, too.
Look at the awnings in any suburban shopping strip: Thai, Italian, French, Indian, cafe bistro brasserie breakfast lunch dinner. Or takeaway. And the numbers: one reasonably exhaustive dining-out website lists 3912 eateries in what we should learn
That's inflated because some can list themselves two or three times - under, say, "Italian" and "Mediterranean" and "European".
But the ratio, which is an indication of popularity among the populace, is an indicator, if not arbiter of the public's taste: Asian 95, Chinese 177, French 45, Indian 327, Italian 156, Japanese 183, Thai 272, Vietnamese 23. (Yet to find the 10 Cajun/Creole places. Love Jambalaya. Love Zydeco more. Or the two Russian or three Swiss, but have to admit I haven't looked very hard for the last two.)
Truth is, when Middle Auckland has a hunger for eating out, it's invariably the tried and true rather than the novelty and new. The Thai on the corner, the Indian next to the supermarket, the corner Italian rarely offer cutting-edge cuisine: an average home cook can usually turn out the same dishes, often with higher-quality ingredients, but the diners keep going back to their local heroes.
Perhaps those three cuisines are most popular because folk want to revisit the backpacking adventures of youth or the roller-case holidays of middle-age - even if the curry-house recipes were created by Bangladeshis in Birmingham and the pastas in New York's red-sauce diners, not handed down from a Tuscan grandmother. And don't start me on "Thai" diners in suburban Auckland.
Of course there are some highly honourable exceptions to these generalisations but, in the main, or on the entree, the operators of the two dearly departed summed up their dilemma in Lincoln Tan's article:
"Operators of the two restaurants say changing expectations from Kiwis and new migrants have largely contributed to their demise.
'It used to be enough to have sweet and sour pork and fried won tons on the menu to make it an exotic restaurant to Kiwis, but times have changed,' said director David Lam, who has been involved with the New Orient since 1973. 'We have just not been able to keep up with the new restaurants, and it is sad that we have to close...'
"Ariake manager Miyuki Sakairi said the restaurant suffered because it tried to keep things too traditional. 'To survive in Auckland restaurants need to give diners good food and new experiences,' she said."
They've put their chopsticks on it, right there. This dilemma is not restricted to ethnic, heritage, or cultural themed eateries. Take the dog for its walk through your main street, be it in Onehunga or Howick or Browns Bay at, oh, seven o'clock on any night of the week, and you'll pass restaurants with empty tables.
People ain't going out to eat. They're staying home and watching Masterchef. And the pain of the recession has, mostly, been felt in middle-range suburban restaurants rather than top-end places on the Viaduct or Ponsonby Rd or in the city's best: our world-class Meredith's, French Café, O'Connell St Bistro, Euro, The Grove and SidArt.
But it is easier for an eatery that brands itself as, say, Modern NZ or Contemporary to move with the times. Or, as the restaurant critics like to say, meet the zeitgeist. Or is it the schadenfreude? No, that's a German sausage, isn't it?
As Mr Lam and Ms Sakairi have found, to their cost, modern tastes are lighter. A chef at a Michelin-star restaurant in London until he came home two years ago, suggested over lunch recently: around the millennium came a preference for baby food. Baby carrots, baby peas, baby potatoes, baby ... "oh, I only eat meat once a week because I can't stand to see those pigs suffer but I will have just the littlest bit of that porky belly ..."
With it, a liking for little portions, otherwise known as tapas or mezze or, "I'll have the risotto as my main but could you give me the entrée size, please?"
And heaven forfend that food look and taste like the animal it came from; that one be served full-flavoured meats with gravies or sauces, or the devil's spawn, potato; that one be served anything that will get one in strife with one's personal trainer tomorrow.
So it's not altogether surprising that Ariake and New Orient, which didn't move with the times, find themselves going pork belly-up. But it is amusing to read that SkyCity has rebranded its Ming Court Chinese restaurant as "Jade Dragon".
There was a place - Formica tables and white china, as much white bread-and-butter and tea as you wanted, gluttonous and glutinous bowls of chow mein for $3 - called the Jade Dragon. But that was in the '70s. And it was in Hamilton.
- Ewan McDonald is editor of The Aucklander Ewan McDonald | 6th May 2010
Well, that's a shame. Or is it?
If there's one subject your correspondent is qualified to rabbit on about, have a beef with, not chicken out of, having an opinion on, this is it: 12 years as a professional glutton - otherwise known as a restaurant columnist - under his slightly expanded belt, now blogging about food on the country's most-visited eating-out site, www.menumania.co.nz
With the connivance of people like me, we've convinced ourselves that Auckland is a gourmet society. That folks eat out often, and expensively, and adventurously, every weekend and sometimes on school nights, too.
Look at the awnings in any suburban shopping strip: Thai, Italian, French, Indian, cafe bistro brasserie breakfast lunch dinner. Or takeaway. And the numbers: one reasonably exhaustive dining-out website lists 3912 eateries in what we should learn
That's inflated because some can list themselves two or three times - under, say, "Italian" and "Mediterranean" and "European".
But the ratio, which is an indication of popularity among the populace, is an indicator, if not arbiter of the public's taste: Asian 95, Chinese 177, French 45, Indian 327, Italian 156, Japanese 183, Thai 272, Vietnamese 23. (Yet to find the 10 Cajun/Creole places. Love Jambalaya. Love Zydeco more. Or the two Russian or three Swiss, but have to admit I haven't looked very hard for the last two.)
Truth is, when Middle Auckland has a hunger for eating out, it's invariably the tried and true rather than the novelty and new. The Thai on the corner, the Indian next to the supermarket, the corner Italian rarely offer cutting-edge cuisine: an average home cook can usually turn out the same dishes, often with higher-quality ingredients, but the diners keep going back to their local heroes.
Perhaps those three cuisines are most popular because folk want to revisit the backpacking adventures of youth or the roller-case holidays of middle-age - even if the curry-house recipes were created by Bangladeshis in Birmingham and the pastas in New York's red-sauce diners, not handed down from a Tuscan grandmother. And don't start me on "Thai" diners in suburban Auckland.
Of course there are some highly honourable exceptions to these generalisations but, in the main, or on the entree, the operators of the two dearly departed summed up their dilemma in Lincoln Tan's article:
"Operators of the two restaurants say changing expectations from Kiwis and new migrants have largely contributed to their demise.
'It used to be enough to have sweet and sour pork and fried won tons on the menu to make it an exotic restaurant to Kiwis, but times have changed,' said director David Lam, who has been involved with the New Orient since 1973. 'We have just not been able to keep up with the new restaurants, and it is sad that we have to close...'
"Ariake manager Miyuki Sakairi said the restaurant suffered because it tried to keep things too traditional. 'To survive in Auckland restaurants need to give diners good food and new experiences,' she said."
They've put their chopsticks on it, right there. This dilemma is not restricted to ethnic, heritage, or cultural themed eateries. Take the dog for its walk through your main street, be it in Onehunga or Howick or Browns Bay at, oh, seven o'clock on any night of the week, and you'll pass restaurants with empty tables.
People ain't going out to eat. They're staying home and watching Masterchef. And the pain of the recession has, mostly, been felt in middle-range suburban restaurants rather than top-end places on the Viaduct or Ponsonby Rd or in the city's best: our world-class Meredith's, French Café, O'Connell St Bistro, Euro, The Grove and SidArt.
But it is easier for an eatery that brands itself as, say, Modern NZ or Contemporary to move with the times. Or, as the restaurant critics like to say, meet the zeitgeist. Or is it the schadenfreude? No, that's a German sausage, isn't it?
As Mr Lam and Ms Sakairi have found, to their cost, modern tastes are lighter. A chef at a Michelin-star restaurant in London until he came home two years ago, suggested over lunch recently: around the millennium came a preference for baby food. Baby carrots, baby peas, baby potatoes, baby ... "oh, I only eat meat once a week because I can't stand to see those pigs suffer but I will have just the littlest bit of that porky belly ..."
With it, a liking for little portions, otherwise known as tapas or mezze or, "I'll have the risotto as my main but could you give me the entrée size, please?"
And heaven forfend that food look and taste like the animal it came from; that one be served full-flavoured meats with gravies or sauces, or the devil's spawn, potato; that one be served anything that will get one in strife with one's personal trainer tomorrow.
So it's not altogether surprising that Ariake and New Orient, which didn't move with the times, find themselves going pork belly-up. But it is amusing to read that SkyCity has rebranded its Ming Court Chinese restaurant as "Jade Dragon".
There was a place - Formica tables and white china, as much white bread-and-butter and tea as you wanted, gluttonous and glutinous bowls of chow mein for $3 - called the Jade Dragon. But that was in the '70s. And it was in Hamilton.
- Ewan McDonald is editor of The Aucklander Ewan McDonald | 6th May 2010
They will call Aotearoa home
Sophie Bond | 20th May 2010
Frank Hua came to NZ from Tianjin, in northeast China, in 2004. MICHELLE HYSLOP
Surprising findings have shown up in a substantial study of Auckland's major migrant communities - British, Indian, Korean, South African and Chinese. Sophie Bond reports.
The noodle clamped in my chopsticks is more than 50cm long and still going. Everyone laughs as it slips and splashes back into the bowl.
"These are handmade," says Jenny Wang, one of my lunch companions. "The chef tries to make them as long as possible. In China, we have them on birthdays and we say if you can pick it up in one piece you'll have a long life."
It's not an elegant manoeuvre, but on my second try I lift the noodle out in one piece. Lunch in Panmure's Xi'an Food Bar with two local Chinese women is proving to be fun and fascinating.
In Auckland, most of us will know a neighbour, a colleague or someone we see every day who has moved here from another country.
Ours is a city of fantastic diversity; migrants make up about 38 per cent of our population, meaning we have an even higher proportion than Sydney, often touted as a multicultural mecca.
In the last financial year 27,215 people were approved for New Zealand residency with many of them settling in Auckland.
So, who is coming here, and why? How do different migrant groups cope with the culture shock? What are the advantages of ethnic diversity?
Over the next year, these questions will be tackled in reports by Massey and Waikato universities.
Their researchers have been working together since 2008 on the Integration of Immigrants Programme, a study of the settlement experiences and strategies of Auckland's key migrant groups since 1986-7.
This study will produce five reports based on interviews with migrants from Britain, India, Korea, South Africa and China - the major sources of new Kiwis.
We begin with Bamboo Networks: Chinese Employers and Employees in Auckland, focusing on the experiences of 40 Chinese migrants working in the accommodation, food and retail industries.
Professor Paul Spoonley is research director for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University and the study's leader. He points out that, in Auckland, about 40 per cent of Chinese work in hospitality and retail.
"I'm not sure whether they choose to do that or whether it's a fallback position because they can't get a job elsewhere.
"We found [participants] weren't getting jobs here that used their Chinese qualifications and that's true for most migrants. It's the same for New Zealanders going to the UK, of course. There's a sense of having to start again."
The study asked participants about their reasons for moving to New Zealand, difficulties faced, workplace experiences and how reality differs from expectations.
AT the last census, in 2006, Auckland's Chinese population sat at 97,425, close to double that of the 2001 census. Professor Spoonley points out this means a significant proportion of Auckland's Chinese population are recent arrivals. "I expect that within about five to six years a quarter of all Aucklanders will be Asian."
The results give some interesting insights into the lives of the Chinese migrants interviewed. The employers among them work an average of 65 hours a week; 45 per cent have a family member working for them without wages or salary.
Three-quarters of the employees came on student visas and 65 per cent felt their current job does not make use of their qualifications. Almost all interviewees plan to still be living in Auckland in three years; more than half saw themselves retiring in New Zealand.
For 95 per cent of employers, Mandarin is the main language used to communicate with staff. Professor Spoonley says language is a particular issue for all participants and, as a host country, we could be doing more:
"There's quite a hostile response in Auckland to the idea that we should provide services in Mandarin and yet, if you are going to meet the needs of these migrants, the thing you could do that would be most effective would be to provide services in Mandarin."
Overall, employees have better English than their employers but agreed lack of language skills and local knowledge were hurdles to integration.
THE importance of fitting in and understanding Kiwi culture resonates throughout the report and my conversations with other Chinese migrants.
The executive director of the Chinese New Settlers Services Trust is tall, elegant and well-spoken. Jenny Wang came to New Zealand from Dalian, in northeast China, in 1994. Her experiences and observations of being a newcomer moved her to set up the trust: "In the 90s, the immigration policy changed and lots of Asian migrants came to New Zealand. I think at that time, as a country, we were not ready for so many different people with no English background and there were a lot of settlement issues."
Moving from a job in the Chinese Government's education department, Mrs Wang started again in Auckland, first studying English then social work to prepare for her new role.
The trust's first office was in the garage of her Papatoetoe home. Now there are seven branches around Auckland with a combined staff of 26. Among other things the trust offers employment services, culture seminars, language lessons and counselling.
Mrs Wang says it's her experience that Chinese migrants are trying very hard to integrate into New Zealand society.
"There are a lot of cultural differences. They may not understand the legislation - such as you can't leave a child under 14 at home alone, or you can't just take as much shellfish as you like at the beach. Even how to do rubbish collection is very different here."
Migrants want to participate in society as soon as possible and we can help.
"If you have a Chinese neighbour, they are probably not that different from you. If you see them doing something wrong, tell them gently. It may be something they have never before had to deal with."
Mrs Wang's observations fit with the findings of Professor Spoonley's team. While Chinese migrants have "outward ambition" and want to fit in, they find it necessary to be inward-looking in the early years.
The report's title, Bamboo Networks, refers to the social ties Chinese migrants form for
support and advice. Professor Spoonley says these networks are relied on extensively and are a source of strength.
"There are very obvious examples of Chinese networks and centres in Auckland. I'm not sure many people understand how big and how economically significant they are."
These networks play a key role in settlement, particularly as migrants are, in general, left to their own devices, sometimes even facing indifference from New Zealanders and New
Zealand organisations.
ON the flipside, three Chinese business owners I spoke with emphasise they found New Zealand a warm, welcoming country. They say that when information is at times hard to find, the Chinese business mindset is to persevere and give everything you've got.
I meet one such go-getter, Frank Hua, in his opulent Newmarket restaurant, where we chat with a translator's help. Mr Hua came from Tianjin, in northeast China, in 2004.
"I went to many other countries around the world and New Zealand is much friendlier to migrants than other places. There are so many nations living all together here."
Would some level of English make life easier? "It's not a big issue because I have Chinese friends and a manager who speak English. But," he is quick to add, "I'm studying now because better English means I can share life with the Kiwis."
In China he worked in real estate; here, he hopes his two restaurants can provide a "bridge of understanding" between two worlds. "At the beginning, I thought New Zealand didn't really understand the Chinese so I wanted it to be like a window showing Chinese culture and what real Chinese food is like."
With a huge smile Mr Hua says he considers Auckland home, and wants to put his efforts into creating business ties between New Zealand and China. "I have been able to bring some important Chinese businesspeople here. At present, I don't think we are taking the chance to encourage Chinese businesses to invest here.
"Chinese people are hard-working and I think this is a gift to the economy. They are really good at doing what they do."
The Chinese migrants I speak to cite New Zealand's clean, green environment as their top reason for emigrating. Those interviewed for the report echo this attraction.
"The reasons they come here are quite distinctive", says Professor Spoonley. "It's about lifestyle, education for their children and themselves and it's a safe, clean city in global terms. If you look at Auckland in international rankings, it's one of the most livable cities in the world."
Census results show Chinese in Auckland are settling in a distinctive pattern, leading to concentrations of Chinese commerce and community. The main ethnic precincts - "ethno-burbs", as the report calls them - are in Auckland Central, Three Kings, Hillsborough, Avondale, New Lynn, Howick and Pakuranga.
Professor Spoonley believes recognising Auckland's diversity as a strength is vital for a flourishing city. "The super-city is a moment where you could say, 'Well, let's make Auckland a city that celebrates its diversity and use that diversity for economic advantage'."
He cites Vancouver - rated the most livable city in the world - as an example of a place which makes ethnic diversity a key component.
"One of the things I think is disappointing is that Auckland has what I would call a diversity dividend. The question is: are we actually capturing that ethnic and immigrant diversity?"
Liked it so much, they're selling the country
Anne and George Zhou emigrated from Beijing in 1994. They came on a short-term work assignment but liked it so much they stayed.
The couple say the green landscape and friendly people are the best things about life in New Zealand: "Our children are born here and this is our country now. Every day we think how lucky we are to live here."
Having travelled extensively, they believe "New Zealand really is the best country in the world".
Now, through their Panmure travel agency and tour company, they are proud to sell that image to Chinese and Indian tourists.
The Zhous bought into a franchise and say the existing staff and head office were a great source of support in the early days. They emphasise it can take time for migrants to settle in.
"English is the biggest thing and having an understanding of Kiwi culture. You've got to understand the local business culture, not try to use your Chinese mindset to figure it out."
Arrival lounge
The top six source countries for migrants recorded by the Department of Labour in the year to February:
United Kingdom: 4626 (17 per cent)
China: 3538 (13 per cent)
South Africa: 3266 (12 per cent)
Philippines: 2449 (9 per cent)
India: 2177 (8 per cent)
Fiji: 1905 (7 per cent)
Total from all nations: 27,215
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/local/news/they-will-call-aotearoa-home/3914204/
Frank Hua came to NZ from Tianjin, in northeast China, in 2004. MICHELLE HYSLOP
Surprising findings have shown up in a substantial study of Auckland's major migrant communities - British, Indian, Korean, South African and Chinese. Sophie Bond reports.
The noodle clamped in my chopsticks is more than 50cm long and still going. Everyone laughs as it slips and splashes back into the bowl.
"These are handmade," says Jenny Wang, one of my lunch companions. "The chef tries to make them as long as possible. In China, we have them on birthdays and we say if you can pick it up in one piece you'll have a long life."
It's not an elegant manoeuvre, but on my second try I lift the noodle out in one piece. Lunch in Panmure's Xi'an Food Bar with two local Chinese women is proving to be fun and fascinating.
In Auckland, most of us will know a neighbour, a colleague or someone we see every day who has moved here from another country.
Ours is a city of fantastic diversity; migrants make up about 38 per cent of our population, meaning we have an even higher proportion than Sydney, often touted as a multicultural mecca.
In the last financial year 27,215 people were approved for New Zealand residency with many of them settling in Auckland.
So, who is coming here, and why? How do different migrant groups cope with the culture shock? What are the advantages of ethnic diversity?
Over the next year, these questions will be tackled in reports by Massey and Waikato universities.
Their researchers have been working together since 2008 on the Integration of Immigrants Programme, a study of the settlement experiences and strategies of Auckland's key migrant groups since 1986-7.
This study will produce five reports based on interviews with migrants from Britain, India, Korea, South Africa and China - the major sources of new Kiwis.
We begin with Bamboo Networks: Chinese Employers and Employees in Auckland, focusing on the experiences of 40 Chinese migrants working in the accommodation, food and retail industries.
Professor Paul Spoonley is research director for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University and the study's leader. He points out that, in Auckland, about 40 per cent of Chinese work in hospitality and retail.
"I'm not sure whether they choose to do that or whether it's a fallback position because they can't get a job elsewhere.
"We found [participants] weren't getting jobs here that used their Chinese qualifications and that's true for most migrants. It's the same for New Zealanders going to the UK, of course. There's a sense of having to start again."
The study asked participants about their reasons for moving to New Zealand, difficulties faced, workplace experiences and how reality differs from expectations.
AT the last census, in 2006, Auckland's Chinese population sat at 97,425, close to double that of the 2001 census. Professor Spoonley points out this means a significant proportion of Auckland's Chinese population are recent arrivals. "I expect that within about five to six years a quarter of all Aucklanders will be Asian."
The results give some interesting insights into the lives of the Chinese migrants interviewed. The employers among them work an average of 65 hours a week; 45 per cent have a family member working for them without wages or salary.
Three-quarters of the employees came on student visas and 65 per cent felt their current job does not make use of their qualifications. Almost all interviewees plan to still be living in Auckland in three years; more than half saw themselves retiring in New Zealand.
For 95 per cent of employers, Mandarin is the main language used to communicate with staff. Professor Spoonley says language is a particular issue for all participants and, as a host country, we could be doing more:
"There's quite a hostile response in Auckland to the idea that we should provide services in Mandarin and yet, if you are going to meet the needs of these migrants, the thing you could do that would be most effective would be to provide services in Mandarin."
Overall, employees have better English than their employers but agreed lack of language skills and local knowledge were hurdles to integration.
THE importance of fitting in and understanding Kiwi culture resonates throughout the report and my conversations with other Chinese migrants.
The executive director of the Chinese New Settlers Services Trust is tall, elegant and well-spoken. Jenny Wang came to New Zealand from Dalian, in northeast China, in 1994. Her experiences and observations of being a newcomer moved her to set up the trust: "In the 90s, the immigration policy changed and lots of Asian migrants came to New Zealand. I think at that time, as a country, we were not ready for so many different people with no English background and there were a lot of settlement issues."
Moving from a job in the Chinese Government's education department, Mrs Wang started again in Auckland, first studying English then social work to prepare for her new role.
The trust's first office was in the garage of her Papatoetoe home. Now there are seven branches around Auckland with a combined staff of 26. Among other things the trust offers employment services, culture seminars, language lessons and counselling.
Mrs Wang says it's her experience that Chinese migrants are trying very hard to integrate into New Zealand society.
"There are a lot of cultural differences. They may not understand the legislation - such as you can't leave a child under 14 at home alone, or you can't just take as much shellfish as you like at the beach. Even how to do rubbish collection is very different here."
Migrants want to participate in society as soon as possible and we can help.
"If you have a Chinese neighbour, they are probably not that different from you. If you see them doing something wrong, tell them gently. It may be something they have never before had to deal with."
Mrs Wang's observations fit with the findings of Professor Spoonley's team. While Chinese migrants have "outward ambition" and want to fit in, they find it necessary to be inward-looking in the early years.
The report's title, Bamboo Networks, refers to the social ties Chinese migrants form for
support and advice. Professor Spoonley says these networks are relied on extensively and are a source of strength.
"There are very obvious examples of Chinese networks and centres in Auckland. I'm not sure many people understand how big and how economically significant they are."
These networks play a key role in settlement, particularly as migrants are, in general, left to their own devices, sometimes even facing indifference from New Zealanders and New
Zealand organisations.
ON the flipside, three Chinese business owners I spoke with emphasise they found New Zealand a warm, welcoming country. They say that when information is at times hard to find, the Chinese business mindset is to persevere and give everything you've got.
I meet one such go-getter, Frank Hua, in his opulent Newmarket restaurant, where we chat with a translator's help. Mr Hua came from Tianjin, in northeast China, in 2004.
"I went to many other countries around the world and New Zealand is much friendlier to migrants than other places. There are so many nations living all together here."
Would some level of English make life easier? "It's not a big issue because I have Chinese friends and a manager who speak English. But," he is quick to add, "I'm studying now because better English means I can share life with the Kiwis."
In China he worked in real estate; here, he hopes his two restaurants can provide a "bridge of understanding" between two worlds. "At the beginning, I thought New Zealand didn't really understand the Chinese so I wanted it to be like a window showing Chinese culture and what real Chinese food is like."
With a huge smile Mr Hua says he considers Auckland home, and wants to put his efforts into creating business ties between New Zealand and China. "I have been able to bring some important Chinese businesspeople here. At present, I don't think we are taking the chance to encourage Chinese businesses to invest here.
"Chinese people are hard-working and I think this is a gift to the economy. They are really good at doing what they do."
The Chinese migrants I speak to cite New Zealand's clean, green environment as their top reason for emigrating. Those interviewed for the report echo this attraction.
"The reasons they come here are quite distinctive", says Professor Spoonley. "It's about lifestyle, education for their children and themselves and it's a safe, clean city in global terms. If you look at Auckland in international rankings, it's one of the most livable cities in the world."
Census results show Chinese in Auckland are settling in a distinctive pattern, leading to concentrations of Chinese commerce and community. The main ethnic precincts - "ethno-burbs", as the report calls them - are in Auckland Central, Three Kings, Hillsborough, Avondale, New Lynn, Howick and Pakuranga.
Professor Spoonley believes recognising Auckland's diversity as a strength is vital for a flourishing city. "The super-city is a moment where you could say, 'Well, let's make Auckland a city that celebrates its diversity and use that diversity for economic advantage'."
He cites Vancouver - rated the most livable city in the world - as an example of a place which makes ethnic diversity a key component.
"One of the things I think is disappointing is that Auckland has what I would call a diversity dividend. The question is: are we actually capturing that ethnic and immigrant diversity?"
Liked it so much, they're selling the country
Anne and George Zhou emigrated from Beijing in 1994. They came on a short-term work assignment but liked it so much they stayed.
The couple say the green landscape and friendly people are the best things about life in New Zealand: "Our children are born here and this is our country now. Every day we think how lucky we are to live here."
Having travelled extensively, they believe "New Zealand really is the best country in the world".
Now, through their Panmure travel agency and tour company, they are proud to sell that image to Chinese and Indian tourists.
The Zhous bought into a franchise and say the existing staff and head office were a great source of support in the early days. They emphasise it can take time for migrants to settle in.
"English is the biggest thing and having an understanding of Kiwi culture. You've got to understand the local business culture, not try to use your Chinese mindset to figure it out."
Arrival lounge
The top six source countries for migrants recorded by the Department of Labour in the year to February:
United Kingdom: 4626 (17 per cent)
China: 3538 (13 per cent)
South Africa: 3266 (12 per cent)
Philippines: 2449 (9 per cent)
India: 2177 (8 per cent)
Fiji: 1905 (7 per cent)
Total from all nations: 27,215
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/local/news/they-will-call-aotearoa-home/3914204/
Fun, fire, feasting
16th January 2008
Auckland's Chinese community will be celebrating the start of the Year of the Rat and the Chinese New Year at the Showgrounds on Saturday. The free community event will be a day of colour and cultural entertainment. Highlights include a fire-eater and flame-thrower, facechanging artists (rarely seen outside China), a lion dance group of 4 to 15 year-olds, and guest MC Caleigh Cheung, star of the TV2 drama Ride with the Devil. Two halls at the Showgrounds will be transformed into a lively market. As well as a market and exhibitions, visitors have the chance to win return trips to Hong Kong.
Chinese New Year Festival and Market Day, ASB Showgrounds, January 19, 9.30 am to 3.30 pm.
16th January 2008
Auckland's Chinese community will be celebrating the start of the Year of the Rat and the Chinese New Year at the Showgrounds on Saturday. The free community event will be a day of colour and cultural entertainment. Highlights include a fire-eater and flame-thrower, facechanging artists (rarely seen outside China), a lion dance group of 4 to 15 year-olds, and guest MC Caleigh Cheung, star of the TV2 drama Ride with the Devil. Two halls at the Showgrounds will be transformed into a lively market. As well as a market and exhibitions, visitors have the chance to win return trips to Hong Kong.
Chinese New Year Festival and Market Day, ASB Showgrounds, January 19, 9.30 am to 3.30 pm.
Dancing in the Year of the Rat
Many Aucklanders look forward to The Lantern Festival each year. Perhaps it's the everchanging lantern characters lighting up Albert Park late into the night that attracts them. Hundreds of beautiful lanterns - including brand new designs from China - help to bring Chinese New Year celebrations to a glowing finale. Last year's flock of "sheep" and "sheepdog" positioned beneath an old oak were a particular hit. Another big attraction is the food, its fragrance wafting into the park from Princes St, where there's lots of it to tempt spectators. This year's Lantern Festival ushers in the Chinese zodiac's Year of the Rat with far more than food and illumination. Traditional music and dance will vow to wow the crowds, too. Among the line-up of overseas and local performers will be Stephanie Lin's Chinese folk dance group, Yun- Tzu Cheng-Chueh Association. Taiwan-born Aucklander Lin says performing at festivals is "a great chance for us to forge understanding between the cultures". She has five teams of 10 students drawn from Parnell District School dancing at the festival who've been practicing hard for their performances. "I love getting all the students from different backgrounds together dressed up in little Chinese costumes," she says.
"You have to get every part of your body right. You have to remember your eyes, fingers, toes, knees, facial expression, listening to the music, remember the steps and work together as a team." For a colourful cultural experience, the Lantern Festival's makes a great walk in the park.
Auckland Lantern Festival, Albert Park, Auckland. Feb 22-24, 5pm-10.30pm. Free entry. Details, see www.aucklandcity.govt.nz
By Sharu Delilkan 6th February 2008 http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/living/news/dancing-in-the-year-of-the-rat/3762802/
"You have to get every part of your body right. You have to remember your eyes, fingers, toes, knees, facial expression, listening to the music, remember the steps and work together as a team." For a colourful cultural experience, the Lantern Festival's makes a great walk in the park.
Auckland Lantern Festival, Albert Park, Auckland. Feb 22-24, 5pm-10.30pm. Free entry. Details, see www.aucklandcity.govt.nz
By Sharu Delilkan 6th February 2008 http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/living/news/dancing-in-the-year-of-the-rat/3762802/
Kristy sure can do taekwan-do
Dragons, acrobats, martial art experts ... the Chinese New Year Festival will be a cracker, writes Sharu Delilkan.
It will be a family affair when Kristy Leong returns for the third time to demonstrate her taekwan-do skills at the ACCC Chinese New Year Festival and Market Day next month.
Her father, Don, and her 13-year-old brother, Mitchell, will also show their moves.
The colourful, exuberant, free community event, which this year welcomes in the Year of the Tiger, has been hosted by the Auckland Chinese Community Centre for more than two decades. Among its many highlights are a 24-person dragon dance, a troupe of acrobats from China and a highly respected portrait artist, Mu Yu Ming, also from China.
"We live in such a multicultural society here in Auckland, it makes sense to educate others and share our culture with them," says ACCC's vice chairman and events organiser Kai Luey.
Besides demonstrating taekwan-do, Kristy has competed for years, gaining accolades at the 2007 and 2009 World Champs.
She was also crowned 2007's Counties Manukau Junior Sportswoman of the Year and 2008's ITFNZ Junior Student of the Year.
Kristy says she's never had to worry about competing with her brother or father. "We compete in different categories because it's defined by our age and sex. Luckily, rivalry doesn't figure in our relationship."
Chinese New Year Festival & Market Day, Feb 13. ASB Showgrounds, 217 Green Lane West, Greenlane, Feb 13, 9.30am-4pm. Contact: Kai Luey, ph 522 1840.
Sharu Delilkan | 28th January 2010 http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/living/news/kristy-sure-can-do-taekwan-do/3909098/
It will be a family affair when Kristy Leong returns for the third time to demonstrate her taekwan-do skills at the ACCC Chinese New Year Festival and Market Day next month.
Her father, Don, and her 13-year-old brother, Mitchell, will also show their moves.
The colourful, exuberant, free community event, which this year welcomes in the Year of the Tiger, has been hosted by the Auckland Chinese Community Centre for more than two decades. Among its many highlights are a 24-person dragon dance, a troupe of acrobats from China and a highly respected portrait artist, Mu Yu Ming, also from China.
"We live in such a multicultural society here in Auckland, it makes sense to educate others and share our culture with them," says ACCC's vice chairman and events organiser Kai Luey.
Besides demonstrating taekwan-do, Kristy has competed for years, gaining accolades at the 2007 and 2009 World Champs.
She was also crowned 2007's Counties Manukau Junior Sportswoman of the Year and 2008's ITFNZ Junior Student of the Year.
Kristy says she's never had to worry about competing with her brother or father. "We compete in different categories because it's defined by our age and sex. Luckily, rivalry doesn't figure in our relationship."
Chinese New Year Festival & Market Day, Feb 13. ASB Showgrounds, 217 Green Lane West, Greenlane, Feb 13, 9.30am-4pm. Contact: Kai Luey, ph 522 1840.
Sharu Delilkan | 28th January 2010 http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/living/news/kristy-sure-can-do-taekwan-do/3909098/
In the skin of a lion
27th February 2007
When Hua Khoo came to New Zealand in 1976 from Malaysia, he was adamant about not losing sight of his Chinese roots. In keeping with his aim of maintaining tradition in his family, he decided to learn lion dancing. Herne Bay resident Mr Khoo says his Chinese martial arts and tai chi background helped him enormously to master the acrobatic movements involved in the artform. His seven-member lion dancing troupe, Khoo Lion Dance, is feverishly training to perform at the 2007 Auckland Chinese New Year Lantern Festival this weekend. This year's festival, for the eighth consecutive year, will be celebrated on the 15th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. About 150,000 people attended last year's Lantern Festival at Albert Park. The free event will feature a variety of dance, music and martial arts performances, including the all-girl percussion group Red Poppy, acrobats from Tiajin and Zhou Xiaofang, and demonstrations of the art of gong fu cha, a tea ritual. Avondale School science teacher Mr Khoo has since tried to pass on his knowledge of lion dancing to his students. He says it's been difficult to recruit as ''the kids have found it hard to spare the time after school''. But his mission to impart the craft has not been in vain. His son Nick has taken to the dance like a duck to water.
Nick, 23, the group's official drummer, says he started learning the lion dance when he was 2. ''I enjoy the noise,'' he says. ''It gives me a sense of belonging. Lion dancing is part of what makes me, me.'' Mr Khoo, 53, says he chose the lion dance ? not to be confused with the dragon dance, which features a team of 10 or more dancers ? because of its manageable size. The lion dance mimics a lion's movements in a lion costume which usually involves a pair of dancers. The father-of-two, who usually plays the gong, says he is the ''super-sub'' who fills in where required. He has also managed to rope in his wife Joyce, who's conveniently a skilled seamstress, to help with the costumes. ''It's great the way he gets us involved,'' Mrs Khoo says. ''It adds to the spirit of the festivities.'' Mr Khoo, who's looking forward to helping create atmosphere at the festival, says, ''It's great that we're wandering around the park this year as we'll be able to have more rapport with the crowd while chasing away the evil spirits.''
2007 Auckland Chinese New Year Lantern Festival, Albert Park, March 2-4, 5.30pm-10pm. For more details see www. aucklandcity.govt.nz/whatson/
By Sharu Delilkan
When Hua Khoo came to New Zealand in 1976 from Malaysia, he was adamant about not losing sight of his Chinese roots. In keeping with his aim of maintaining tradition in his family, he decided to learn lion dancing. Herne Bay resident Mr Khoo says his Chinese martial arts and tai chi background helped him enormously to master the acrobatic movements involved in the artform. His seven-member lion dancing troupe, Khoo Lion Dance, is feverishly training to perform at the 2007 Auckland Chinese New Year Lantern Festival this weekend. This year's festival, for the eighth consecutive year, will be celebrated on the 15th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. About 150,000 people attended last year's Lantern Festival at Albert Park. The free event will feature a variety of dance, music and martial arts performances, including the all-girl percussion group Red Poppy, acrobats from Tiajin and Zhou Xiaofang, and demonstrations of the art of gong fu cha, a tea ritual. Avondale School science teacher Mr Khoo has since tried to pass on his knowledge of lion dancing to his students. He says it's been difficult to recruit as ''the kids have found it hard to spare the time after school''. But his mission to impart the craft has not been in vain. His son Nick has taken to the dance like a duck to water.
Nick, 23, the group's official drummer, says he started learning the lion dance when he was 2. ''I enjoy the noise,'' he says. ''It gives me a sense of belonging. Lion dancing is part of what makes me, me.'' Mr Khoo, 53, says he chose the lion dance ? not to be confused with the dragon dance, which features a team of 10 or more dancers ? because of its manageable size. The lion dance mimics a lion's movements in a lion costume which usually involves a pair of dancers. The father-of-two, who usually plays the gong, says he is the ''super-sub'' who fills in where required. He has also managed to rope in his wife Joyce, who's conveniently a skilled seamstress, to help with the costumes. ''It's great the way he gets us involved,'' Mrs Khoo says. ''It adds to the spirit of the festivities.'' Mr Khoo, who's looking forward to helping create atmosphere at the festival, says, ''It's great that we're wandering around the park this year as we'll be able to have more rapport with the crowd while chasing away the evil spirits.''
2007 Auckland Chinese New Year Lantern Festival, Albert Park, March 2-4, 5.30pm-10pm. For more details see www. aucklandcity.govt.nz/whatson/
By Sharu Delilkan
Talented Tyla has a touch of class
Rugby's in her blood and she aims to play for her country. Lauren Mentjox explains.
Tyla Nathan-Wong's family has a motto that guides her on and off the sports field: "Deeds, not words."
It has paid off for the softly-spoken 15-year-old who will go to Australia to represent New Zealand in touch rugby - provided she can raise the money.
Tyla was selected for the national Under-17 and Under-19 touch squads and is scheduled to play in tournaments and test matches across the Tasman later this year and in January 2011.
She needs to raise $7000 to get there.
"It's a lot of money, but we will be able to do it," says Tyla. "Playing for your country is one of the highest honours you can get so this is pretty awesome."
Tyla has played rugby union, rugby league and touch football since she could first throw a ball.
Despite being half the size of most rugby players, she has played at a representative level since primary school, saying that it is technique that matters most.
Dozens of her trophies are on display at the family home in Blockhouse Bay for sporting achievements that are not limited to rugby.
Tyla also has a red belt in taekwon-do, has played top level soccer, and won school cross-country events.
Last year, the Lynfield College student was a member of 11 teams in nine sports, including the Auckland secondary schools rugby team and the Aotearoa Maori Invitational touch team.
Sofia Hameed, the Year 10 dean at Lynfield College, described her as one of the most "exceptionally gifted all round athletes" the school has had.
"[Tyla] is a talented, committed and visionary young woman," she says.
Humble about her achievements, Tyla takes it all in her stride.
This year, when she's not training with her dad or playing for Auckland's Marist Rugby Club's open women's team, she is working on gaining NCEA level one credits in seven subjects.
In the future, Tyla says she hopes to add other sporting achievements to her touch rugby success. Making the Black Ferns and the 2016 Olympic rugby sevens team are high priorities.
"I want to go as high as I can go," she says. "I am competitive, but it is a lot of fun and I like meeting lots of people."
While Tyla's parents and grandparents are "over the moon" at her selection in the New Zealand touch teams, sporting ability is something that runs in the family.
Her grandfather, David Wong, was the first Chinese New Zealander to play rugby league for Auckland. He is still involved with Ponsonby United and Bay-Roskill clubs, and helped organise the International Masters competition in Auckland last year.
Tyla's aunt, Sheree, and her mother, Deanne, represented New Zealand in touch rugby while her father, Russell, was an Auckland Maori representative.
For now, the whole family is getting behind Tyla's selection with a "full on" fundraising drive that includes everything from social gatherings to sausage sizzles to make sure she gets to Oz.
Email russellnw@xtra.co.nz for information about sponsoring Tyla.
Lauren Mentjox | 27th April 2010
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/sport/news/talented-tyla-has-a-touch-of-class/3912746/
Tyla Nathan-Wong's family has a motto that guides her on and off the sports field: "Deeds, not words."
It has paid off for the softly-spoken 15-year-old who will go to Australia to represent New Zealand in touch rugby - provided she can raise the money.
Tyla was selected for the national Under-17 and Under-19 touch squads and is scheduled to play in tournaments and test matches across the Tasman later this year and in January 2011.
She needs to raise $7000 to get there.
"It's a lot of money, but we will be able to do it," says Tyla. "Playing for your country is one of the highest honours you can get so this is pretty awesome."
Tyla has played rugby union, rugby league and touch football since she could first throw a ball.
Despite being half the size of most rugby players, she has played at a representative level since primary school, saying that it is technique that matters most.
Dozens of her trophies are on display at the family home in Blockhouse Bay for sporting achievements that are not limited to rugby.
Tyla also has a red belt in taekwon-do, has played top level soccer, and won school cross-country events.
Last year, the Lynfield College student was a member of 11 teams in nine sports, including the Auckland secondary schools rugby team and the Aotearoa Maori Invitational touch team.
Sofia Hameed, the Year 10 dean at Lynfield College, described her as one of the most "exceptionally gifted all round athletes" the school has had.
"[Tyla] is a talented, committed and visionary young woman," she says.
Humble about her achievements, Tyla takes it all in her stride.
This year, when she's not training with her dad or playing for Auckland's Marist Rugby Club's open women's team, she is working on gaining NCEA level one credits in seven subjects.
In the future, Tyla says she hopes to add other sporting achievements to her touch rugby success. Making the Black Ferns and the 2016 Olympic rugby sevens team are high priorities.
"I want to go as high as I can go," she says. "I am competitive, but it is a lot of fun and I like meeting lots of people."
While Tyla's parents and grandparents are "over the moon" at her selection in the New Zealand touch teams, sporting ability is something that runs in the family.
Her grandfather, David Wong, was the first Chinese New Zealander to play rugby league for Auckland. He is still involved with Ponsonby United and Bay-Roskill clubs, and helped organise the International Masters competition in Auckland last year.
Tyla's aunt, Sheree, and her mother, Deanne, represented New Zealand in touch rugby while her father, Russell, was an Auckland Maori representative.
For now, the whole family is getting behind Tyla's selection with a "full on" fundraising drive that includes everything from social gatherings to sausage sizzles to make sure she gets to Oz.
Email russellnw@xtra.co.nz for information about sponsoring Tyla.
Lauren Mentjox | 27th April 2010
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/sport/news/talented-tyla-has-a-touch-of-class/3912746/
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Heritage recognition draining local coffers - China.org.cn
Heritage recognition draining local coffers - China.org.cn
The famous Diaolou Towers site in Kaiping, Guangzhou Province, is struggling to make ends meet in order to preserve and live up to its UNESCO World Heritage status bestowed upon it by the UN organ.
The site is renowned architecturally for its well-preserved, fortified, multi-story towers built by overseas Chinese in the 1920s and 1930s.
The towers, added to the World Heritage List in 2007, are in need of 230 million yuan ($34.5 million) to prevent them from further deterioration, the Guangzhou Daily reported, citing Feng Lijian, local Party chief of Kaiping.
Zhang Guoxiong, a preservation specialist of the Diaolou site at Wuyi University in Guangdong, told the Global Times that among 1,833 such towers still standing Wednesday, a total of 501 need special preservation, but the maintenance has either proceeded slowly or come to a halt due to the shortage of funds.
The 230 million yuan is what the site needs to spend to fulfill the commitment it made six years ago when it was bidding for the UNESCO title, and the need for money is becoming increasingly urgent because the site is due to be reviewed by UNESCO in 2013 to make sure the property has been properly protected and not become over-developed, Zhang said.
Zhang also noted that fixing up each building could cost upwards of 100,000 yuan each. The repairs include waterproofing, guarding against lightning, fixing up roads, reinforcing concrete structures and general appearance improvements.
Tan Jinhua, another expert on the site's preservation, from the Guangdong Qiaoxiang Culture Studies Center, said only routine maintenance can be guaranteed, as special maintenance measures, including those protecting against acid rain and geological settlement, fall short of funding.
"Ticket income can hardly pay for the routine maintenance costs. The preservation of these towers has become a heavy burden on us," Tan said.
The famous Diaolou Towers site in Kaiping, Guangzhou Province, is struggling to make ends meet in order to preserve and live up to its UNESCO World Heritage status bestowed upon it by the UN organ.
The site is renowned architecturally for its well-preserved, fortified, multi-story towers built by overseas Chinese in the 1920s and 1930s.
The towers, added to the World Heritage List in 2007, are in need of 230 million yuan ($34.5 million) to prevent them from further deterioration, the Guangzhou Daily reported, citing Feng Lijian, local Party chief of Kaiping.
Zhang Guoxiong, a preservation specialist of the Diaolou site at Wuyi University in Guangdong, told the Global Times that among 1,833 such towers still standing Wednesday, a total of 501 need special preservation, but the maintenance has either proceeded slowly or come to a halt due to the shortage of funds.
The 230 million yuan is what the site needs to spend to fulfill the commitment it made six years ago when it was bidding for the UNESCO title, and the need for money is becoming increasingly urgent because the site is due to be reviewed by UNESCO in 2013 to make sure the property has been properly protected and not become over-developed, Zhang said.
Zhang also noted that fixing up each building could cost upwards of 100,000 yuan each. The repairs include waterproofing, guarding against lightning, fixing up roads, reinforcing concrete structures and general appearance improvements.
Tan Jinhua, another expert on the site's preservation, from the Guangdong Qiaoxiang Culture Studies Center, said only routine maintenance can be guaranteed, as special maintenance measures, including those protecting against acid rain and geological settlement, fall short of funding.
"Ticket income can hardly pay for the routine maintenance costs. The preservation of these towers has become a heavy burden on us," Tan said.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Dr Renee Liang
25 June 2010
In gallery:
* Sir Peter Blake Leadership Awards 2010
2010 Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award Recipient
Renee Liang is a consultant paediatrician whose research looks at human development trajectories from early life to adolescence. She is also a widely published poet, short story writer and playwright – her plays Lantern and The Bone Feeder have played to sold-out audiences. By drawing on her diverse talents in both medicine and the arts, Renee is helping to define the cultural landscape of New Zealand and supporting positive community development.
Renee currently leads the Asian Advisory Group for Growing Up in New Zealand – a longitudinal study designed to gather information to improve the lives of all New Zealand children. She has previously undertaken a clinical project looking at the health of aboriginal children in Far Western New South Wales.
In 2006, Renee participated in the development of An Absolute Rush – a grassroots performing arts initiative for at-risk youth in South Auckland, run on almost no budget, but a groundswell of community energy. Believing that writing and performance empower youth through use of their own voice, Renee organised speakers and ran poetry workshops for the students. This resulted in a collection of moving stories of hopes and dreams. She also looked at the benefits from a youth health perspective and recorded footage for a documentary.
Renee believes strongly that linking across communities strengthens society as a whole. She is a driving force of initiatives such as Metonymy – which aims to spark creative collaborations by ‘blind dating’ artists from different disciplines; Funky Oriental Beats – propelling Kiwi Asians into the burgeoning arts scene in Auckland; and the Guerilla Poets, who demystify literature by literally bringing poetry onto the streets. She’s known as both a performer and an organiser of Poetry Live, a weekly event. As an Asian New Zealander she often uses her writing to provide cultural commentary and spark discussion. Through her blog on The Big Idea, Renee profiles emerging artists and community initiatives.
Renee’s ability to bring people together was reflected in her selection this year for the Emerging Pacific Leaders’ Dialogue – an initiative to strengthen the capacity of the Pacific region’s future leaders to manage challenges collaboratively, positively and creatively. Renee visited Samoa, Fiji and Tonga to share information and forge networks. She now works with fellow alumni to find ways to benefit the region.
As well as her medical degrees and specialist qualification as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Renee also holds a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland, and has recently graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Drama Studies.
“My shared skills and passion for medicine and arts has often converged in my projects, and that’s because I believe they are the same thing. I’m interested in the stories people have to tell and the history that stands behind them. The work we do shouldn’t be determined by degrees or job titles, but by what excites us. By choosing something that makes your skin buzz – by following your bliss - you are more likely to succeed.”
Dr Renee Liang
http://www.gg.govt.nz/node/2889
In gallery:
* Sir Peter Blake Leadership Awards 2010
2010 Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award Recipient
Renee Liang is a consultant paediatrician whose research looks at human development trajectories from early life to adolescence. She is also a widely published poet, short story writer and playwright – her plays Lantern and The Bone Feeder have played to sold-out audiences. By drawing on her diverse talents in both medicine and the arts, Renee is helping to define the cultural landscape of New Zealand and supporting positive community development.
Renee currently leads the Asian Advisory Group for Growing Up in New Zealand – a longitudinal study designed to gather information to improve the lives of all New Zealand children. She has previously undertaken a clinical project looking at the health of aboriginal children in Far Western New South Wales.
In 2006, Renee participated in the development of An Absolute Rush – a grassroots performing arts initiative for at-risk youth in South Auckland, run on almost no budget, but a groundswell of community energy. Believing that writing and performance empower youth through use of their own voice, Renee organised speakers and ran poetry workshops for the students. This resulted in a collection of moving stories of hopes and dreams. She also looked at the benefits from a youth health perspective and recorded footage for a documentary.
Renee believes strongly that linking across communities strengthens society as a whole. She is a driving force of initiatives such as Metonymy – which aims to spark creative collaborations by ‘blind dating’ artists from different disciplines; Funky Oriental Beats – propelling Kiwi Asians into the burgeoning arts scene in Auckland; and the Guerilla Poets, who demystify literature by literally bringing poetry onto the streets. She’s known as both a performer and an organiser of Poetry Live, a weekly event. As an Asian New Zealander she often uses her writing to provide cultural commentary and spark discussion. Through her blog on The Big Idea, Renee profiles emerging artists and community initiatives.
Renee’s ability to bring people together was reflected in her selection this year for the Emerging Pacific Leaders’ Dialogue – an initiative to strengthen the capacity of the Pacific region’s future leaders to manage challenges collaboratively, positively and creatively. Renee visited Samoa, Fiji and Tonga to share information and forge networks. She now works with fellow alumni to find ways to benefit the region.
As well as her medical degrees and specialist qualification as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Renee also holds a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland, and has recently graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Drama Studies.
“My shared skills and passion for medicine and arts has often converged in my projects, and that’s because I believe they are the same thing. I’m interested in the stories people have to tell and the history that stands behind them. The work we do shouldn’t be determined by degrees or job titles, but by what excites us. By choosing something that makes your skin buzz – by following your bliss - you are more likely to succeed.”
Dr Renee Liang
http://www.gg.govt.nz/node/2889
RENEE LIANG - PAEDIATRICIAN AND POET
RENEE LIANG - PAEDIATRICIAN AND POET
If you ever call the Liang residence, here's a tip: Don't ask for Dr Liang.
The response is: "Which one?"
With three doctors in Renee Liang's family - her father is also a paediatrician and a sister is a surgeon on the Gold Coast - she has never been far from excellence.
A third sister is a film maker.
Renee Liang, 37, grew up in Auckland and is a proud old girl of St Cuthbert's College in Epsom.
She says that growing up in a family who supported her love of both medicine and the arts helped her to become a confident woman.
"I always felt encouraged and always felt mastery.
"My primary school friends tell me that they can still remember me saying that I wanted to be a pediatrician - and I was 7 years old!
"But my dad was one and I knew the word - I always looked up to him and now I'm here."
Dr Liang works as a consultant paediatrician and researcher.
She has an interest in community and child health and her research involves looking at human development.
Her second love - the arts - has also seen her become a widely published poet, playwright and short-story writer, as well as being involved in the performing arts.
She says her Chinese name, Wei Wei, was given to her by her grandfather and means "literary blossom."
"My grandfather named me that because he said there were too many doctors in the family - we need a writer or an artist!
"My mother didn't tell me that until my third year into medicine, so who knows what would have been if I had known that before."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10654478
Dr Liang plans to continue her journey in life "as sort of a surprise".
If you ever call the Liang residence, here's a tip: Don't ask for Dr Liang.
The response is: "Which one?"
With three doctors in Renee Liang's family - her father is also a paediatrician and a sister is a surgeon on the Gold Coast - she has never been far from excellence.
A third sister is a film maker.
Renee Liang, 37, grew up in Auckland and is a proud old girl of St Cuthbert's College in Epsom.
She says that growing up in a family who supported her love of both medicine and the arts helped her to become a confident woman.
"I always felt encouraged and always felt mastery.
"My primary school friends tell me that they can still remember me saying that I wanted to be a pediatrician - and I was 7 years old!
"But my dad was one and I knew the word - I always looked up to him and now I'm here."
Dr Liang works as a consultant paediatrician and researcher.
She has an interest in community and child health and her research involves looking at human development.
Her second love - the arts - has also seen her become a widely published poet, playwright and short-story writer, as well as being involved in the performing arts.
She says her Chinese name, Wei Wei, was given to her by her grandfather and means "literary blossom."
"My grandfather named me that because he said there were too many doctors in the family - we need a writer or an artist!
"My mother didn't tell me that until my third year into medicine, so who knows what would have been if I had known that before."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10654478
Dr Liang plans to continue her journey in life "as sort of a surprise".
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