Friday, August 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
http://www.asianz.org.nz/culture/inthelimelight/goldenslumbers
Golden Slumbers - Kah Bee Chow's One Day Sculpture
“Once regarded as the most notorious slum area in New Zealand,” Wellington historian Lynette Shum notes, “Haining Street today is an industrial area that bears little indication of its sensationalist past.”*
As the centre of Wellington’s Chinatown from the late 1800s-1940s, the street also bore witness to one of the most violent episodes in Chinese New Zealand history, when Englishman Lionel Terry shot dead Joe Kum Yung opposite 10 Haining Street in 1905 as a protest against Chinese immigration into the country.
Kah Bee Chow’s One Day Sculpture project, located at that site and entitled Golden Slumbers, is partly conceived as an imagined narrative of Joe Kum Yung’s afterlife. Chow says: “Joe was a miner, destitute, alone at the time of his death with long-abandoned dreams of the elusive ‘Sum Gum Saan’, a new gold mountain, the faded promise of the Otago goldfields.” The artist is creating both a fanciful wish-fulfilment and antidote to Joe’s invisibility as his biography was eclipsed by his murderer Terry’s folk-hero notoriety.
Chow draws a common aspirational connection between herself and Joe Kum Yung. “We are separated by 100 years but Joe and I, as first-generation immigrants to New Zealand, perhaps shared in common the impossible spectacular projected fantasies onto this land that drew us here.”
Chow immigrated to New Zealand at age 12 and her delusions were less gilded but not less imagined, and age-appropriate. “I held onto the prepubescent persistence that New Zealand would equate to my Southern Hemisphere Sweet Valley, as appropriated from sugar-coated American teen fiction.”
This memory of things that never existed in New Zealand links Chow to the strangeness and tragedy of the delusions of grandeur that initially tied her, along with Joe Kum Yung and Lionel Terry, to this place.
Project curator Paula Booker notes, “Kah Bee Chow’s One Day Sculpture imagines and re-creates the gold miner’s Sum Gum Saan but she also spatially and socially engages with the memory and disappearance of the things that actually did exist.”
Wellington’s Chinatown has disappeared, due to a range of circumstances including urban development and changing views towards immigrants that led to greater acceptance of Chinese migration to the suburbs. Golden Slumbers is built upon conversations with the present Haining Street community, the people who have an investment in its history and the Chinese community.
This is not an exercise of inserting history into a site that no longer remembers its past, but an attempt to study the perseverance of spatial and cultural memory in lieu of, or as a compensation for, its physical disappearance.
Sunday 31 August 2008 9am to 9pm
Backyard, 10 Haining Street
Central Wellington
One Day Sculpture
a Massey University College of Creative Arts, School of Fine Arts, Litmus Research Initiative.
www.onedaysculpture.org.nz
Curated by Paula Booker
Commissioned by Enjoy Public Art Gallery
147 Cuba St
Wellington
www.enjoy.org.nz
Kah Bee Chow's One Day Sculpture is made possible with support from the Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Wellington City Council's Public Art Fund.
image: 10 Haining Street, June 2008. Photo by Maia McDonald
*Lynette Shum, “Remembering Haining Street: With Both Eyes Open” in http://www.stevenyoung.
Golden Slumbers - Kah Bee Chow's One Day Sculpture
“Once regarded as the most notorious slum area in New Zealand,” Wellington historian Lynette Shum notes, “Haining Street today is an industrial area that bears little indication of its sensationalist past.”*
As the centre of Wellington’s Chinatown from the late 1800s-1940s, the street also bore witness to one of the most violent episodes in Chinese New Zealand history, when Englishman Lionel Terry shot dead Joe Kum Yung opposite 10 Haining Street in 1905 as a protest against Chinese immigration into the country.
Kah Bee Chow’s One Day Sculpture project, located at that site and entitled Golden Slumbers, is partly conceived as an imagined narrative of Joe Kum Yung’s afterlife. Chow says: “Joe was a miner, destitute, alone at the time of his death with long-abandoned dreams of the elusive ‘Sum Gum Saan’, a new gold mountain, the faded promise of the Otago goldfields.” The artist is creating both a fanciful wish-fulfilment and antidote to Joe’s invisibility as his biography was eclipsed by his murderer Terry’s folk-hero notoriety.
Chow draws a common aspirational connection between herself and Joe Kum Yung. “We are separated by 100 years but Joe and I, as first-generation immigrants to New Zealand, perhaps shared in common the impossible spectacular projected fantasies onto this land that drew us here.”
Chow immigrated to New Zealand at age 12 and her delusions were less gilded but not less imagined, and age-appropriate. “I held onto the prepubescent persistence that New Zealand would equate to my Southern Hemisphere Sweet Valley, as appropriated from sugar-coated American teen fiction.”
This memory of things that never existed in New Zealand links Chow to the strangeness and tragedy of the delusions of grandeur that initially tied her, along with Joe Kum Yung and Lionel Terry, to this place.
Project curator Paula Booker notes, “Kah Bee Chow’s One Day Sculpture imagines and re-creates the gold miner’s Sum Gum Saan but she also spatially and socially engages with the memory and disappearance of the things that actually did exist.”
Wellington’s Chinatown has disappeared, due to a range of circumstances including urban development and changing views towards immigrants that led to greater acceptance of Chinese migration to the suburbs. Golden Slumbers is built upon conversations with the present Haining Street community, the people who have an investment in its history and the Chinese community.
This is not an exercise of inserting history into a site that no longer remembers its past, but an attempt to study the perseverance of spatial and cultural memory in lieu of, or as a compensation for, its physical disappearance.
Sunday 31 August 2008 9am to 9pm
Backyard, 10 Haining Street
Central Wellington
One Day Sculpture
a Massey University College of Creative Arts, School of Fine Arts, Litmus Research Initiative.
www.onedaysculpture.org.nz
Curated by Paula Booker
Commissioned by Enjoy Public Art Gallery
147 Cuba St
Wellington
www.enjoy.org.nz
Kah Bee Chow's One Day Sculpture is made possible with support from the Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Wellington City Council's Public Art Fund.
image: 10 Haining Street, June 2008. Photo by Maia McDonald
*Lynette Shum, “Remembering Haining Street: With Both Eyes Open” in http://www.stevenyoung.
Harm Soi Gok
Harm Soi Gok (Chinese fried pork and vegetable dumplings)
1. Boil 2 potatoes, reserve water from cooking the potatoes. Mash potatoes while still hot.
2. Mix 3 Cups of flour with boiling water in a large bowl.
3. Mix in 1 pkt. of glutinous rice flour (454gms.)
4. Knead into a firm dough - add a little hot water if too dry, add more flour if too wet. Dough should not be sticky.
5. Pull off small pieces of dough and roll into balls.
6. Press each ball into flat circles.
Filling
1. Chop barbeque pork, or use cooked minced pork.
2. Pan fry other ingredients of your choice e.g. Chinese chives, spring onions, preserved turnips, dried shrimps, etc.
3. Add a little salt and sugar and thicken with cornflour.
4. Cool filling so that it will be easier to work with before wrapping in pastry.
5. Spoon a small amount of filling onto the prepared pastry circles.
6. Fold and seal the edges with water, then twist to form frilly edge.
7. Dip both sides of dumplings into sesame seeds.
8. Deep fry in oil over medium heat.
Dumplings can be frozen. Re- fry while still frozen. They are crunchier on re-frying.
Kumaras may be used as a substitute for potatoes.
and another from Margaret Wong
1. Boil 2 potatoes, reserve water from cooking the potatoes. Mash potatoes while still hot.
2. Mix 3 Cups of flour with boiling water in a large bowl.
3. Mix in 1 pkt. of glutinous rice flour (454gms.)
4. Knead into a firm dough - add a little hot water if too dry, add more flour if too wet. Dough should not be sticky.
5. Pull off small pieces of dough and roll into balls.
6. Press each ball into flat circles.
Filling
1. Chop barbeque pork, or use cooked minced pork.
2. Pan fry other ingredients of your choice e.g. Chinese chives, spring onions, preserved turnips, dried shrimps, etc.
3. Add a little salt and sugar and thicken with cornflour.
4. Cool filling so that it will be easier to work with before wrapping in pastry.
5. Spoon a small amount of filling onto the prepared pastry circles.
6. Fold and seal the edges with water, then twist to form frilly edge.
7. Dip both sides of dumplings into sesame seeds.
8. Deep fry in oil over medium heat.
Dumplings can be frozen. Re- fry while still frozen. They are crunchier on re-frying.
Kumaras may be used as a substitute for potatoes.
and another from Margaret Wong
Chinese Sponge Cakes
Chinese Sponge Cakes
¾ C Sugar
¾ C High Grade Flour
3 Eggs
1. Beat eggs and sugar until thick and pale.
2. Carefully fold in sifted flour.
3. Grease (brush with oil, using pastry brush) individual Chinese sponge cake tins or muffin tins.
4. Spoon mixture into tins until ¾ full only.
5. Bake at 150C for 15-20mins.
This recipe makes only 12 cakes, so you may wish to double or triple the recipe.
No baking powder required.
courtesey Margaret Wong
¾ C Sugar
¾ C High Grade Flour
3 Eggs
1. Beat eggs and sugar until thick and pale.
2. Carefully fold in sifted flour.
3. Grease (brush with oil, using pastry brush) individual Chinese sponge cake tins or muffin tins.
4. Spoon mixture into tins until ¾ full only.
5. Bake at 150C for 15-20mins.
This recipe makes only 12 cakes, so you may wish to double or triple the recipe.
No baking powder required.
courtesey Margaret Wong
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Kissing a goodbye to luck, say NZ's guidelines
:00AM Saturday August 09, 2008
By Lincoln Tan
Do not embrace or kiss Chinese people and do not share a pear with others, because it is considered bad luck.
These and other pointers are intended to give New Zealand Olympic athletes the social edge while they are competing in Beijing.
A handbook prepared in New Zealand by the University of Auckland's Confucius Institute advises against "exposing inappropriate body parts of the body" and to "be very cautious in political discussions".
It has also suggested not to give clocks as gifts to the Chinese because it sounds like the "end of life" in Mandarin.
"[The book] is to give the Kiwis an advantage to better understand and appreciate the Chinese culture at the Games," said Nora Yao, director of the Confucius Institute.
"As we understand, the New Zealanders are the only team in the world to have the guidebook."
It also gives an introduction to China and a guide on how to pronounce common Chinese words, greetings and introductory phrases such as "hello", "thank you" and "I am a New Zealander".
The guidelines, which Ms Yao said had been posted on the New Zealand Olympic website, follow China's attempts to tell its own citizens about appropriate behaviour.
DOs AND DON'Ts
* Do give a brief handshake and smile when you first meet someone. Do not embrace or kiss Chinese people, and there is no need to bow.
* Do behave and wear appropriate clothes in public, but do not show strong emotions or feelings or expose inappropriate parts of your body.
* When someone pours you tea, say thanks by tapping the table about three times with your second and/or middle finger, but not too loud as it might mean you are angry with the waiter.
* Do remember to bring some tissue or toilet paper when you go out, because there won't be any in most public toilets.
* Do build good networks and relationships or "guanxi" with the Chinese, but do not intentionally criticise others because once "guanxi" is broken, it takes a long time to mend.
By Lincoln Tan
Do not embrace or kiss Chinese people and do not share a pear with others, because it is considered bad luck.
These and other pointers are intended to give New Zealand Olympic athletes the social edge while they are competing in Beijing.
A handbook prepared in New Zealand by the University of Auckland's Confucius Institute advises against "exposing inappropriate body parts of the body" and to "be very cautious in political discussions".
It has also suggested not to give clocks as gifts to the Chinese because it sounds like the "end of life" in Mandarin.
"[The book] is to give the Kiwis an advantage to better understand and appreciate the Chinese culture at the Games," said Nora Yao, director of the Confucius Institute.
"As we understand, the New Zealanders are the only team in the world to have the guidebook."
It also gives an introduction to China and a guide on how to pronounce common Chinese words, greetings and introductory phrases such as "hello", "thank you" and "I am a New Zealander".
The guidelines, which Ms Yao said had been posted on the New Zealand Olympic website, follow China's attempts to tell its own citizens about appropriate behaviour.
DOs AND DON'Ts
* Do give a brief handshake and smile when you first meet someone. Do not embrace or kiss Chinese people, and there is no need to bow.
* Do behave and wear appropriate clothes in public, but do not show strong emotions or feelings or expose inappropriate parts of your body.
* When someone pours you tea, say thanks by tapping the table about three times with your second and/or middle finger, but not too loud as it might mean you are angry with the waiter.
* Do remember to bring some tissue or toilet paper when you go out, because there won't be any in most public toilets.
* Do build good networks and relationships or "guanxi" with the Chinese, but do not intentionally criticise others because once "guanxi" is broken, it takes a long time to mend.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Pop art blends cultures
JIM CHIPP - The Wellingtonian | Wednesday, 30 July 2008
HOME MADE: The book of Wellington fanzine artist Kerry Ann Lee's exhibition is literally all her own work. The artwork, designs and writing are all her own, and she will personally print and bind every single copy before signing it for buyers. As a third-generation Chinese Wellingtonian she did much of her growing up in her parents' cafes and restaurants.
Milk shakes with fried rice are an unusual combo but to a young Kerry Ann Lee it constituted balance. The Chinese Kiwi artist grew up the child of Wellington cafŽ owners and restaurateurs.
"To me it was a balance of western food; milk shakes with fried rice." Her parents operated the Gold Coin Cafe, the Favourite Milk Bar and the Cantonese Cafe.
Lee is an underground artist, arts lecturer and freelance designer best-known for her underground punk fanzine work.
As part of her work towards a Master of Design degree at Massey University, Lee has tried to make sense of what it is to be a third-generation Chinese Wellingtonian in her Home Made exhibition at Toi Poneke Gallery. She has also presented the works in a limited edition, self-published book that is likely to be a popular artwork in itself.
It forms the exhibition centre-piece.
"Everyone's understanding of the cultural history is different" she says. "This is my kind of interpretation."
Growing up as an English-speaking Chinese New Zealander, Lee says she is perceived differently by different people, some consider her to be Kiwi and others, Chinese. Sometimes people will slow their speech to her and ask where she is from. For the record, she's from Newtown; three generations removed from her Cantonese forebears.
"I grew up with Wellington being very diverse and multi-cultural, and I really appreciate that."
Her work is a playful mix of collages, paper-cuttings, and dioramas constituted from found materials. Kiwiana is depicted in traditional Chinese forms. A close look at a Chinese dish reveals a 1960s state house that could be from Naenae or Strathmore.
"A lot of the things I do are between cultures," she says.
"Art descriptions, design descriptions, the local history, my own personal private moments growing up - all those elements have that kind of push-pull tension."
She was pleased to able to incorporate some oral history from her own family and friends.
There is no tension between her underground art and Chinese tradition; they make a comfortable fit, she says.
"It is, by the nature of the work, very much a self-published effort, very much underground," she says.
"The big thing about Chinese culture is giving gifts, including people and sharing food. The whole thing about underground culture is sharing thoughts on paper. In a way it goes with the personal being political."
The gorgeous book is divided into sections: Chinese proverbs traditions and mythology, first arrivals - the Chinese gold miners and their immigration and finally personal stories of Chinese migrants in Aotearoa.
"People will engage with the work in the exhibition through [the] aesthetic first. It's an elegant piece of work."
Looking back at her Chinese heritage has been a growth exercise for her, she says.
"It's very much something that I want to keep up with, and keep with me. I'm in a constant state of discovery."
Her unique perspective on her discoveries are on show from Thursday (July 24) evening in Home Made: Picturing Chinese Settlement in New Zealand until August 22 at Toi Poneke Gallery, 61-63 Abel Smith Street. A limited number of copies of her book will be available
JIM CHIPP - The Wellingtonian | Wednesday, 30 July 2008
HOME MADE: The book of Wellington fanzine artist Kerry Ann Lee's exhibition is literally all her own work. The artwork, designs and writing are all her own, and she will personally print and bind every single copy before signing it for buyers. As a third-generation Chinese Wellingtonian she did much of her growing up in her parents' cafes and restaurants.
Milk shakes with fried rice are an unusual combo but to a young Kerry Ann Lee it constituted balance. The Chinese Kiwi artist grew up the child of Wellington cafŽ owners and restaurateurs.
"To me it was a balance of western food; milk shakes with fried rice." Her parents operated the Gold Coin Cafe, the Favourite Milk Bar and the Cantonese Cafe.
Lee is an underground artist, arts lecturer and freelance designer best-known for her underground punk fanzine work.
As part of her work towards a Master of Design degree at Massey University, Lee has tried to make sense of what it is to be a third-generation Chinese Wellingtonian in her Home Made exhibition at Toi Poneke Gallery. She has also presented the works in a limited edition, self-published book that is likely to be a popular artwork in itself.
It forms the exhibition centre-piece.
"Everyone's understanding of the cultural history is different" she says. "This is my kind of interpretation."
Growing up as an English-speaking Chinese New Zealander, Lee says she is perceived differently by different people, some consider her to be Kiwi and others, Chinese. Sometimes people will slow their speech to her and ask where she is from. For the record, she's from Newtown; three generations removed from her Cantonese forebears.
"I grew up with Wellington being very diverse and multi-cultural, and I really appreciate that."
Her work is a playful mix of collages, paper-cuttings, and dioramas constituted from found materials. Kiwiana is depicted in traditional Chinese forms. A close look at a Chinese dish reveals a 1960s state house that could be from Naenae or Strathmore.
"A lot of the things I do are between cultures," she says.
"Art descriptions, design descriptions, the local history, my own personal private moments growing up - all those elements have that kind of push-pull tension."
She was pleased to able to incorporate some oral history from her own family and friends.
There is no tension between her underground art and Chinese tradition; they make a comfortable fit, she says.
"It is, by the nature of the work, very much a self-published effort, very much underground," she says.
"The big thing about Chinese culture is giving gifts, including people and sharing food. The whole thing about underground culture is sharing thoughts on paper. In a way it goes with the personal being political."
The gorgeous book is divided into sections: Chinese proverbs traditions and mythology, first arrivals - the Chinese gold miners and their immigration and finally personal stories of Chinese migrants in Aotearoa.
"People will engage with the work in the exhibition through [the] aesthetic first. It's an elegant piece of work."
Looking back at her Chinese heritage has been a growth exercise for her, she says.
"It's very much something that I want to keep up with, and keep with me. I'm in a constant state of discovery."
Her unique perspective on her discoveries are on show from Thursday (July 24) evening in Home Made: Picturing Chinese Settlement in New Zealand until August 22 at Toi Poneke Gallery, 61-63 Abel Smith Street. A limited number of copies of her book will be available
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Tung Jung China Trip 2009
Expressions of interest are being taken for a proposed tour of China in late March/April 2009.The proposed dates, though subject to change depending on flights available, are leaving on 28 March 2009 from Auckland and arrive back in Auckland 20 April 2009.
This tour is different to the normal tourist trips and includes approximately a week in Guangzhou and Xintang to enable members to visit their ancestral villages and taking the opportunity to do their family history. The tour of China will include a cruise on the Yangtze River, visiting cities like Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing (see the Olympic venues), Nanjing, Qingdao, Weifang, Qufu (visit Confucius Temple),Taishan Mountains and the Three Gorges Dam.
The Tour package price based on the above itinerary is $6900.00 per person twin shared
plus applicable departure & security taxesof approximately $523.00 if ticketed today.
The cost includes airfares from Auckland to Auckland and all China domestic flights, transportation, 4 star accommodation, western breakfast, lunches and dinners and entrance fees to sightseeing as per itinerary.
Everything is taken care of for you except your own personal expenses.
This price is based on a minimum of 20 persons travelling together in a group.
Due to the floating NZ dollar, prices are subject to change up until full payment has been received.
Confirmation by mid October is required for bookings to be made.
For further information, contact Tung Jung website
This tour is different to the normal tourist trips and includes approximately a week in Guangzhou and Xintang to enable members to visit their ancestral villages and taking the opportunity to do their family history. The tour of China will include a cruise on the Yangtze River, visiting cities like Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing (see the Olympic venues), Nanjing, Qingdao, Weifang, Qufu (visit Confucius Temple),Taishan Mountains and the Three Gorges Dam.
The Tour package price based on the above itinerary is $6900.00 per person twin shared
plus applicable departure & security taxesof approximately $523.00 if ticketed today.
The cost includes airfares from Auckland to Auckland and all China domestic flights, transportation, 4 star accommodation, western breakfast, lunches and dinners and entrance fees to sightseeing as per itinerary.
Everything is taken care of for you except your own personal expenses.
This price is based on a minimum of 20 persons travelling together in a group.
Due to the floating NZ dollar, prices are subject to change up until full payment has been received.
Confirmation by mid October is required for bookings to be made.
For further information, contact Tung Jung website
Henry Chan's life story
I have found Henry Chan's life story - part of a book - the link is below. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=ti8359SiPXwC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=henry+chan+australia&source=web&ots=jBL7ni7nu_&sig=MpvWbXw9tYjyd8K2F6qMKd4bvdQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=re sult
Also a newspaper article published recently
http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/hi....l?page=fullpage
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=ti8359SiPXwC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=henry+chan+australia&source=web&ots=jBL7ni7nu_&sig=MpvWbXw9tYjyd8K2F6qMKd4bvdQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=re sult
Also a newspaper article published recently
http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/hi....l?page=fullpage
Maps of Zengcheng City
maps - some of the bigger areas are named
-- Zengcheng City
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=23.3000092&lon=113.820076&z=13&l=0&m=a&v=2
have found Xingtang, and the railway line
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=23.1214166&lon=113.5905647&z=13&l=0&m=a&v=2
-- Zengcheng City
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=23.3000092&lon=113.820076&z=13&l=0&m=a&v=2
have found Xingtang, and the railway line
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=23.1214166&lon=113.5905647&z=13&l=0&m=a&v=2
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