The story of how Chinese immigrants found their way to the Mississippi River Delta in the late 1800s and earned their living operating small family grocery stores in neighborhoods where mostly black cotton plantation workers lived. What was their status in the segregated black and white world of that region? How did this small group maintain their culture and ethnic identity? What has happened to these merchants and their families over the years?
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/12302.Chopsticks_in_the_Land_of_Cotton
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Wong becomes NZ's first Asian minister
3:47PM Monday Nov 17, 2008
Pansy Wong says her ministerial appointment sends a message to the world New Zealand is a country where anyone can be accepted and succeed. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Pansy Wong says her ministerial appointment sends a message to the world New Zealand is a country where anyone can be accepted and succeed. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Pansy Wong says her appointment as the country's first Asian Cabinet minister shows New Zealand is an open and tolerant country.
The 53-year-old ethnic Chinese MP was appointed Minister for Ethnic Affairs and Minister of Women's Affairs in the new-look Cabinet today.
Mrs Wong said she had always battled to be treated like any other New Zealander and her electorate win in Botany and her appointment as a minister sent a message to the world.
"It shows that New Zealand is a tolerant country where anyone can be accepted and succeed," she told NZPA.
She hoped her achievements would show other minorities they could succeed within mainstream parties and politics and encourage them to get involved.
Mrs Wong credited education, hard work and determination - a system of values instilled by her poor uneducated parents - as the keys to her success.
Born in Shanghai, her family moved to Hong Kong when she was five.
Her father was a seaman who was away for six months of the year and she, her mother, and two brothers lived in a small room in a shared apartment block floor populated by seven families.
"That was about 40 people. We shared one kitchen area and one toilet and one bathroom. So I experienced poverty."
Despite their surroundings, her parents were extremely proud and committed to providing an education and better life for their children.
"She held on to the dream that one day, because the living environment was so depressing, that she wanted to own her own apartment. That dream was fulfilled after six years."
In Hong Kong it was popular to take an English name. Born Yu Fong, which meant "fragrance of flowers", she chose Pansy as her English name.
"I liked it. Pansies are tough but they are also happy and kind of vivacious. It was only afterwards that I found out they don't have any fragrance."
In 1974, when she was 19, her family emigrated to New Zealand after her father, who had docked here on his travels, decided it was good place to raise a family.
Mrs Wong studied at Canterbury University, helping out in her family's St Albans fish and chip shop and Bealey Ave hamburger joint in her spare time.
"Even now I can still flip a mean burger."
It was at university that she met her Malaysian Chinese husband Sammy.
She went on to complete a Masters of Commerce degree with honours, initially working at what is now Ernst and Young as an accountant before joining Christchurch firm Smiths City where she eventually became chief financial controller.
In 1989 she was approached to enter local politics and was elected to Canterbury Regional Council, where she became known as the "$6 million dollar woman" for carving that figure off the budget.
As MMP neared Fendalton MP Philip Burdon approached her to stand for National and she agreed, in 1996 becoming New Zealand's first Asian MP by virtue of National's list.
It was during that election that she first locked horns with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters who was campaigning on an anti-immigration platform and described her as a "token" MP.
After the election she threatened to quit National if the incoming government adopted NZ First's immigration policy.
Mrs Wong said being described as token did not overly worry her because she was used to such treatment.
"Even today some people mock my accent and the way I speak."
She said if anything the barbs helped her motivation.
But she did not like NZ First's denigration of immigrants, knowing first hand how hard it was to resettle in a foreign country.
Mrs Wong said since she was elected to Parliament she has tried to represent Asian communities, but she does not see herself as a spokeswoman for all Asians, as there is a diverse range of interests and views within such a wide group.
"I think it's really important for people to see Asians as individuals rather than just a group."
- NZPA
Pansy Wong says her ministerial appointment sends a message to the world New Zealand is a country where anyone can be accepted and succeed. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Pansy Wong says her ministerial appointment sends a message to the world New Zealand is a country where anyone can be accepted and succeed. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Pansy Wong says her appointment as the country's first Asian Cabinet minister shows New Zealand is an open and tolerant country.
The 53-year-old ethnic Chinese MP was appointed Minister for Ethnic Affairs and Minister of Women's Affairs in the new-look Cabinet today.
Mrs Wong said she had always battled to be treated like any other New Zealander and her electorate win in Botany and her appointment as a minister sent a message to the world.
"It shows that New Zealand is a tolerant country where anyone can be accepted and succeed," she told NZPA.
She hoped her achievements would show other minorities they could succeed within mainstream parties and politics and encourage them to get involved.
Mrs Wong credited education, hard work and determination - a system of values instilled by her poor uneducated parents - as the keys to her success.
Born in Shanghai, her family moved to Hong Kong when she was five.
Her father was a seaman who was away for six months of the year and she, her mother, and two brothers lived in a small room in a shared apartment block floor populated by seven families.
"That was about 40 people. We shared one kitchen area and one toilet and one bathroom. So I experienced poverty."
Despite their surroundings, her parents were extremely proud and committed to providing an education and better life for their children.
"She held on to the dream that one day, because the living environment was so depressing, that she wanted to own her own apartment. That dream was fulfilled after six years."
In Hong Kong it was popular to take an English name. Born Yu Fong, which meant "fragrance of flowers", she chose Pansy as her English name.
"I liked it. Pansies are tough but they are also happy and kind of vivacious. It was only afterwards that I found out they don't have any fragrance."
In 1974, when she was 19, her family emigrated to New Zealand after her father, who had docked here on his travels, decided it was good place to raise a family.
Mrs Wong studied at Canterbury University, helping out in her family's St Albans fish and chip shop and Bealey Ave hamburger joint in her spare time.
"Even now I can still flip a mean burger."
It was at university that she met her Malaysian Chinese husband Sammy.
She went on to complete a Masters of Commerce degree with honours, initially working at what is now Ernst and Young as an accountant before joining Christchurch firm Smiths City where she eventually became chief financial controller.
In 1989 she was approached to enter local politics and was elected to Canterbury Regional Council, where she became known as the "$6 million dollar woman" for carving that figure off the budget.
As MMP neared Fendalton MP Philip Burdon approached her to stand for National and she agreed, in 1996 becoming New Zealand's first Asian MP by virtue of National's list.
It was during that election that she first locked horns with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters who was campaigning on an anti-immigration platform and described her as a "token" MP.
After the election she threatened to quit National if the incoming government adopted NZ First's immigration policy.
Mrs Wong said being described as token did not overly worry her because she was used to such treatment.
"Even today some people mock my accent and the way I speak."
She said if anything the barbs helped her motivation.
But she did not like NZ First's denigration of immigrants, knowing first hand how hard it was to resettle in a foreign country.
Mrs Wong said since she was elected to Parliament she has tried to represent Asian communities, but she does not see herself as a spokeswoman for all Asians, as there is a diverse range of interests and views within such a wide group.
"I think it's really important for people to see Asians as individuals rather than just a group."
- NZPA
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Mid-Autumn Festival - Moon Cake Recipe
Dough:
4 cups Plain flour
3/4 cup Powdered milk
1/2 tablespoon Baking powder
1 cup Sugar
4 Eggs
Filling
4 cups Red, green or lotus seed paste
20 Yolks from salted eggs
1 Egg yolk
3/4 cup Melted butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To make Filling:
1. Put the 20 salted egg yolks on a baking sheet and bake for 10 mins.
2. Divide bean paste into 20 portions and press a salted egg yolk into each of these.
3. Roll these up into a ball with the egg yolk hidden in the centre.
To make Dough:
1. Sift flour, powdered milk and baking powder together.
2. Beat sugar and eggs together until creamy and white, about 10 minutes.
3. Mix in the melted butter.
4. Then lightly fold in the dry ingredients.
5. Divide this mixture into 20 portions.
To make the mooncakes:
1. Increase the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Roll out dough to 4 inch circles.
3. Place a portion of filling each in the centre and bring up the sides to encase it completely. Pinch cracks to seal and roll between your hands to make a ball.
4. Lightly flour the mould and press the dough ball into it, flattening it with the palm of your hand. Shake to tip out.
5. Place them on a baking sheet, brush tops with egg yolk, and bake for 30 mins.
6. Serve warm or cold.
4 cups Plain flour
3/4 cup Powdered milk
1/2 tablespoon Baking powder
1 cup Sugar
4 Eggs
Filling
4 cups Red, green or lotus seed paste
20 Yolks from salted eggs
1 Egg yolk
3/4 cup Melted butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To make Filling:
1. Put the 20 salted egg yolks on a baking sheet and bake for 10 mins.
2. Divide bean paste into 20 portions and press a salted egg yolk into each of these.
3. Roll these up into a ball with the egg yolk hidden in the centre.
To make Dough:
1. Sift flour, powdered milk and baking powder together.
2. Beat sugar and eggs together until creamy and white, about 10 minutes.
3. Mix in the melted butter.
4. Then lightly fold in the dry ingredients.
5. Divide this mixture into 20 portions.
To make the mooncakes:
1. Increase the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Roll out dough to 4 inch circles.
3. Place a portion of filling each in the centre and bring up the sides to encase it completely. Pinch cracks to seal and roll between your hands to make a ball.
4. Lightly flour the mould and press the dough ball into it, flattening it with the palm of your hand. Shake to tip out.
5. Place them on a baking sheet, brush tops with egg yolk, and bake for 30 mins.
6. Serve warm or cold.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Fire safety in Chinese
Fire safety in Chinese
By JUDITH LACY - Tribune | Sunday, 24 August 2008
It wasn't quite the lucky 08-08-08, but the launch date of a Chinese language booklet in Palmerston North had enough eights, plus a fire safety-significant one.
The liberally illustrated 10-page booklet covers fire safety tips for around the home and has already been translated into Maori and French.
Launched on 18-08-08, the Chinese booklet is a joint initiative by the Palmerston North Fire Service and the Manawatu branch of the New Zealand Chinese Association.
Last year a group of older Chinese visited the Palmerston North fire station to learn about fire safety and co-ordinator May Needham identified a need for a Chinese language booklet.
Soon after taking up her position, Mrs Needham found older Chinese were not accessing information available to "mainstream" New Zealanders.
Manawatu Chinese Association vice president Tony Thackery told the launch the booklet would be of vital importance to many new Chinese migrants. If it assisted in saving one life or someone from serious injury, the venture had been worthwhile.
Firefighter Mitch Ormsby, who worked with Mrs Needham on the project, hoped the relationship would continue and more fire safety tools could be developed.
The booklet's development was funded by the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust and COGS, with printing costs met by the Fire Service.
Representatives from the Department of Internal Affairs, Age Concern, St John and Settlement Support also attended the launch.
Settlement Support co- ordinator Shelley Davenport said getting official material in languages accessible to migrants was an ongoing challenge.
The fire safety booklet had a strong lifesaving message and was "just brilliant", she said.
By JUDITH LACY - Tribune | Sunday, 24 August 2008
It wasn't quite the lucky 08-08-08, but the launch date of a Chinese language booklet in Palmerston North had enough eights, plus a fire safety-significant one.
The liberally illustrated 10-page booklet covers fire safety tips for around the home and has already been translated into Maori and French.
Launched on 18-08-08, the Chinese booklet is a joint initiative by the Palmerston North Fire Service and the Manawatu branch of the New Zealand Chinese Association.
Last year a group of older Chinese visited the Palmerston North fire station to learn about fire safety and co-ordinator May Needham identified a need for a Chinese language booklet.
Soon after taking up her position, Mrs Needham found older Chinese were not accessing information available to "mainstream" New Zealanders.
Manawatu Chinese Association vice president Tony Thackery told the launch the booklet would be of vital importance to many new Chinese migrants. If it assisted in saving one life or someone from serious injury, the venture had been worthwhile.
Firefighter Mitch Ormsby, who worked with Mrs Needham on the project, hoped the relationship would continue and more fire safety tools could be developed.
The booklet's development was funded by the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust and COGS, with printing costs met by the Fire Service.
Representatives from the Department of Internal Affairs, Age Concern, St John and Settlement Support also attended the launch.
Settlement Support co- ordinator Shelley Davenport said getting official material in languages accessible to migrants was an ongoing challenge.
The fire safety booklet had a strong lifesaving message and was "just brilliant", she said.
Poll tax kept out Chinese
Poll tax kept out Chinese
By JUDITH LACY - Tribune | Sunday, 14 September 2008
WIDE AWAKE: Jessica Wong, 11, plays with lion Hoi Gong at its awakening ceremony at Te Manawa on Monday. Inside the lion are Teh Gyu Kim (head) and Qi-Wern Lim (tail). Aluminium-framed, Hoi Gong is a lot lighter than its bamboo and rattan predecessor, which has been retired.
Hoi Gong waits patiently, sparkling in the gloom.
Manawatu is spelt out in yellow letters around its neck.
Palmerston North Deputy Mayor John Hornblow, clad in a burgundy jacket he was presented with during a visit to Palmerston North's friendship city Kunshan, approaches.
Ceremonial brush in hand, he begins dotting a red liquid on the golden lion in a series of specified steps, starting with the eyes, moving to the toes, and ending with the forehead.
So begins the awakening ceremony of the Manawatu Chinese Association's new lion, an event which last happened 18 years ago.
Monday's ceremony in Te Manawa's courtyard marked the opening of two exhibitions at the Palmerston North museum, A Barbarous Measure: The Poll Tax and Chinese New Zealanders, and one celebrating the association's 70th anniversary.
A Barbarous Measure includes photos, newspaper clippings, cartoons and poll tax associated items.
The [PndStlg]10 tax on every Chinese migrant was introduced in 1881 to make it difficult for Chinese to settle in New Zealand.
Anti-Chinese feeling is evident in a poem published in the Press in 1899, which begins:
"Heap up the Chow Man's burden
Don't let his misery cease".
A White NZ League cartoon from 1931 exhorts consumers to buy from their own race and keep New Zealand white, loosening the "Asiatic stronghold" on market gardening.
Exhibition curator Nigel Murphy told the opening crowd the aim of the poll tax was not to harm Chinese, but to exclude them from New Zealand and being New Zealanders. Unlike Britain, class was not important here; instead race was everything.
In 1896, the tax was increased to [PndStlg]100, roughly equivalent to 10 years' earnings.
In 1934 payment of the tax was waived and the legislation behind it repealed in 1944.
About 4500 Chinese paid a total of [PndStlg]308,080 between 1882 and 1934.
Mr Murphy asked, in 2008, who is a New Zealander? Does white still mean New Zealander? What is our national identity? How much of the attitude behind the poll tax still exists?
New Zealand Chinese Association president Steven Young said it was the fifth time the poll tax exhibition had been mounted in New Zealand.
Sixteen years ago the association commissioned Mr Murphy to research the tax. Until then, little was known about it and the legislative framework that gave rise to it, Mr Young said.
The tax virtually stopped the migration of Chinese women, for 40 years shaping the New Zealand Chinese community into one of "married bachelors". This had a huge negative social and cultural impact, he said.
In 2002 Prime Minister Helen Clark apologised to Chinese who'd paid the poll tax and suffered other discrimination, and to their descendants. Palmerston North MP Steve Maharey said the apology wasn't about dragging up painful memories. Instead it was so people could move on.
Mr Hornblow announced Palmerston North was the first New Zealand local authority to join the China and New Zealand Business Council, formed in 2006.
Palmerston North City Council is also working towards creating a bonsai garden at Victoria Esplanade.
* A Barbarous Measure runs until October 12. Free admission.
By JUDITH LACY - Tribune | Sunday, 14 September 2008
WIDE AWAKE: Jessica Wong, 11, plays with lion Hoi Gong at its awakening ceremony at Te Manawa on Monday. Inside the lion are Teh Gyu Kim (head) and Qi-Wern Lim (tail). Aluminium-framed, Hoi Gong is a lot lighter than its bamboo and rattan predecessor, which has been retired.
Hoi Gong waits patiently, sparkling in the gloom.
Manawatu is spelt out in yellow letters around its neck.
Palmerston North Deputy Mayor John Hornblow, clad in a burgundy jacket he was presented with during a visit to Palmerston North's friendship city Kunshan, approaches.
Ceremonial brush in hand, he begins dotting a red liquid on the golden lion in a series of specified steps, starting with the eyes, moving to the toes, and ending with the forehead.
So begins the awakening ceremony of the Manawatu Chinese Association's new lion, an event which last happened 18 years ago.
Monday's ceremony in Te Manawa's courtyard marked the opening of two exhibitions at the Palmerston North museum, A Barbarous Measure: The Poll Tax and Chinese New Zealanders, and one celebrating the association's 70th anniversary.
A Barbarous Measure includes photos, newspaper clippings, cartoons and poll tax associated items.
The [PndStlg]10 tax on every Chinese migrant was introduced in 1881 to make it difficult for Chinese to settle in New Zealand.
Anti-Chinese feeling is evident in a poem published in the Press in 1899, which begins:
"Heap up the Chow Man's burden
Don't let his misery cease".
A White NZ League cartoon from 1931 exhorts consumers to buy from their own race and keep New Zealand white, loosening the "Asiatic stronghold" on market gardening.
Exhibition curator Nigel Murphy told the opening crowd the aim of the poll tax was not to harm Chinese, but to exclude them from New Zealand and being New Zealanders. Unlike Britain, class was not important here; instead race was everything.
In 1896, the tax was increased to [PndStlg]100, roughly equivalent to 10 years' earnings.
In 1934 payment of the tax was waived and the legislation behind it repealed in 1944.
About 4500 Chinese paid a total of [PndStlg]308,080 between 1882 and 1934.
Mr Murphy asked, in 2008, who is a New Zealander? Does white still mean New Zealander? What is our national identity? How much of the attitude behind the poll tax still exists?
New Zealand Chinese Association president Steven Young said it was the fifth time the poll tax exhibition had been mounted in New Zealand.
Sixteen years ago the association commissioned Mr Murphy to research the tax. Until then, little was known about it and the legislative framework that gave rise to it, Mr Young said.
The tax virtually stopped the migration of Chinese women, for 40 years shaping the New Zealand Chinese community into one of "married bachelors". This had a huge negative social and cultural impact, he said.
In 2002 Prime Minister Helen Clark apologised to Chinese who'd paid the poll tax and suffered other discrimination, and to their descendants. Palmerston North MP Steve Maharey said the apology wasn't about dragging up painful memories. Instead it was so people could move on.
Mr Hornblow announced Palmerston North was the first New Zealand local authority to join the China and New Zealand Business Council, formed in 2006.
Palmerston North City Council is also working towards creating a bonsai garden at Victoria Esplanade.
* A Barbarous Measure runs until October 12. Free admission.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Metro's Best Asian Restaurants 2008
In association with Asia Downunder
The September issue of Metro, on sale August 25, contains our inaugural comprehensive guide to Auckland's top 50 Asian restaurants, selected after several months of exhaustive judging.
As part of the process we selected winners across 10 categories, including the popular vote for best food hall.
Congratulations to the winners who are...
SUPREME WINNER; BEST JAPANESE
SOTO
13 St Marys Rd, Ponsonby.
Ph 360-0021.
www.sotorestaurant.mobi
BEST CHINESE
PEARL GARDEN
1 Teed St, Newmarket.
Ph 523-3696.
BEST INDIAN
SATYA
17 Great North Rd, Newton.
Ph 361-3612.
BEST INDOCHINESE
SOPHEARA
136 Chapel Rd, Flat Bush, Manukau.
Ph 272-4749.
BEST KOREAN
MAPO
22a Torrens Ave, East Tamaki.
Ph 265-1700.
BEST MALAYSIAN
MALAYSIAN NONYA
87D Picton St, Howick.
Ph 537-168.
BEST THAI
THAI FRIENDS
311 Parnell Rd, Parnell.
Ph 373-247.
wwwthaifriends.co.nz
BEST ASIAN FUSION
CHOW
1 Pakenham St East, Viaduct.
Ph 365-2585.
www.chow.co.nz
BEST YUM CHAR
SUNSHINE
39 Market Pl, Viaduct.
Ph 302-3322.
BEST FOOD HALL
FOOD ALLEY
22 Albert St, City.
Ph 373-4917.
The September issue of Metro, on sale August 25, contains our inaugural comprehensive guide to Auckland's top 50 Asian restaurants, selected after several months of exhaustive judging.
As part of the process we selected winners across 10 categories, including the popular vote for best food hall.
Congratulations to the winners who are...
SUPREME WINNER; BEST JAPANESE
SOTO
13 St Marys Rd, Ponsonby.
Ph 360-0021.
www.sotorestaurant.mobi
BEST CHINESE
PEARL GARDEN
1 Teed St, Newmarket.
Ph 523-3696.
BEST INDIAN
SATYA
17 Great North Rd, Newton.
Ph 361-3612.
BEST INDOCHINESE
SOPHEARA
136 Chapel Rd, Flat Bush, Manukau.
Ph 272-4749.
BEST KOREAN
MAPO
22a Torrens Ave, East Tamaki.
Ph 265-1700.
BEST MALAYSIAN
MALAYSIAN NONYA
87D Picton St, Howick.
Ph 537-168.
BEST THAI
THAI FRIENDS
311 Parnell Rd, Parnell.
Ph 373-247.
wwwthaifriends.co.nz
BEST ASIAN FUSION
CHOW
1 Pakenham St East, Viaduct.
Ph 365-2585.
www.chow.co.nz
BEST YUM CHAR
SUNSHINE
39 Market Pl, Viaduct.
Ph 302-3322.
BEST FOOD HALL
FOOD ALLEY
22 Albert St, City.
Ph 373-4917.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Ahead of the Bananas NZ Going Global International Conference in August, RENEE LIANG spoke to guest speaker Alison Wong about writing, her Montana shortlisted poetry collection Cup, and growing up Chinese in New Zealand.
THE FIRST thing that strikes me about Alison Wong is her laugh. It’s frequent, loud and suddenly throws its arms about you like some long-lost cousin. She has one of those familiar-looking faces and I catch myself wondering if we are related somehow. It’s unlikely, though it would be good if we were. Then perhaps I could lay claim to some of those writer’s genes which make Wong one of our country’s emerging stars.
Meeting her just ahead of a conference for Chinese New Zealanders fondly nicknamed The Banana Conference, the first observation that pops into my unguarded mouth is that she is a New Zealander of Chinese descent. This is not the way she prefers people to approach her writing, she tells me smiling: “you write out of your own experience, but your experience isn’t just from your ethnic background, it is informed by everything in your life.” She goes on to add that most of her poems come with no ethnic flavouring. But in terms of experience, Wong has certainly had a rich life so far.
Growing up in urban, Middle New Zealand Hawke’s Bay, Wong was often isolated from Chinese culture. The Chinese community in Hawke’s Bay was small, unlike the bigger Chinese communities of Auckland and Wellington, and Wong was not aware that she was supposed be different from her Pakeha friends. But however much she downplays the cultural influences on her work, her Chinese upbringing continues to influence what she chooses to write about.
When Wong was a baby, her parents decided to stop speaking in Chinese to their children, to avoid problems with an employee who was paranoid they were talking about her behind her back. As a result Wong can’t speak much Cantonese, something that prevented her from getting to know her grandmother and importantly, many of her own family stories.
As an adult, Wong unravels her Chinese background through her writing. Stories she came across while finding out about her own community have been jumping-off points for some of her fiction. But although she does meticulous research to ensure her work is historically accurate, in the end, what she writes is fiction. “All (my) major characters and their relationships are completely fictional.”
Writing came naturally to Wong. She speaks of a sense of “otherness” common to many artists, but says that she would have become a writer anyway. As a schoolgirl, Wong did not relate to the stories of Sargeson and Mansfield, both of whom referenced spheres of New Zealand experience alien to her, and in the case of Mansfield featured characters that Wong found denigrating to her race. But she identified with the imagination and otherworldliness of Owls do Cry by Janet Frame. With further encouragement and permission from teachers, including one who allowed her to write an assignment on India in the form of poems, her urge to write was unlocked.
Members of her family – her mother, her father, her siblings and her half-Chinese son – wander through Wong’s poems, often becoming conduits to express her musings on love, relationships, memory and loss. Wong has also been working for some years on a historical novel about the Chinese community in New Zealand at the turn of last century. This, she concedes, has spilled over into her other writing – “it’s just coincidental that (I) happen to be Chinese and some of that feeds in as well... I’ve had to do so much research into Chinese things for my novel (that poems) have fallen out of that.”
On sampling her first collection of poetry Cup – a finalist for this year’s Montana Best First Book for Poetry Award – I find that Wong’s verse is spare and elegant, possibly with oriental notes, but balanced by a healthy whiff of Kiwi earthiness. One minute you sigh over the restrained longing of Landscape, the next you are gently slapped in the face with the sly punnery of Kilmog Hill. One gets the impression that Wong is quite happy to step quietly into the background and let the reader absorb the feelings and intent by themselves.
For example, in her poem Tessellation: “the man loves her/deeply//a stone in cool water//milk-drunk/reminiscent...”, Wong demonstrates her understanding of the importance of the white spaces between the words, the things left unsaid and therefore all the more powerful.
There is a subtle sensuality in her writing. Lovers feature in her poetry as often as her parents do – and she is touchingly vulnerable in her expression of her feelings: “as I lie/draped over you with nothing/not a molecule/between us/I feel like a soft wet leaf/a piece of news/paper wet with the love of you – “ (After).
It is probably fair to say that Wong has had her share of bad luck with men. Going over to China in her early twenties driven by “a calling”, she met and married a Chinese man and brought him back to New Zealand with her. However, in the end the marriage didn’t work out.
Wong found that being divorced was freeing: “I’d spent all those years supporting my husband and doing what I needed to do to earn a living and not doing what I really wanted to do. So when I didn’t need to support him any more, I could think about what I wanted to do for me and that’s when I started taking my writing really seriously... I realised – I’m a writer, I don’t need to earn any money, I can be poor, I can just do what I want to do.”
And what she wanted to do was write poetry and fiction, lashings of it, doing the Creative Writing paper at Victoria University at the same time as she enrolled in the Creative Writing course at Whitireia Polytechnic. This change of discipline – Wong’s previous degree had been in Mathematics and she had worked in IT for many years – might have seemed sudden, but Wong was happy.
Typically for a Kiwi, she downplays the subsequent success she had, earning among other honours an appointment as the Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University, the Reader’s Digest-New Zealand Society of Authors Stout Research Centre Fellowship (to write her first novel), and inclusion in Best New Zealand Poems 2006. She says that these honours focussed the spotlight at times, and her ethnicity came up for analysis repeatedly: “I just think you’ve got to carry on doing your own thing regardless of what anyone else thinks or expects – otherwise it can cripple you.”
Wong became involved with fellow Wellingtonian poet Lindsay Forbes, and they had a son they named Jackson. Jackson has been both a source of literary inspiration – the middle section of Wong’s book, subtitled Wishing Spiders, is about him – and of literary disruption. Wong laughs when I ask how her novel is getting on. “I try to write when Jackson is at school or otherwise occupied but it’s not easy! There are limited times you can write and it’s totally, totally different with a novel compared to say, a poem. With a novel, unless you make yourself sit down and write whether you feel like it or not, you’ll never write it.”
Although Wong and Forbes’ relationship did not last, one other result of their union, the Porirua Poetry Café, did. The live poetry performance venue has now hosted many local and international poetic talents. Wong does not see herself as a performance poet – “I can’t put on voices or (put on) a particular persona” – but she does enjoy reading.
And later when I have the opportunity to see her read, I can see this. She lets her words speak for themselves, almost absenting herself from the podium. Her voice is quiet, but with an inner steel which I can’t help feeling has defined Wong’s approach to life so far and comes through in her writing. A quiet, familiar strength. Quiet except for that loud, generous laugh of hers.
See also:
» Cup, By Alison Wong
Alison Wong’s poetry collection, "Cup" (Steele Roberts, 2006), is shortlisted for the 2007 Montana NZ Book Awards NZ Society Authors Best First Book for Poetry. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Best NZ Poems 2006, Dear To Me: 100 New Zealanders Write About Their Favourite Poems, and various other journals and anthologies. She was the 2002 Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University and a founder of Porirua’s Poetry Café. She lives in Titahi Bay, Porirua, where she is completing a novel.
» 14.09.07 / Arts Feature
THE FIRST thing that strikes me about Alison Wong is her laugh. It’s frequent, loud and suddenly throws its arms about you like some long-lost cousin. She has one of those familiar-looking faces and I catch myself wondering if we are related somehow. It’s unlikely, though it would be good if we were. Then perhaps I could lay claim to some of those writer’s genes which make Wong one of our country’s emerging stars.
Meeting her just ahead of a conference for Chinese New Zealanders fondly nicknamed The Banana Conference, the first observation that pops into my unguarded mouth is that she is a New Zealander of Chinese descent. This is not the way she prefers people to approach her writing, she tells me smiling: “you write out of your own experience, but your experience isn’t just from your ethnic background, it is informed by everything in your life.” She goes on to add that most of her poems come with no ethnic flavouring. But in terms of experience, Wong has certainly had a rich life so far.
Growing up in urban, Middle New Zealand Hawke’s Bay, Wong was often isolated from Chinese culture. The Chinese community in Hawke’s Bay was small, unlike the bigger Chinese communities of Auckland and Wellington, and Wong was not aware that she was supposed be different from her Pakeha friends. But however much she downplays the cultural influences on her work, her Chinese upbringing continues to influence what she chooses to write about.
When Wong was a baby, her parents decided to stop speaking in Chinese to their children, to avoid problems with an employee who was paranoid they were talking about her behind her back. As a result Wong can’t speak much Cantonese, something that prevented her from getting to know her grandmother and importantly, many of her own family stories.
As an adult, Wong unravels her Chinese background through her writing. Stories she came across while finding out about her own community have been jumping-off points for some of her fiction. But although she does meticulous research to ensure her work is historically accurate, in the end, what she writes is fiction. “All (my) major characters and their relationships are completely fictional.”
Writing came naturally to Wong. She speaks of a sense of “otherness” common to many artists, but says that she would have become a writer anyway. As a schoolgirl, Wong did not relate to the stories of Sargeson and Mansfield, both of whom referenced spheres of New Zealand experience alien to her, and in the case of Mansfield featured characters that Wong found denigrating to her race. But she identified with the imagination and otherworldliness of Owls do Cry by Janet Frame. With further encouragement and permission from teachers, including one who allowed her to write an assignment on India in the form of poems, her urge to write was unlocked.
Members of her family – her mother, her father, her siblings and her half-Chinese son – wander through Wong’s poems, often becoming conduits to express her musings on love, relationships, memory and loss. Wong has also been working for some years on a historical novel about the Chinese community in New Zealand at the turn of last century. This, she concedes, has spilled over into her other writing – “it’s just coincidental that (I) happen to be Chinese and some of that feeds in as well... I’ve had to do so much research into Chinese things for my novel (that poems) have fallen out of that.”
On sampling her first collection of poetry Cup – a finalist for this year’s Montana Best First Book for Poetry Award – I find that Wong’s verse is spare and elegant, possibly with oriental notes, but balanced by a healthy whiff of Kiwi earthiness. One minute you sigh over the restrained longing of Landscape, the next you are gently slapped in the face with the sly punnery of Kilmog Hill. One gets the impression that Wong is quite happy to step quietly into the background and let the reader absorb the feelings and intent by themselves.
For example, in her poem Tessellation: “the man loves her/deeply//a stone in cool water//milk-drunk/reminiscent...”, Wong demonstrates her understanding of the importance of the white spaces between the words, the things left unsaid and therefore all the more powerful.
There is a subtle sensuality in her writing. Lovers feature in her poetry as often as her parents do – and she is touchingly vulnerable in her expression of her feelings: “as I lie/draped over you with nothing/not a molecule/between us/I feel like a soft wet leaf/a piece of news/paper wet with the love of you – “ (After).
It is probably fair to say that Wong has had her share of bad luck with men. Going over to China in her early twenties driven by “a calling”, she met and married a Chinese man and brought him back to New Zealand with her. However, in the end the marriage didn’t work out.
Wong found that being divorced was freeing: “I’d spent all those years supporting my husband and doing what I needed to do to earn a living and not doing what I really wanted to do. So when I didn’t need to support him any more, I could think about what I wanted to do for me and that’s when I started taking my writing really seriously... I realised – I’m a writer, I don’t need to earn any money, I can be poor, I can just do what I want to do.”
And what she wanted to do was write poetry and fiction, lashings of it, doing the Creative Writing paper at Victoria University at the same time as she enrolled in the Creative Writing course at Whitireia Polytechnic. This change of discipline – Wong’s previous degree had been in Mathematics and she had worked in IT for many years – might have seemed sudden, but Wong was happy.
Typically for a Kiwi, she downplays the subsequent success she had, earning among other honours an appointment as the Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University, the Reader’s Digest-New Zealand Society of Authors Stout Research Centre Fellowship (to write her first novel), and inclusion in Best New Zealand Poems 2006. She says that these honours focussed the spotlight at times, and her ethnicity came up for analysis repeatedly: “I just think you’ve got to carry on doing your own thing regardless of what anyone else thinks or expects – otherwise it can cripple you.”
Wong became involved with fellow Wellingtonian poet Lindsay Forbes, and they had a son they named Jackson. Jackson has been both a source of literary inspiration – the middle section of Wong’s book, subtitled Wishing Spiders, is about him – and of literary disruption. Wong laughs when I ask how her novel is getting on. “I try to write when Jackson is at school or otherwise occupied but it’s not easy! There are limited times you can write and it’s totally, totally different with a novel compared to say, a poem. With a novel, unless you make yourself sit down and write whether you feel like it or not, you’ll never write it.”
Although Wong and Forbes’ relationship did not last, one other result of their union, the Porirua Poetry Café, did. The live poetry performance venue has now hosted many local and international poetic talents. Wong does not see herself as a performance poet – “I can’t put on voices or (put on) a particular persona” – but she does enjoy reading.
And later when I have the opportunity to see her read, I can see this. She lets her words speak for themselves, almost absenting herself from the podium. Her voice is quiet, but with an inner steel which I can’t help feeling has defined Wong’s approach to life so far and comes through in her writing. A quiet, familiar strength. Quiet except for that loud, generous laugh of hers.
See also:
» Cup, By Alison Wong
Alison Wong’s poetry collection, "Cup" (Steele Roberts, 2006), is shortlisted for the 2007 Montana NZ Book Awards NZ Society Authors Best First Book for Poetry. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Best NZ Poems 2006, Dear To Me: 100 New Zealanders Write About Their Favourite Poems, and various other journals and anthologies. She was the 2002 Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University and a founder of Porirua’s Poetry Café. She lives in Titahi Bay, Porirua, where she is completing a novel.
» 14.09.07 / Arts Feature
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
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Chinese community pitches in with $40,000
Chinese community pitches in with $40,000 for victims of quake
5:00AM Wednesday July 30, 2008
By Lincoln Tan
A $40,000 cheque towards relief efforts for victims of China's devastating May earthquake from Auckland's local-born Chinese community has come as a welcome surprise to the Red Cross after donations to the cause had reduced to a trickle.
"China's earthquake seems a long time ago with the Olympics hogging the headlines," said Kelly Mitchell, spokeswoman for the New Zealand Red Cross.
"But the need is still great, and the recovery for victims will take longer than most people's memories. It will take years for most to rebuild their lives."
New Zealanders donated $270,000 in the first three weeks after the earthquake, but Ms Mitchell said the donations had since stopped.
The earthquake in China's Sichuan province killed nearly 70,000 people and many thousands are still missing, presumed dead.
More than 30 million people lost most of their assets and millions of farm animals died after the quake, and survivors have also lost their means to make a living.
A United Nations report last month estimated the damage at US$6 billion ($8 billion) to the region's agriculture sector alone.
Kai Luey, national president of the New Zealand Chinese Association, said the $40,000 was raised from groups "representing the long-term Chinese residents in Auckland" at a dinner last month.
Mr Luey said: "We, the older Chinese community still care about the devastating effect that the disaster caused our compatriots in Sichuan, and we hope the donation would be a meaningful contribution to the relief funds."
The cheque will be presented to Kaye Jensen, Auckland's Red Cross manager, tomorrow.
Ms Mitchell said the donation from Auckland's Chinese community was timely.
5:00AM Wednesday July 30, 2008
By Lincoln Tan
A $40,000 cheque towards relief efforts for victims of China's devastating May earthquake from Auckland's local-born Chinese community has come as a welcome surprise to the Red Cross after donations to the cause had reduced to a trickle.
"China's earthquake seems a long time ago with the Olympics hogging the headlines," said Kelly Mitchell, spokeswoman for the New Zealand Red Cross.
"But the need is still great, and the recovery for victims will take longer than most people's memories. It will take years for most to rebuild their lives."
New Zealanders donated $270,000 in the first three weeks after the earthquake, but Ms Mitchell said the donations had since stopped.
The earthquake in China's Sichuan province killed nearly 70,000 people and many thousands are still missing, presumed dead.
More than 30 million people lost most of their assets and millions of farm animals died after the quake, and survivors have also lost their means to make a living.
A United Nations report last month estimated the damage at US$6 billion ($8 billion) to the region's agriculture sector alone.
Kai Luey, national president of the New Zealand Chinese Association, said the $40,000 was raised from groups "representing the long-term Chinese residents in Auckland" at a dinner last month.
Mr Luey said: "We, the older Chinese community still care about the devastating effect that the disaster caused our compatriots in Sichuan, and we hope the donation would be a meaningful contribution to the relief funds."
The cheque will be presented to Kaye Jensen, Auckland's Red Cross manager, tomorrow.
Ms Mitchell said the donation from Auckland's Chinese community was timely.
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