NZChineseGenealogy

Since the internet began we’ve had people in our lives that are more than acquaintances and not quite close friends. We are in each other’s orbit. We are village members, no matter where we are.

When there’s a tragedy, or a triumph, the village tends to join in and say the things village members say, often along the lines of "I'm so sorry for your loss" or "congratulations!"

Somewhere along the way, I stopped doing that. Maybe it's because offline communities were more real, maybe I was influenced by people in my life who distinguished between online and offline people, or maybe I just got overwhelmed by how much data there is on the web. Whatever the cause, I stopped saying little supportive messages, because I thought, "I'm not adding anything new".

Then my Mum died.

Suddenly I realised how every. single. word of support made so much difference

https://www.simonsaidthis.com/post/on-being-a-member-of-the-community

Game over for Hong Kong shop selling hand-carved mahjong tiles for 47 years
Kung Yau Cheung Mahjong in Mong Kok will close on March 28

A shop selling hand-carved mahjong tiles will close for good this week after nearly half a century, marking the demise of one of Hong Kong’s few remaining traditional handicraft stores.

Kung Yau Cheung Mahjong, founded 47 years ago, announced it would close on March 28.

Owner and artisan carver Ko Yun-kan, who entered the trade aged 18, said the closure of the Mong Kok shop was not due to poor business but because the landlord had decided to take back the street-corner premises earlier this year.

Ko, now in his sixties, said the shop on Shanghai Street was his first job and had been his life’s work.

He said he had tried to find a new location but could not secure a suitable site, and had decided to retire for now. Ko added that having devoted himself to the craft every day for years, he lost the work overnight and felt a sense of loss.

https://sc.mp/uh8nt?utm_source=copy-link&utm_campaign=3347499&utm_medium=share_widget

It took to 2002 to receive the Apology

Giving this a Boost - Please support Ant Sang with his current project.

21 Days Left
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WING CHUN is a kinetic, adrenalin-filled, animated, kung-fu short film from acclaimed visual storyteller, Ant Sang.

The premise:

A young woman, Yim Wing Chun, must fight a feared tyrant who she does not want to marry. Her only way to win freedom is to win a challenge fight. But against all odds and an opponent twice her size, she must summon all her inner strength to be triumphant.

This is a story steeped in martial arts myth and history, hurled into the 21st Century by eye-popping visuals and the pounding rhythm of Shihad's heavy-hitting rock-anthem ‘You Again’.

https://www.thearts.co.nz/boosted/projects/wing-chun-an-animated-short-film?fbclid=IwY2xjawQ2nIlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFuZ094bFBxU1BTUXVDRnZPc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHtN7gJd-GauJbm3KhZKRvktjPwEdw0yYlCj-5Y6NacTp16O_gBvdu0YgkhYA_aem_SDP2CrT249Ao0Ec_d9YrnA

Writer and sociopolitical commentator Tze Ming Mok compared elements of ACT's immigration policy to the discriminatory poll tax the government issued an official apology for in 2002.

New Zealand imposed a fixed-sum poll tax on Chinese immigrants from 1881 to restrict entry, which was eventually scrapped in 1944.

"It's very interesting that a party that courted Chinese voters for so long with 'low tax' promises, now wants to reintroduce something close to the 19th-century poll tax levied on the Chinese," she said.

"ACT knows very well that migrants already contribute more tax per capita than non-migrants because they are more likely to be of working age," she said.

"It is a pretty obvious play for the NZ First vote, which just goes to show how expendable Chinese and Asian voters are to ACT, and how willing they are to throw us under the bus."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/chinese/594302/inhuman-ethnic-leaders-slam-act-immigration-plan

What did you do in the War Goong Goong

After Farewell Guangdong - book by Lily Lee

Farewell Guangdong director Lynda Chanwai-Earle

In 1939, the New Zealand government granted approval for 256 wives and a similar number of children from China to take temporary refuge here.

The women, who were fleeing war, had left their villages in Guangdong and then sought to be reunited with their husbands here.

This week, a new web series launches - Farewell Guangdong - which tells the deeply moving and sometimes unsettling stories of seven of the women who made New Zealand home.

Lynda Chanwai-Earle is the director of Farewell Guangdong and joins Susana from the RNZ Wellington studio.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018972156/farewell-guangdong-director-lynda-chanwai-earle

Paraplegic woman reunited with missing wheelchair after unfortunate mix-up at Red Beach

An Auckland woman who lost her wheelchair after going for a short walk on the beach says her prized possession has been returned.

Denny Cavanaugh, who has been paraplegic for more than 30 years, says she is “really happy” to have her custom-made Triride wheelchair back after initially thinking it was stolen.

As previously reported by the Herald, the 71-year-old – who is able to walk for short periods on crutches – went for a walk at her local Red Beach on Saturday morning and parked her Triride at the top of the boat ramp, only to discover that it was gone when she returned.

Cavanaugh was devastated, saying the Triride has given her freedom and independence to live a “full life”.

It turns out the wheelchair had been picked up by a man who mistakenly thought it had been abandoned.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland/paraplegic-woman-reunited-with-missing-wheelchair-after-unfortunate-mix-up-at-red-beach/HJDMDNJCQVGIJAMRNM7GAODNPE/

Bring your bikes for a tune and and your clothes that need mending to New 2 U Op Shop!
new2uopshop@roskillbaptist.com

Supreme Court quashes David Tamihere’s decades-old convictions for murdering Swedish tourists

David Tamihere’s convictions for murdering the two Swedish tourists have been quashed, 37 years after the couple disappeared in the Coromandel bush.

The upset decision from the Supreme Court today finds that Tamihere’s High Court trial in 1990 was unfair, and based partly on evidence that was “concocted to secure convictions”.

It also says that the Crown’s later theories of what happened to Sven Urban Höglin and Heidi Birgitta Paakkonen when they went missing almost four decades ago have never been tested in front of a jury.

While the Supreme Court has allowed Tamihere’s appeal, overturning his two murder convictions, it has also ordered a retrial.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/supreme-court-quashes-david-tamiheres-decades-old-convictions-for-murdering-swedish-tourists/U5SMHX67FJDYPC3HOZLLRXEJAA/

Hastings Boys' High School head boy Amanjot Singh gives the speech which earned him national champion honours at the Race Unity Speech Awards 2026.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/amanjot-singhs-winning-speech-at-the-race-unity-speech-awards-2026/3CLJE2WEY32GA7GFL7FNIDASPM/

Paul Wah: A-fourth generation Kiwi who battled racism
Nicholas Boyack
November 5, 2022

Paul Wah: educationalist; b March 9, 1932; d October 24, 2022.

The title of Paul Wah’s book, Wooden Man, Stone Heart, celebrates him as a man of strong determination and willpower, who could not be tempted.

As a fourth-generation Chinese New Zealander, Wah battled racism and intolerance as he sought to create an identity for himself.

Wah, who died earlier this month aged 90, is remembered as one of the first Chinese secondary school principals and as a “good Kiwi bloke” who saved Taitā College.

He also had the claim to fame of being arrested in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square shortly after the infamous massacre in 1989, when he was teaching at the Shanghai International Studies University​.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/130308351/paul-wah-afourth-generation-kiwi-who-battled-racism

Book Launch NZCA Easter Sports Tournament 2026 Auckland Finding the Rosenbrock Women - Nicky Won. author and researcher Nicky Won, who will share the remarkable story of her great-grandparents — Chinese storekeeper Sue Lee Him and his Eurasian wife Mary Jane — who made their home in Alexandra in the early 1900s.
Sue Him ran a Chinese store, boarding house and orchard in Alexandra, and when the family eventually returned to China, they left behind a collection of objects that have been held in the Central Stories collection ever since. Among them is a fascinating Chinese medical manual, filled with acupuncture diagrams and handwritten spells for ailments ranging from chills to difficult labour. Nicky has spent years carefully photographing pages of this book on her visits to Central Otago and working to have them translated — a labour of love that has brought a rich layer of meaning to these artefacts.
Nicky has published her family’s history in a two-volume work, Finding the Rosenbrock Women, with a particular focus on the women in her family. She will have a limited number of copies available to purchase on the night.
The talk will also be filmed as part of a documentary about the poll tax imposed on Chinese immigrants to New Zealand — a project supported by NZ on Air from the same team behind the documentary Farewell Guangdong. https://centralstories.com/heritage-talk-the-family.../

Starting them young - NZCA Easter Tournament 2026

Ant Sang and Helene Wong - joint production. The Quiet Achievers.

The Quiet Achievers: From Gardens to Gold Medals
The Quiet Achievers is a comic book collaboration between author Helene Wong and myself. We were commissioned by Auckland War Memorial Museum to produce a contemporary, engaging work which would be accessible to a broad audience. The comic pages were designed to be displayed as large (A1) format digital prints in conjunction with the Being Chinese in Aotearoa: A photographic journey exhibition, while also being able to be produced at a significantly smaller size, in book form.

The project’s aim was to highlight the largely unknown stories of how Chinese New Zealanders have helped shaped Auckland. We wanted to break the stereotypes of what Chinese New Zealanders are like; we interviewed and researched unusual stories and unexpected characters to show the diversity of the Chinese New Zealand experience.

The exhibition was opened during Chinese New Year 2017 and ran for a year. The Quiet Achievers has since been lent to Auckland City Library, Te Kongahu Museum of Waitangi, and New Zealand Portrait Gallery.

Copies are available to purchase from Auckland War Memorial Store.

Publisher: Auckland War Memorial Museum, 2017

Now the Easter is over it's time to concentrate on the NZ Chinese who participated in World War 2.
In memory of the Chinese New Zealanders who served during World War II, a new project is underway. It is being co-ordinated by Ruth Lam (co-author of Sons of the Soil and The Fruits of Our Labours) and Melissa Chan-Green (journalist, ex-Three AM). Building on the research started by George Chan ex-RNZAF (who is Ruth’s father and Melissa’s grandfather), they will combine their skills and experience to ensure that the contributions of Chinese New Zealanders are not forgotten.
But we need your help! We need anecdotes, photos and anything else that can help us document their stories. If someone in your family served in the armed forces (army, navy, air force) between 1939 and 1945, please get in touch with us - even if it’s just to tell us their ‘name, rank and serial number’!
Ruth Lam ruth2trees at gmail.com
Melissa Chan-Green melissamay29 at gmail.com
From https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph

"Chan Lok Tim" is sold out
Note from iticket page says "Please note this show is performed in Cantonese."

Tim brings his brand new
Cantonese stand-up show, "Congratulations Good for You," to New Zealand for the very first time. He dives into "family matters," sharing the bizarre encounters he and his fiancée, the "Scottish Princess," faced while planning their Hong Kong wedding.

https://www.comedyfestival.co.nz/find-a-show/chan-lok-tim-congratulations-good-for-you-cantonese-stand-up-comedy/

From Goldfields to Gardens: The legacy of Aboriginal–Chinese enterprise

Our Story: Aboriginal Chinese People in Australia, at the National Museum of Australia, documents over 170 years of connection between Chinese migrants and Aboriginal Australians. Supported over five years by Fortescue along with government and community partners, the exhibition brings together oral history, archival records, family photographs, and artworks. It reveals how families and businesses were formed in the face of colonial exclusion and discrimination.

Chinese migration increased during the gold rushes of the 1850s. By 1901 about 30,000 Chinese people had arrived, most of them men. After the goldfields declined, many remained in Australia and turned to small business and agriculture.

Zhou Xiaoping, the artist and curator of the project, explained that market gardens were a central point of connection. "Every family we interviewed talked about the gardens," he said. "They were not only businesses but places where Aboriginal people were employed and where families lived side by side. You can see how those working relationships turned into long-term relationships."

Zhou's installation Chinese Cabbage Leaves uses more than 100 glass leaves to reference the gardens. "We can show old photographs of gardens from 170 years ago," he said. "But with art I want to bring that history into the present so people can feel it."

Relationships between Chinese men and Aboriginal women were common through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Zhou said, "At that time both groups were treated unfairly. Aboriginal and Chinese people were both discriminated against, so they came together. They lived in the same areas and found similarities in how they cared for families and children."

https://nit.com.au/07-05-2026/24145/from-goldfields-to-gardens-the-legacy-of-aboriginal-chinese-enterprise?fbclid=IwY2xjawRv28BleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEefjHj_cDx7GLrtliyarEqZxwXCtz7MCg2PJXmrAcDkSOio9dcZpZUkLQC8PA_aem_UY6n535I4fnkdAYMm5_aKw&brid=YWdncwGD3ENKIoysw0pChNk2dsMQ

Frustration, Anger, Dejection, Dissatisfaction

Beyond the Reef: Selected stories by Graeme Lay (Hanlon Publishing, 2025), 244pp

This is a collection of 20 short stories, both penned and chosen by Graeme Lay, covering a period that begins in 1990 and ends with ‘A Natural Man’, which appeared in 2025. Thirteen of the stories have been previously published or broadcast, according to his Previous Publications page, which, however, omits Lay’s first published story, ‘The Children of Wah’. So the total is actually 14. Most are from late last century or early this one. With a number of previously published story collections, as well as works of non-fiction, Lay is a well-published, long-standing author.

Lay is never afraid to confront such ethnic interplays across tēnei whenua—this land—a theme also present in ‘The Children of Wah’, concerning: ‘the one Chinese family who lived on my Taranaki hometown, Opunake’. Here, the Wah whānau are seen as: ‘Chinese as chopsticks, as exotic as eggplants’.

https://landfallreview.com/frustration-anger-dejection-dissatisfaction/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

He Huang
T.E.M.U Joke Factory

https://www.comedyfestival.co.nz/find-a-show/he-huang-temu-joke-factory/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRwyXpleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFXc3RRS2lLbUVrUjg0OGhrc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHrHj2_5IXSA-cNGMyGJ68jjf_ljTyxQ4aav_9L5yLhJWJkAwN59452CIEq-F_aem_YWdncwD7kv4baJfF-FpIQrm_onKV&brid=YWdncwEVn8hiqaCcX8JS5tbA9Su_

‘I am tired of normal’: Henry Yan on comedy
Comedian and engineer Henry Yan tells us about his wet socks, mum, and favourite artwork, Pokemon Ruby.

https://www.thebigidea.co.nz/stories/i-am-tired-of-normal-henry-yan-on-comedy?fbclid=IwY2xjawRwwP1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFXc3RRS2lLbUVrUjg0OGhrc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHh7-BFxiXijylI2RVwJSlmTCxWcNfo5mdbi7hhxII3CxtFjdBtF9H20tXc-B_aem_YWdncwCcQ1dfGj6uQ_PLT8wbOHqQ&brid=YWdncwGxP2kNma1uN1WBVBaaFrSx

Hang Five 1011
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Pinched from FB

Henry Yan is the best bad date at the NZ International Comedy Festival

https://thespinoff.co.nz/pop-culture/13-05-2026/suzy-cato-and-friends-make-the-world-right-at-the-nz-international-comedy-festival?fbclid=IwY2xjawRwwE1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFXc3RRS2lLbUVrUjg0OGhrc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHtJdvEK31XSGsZfAr8wzJNtPtKKMbo0MCS2KylcfY2X7-nWjh0usfYqG8YYI_aem_YWdncwDeQmYI6sm1ss3IJzFcpfjG&brid=YWdncwFeeXkFL_Ne7pnAocOntj8q