Chinese New Zealanders — a dynamic history

Chinese New Zealanders 新西蘭華人 | 新西兰华人

Chinese New Year begins on 10 February and according to the Chinese zodiac, 2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon. Chinese dragons are respected and honoured, not only for their strength and wisdom but success as well.

Dragons may be mythical creatures but their representations have become familiar to New Zealanders over recent decades. Have you been thrilled by dragon boat racing? Or watched a sinuous dragon dance? Or gazed in awe at an illuminated dragon during a Chinese lantern festival?

Like the Wood Dragon, Chinese New Zealanders are a highly respected community of around 250,000 people (2018 Census) and have been an integral part of Aotearoa New Zealand over the last two centuries.

While they have faced active marginalisation and discrimination at community and legislative levels, their legacy and contributions continue to have a lasting impact on our culture and economy. For example, during World War 2, Chinese market gardeners had a pivotal role in New Zealand’s war effort by supplying produce to New Zealand and American troops.

A new resource for schools

Chinese New Zealanders is our latest online Topic Explorer set for ākonga and kaiako and aligns with te ao tangata | social sciences curriculum.

As a resource, it investigates and celebrates New Zealand’s dynamic Chinese heritage through curated images, text, early newspaper articles from our collections, and more.

Four stories make up the Chinese New Zealanders set:

• Chinese gold miners, 1865 onwards

• Chinese New Zealanders, 1880s–1940s: building lives

• Chinese New Zealanders, 1940s–2020s: new worlds

• Legislation and policy enacted against Chinese in New Zealand.

View the full resource here: Chinese New Zealanders.

New Gold Mountain

The first story looks at Chinese gold miners, the arrival and industry of Chinese in Te Waipounamu | South Island, Otago and Te Tai Poutini | West Coast goldfields.

Many Chinese gold seekers were from the Guǎngzhōu province in Southern China and New Gold Mountain was their name for New Zealand.

Building lives: 1880s–1940s

The second story looks at what happened after Te Waipounamu | South Island gold rushes. During this era, Chinese settler careers expanded as they took up intensive vegetable cultivation (market gardening), greengrocer and laundry occupations.

While these occupations involved hard physical work and long hours, they also resulted in successful businesses for many Chinese. For example, by 1945, 6,800 hectares were in vegetable cultivation and market gardeners were producing a surplus of vegetables.

New Worlds: 1940s–2020s

The third story looks at the recent emergence of a vibrant local Chinese culture and arts scene, Chinese immigration (from the 1990s) and gender, demographic and occupational shifts. According to the 2018 census, 46% of Chinese in New Zealand are in professional or managerial occupations.

Another change has been geographic. In 1871, the majority of the Chinese in New Zealand were living in the west and south of Te Waipounamu | South Island.

Today, around 70% of Chinese live in the Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland region (2018 Census).

Legislation and policy enacted against Chinese in New Zealand

This last story looks at the history of discrimination against Chinese settlers. Initially, it began on the goldfields, reaching its peak with the introduction of the 1881 Chinese Immigrants Act, commonly referred to as the ‘poll tax’. This legislation required all Chinese immigrants to pay 10 pounds upon entry to New Zealand. Fifteen years later, it was increased to 100 pounds. The Chinese Immigrants Act was repealed in 1944.

On 12 February 2002, at a Chinese New Year celebration, Prime Minister Helen Clark made a statement formally apologising to Chinese people who paid the poll tax and suffered discrimination.

Explore Chinese New Zealanders through primary sources

Many of the items that feature in Chinese New Zealanders are historical primary sources (original, first-hand records about people, places, taonga and events), like the following photo of a family in their greengrocer's store.

Primary sources like these provide insights into the lives and experiences of Chinese New Zealanders.

National Library Services to Schools has developed a suite of primary source analysis tools.

Our tools are designed for ākonga from years 1 to 13 to stimulate curiosity, identify different perspectives and build an understanding of concepts such as authorship and purpose.

Using our tools

Ākonga can examine the photo above by asking questions and following prompts from our photo analysis tools. For example:

• What do I think happened just before/after this photo was taken?

• What would this photo show me if taken at a different time?

• Who took this photo and why?

Ākonga could investigate even deeper by reflecting on the technology (shop scales) that appears, and how and why were they used. They could also examine the style of clothing worn by different family members. Do we wear these types of clothes today?

These questions help uncover clues about people’s experiences and perspectives. The prompts in our tools are designed to help develop observation and critical thinking skills. For example, by working through our photo tools, ākonga can figure out this photo was taken in spring. How? Because September to December is the growing season for asparagus which appears on the counter.

Use our tools to explore different primary sources such as artwork, objects, and unpublished and published documents.

Resources to spark curiosity and build understanding

Here is a selection of resources to learn about Chinese New Zealanders from the National Library.

Topic Explorer has:

• Chinese New Zealanders

• Chinese New Year.

Te Kupenga: Stories of Aotearoa New Zealand has the following:

• A taxing imposition

• The draw of Haining Street.

Many Answers has entries on:

• Chinese New Year

• Gold rush (New Zealand).

Encourage ākonga to use AnyQuestions, a free online chat service to get help with their research and inquiry questions. The service is open between 1pm and 6pm on weekdays.

Explore our primary source analysis tools:

• Tools for primary source analysis

• Using our primary source analysis tools in the classroom.

Working together to celebrate a vibrant culture and history

To ensure Services to Schools created an accurate and contemporary reflection of Chinese New Zealand history, we collaborated with these New Zealand Chinese Association representatives:

• Kirsten Wong (researcher and Chinese cultural advisor)

• Lynette Shum (Oral History Advisor Alexander Turnbull Library).

Thank you Kirsten and Lynette for valuable guidance, feedback, text and content recommendations.

One highlight was Kirsten supplying names to some of the photos featuring (anonymous) Chinese gold seekers and business owners in our curated photos including the photograph above of Joe Tie.

A special thank you also to Emeritus Professor Manying Ip who kindly reviewed this resource before publication.

Thanks to this collaboration, we have a resource rich in primary sources to support ākonga and kaiako to learn about, reflect on and celebrate the vibrant culture and history of the New Zealand Chinese community.