The Chinese in New Zealand
I have just been to the Auckland Museum and viewed the photographic exhibition of the Chinese in New Zealand. It has been 175 years since the first known and recorded Chinese, known as Wong Ahppo Hock Ting stepped on New Zealand soil.
During the earlier days, the Chinese came as gold miners in South Island’s Otago goldfields. There was then a poll tax of ten pounds per person for every Chinese wishing to come into New Zealand. This was imposed by the Government of the day to stop the possible influx of Chinese migrants to Aotearoa (Maori for New Zealand). Non-white migrants were considered undesirable in the nation-building exercise during those earlier years.
Early immigrants to New Zealand came from Southern China in the present Guangdong Province, and they spoke the Cantonese dialect.
Although most of these migrant men were married, they chose to have their wives remained at home to look after their parents. In those days, Chines women seldom migrated and therefore the sex ratio of the Chinese community was extremely unbalanced.
In later years, when there less gold in the mines, the Chinese became vegetable gardens, laundrymen, and general grocery store owners.
The next few generations of Chinese settlers became highly trained professionals - doctors, lawyers, accountants, and engineers and these formed the Chinese community leaders of the country. Chinese
The number of Chinese in New Zealand remained static and low, as a percentage of the total population until the change in the immigration policy in the year 1987. The following statistics from teara.govt.nz provide us with a glimpse of the facts up to the year 2013.
Country of birth
The New Zealand census figures listed here show the number of residents born in China or countries associated with China.
China
1867 census: 1,219
1901 census: 2,902
1951 census: 3,264
1976 census: 4,372 (including Taiwan)
2001 census: 38,949
2006 census: 78,117
2013 census: 89,121
Hong Kong
1951 census: 113
1976 census: 1,211
2001 census: 11,301
2006 census: 7,686
2013 census: 7,059
Taiwan
2001 census: 12,486
2006 census: 10,764
2013 census: 8,988
Ethnic identity
In the 2006 and 2013 censuses, people were asked to indicate the ethnic group with which they identified. The numbers include those who indicated more than one group.
Chinese: 139,728 (2006); 163,101 (2013)
Taiwanese Chinese: 5,451 (2006); 5,718 (2013)
In today’s New Zealand, the Chinese are generally high achievers, with significant skills and substantial savings. Yet while both locally born and immigrant Chinese are very well educated, their income levels fall below the national average. There are a large number of new arrivals to New Zealand who remain unemployed although Chinese are known not to be dependent on the welfare system. Instead, they look for financial supports usually from their extended family networks back in their homelands. Most of those Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan who migrated to New Zealand in the 1980’s and 1990’s have departed New Zealand and have resettled back into their familiar territories of China and South East Asia.
The exhibition is definitely very enlightening.