easy2chinese.com

 Total population

147,570[1]

Regions with significant populations

Auckland, Wellington

Language(s)

New Zealand English, Chinese languages, others

Religion(s)

Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, others

Related ethnic groups

Chinese Australian, Chinese diaspora

A Chinese New Zealander ?Traditional Chinese: ?????? Simplified Chinese: ??????? is a New Zealander of Chinese heritage. They are part of the ethnic Chinese diaspora (or Overseas Chinese). Chinese New Zealanders are the fifth largest ethnic group in New Zealand.

The first records of ethnic Chinese in New Zealand were the immigrants from Guangdong Province, who arrived during the 1860s goldrush era. Due to this influx, there is a strong Chinese presence in Dunedin, whose current mayor Peter Chin is of Chinese descent. Chinese New Zealanders may broadly be defined into two categories; the earlier generation, and recent or temporary migrants that have arrived since the 1980s.

At the last census in 2006, Chinese New Zealanders accounted for 3.7% of the total population, the largest Asian ethnic group in New Zealand (approx 42% of all Asian New Zealanders). As at the 2001 Census, 75% of Chinese in New Zealand were born overseas. In 2002, the New Zealand Government publicly apologised to the Chinese for the poll tax that had been levied on their ancestors a century ago

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 Early Immigrants

The first immigration to New Zealand took place on the strength of two invitations from New Zealand’s Otago goldmining region to potential goldminers of Guangdong province in 1865. These original goldmining communities suffered discrimination due to racist ideology, the economic competition they represented to the Europeans, and because of the implied ‘disloyalty’ within their transient, sojourner outlook. [4] While many believe there was a ‘White New Zealand’ policy similar to Australia’s, New Zealand never had such a policy openly sanctioned and was open to Pacific Island immigration from its early history. [5] However in the 1880s, openly sinophobic political ideology resulted in the New Zealand head tax, also known as the ‘Poll Tax’, aimed specifically at Chinese migrants. Despite official barriers the Chinese still managed to develop their communities in this period, and numbers were bolstered when some wives and children from Guangdong Province were allowed in as refugees just before World War II. Chain migration from Guangdong continued until the new Communist Chinese regime stopped emigration. This original group of Cantonese migrants and their descendants are referred to in New Zealand as ‘Old Generation’ Chinese, and are now a minority within the overall Chinese population.

After the Second World War

Ethnic Chinese communities from countries other than China began establishing themselves in New Zealand between the 1960s and 1980s. These included ethnic Chinese refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos following the conflicts and upheavals in those countries; Commonwealth (ie English educated) professional migrants from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia; and Samoan Chinese as part of the substantial Pacific labour migrations of the 1970s.

Between 1987-96, a fundamental change in New Zealand’s immigration policy led to a substantial influx of ethnic Chinese business, investor, and professional migrants, particularly from Hong Kong and Taiwan. This period saw a spike in overall migration from the Asian region, including other Chinese people from East Asia and Southeast Asia. New Zealand’s immigration system increasingly experienced the impact of global events, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the fall of Suharto.

Recent issues

Although the origins and income of Chinese people in New Zealand began rapidly diversifying in this period, the conspicuous wealth and sudden visibility of the business and investor class of Hong Kong, Taiwanese and (to a lesser degree) Mainland Chinese migrants, brought the issue of immigration to the forefront and raised concerns about growing anti-Asian sentiment.

Chinese New Zealanders brought by their parents to New Zealand while they were still of school-age are often referred to as the 1.5 generation, that is, between first and second generation New Zealanders. The 1.5 generation migrants who grew up as during the wave of immigration in 1987-1996 tend to be viewed as a valuable cultural bridge between settled and new migrant communities. A phenomenon of this period was the ’satellite family’ - where many migrant parents were unable to establish their businesses successfully in New Zealand for various reasons, and returned to their home countries leaving their 1.5 generation children behind to complete their educations.

The nationalist New Zealand First Party fought the 1996 general election on an anti-immigration and very thinly veiled ‘anti-Asian’ platform [6], winning the balance of power and altering immigration policy towards skills-based immigration.

From the late 1990s to the 2000s, skilled migrants from Mainland China became the new significant demographic group of Chinese immigrants, with varying success rates at assimilation, due in part to significant cultural differences including with the older generation of Chinese New Zealanders.

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Chinese immigration to New Zealand

This article is about the migration of Chinese people to New Zealand.

The first Chinese in New Zealand arrived in 1866. The Chinese Immigrants Act of 1881 imposed an initial entry poll tax of 10 pounds, which was raised to 100 pounds in 1896. The intent of the act was to discourage Chinese from settling permanently in New Zealand. From the 1950s to 1980s New Zealand’s Chinese community grew to 19,000 people. In the 2001 Census, 3% of the total New Zealand population (100,680 people) identified as Chinese:

25% New Zealand born

35% born in China

12% born in Taiwan

10% born in Hong Kong

17% born in other overseas countries

New Zealand Chinese are very diverse and identify with different groups. The Chinese have become a ‘community’ in relation to New Zealand society as a whole.

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 Mainland Chinese in New Zealand also include a substantial population of international students completing tertiary qualifications. These students, viewed by some as temporary residents, are often socially isolated from both mainstream and Chinese New Zealander society. There has been media reports of these groups facing victimisation from within their own communities [3] as well as from the population as a whole, and as being involved in Asian crime syndicates. Similarly, 1.5 generation Hong Kong migrant youths who engaged in low-level criminal activity in the 1990s, were also mistakenly considered to be professional ‘Triads’ by much of the non-Chinese public at that time. [4]

However, despite much speculation, the political and administrative status of Chinese international students as non-residents has hampered the undertaking of verifiable research about their health, societal wellbeing or their actual level of involvement in crime.

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 As of the most recent census, the majority of the overseas-born Chinese were under 25 years of age, and 12% had lived in New Zealand for less than one year. The median age of the Chinese ethnic group in New Zealand is younger than the national average.

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 According to the 2001 Census, New Zealand-born Chinese had a higher median income (NZ$20,200) than other New Zealanders (NZ$18,500), but overseas-born Chinese New Zealanders had a median income less than half of the national median (NZ$7,900).

According to the 2006 Social Report (New Zealand Ministry of Social Development), based on the 2005 Household Labour Force Survey, the ‘Asian and other’ category displayed the second-highest level of unemployment after New Zealand’s indigenous people (the M?ori) and the highest level of underemployment. Possibly reflecting the asset-rich status of migrants as well as their barriers to employment, the ‘Asian and other’ category was simultaneously one of the most income-poor ethnic categories in the country while also being the ethnic category with the highest access to the internet. (Note: At this time, the ‘Other’ ethnic groups (Middle Eastern, African and Latin American) comprised less than 1% of the population, and the ‘Asian’ groups approximately 9%.)

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 Politics

Pansy Wong, New Zealand’s first ethnic Chinese MP and first Asian MP, 1970s Generation Hong Kong migrant New Zealander of Shanghai heritage

Peter Chin, Mayor of Dunedin, ‘Old Generation’ Cantonese New Zealander

Meng Foon, Mayor of Gisborne , ‘Old Generation’ Cantonese New Zealander

 Arts and sports

Bic Runga, singer/songwriter, of M?ori (indigenous New Zealander) and Chinese Malaysian parentage.

Chang, presenter with The Edge radio station. [7]

Li Ming Hu, known for her role as Li Mei Chen in New Zealand’s popular TV show, Shortland Street, second-generation New Zealander of Singaporean and Taiwanese parentage.

Raybon Kan, comedian, second-generation New Zealander of Mainland Chinese parentage.

Li Chunli, gold medal-winning table tennis champion, 1980s generation migrant New Zealander and Mainland Chinese. http://www.olympic.org.nz/Athletes/AthleteProfile.aspx?print=&id=0&mode=bio&ContactID=492

Journalists, writers and advocates

Mai Chen, prominent constitutional lawyer, Chair of the short-lived Pan Asian Congress of 2002, 1970s generation and 1.5 generation Taiwanese migrant New Zealander

Derek Cheng, reporter for the New Zealand Herald, second generation New Zealander of Hong Kong Chinese parentage.

Manying Ip, Associate-Professor of the Auckland University School of Asian Studies, community spokesperson during the ‘Asian Invasion’ 1990s, and author and editor of numerous seminal texts on Chinese people in New Zealand. 1970s 1st Generation Hong Kong migrant New Zealander. [8]

Errol Kiong, reporter for Radio New Zealand and the New Zealand Herald, first generation migrant New Zealander and Malaysian Chinese.

Tze Ming Mok, cultural commentator, blogger and literary writer; second generation New Zealander of Chinese Singaporean and Malaysian parentage. Leader of a march against white supremacists in Wellington 2004. Editor of the May 2006 issue of Landfall, a New Zealand literary journal [9].

Lincoln Tan, journalist and columnist; first generation migrant New Zealander and Peranakan Singaporean. Leader of a march against white supremacists in Christchurch 2004. [10]

Alison Wong, poet

Gilbert Wong, New Zealand’s most senior Chinese journalist, for many years New Zealand’s only prominent Chinese journalist, Old Generation Cantonese.

Steven Young, key figure and leader in the Old Generation Chinese community associations, specifically the Wellington Chinese Association. Known for bucking the ‘model minority’ impulses of the Old Generation community in the 1990s by speaking out against the New Zealand First Party, for which he was expelled from the Wellington Chinese Association, only to return as its President in later years. Web-archiver of numerous resources on the Old Generation communities. [11]

Jack Yan, graphic designer and publisher of fashion magazine Lucire, 1.5 generation Hong Kong migrant New Zealander.

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