30 January 2012 

James Ng's speech on Chinese history delivered  in Melbourne on 13 November 2011

12 November 2007 

Blog is now being done in real time! 

31 October 2007

I have started a new section on the Lawrence Chinese gold miners' camp.

30 October 2007

Check out my experimental blog. It includes images and links to Youtube movies. (Click Blog in the menu top of the page.)

10 October 2007

The search for the New Zealand Chinese identity goes on.

Following the third Banana Conference in Auckland, Brian O'Flaherty asks why the local Chinese were agonising over their identity and why they couldn't just get on with it.

James Liu provided an elegant response which should be required reading for all Chinese in New Zealand.

Tzeming Mok tells Brian to just stick it.

27 August 2007

I have added material on poet/playwright Lynda Chanwai-Earle to the section on Literature and the Arts.

16 August 2007

I join a panel of Asians to brief the staff at the Ministry of Culture & Heritage, in my case, on Chinese Culture in New Zealand.

14 August 2007

Added Julia Bradshaw's Newsletters for her Shantytown's West Coast Chinese Project.

11 August 2007

I have added the research essays and seminar presentation notes I wrote as part of my MNZS (Master of New Zealand Studies) degree course at Victoria University. Inevitably all of them are about aspects of the Chinese in New Zealand.

I have also grouped several papers in a new section on BICULTURALISM AND MULTICULTURALISM.

I have also added several papers to the section on POLITICS, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

On 1 August 2007

The site was entirely re-written using Joomla! giving it a much tidier appearance and also allowing updating from my desk.

In its November 2006 issue North & South magazine published an article entitled Asian Angst: Time to send some back? by Deborah Coddington. This provoked a furious letter of complaint from Tze Ming Mok.

November 2003

2003 has been an extremely busy year, which partly explains why this website hasn’t been updated since March.

In May I was invited by to contribute a paper entitled Politics and culture - The background and recent developments in the political culture of Chinese New Zealanders in the lecture series Chinese New Zealand organised by the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University.

Two other more relevant papers in the series were:

Nigel Murphy & Lynette Shum - ”Unsmeltered gold, Uncut Jade‘: Sources and Resources for the study of history of Chinese New Zealanders &

Alison Wong - Writing Historical Fiction from a Cross-Cultural Perspective.

Also in May, I rather surprised myself by attending the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival and met some friends, old and new, who inspired me to start two new sections on this website: NZ CHINESE WOMEN and LITERATURE & ARTS the latter almost a subset of the former.

There is currently renewed interest and research into local Chinese history particularly as oral history – sufficient to justify a new section: CURRENT HISTORICAL RESEARCH.


During the year James Ng updated some of his history papers and added two more:

An overview of New Zealand Chinese writing - his contribution to the Wordstruck Conference in May 2003 which fits nicely into the Literature and the Arts section and

A laundry life - the story of how James Ng's family became kiwis.

While I’m at it, I thought I might as well create new sections for my hobby-horses POLITICS, SOCIETY & CULTURE, & IDENTITY.

In April through July I was a member of the Poll-tax Advisory Team working with the Office of Ethnic Affairs on a reconciliation package. A proposal has now been put to Cabinet for its decision – expected imminently.

In July, after a more than 10-year break, I was re-elected President of the Wellington Chinese Association.

Nigel Murphy curated A Barbarous Measure, the Poll Tax exhibition at the National Library and I was invited to participate in the supporting lecture series. In October I presented a paper To be happy for the rest of your life – Chinese market gardeners in New Zealand drawn largely from my own memories.

This paper led to a meeting with Radio NZ’s Jack Perkins and a Spectrum radio documentary in December entitled The Soy Sauce, 20 acres, Steamed Bun Paradise in which I re-visited my childhood days and Levin where I grew up in a market garden with my brother and sisters.

In between, I was invited to participate as a member of the Society and Culture Issues Group, developing and refining proposals to be presented at the Seriously Asia Forum 2003 in November organised by Asia 2000 at the request of the Prime Minister. I’m very chuffed that this website is cited as a resource and background reading for participants.

The Issues Group identified support for (Chinese) international students as a major issue for improving relationships with Asia. My wife Rosalind and I developed a paper Problems of (Chinese) International Students in New Zealand and how the community can help presented to Education New Zealand’s Homestay Co-ordinators’ Workshop 26 November 2003.

In December 2003, Professor Leslie Young was awarded an honorary doctorate, the inaugural Doctor of Commerce from Victoria University of Wellington.

You might agree that the delay has been justified and the wait worthwhile.

Oh yes, I also maintained a professional engineering practice during the year!

26 March 2003

Politics and culture - The background and recent developments in the political culture of Chinese New Zealanders by Steven Young - March 2003




16 December 2002


Winning essays, in a competition, organised by the Prime Minister, in which secondary students write about the life of the Chinese in early New Zealand.

Sienna Smale-Jackson
Christopher Burns
Bevin Gee

"Origins of Face Value" - a video produced by Amanda Dawes in which experts and people in the street discuss the difficulties Chinese have in being accepted as they try to integrate into New Zealand society




27 November 2002


The Immigration Debate - An Asia 2000 Paper - read the original here or the text version here.

Sir Dryden Spring's speech to the Hong Kong Business Association: 27 August 2002 you can read the text here or the original from the Asia 2000 website here.

20 November 2002


Chinese culture and aspects of health care - by Dr James Ng

Chinese in New Zealand - by Dr James Ng

Chinese goldseekers in Otago - by Dr James Ng

6 August 2002


Out of the Shadows: Emerging Politcal and Civil Participation of the Chinese in New Zealand by Dr Tim Beal, School of Marketing and International Business, Victoria University of Wellington, presented to.

Opportunities and Challenges: A New Zealand Perspective by Dr Tim Beal: Extracts from a Powerpoint presentation.

Chinese Participation in Civil Society, a short review by Steven Young.

Transition: Young Yuk Foon 1911-2002




23 May 2002

I was invited to attend the Chinese Canadian National Council’s Consultative Conference on their Head Tax and Exclusion Act redress held in Toronto, Canada on 2-5 May 2002. I presented a paper on The New Zealand Experience.

When I got back I reported on the Canadian approach to seeking redress for their Head Tax to the Community Consultation meeting held 21 May 2002 organised and held at the Office of Ethnic Affairs in Wellington.

We have now got the Speech given by Professor Kuan M Goh following the apology given at Parliament by the Prime Minister on 11 February 2002.

In addition, we have the Report of the first Community Consultation meeting held in Christchurch 5 May 2002.

Adding to the body of research on local Chinese, Wong Liu Shueng presented her paper The Moulding of the Silent Immigrants: New Zealand Born Chinese (NZBC) at the Auckland University of Technology on 15 May 2002.