It is crucial for us to position the “Chinese Question” in New Zealand historiography as it arose from the economic structure and sociopolitical conditions of early New Zealand. Most early colonial historians portray the Chinese in New Zealand from the viewpoint of British imperialists and white settlers who aimed to establish a “Better Britain” in the South Pacific. Thus, they concentrate on details of legislative measures against Chinese immigration.
Osterhammel’s global history perspective provides a fresh angle on Chinese immigration to New Zealand, which has for long been framed within a paradigm focusing on British colonisation and Māori-Pākehā relationships. To break this paradigm, I wish to begin by raising a leading question: how did the economy of southern China become globalised and extend its impact to New Zealand through Chinese emigration?
According to the 1871 and 1874 censuses, the Chinese population in New Zealand was 2,641 and 4,816 respectively. As mentioned previously, in 1871 alone around 2,000 Chinese miners arrived at Port Chalmers directly from China; so we may deduce that, prior to 1871, more than 2,000 Chinese miners had arrived in Otago. Apart from 231 people who came directly from China in 1869, most of the miners came from Victoria. In the gold-fields of Victoria, Seyip miners outnumbered others, with the Taishanese forming a predominant group.35 This pattern resembled that of Chinese gold-miners in the United States and Canada. It is likely that in Otago Taishanes outnumbered other Seyip miners as well.
The 1880s saw an increase in Chinese stores and market gardens in Taranaki as well as its surrounding regions in the lower part of the North Island. The previous chapter has given details of the lineage structure of the Panyu migrant community, noting that most of its members were based in the South Island but some were in the Whanganui region operating general stores and market gardens from 1874. We now turn to Zengcheng migrants’ activities. The movements and businesses of several individuals exemplify the experiences of many other migrants from Zengcheng. Like pieces of a jigsaw, they may all fit together to construct a picture of how the New Zealand Chinese community kept growing and scattering beyond the gold-fields.
The two petitions of 1888 were especially momentous to the Chinese community in the “New Gold Mountain”, since prominent Australasian Chinese merchants as well as community leaders were for the first time allied in pursuit of Chinese common interests. Their fortitude and quick adaptation to the legal and political system of the British colonies deserve a close look.
China’s changing role in the community of nations not only brought new Chinese migrants to New Zealand, but also expedited a new Chinese nationalistic spirit here, as seen in the complex community politics discussed earlier. While Chinese political consciousness grew in New Zealand, Chinese business interests increasingly became identity-orientated. For many New Zealand Chinese, one significant venture of that time was to invest in the Chinese-owned China-Australia Mail Steamship Line.
When Britain became China’s ally, so did New Zealand, and a better Sino–New Zealand relationship followed. In December 1944, Wang Feng announced that after several years of negotiation between the Chinese Consulate-General and the New Zealand Government, Parliament had completely abolished the poll tax and other legislative measures restricting Chinese immigrants to the country. From then on, Chinese nationals were eligible for equal treatment with other foreign nationals. The abolition was mostly a formality, because the New Zealand Government had begun to waive payment of the poll tax in 1934, and since 1936 the newly elected Labour Government had allowed Chinese residents to receive old age and other pensions.
In the 1950s, Chinese merchant stores in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin were serving a multigenerational New Zealand Chinese community. Those stores might still have been focal points for Cantonese clansmen and other county compatriots to gather. But they mainly provided the community with Chinese provisions to maintain a Chinese way of life on foreign soil. Early Chinese merchants’ two central functions – facilitating emigration and transferring remittances between New Zealand and Cantonese villages – had waned. These stores never resumed the prime position that they had held prior to World War Two.
It was also under the Fourth Labour Government that an array of radical economic reforms took place that reshaped New Zealand. The sudden deregulation of the market and the floating of the New Zealand currency created many challenges for business people. With the abolition of the import licence system came smaller profit margins for wholesalers.