NZBC on Family Tree Circles

The Chans are from Zengcheng, Guangzhou, China. Looking for people from Sa Chuen, Sun Gaai, Hargee. Migrated to New Zealand and Australia

The Gwa Leng NZ Family History Group,founded by Michael Wong, is delighted to advise that the book Gwa Leng Wongs in
New Zealand is now available for purchase.

'It takes a village to raise a child', says the proverb. Gwa Leng, in the southern province of Guangdong, China, is a special village for
many in NZ; and some of its children - now elders themselves in a faraway land - have contributed to this special book to tell the
history and the stories of the village and its people.

Authored by ex-villager Dr Edmon Wong, an eminent former scientist, the book is centered on his translation of the only known
copy of Gwa Leng's original genealogical record. From material collated from disparate sources, he also writes about
origins; about places and events; and about families long ago and today.

This is a friendly elder's guide for younger generations interested in their historical roots.

With sincerity and goodwill, and mostly in their own words and pictures, many of these later generation NZ Gwa Leng families share their own recent day stories with the three contributing authors in a latter part of the book.

For historical accuracy, the book uses written Chinese characters (not just romanised transliterations) for original proper names. For readers of Chinese, it also includes an appendix of a collection of Essays on Gwa Leng by the former administrative head of Gwa Leng.
This unique bilingual book is a legacy that both honours those past, and serves those present and still to come.
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Paper Back: 180 pages
ISBN 978-0-473-16525-3
Book Dimensions: 189 X 268 X12 mm

A Century of Chinese in Taranaki 1870 to 1970

The year in which the Chinese first arrived in Taranaki is unclear, but it may have been some time before 1874. Entrepreneur Chew Chong had already discovered fungus in the province, having advertising for it in a January 1874 edition of the Taranaki Herald.

This book provides a historical record of the Chinese in Taranaki during this period. A collection of early newspaper articles and advertisements, government records and interviews with locals and families of the early Chinese provide an insight to their lives.

By the early 1970s there were no early Chinese families left in South Taranaki, and few families remained in the rest of the Province.

Helen Wong August 2010

ISBN 978-0-473-17508-5

Volume 1: How the Cantonese Goldseekers and their Heirs Settled in New Zealand
Author James Ng
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dunedin Otago Heritage Books (1993)
ISBN Number: 0908774567 / 9780908774562


Windows on a Chinese Past Volume 4: Don's 'Roll of Chinese'
Author: Ng, James
Publisher: Otago Heritage Books (1993), Dunedin
Publication Date: 1993
(ISBN: 0908774710 / 0-908774-71-0 )

Dr James Ng's pioneering and painstaking research and his multi-volume monograph have been cornerstones in the rediscovery of the history of the Chinese in New Zealand.

http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3521/artsbooks/9907/immigrant_song.html

You might meet a stranger at a wedding or a funeral and learn they are your ?village cousin? without quite knowing what that means. At other family occasions, an ageing grandparent can be coaxed to tell stories from the days before New Zealand. These stories are fragments from another life: summer days spent tending water buffalo, the cloying perfume of lychees ripening on the tree, the sharp odour of saltpetre and the staccato percussion of firecrackers lit to keep bad spirits at bay.