Early Chinese refugees recall arduous journey to New Zealand

More than a dozen refugees who fled China as children in the wake of Japan's invasion in the 1930s and '40s gathered in Auckland on Saturday to mark the 85th anniversary of their journey to New Zealand.

In February 1939, New Zealand agreed to give more than 250 women and their children a temporary two-year permit to join Chinese spouses who were working in the South Pacific.

The husbands reportedly paid a £200 bond for their families to join them in New Zealand. Some families received this money back.

The refugees relocated from Guangdong province in southern China in separate groups, arriving in New Zealand via several routes between 1939 and 1941 before settling in different parts of the country.

After wartime hostilities in China dragged on before the country was torn apart by the Chinese civil war, the refugees' stay was extended until New Zealand finally granted them permanent residency in 1947.

The arrival of the refugees has been described as a watershed event that allowed the Chinese community to establish a genuine foothold in New Zealand.

Prior to their relocation, most Chinese immigrants to New Zealand were male labourers who travelled without their families and returned home after making some money.

Yew Hing Wong, 92, still remembers details of his arduous journey to New Zealand when he was just six years old.

"From the village to Hong Kong, we had to walk," Wong recalls. "We walked by foot, not in a straight line but through paddy fields and things like that. I think it must have taken us over a week.

"On the way, Japanese planes were flying overhead, shooting and bombing villagers. It was quite terrifying because the planes were just flying treetop-high and shooting."

The family travelled by cargo boat from Hong Kong to Sydney before eventually making their way to Wellington.

After reuniting with his father in the capital, they travelled by overnight ferry to Christchurch, where he owned a fruit shop.

Wong recalls the journey taking a long time but forgets exactly how many days it took.

"As a child, I think I was quite okay, but my mother was seasick most of the way," he says. "I think from what my mother tells me, I was just playing on the boat."

Wong recalls enjoying a pleasant childhood in Christchurch.

He experienced some initial hostility at school but was eventually able to make some good friends.

"For strangers, they still did not like Chinese at that stage," he recalls. "You get called all sorts of Chinese names, you know, that's bad ... but once they got to know us, they treated us very well."

Wong was excited to meet people who shared his experience at this year's dinner.

"There wouldn't be too many of us left," he says.

Judy Cheung, 87, travelled to New Zealand with her mum when she was just two years old.

"We walked from our village. I think it took about four days to Hong Kong," Cheung says.

"We stayed in Hong Kong for I think a month, and then we caught a boat to Sydney. ... We stayed a week in Sydney and came to New Zealand. We landed in Wellington about 85 years ago."

The family travelled to Gisborne, where her father had a fruit shop.

Cheung recalls drawing the curtains every night during the Japanese invasion of China.

"The Japanese never came to New Zealand," she says. "We were lucky."

Cheung says she seldom met other Chinese children in her childhood and struggled to follow what the teacher was saying at school.

She remembers the racism the family encountered when looking for their first home.

"The neighbours didn't want Chinese living next to them, so we said, 'That's all right, we don't want to live here anyway'," she recalls.

"The irony was, three [or] four decades on, the mayor of Gisborne was Chinese, and he had quite a few terms. That's just how things work out."

Cheung sees differences in the way younger generations of her family think about identity.

"My kids grew up here. They didn't really know what race difference was and they still mixed a lot with local Chinese," she says.

"And this generation," she says, pointing at her grandchildren, "I don't think they even know they're Chinese."

Charlie Wong, 91, travelled to Auckland with his mother and older brother via Hong Kong and Australia.

He recalls making a friend along the way.

"The boat from Australia to Auckland was so rough that everyone was sick in their cabin. There was another boy Jack Wong, who was a bit older than I was," he says.

"Him and I were the only two that were on the deck. ... All the other elders were in their cabin sick."

Wong reunited with Jack at an anniversary lunch five years ago.

"I didn't realise that I had played with him [on the boat], but we introduced ourselves ... and I remembered when we played," he recalls. "Unfortunately, last year I think he passed away.

"I'm grateful for the New Zealand government at the time to let refugees come into New Zealand."

Retired Auckland teacher Lily Lee, who was born in New Zealand but whose mother and elder sister were among refugees who left China in the late 1930s, has written a book titled Farewell Guangdong.

"I've focused on the woman folk in the book because there has been a lot of books written about men," says Lee, 83. "I focused on the women, the wives and their feelings and how they felt when they arrived and their lives in China.

"Many times, mum talked about being a refugee, running away from Japanese soldiers who had come to their village and how frightened she was and how frightened my sister was."

Lee says it was expensive for her mother to relocate to New Zealand to join her father, who was working in a fruit shop at the time.

"It wasn't going to be permanent," she says. "[The government] wanted to make it hard for [Chinese refugees] to come and they charged £200, which is about $13,000 today, as a deposit for them to get a temporary visa."

Lee says the reunion events provide an opportunity to acknowledge those who had first come to New Zealand as refugees.

"The wonderful thing is that we celebrate that in such a way because, basically, that's the start of the first Chinese community here," Lee says.

"These wives and their children were brave ... in their journey and in their travel to New Zealand. They have left a legacy for us."

Richard Leung, chairman of the New Zealand Chinese Association's Auckland branch, agrees that it's important to highlight the forgotten legacy of the Chinese refugee community.

Leung, whose grandmother was also among the refugees, says that part of history was part of their identity.

"We want to acknowledge New Zealand's humanitarian act of accepting women and children fleeing a war-torn China and we want the generations who have been born here since to remember their roots as New Zealand Chinese," he says.

Leung highlights the importance of the refugees' legacy, noting that organisers have centred this year's anniversary on the theme "to grow roots where they land".