The New Zealand Chinese experience is unique and important — the new history curriculum can’t ignore it
stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300317424/the-new-zeala...
stuff.co.nzPosted May 26, 2021, 8:57 AM UTC
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stuff.co.nzGiven that anti-Asian sentiment is the commonest and most socially acceptable form of racism in New Zealand, a bit of the curriculum spent teaching why it's not OK would be a good thing.
Edit: downvotes already? The racists are out in force.
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I’m not sure I would agree with your first statement (the anti-Maori racism is so normalised people don’t even notice it anymore), but you’re spot on with the rest. Our history should include the experiences of immigrants, particularly those that didn’t get to write the history books.
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"Ethnicity was the strongest predictor of experience of racial discrimination, with Asian (OR 3.12), Maori (OR 2.54), and Pacific (OR 1.75) ethnic groups at significantly higher risk than Europeans for overall racial discrimination."
OR is 'Odds Ratio', or the number of times more likely than the control group (in this case white European New Zealanders) of experiencing the researched condition.
From:
HARRIS, R., CORMACK, D., TOBIAS, M., YEH, L.-C., TALAMAIVAO, N., MINSTER, J. & TIMUTIMU, R. 2012. The pervasive effects of racism: Experiences of racial discrimination in New Zealand over time and associations with multiple health domains. Social Science & Medicine, 74, 408-415.
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I stand corrected. Ta muchly.
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No you don't.
That's one study with 15 year old data with a sample size of only 12k people. That's nothing.
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Call BS on your normalised statement. Any sort of racism here is not accepted. I can only speak for what I see in my day to day life though. Agree with the rest of what you're saying. NZ history should cover every group who had a hand in building the country into what it is today.
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Just read the posts in this sub and you’ll see it. People can’t even recognize it when they’re doing it.
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As a half chinese dude, criticizing the CCP is a-ok in my books.
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They are angry and they want tendies and to be able to continually harass asians on this subreddit without consequence, but mostly the tend.. actually it's still the racism, but.
Edit: the funniest thing is that they downvote anyone calling out racist action, then get angry about being called racists. "We're not racists, we just don't like it when you call out racists" LOL
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I feel like Dunedin appreciates the influence Chinese migrants have had on its history, it's apparent when you walk around the city and see the large mural on the Crown Hotel for example or there's still the Sew Hoy grocery shop going strong, just around the corner. Dunedin's former mayor Peter Chin is descended from old Chinese migrants also.
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Yes, and arrowtown also has the historic Chinese settlement also,
If im not mistaken most if not all Chinese migrants came due go the Gold Rush including Sew Hoys. So Dunedin and central were were most were.m
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Early NZ Chinese history is hard to find and the only reason I know about it is because I'm a descendant of early Chinese immigrants. I wish there was more information, as its interesting and important history. An uncle of mine created Foodtown and Georgie Pie using his wealth of knowledge from his Chinese immigrant grandfather. They have influenced our country in unacknowledged ways
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Chinese have a long history here and deserve decent coverage in the history books. Not sure about this passage though:
They seemed a far cry from the low-key, docile and polite local-born Chinese New Zealanders.
Docile? Seems a little condescending. NZrs are generally low-key anyway so not sure that needed to be said.
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Most NZ born Chinese friends I've had over my life so far have run the full spectrum of personalities. Almost as if ethnicity has nothing to do with it. Who would have thought.
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deserve dinner
Honestly could do with a roast
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Seems like a pretty important part of NZ's history to teach properly!
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Honestly when I first came to NZ I was genuinely surprised to learn that there were Chinese here already … and that they were angry with us new Chinese from South East Asia, Taiwan and China.
The reason?
Many of them prior to the 1990s were just starting to be acknowledged as locals. The fact they were seen as Kiwis in the early 1980s was novel as prior to that they were seen as perpetual foreigners.
Suddenly a whole bunch of us arrived in the 1990s to early 2000s and suddenly they are foreigners again to the locals.
They effectively have become lumped in with us.
A few married my Uni classmates and when my classmates returned home to Singapore, Taiwan and China respectively they followed!! One of them is bitterly complaining that as much as NZ Chinese history is not acknowledged her kids in Singapore focuses solely on the paternal history and not the maternal history so even this NZ history is vanishing ( of course this is just one person’s story )
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Pretty much why 'chinese-sounding names' was such a stupid thing to say. We gets hundreds of British migrants still, but no one gives a fuck if someone buying a house has 'Smith' as their surname.
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It did raise the important point of poor tracking of overseas investment, but when there’s an opportunity to cry racism that’s what the media focusses on.
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Maybe don't say racist things if you don't want to be called racist then?
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Maybe we should have been monitoring foreign investment so you don’t need to resort to racist guessing to see if you have a problem.
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Seems like some of the history curriculum should focus on immergration and the various groups that have come here and make up our multicultural country. Starting with the Māori, British, Scots, Irish, Chinese, French, Dutch, Indian and even the more recent Pacifica, South African, Philippines and Chinese again. There have been a number mass migrations to New Zealand, they are a part of our make up and they are still occurring.
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I vaguely remember being taught something about the Chinese gold miners but I don't remember when it was- maybe college?
Either way, yes it's important and unique and, IMO, interesting, but there are lots of interesting aspects of NZ history that also have equal merit. I don't know how you'd reconcile that.
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Yeah same, absolutely no clue where I learned about it but it was very interesting - possibly Auckland Museum or in primary school for me
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Aww, does someone need attention again?
Come here, hugs
Let's talk about it.
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We can’t teach every little bit of NZ history to every student. Are we going to teach about the bohemians at Puhoi, or the dawn raids, or the French colony in Canterbury?
That level of detail should be what the history subject is for as a specialised subject after 5th form. We should teach the NZ wars to all students because they were a major event in our history that still has far reaching effects today and helped shape our nation.
Edit: the downvotes here suggest either an ironic lack of knowledge, or straight up racism. To say that the plight of Chinese in NZ was even remotely comparable to an illegal war used to steal millions of acres of indigenous land is laughable.
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The gold rush was pretty important to NZ’s history… I think we can spend a few periods covering it. IIRC we actually did anyway.
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As important as the NZ wars? Come on.
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Depends on which part of the country you’re from I guess. These two events happened at opposite ends. In any case, NZ wars obviously deserve plenty of time.
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I mean I learnt about the gold rush in Year 9 social studies.
Just because something isn’t specifically in the curriculum doesn’t mean it can’t be taught.
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What Is being suggested is dedicated teaching of Chinese people’s plight in NZ, because we’re going to teach Maori plight due to colonialism in NZ.
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Yes, and that was covered, in detail when we learnt about the gold rush. Poll Tax and similar other things formed a major part of the stuff we learnt about the gold rush
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So what the fuck are we arguing about then?
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If they went to the effort of having a law targeting a specific race, it's worth at least a passing mention. Agreed about the NZ Wars, though.
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Absolutely. I believe it is already mentioned as some people have said. My comments are in the context of the article of course where the author of the opinion piece wants all immigrant histories in NZ taught to all children.
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Ah yep. Honestly, I'm the child of an immigrant, so I don't hate the idea. More focus on how people got here and who we are.
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Ha I have no problem with people coming and assimilating to their new land.(learning the language ffs) My problem is the Chinese came and sent all their money back to China. I have zero problem with multi generational people of this land.
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What the hell are you on about?
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Barking mad...
sent all their money back to China
The one goal in life is to get your money out of China.
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Does not seem important. They came en mass and exploited our resources nothings changed.
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You are quite right. People coming to a place, exploiting its resources, and irreparably changing its ecosystem is nothing to do with anyone's history.
Shouldn't be taught at all, ever ... ;-)
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I think that's exactly what every race has done to this place since they arrived. Good grief.
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China is firming to become an enemy. Where will nzs Chinese communities stand
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Agreed, but to find a proper curator would be difficult. There's a bit of Cantonese and pre-CCP historical erasure going on, and most Chinese migration to New Zealand pre y2k was Cantonese and non-CCP.