Frontline - Racist Revival

Television (Excerpts) – 1993

The Otago goldrush in the 1860s attracted the first wave of Chinese immigrants to New Zealand. They were greeted with fear and suspicion from the white settler community. 130 years later the racist policies of late 19th century New Zealand are gone, but old attitudes linger. This 1993 Frontline report investigates the tension between older Chinese/Kiwi families and the growing number of first generation Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants. Whatever cultural issues divide them, both groups have experienced racism from Pākehā New Zealanders.

The first thing I remember my father ever saying to me when we arrived off the boat was not to react to the words 'ching chong Chinaman' and if I was to react then things would get worse.
– Historian James Ng recalls arriving in New Zealand with his family