Unfolding History: Evolving Identities: the Chinese in New Zealand.

• Author: Moloughney, Brian
• Position: Book Review

Editor: Manying Ip Published by: Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2003, 304pp, $44.99.

This collection of essays provides an insight into the current state of scholarship on the Chinese in New Zealand. While not the 'comprehensive overview of Chinese New Zealanders' that the editor claims, it does nonetheless incorporate some interesting perspectives on the development of Chinese communities in New Zealand. The essays are divided into four sections; the first on the archaeology and early history of the Chinese, the second on family and community experiences, the third on recent migrants and the fourth on education and politics. Not all the essays are of the same quality, but most readers will find something of interest.

In the first section James Ng and Neville Ritchie both provide brief overviews of their previous work: Ng on the Cantonese gold-seekers in the period from the 1860s until 1901 and Ritchie on what the archaeological evidence of this period can tell us. While readers familiar with the earlier work of these authors will find nothing new here, both essays provide a good indication of the strengths of their past scholarship. In the third essay in this section, Nigel Murphy examines the case Joe Lum made against the Attorney-General in 1919 over the status of his New Zealand-born children. This essay humanises the politics of exclusion and marks a significant step forward for work in this area. Too often studies of these exclusionary measures are restricted to a catalogue of legislation, presenting the inhuman face of the state but without any consideration of the impact such measures had on people's lives. In this essay, Murphy acknowledges the restrictive intent of legislation yet shows how individual Chinese used the institutions of the state to their benefit. I hope we will see more studies like this; they restore agency to Chinese New Zealanders and do not simply portray them as passive victims of a hostile state machinery.

Lynette Shum's essay on Haining Street in Wellington begins the second section of the book. This is an interesting essay that covers a great deal of ground. I would have liked to see some of the issues explored in more detail, but there is enough here to suggest what the Haining Street Oral History Project is about and how Shum is beginning to explore this rich archive of material. In future, it would be good to see more use made of pictorial and photographic evidence; Anthony Lee's book Picturing...