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Post by NZBC on Jun 26, 2007 19:35:52 GMT 12
tvnz.co.nz/view/page/410940/976376 Bernadine Lim Bernadine started her Television career as a reporter for Asia Down-Under and Nightline. Since then she has worked as a director on a huge variety of shows including TV2's My House, my Castle, New Zealand's Richest, TV One's Money Doctor and Face Value documentary as well as TV3's documentary series Life goes on. She recently directed the well received Road To Athens documentary series which followed young kiwi athletes preparing for the Olympic Games. Bernadine is from a Chinese-Malaysian family. She moved to New Zealand at the age of nine months, first to Whakatane and then to Taranaki. Her family have now settled in Howick. Her father was a doctor and her mother a singing star. She is currently living in London, though work takes her all over the world. In Here To Stay Bernadine explores her own experience of the Sino-Kiwi effect on New Zealand's perceptions of the world and asks where Asian values fit in a country that prizes rugby above most other things.
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Post by NZBC on Jun 26, 2007 19:39:04 GMT 12
Bernadine Lim - Chinese London-based TV Director
My dad tells what I think is a great story about one of his early New Zealand experiences. He's a doctor and came here during the professional labour shortages of the 70s. When he turned up for work at Whakatane Hospital, he was presented with a welcome gift - an electric blanket.
Sure, that's a really practical present for a new arrival, but coming from a tropical country he had absolutely no idea what it was. All he saw was a strange pink blanket with cords coming off it. What could it be? He had no clue but grew to love it!
He says that soon after that he made another genius discovery, long johns.
My ethnic Chinese parents came from Malaysia to New Zealand in 1975, wanting to find a better life for them and for me, then nine months old.
They knew almost no-one and almost nothing about New Zealand. My mother - a famous pop singer who had given up her career - knew only what she'd gathered from a postcard of the Southern Alps. Yep, things were a bit different.
And we were different too. I grew up in Bell Block, Taranaki, as the only Chinese person in my school. I always knew I wasn't like the other Kiwi kids, and unfortunately I was teased by some of the kids - even at Kindergarten.
I remember when I was six, saying to my mum that I wanted to have blonde hair. It wasn't that I wanted to be European; I just wanted to play and not be hassled anymore.
When I was asked to tell the Chinese story in "Here To Stay", I knew parts of it would be a struggle - analysing what happened to me, and how I felt both then and now. Especially because as a TV director and reporter, I'm more used to telling someone else's story.
I also really felt the weight of representing the Chinese experience. There have been several waves of Chinese immigration, each with their own stories and reactions to making New Zealand a home.
Also, the Chinese story was always going to be a difficult and sensitive one to tell since, arguably, no other immigrant community has been discriminated against as much simply for the colour of their skin.
New Zealanders might know about the poll tax only the Chinese settlers had to pay (equivalent to two years' salary), and they probably know of the hardships and ostracism the Chinese goldminers faced.
But do they know that because of the poll tax, Chinese women were effectively barred from coming to New Zealand? Between 1925 and 1948 they were officially forbidden, aside from some (sometimes) temporary family reunions during and just after WWII. This left many Chinese men without family for decades and many of them never saw loved ones again.
Do they know about Kim Lee, the so-called "leper", who was banished to Mokopuna Island, just off Somes Island in Wellington Harbour? He survived eight months in a damp cave before finally dying a lonely, bitter death.
And do they know about the Haining St shooting? When Joe Kum Yung, an elderly Chinese goldminer, was shot by Englishman Lionel Terry in 1905? Joe - who'd been in New Zealand much longer than Terry - was Terry's protest against "alien invaders" like the Chinese immigrants.
Terry, who wasn't considered an alien because he was English, had the white settler community, including Premier thingy Seddon, on his side.
But, trust me, the whole programme isn't difficult and heavy. Chinese people have a wonderfully quiet humour to them and in doing this doco I got to know some amazing New Zealand Chinese people.
Meeting them and being forced to examine this part of my life was at times cathartic. It was so great to listen to these people examine their own experiences, which are often a lot like mine, and to hear how they dealt with their Chinese-ness within, or alongside, their Kiwi-ness.
Often too, they'd be trying to fit into another culture; Maori, Samoan, English, Scottish, whatever&.
So, that was really rewarding. And so was interviewing my family. It was fantastic because I got to hear all the old stories again - along with a few I'd never heard. Conveniently it was also a great way to show them what I do for a living as a TV director (not the lawyer they hoped I might be!)
What I am is a New Zealander. Being Ming Ming, or Bernadine, a Kiwi of Chinese-Malaysian decent. I love being a Kiwi, but I also know where I come from.
We regularly go to Malaysia, and next year we're planning a family trip to the village in China that my great grandparents left behind when they immigrated to Malaysia. They too were seeking a better life.
I'm now living my life in London, where interestingly I rarely have to explain where I come from, unlike at home in New Zealand.
If I am asked I say I'm a Chinese New Zealander. And yeah, my English is really good, thanks. So's yours.
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Post by NZBC on Jun 26, 2007 19:45:37 GMT 12
Ep 4 - Cast and Crew CAST PRESENTER ¨C Bernadine Lim John Chong Nee ynda Chanwai-Earle Mayme Chanwai Prof. Manying Ip Sharon Ng Roseanne Liang Tze Ming Mok Li Ming Hu Lynette Forday Dr. Joo Siong Lim Mimi Lim Nigel Murphy Helene Wong Peter Chin James Ng Steven Young Lynette Shum Pansy Wong Simon Kaan Jason Moon Ant Sang
CREW History Consultant - Jock Phillips - Te Ara Production Manager - Jude McLaren Writer - Paul Ward Series Dop - David Paul Titles And Virtual World - Underbelly Titles Music - Woodcut Productions Titles Director - John Hagen
Research - Bonnie Slater
Camera - Michael O¡¯Connor, Rewa Harre, David Paul
Sound - Don Anderson, Hammond Peek, Grant Lawrey
Sound Mix - Nic McGowan
Graphic Design - Nic Marshall
Photo Fx - Euan Frizzell
Editor - Raewyn Humphries
Colourist - Adam Sondej
Production Co_Ordinators - Francesca Carney, Bonnie Slater, Amanda Cairns-Cowan
Post Production Supervisor - Wayne Biggs
Production Accountant - Kathy Regnault
Network Executive - Jude Callen
Executive Producer - Dave Gibson
Producer - Gary Scott
Director - Dan Salmon, Roz Mason
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