Post by NZBC on Jul 14, 2013 15:25:50 GMT 12
Wooden Man Stone Heart.
Bill Renwick (former Director General of Education)
“You have written a significant book and given me valuable insights
into what it was like to grow up as a 4th generation Chinese New
Zealander.”
Ron Polson: “Beautifully written and very involving.”
Dr Robin Gee: “The book is great and I enjoyed reading it.”
Nell Lim: “Frank and honest, those of us in the same generation can relate to what you have written.”
This book is unique in the genre of New Zealand heritage literature, exploring with uncompromising honesty,
experiences of a young Chinese living a cosseted
life in the rural heartland of Feilding and South Taranaki. He looks
critically and sometimes painfully at himself, the Chinese family and the cultural conventions that clashed with European
values, particularly the predilection for gambling and the stress caused by arranged marriages in a community with few
Chinese females.
He explores sensitively the strained relationship with his father
and his conflicts over interracial marriage and the difficulty of finding true love with a Chinese girl.
After leaving school, he worked as a technical trainee in the DSIR
and later labored in a freezing works, and on the wharf to finance his tertiary studies. At university he found study hard, but made friends amongst many of Wellington's radical intellectual fringe. From people such as JK Baxter, James Ritchie and Conrad Bollinger he learnt much about life, literature and politics.
In "Wooden Man Stone Heart" he describes his pathway to become
the first Chinese State Secondary Principal despite the old scourge of race discrimination and later his struggles to re-establish his former school, Taita College. The final section covers his teaching English at the Shanghai University of International Studies in China
during 1988/89 when citizen and student dissatisfaction over
restrictions to personal freedom, official corruption and rampant
inflation which led to the 'Freedom and Democracy' demonstrations in Beijing and Shanghai, culminating in the Tian An Men Square shootings.
The book can be purchased from Unity Books (Auckland and
Wellington) or Paper Plus Lower Hutt or from
p.s.wah@xtra.co.nz
Bill Renwick (former Director General of Education)
“You have written a significant book and given me valuable insights
into what it was like to grow up as a 4th generation Chinese New
Zealander.”
Ron Polson: “Beautifully written and very involving.”
Dr Robin Gee: “The book is great and I enjoyed reading it.”
Nell Lim: “Frank and honest, those of us in the same generation can relate to what you have written.”
This book is unique in the genre of New Zealand heritage literature, exploring with uncompromising honesty,
experiences of a young Chinese living a cosseted
life in the rural heartland of Feilding and South Taranaki. He looks
critically and sometimes painfully at himself, the Chinese family and the cultural conventions that clashed with European
values, particularly the predilection for gambling and the stress caused by arranged marriages in a community with few
Chinese females.
He explores sensitively the strained relationship with his father
and his conflicts over interracial marriage and the difficulty of finding true love with a Chinese girl.
After leaving school, he worked as a technical trainee in the DSIR
and later labored in a freezing works, and on the wharf to finance his tertiary studies. At university he found study hard, but made friends amongst many of Wellington's radical intellectual fringe. From people such as JK Baxter, James Ritchie and Conrad Bollinger he learnt much about life, literature and politics.
In "Wooden Man Stone Heart" he describes his pathway to become
the first Chinese State Secondary Principal despite the old scourge of race discrimination and later his struggles to re-establish his former school, Taita College. The final section covers his teaching English at the Shanghai University of International Studies in China
during 1988/89 when citizen and student dissatisfaction over
restrictions to personal freedom, official corruption and rampant
inflation which led to the 'Freedom and Democracy' demonstrations in Beijing and Shanghai, culminating in the Tian An Men Square shootings.
The book can be purchased from Unity Books (Auckland and
Wellington) or Paper Plus Lower Hutt or from
p.s.wah@xtra.co.nz