Late Henry Chan's Research

[NZBC]

Sent: 7/11/2004 6:57 p.m.
Progress Report on the Zengcheng (Jungseng) in New Zealand Project.

I have completed archival research in New Zealand and Guangzhou, and also a period of fieldwork in the villages, funded by the NZ History Research Trust Award from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. I have held consultations with groups of Jungseng people in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.. In February 2004 I presented a report on my research findings so far to an International Conference on Qiaoxiang and Chinese Overseas held in Quanzhou, Fujian, PRC. That paper has been revised and expanded and submitted as a chapter of a monograph on Chinese Overseas and China: Migration, Ancestral Homeland, and Homes. It is being edited at the CUHK and I gather it has been submitted to an academic publisher in the UK. I do not know when it will be published.

Kitty Chang has completed the oral history project commissioned by the Tung Jung Association of New Zealand, and funded by an Australian Sesquicentennial Gift Trust for Oral History Award from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. A copy of Kitty¡¯s report is available on the TJA Webpage. at www.tungjung.org.nz/downloads/Victims.pdf.
I am very grateful to Kitty for completing this very important project which will make a major contribution to the Jungseng History Project.

Yesterday I completed the final stage of an oral history course, and I shall soon start interviewing people with a tape recorder! Not only in Wellington but also in Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and other parts of the country.

Later in 2005 I shall complete a another long period of fieldwork in the villages and some library research in Hong Kong. While I am in California in October and November I shall research the US INS archives which contain marvellous descriptions of villages since Chinese immigrants were interrogated at great length about their life and village back in China in order to ascertain they were who they claimed to be! The Chinese immigrants who were often "paper sons" simply spent the long sea voyage across the Pacific learning and rehearsing the relevant information!

This year I was privileged to be appointed the National Library of NZ Research Fellow to complete two other Chinese New Zealand projects, and I have received another Ministry of Culture and Heritage research award. However, all of these projects, some of you have heard about, are all connected. The Yue Jackson book completes a long-standing research project on the local history of Toishan and Sze Yup and provides comparative data for the Jungseng project. The MCH grant is for an oral history of the war refugee and war babies generation which form a key part of the short interpretive history of Chinese New Zealand I am expected to produce out of my NLNZ Fellowship. The Fellowship has enabled me to live in Wellington this year, travel around the country, and to spend time on the Jungseng project as well!

The Committee of the Tung Jung Association of New Zealand has accepted in principle a proposal for a History of the Jungseng people in New Zealand to be written collectively in time for the 80th anniversary of the TJA in 2006. More about that in a separate message.


Henry Chan
National Library Research Fellow 2004
Alexander Turnbull Library
PO Box 12349
Wellington 6001
NEW ZEALAND
Telephone: [phone] ext 8874
Facsimile: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

[NZBC]

Sent: 8/11/2004 5:38 p.m.
Dear Jungseng compatriot,

The Committee of the Tung Jung Association of New Zealand has agreed in principle to support the completion of an illustrated book on the history of Jungseng people in New Zealand to be ready for the 80th anniversary of the TJA in 2006.

The book will be edited by Henry Chan and Kitty Chang assisted by an editorial committee chaired by Allan Chang.

The book will include chapters on some of the following:
a brief history of Jungseng and its qiaoxiang (emigrant area) for New Zealand (to be written by Henry Chan)
a brief survey history of Jungseng people in New Zealand (to be written by Henry Chan with the assistance of Kitty Chang)
a history of the Tung Jung Association of New Zealand (to be written collaboratively by a group of surviving past presidents of the Association with the assistance of Henry Chan and the editorial committee)
histories of the villages of New Zealand Jungseng people
histories of Jungseng communities around New Zealand
histories of Jungseng families in New Zealand
histories of Jungseng women in New Zealand
biographies of well known, distinguished, or worthy Jungseng people in New Zealand in the past
histories of Jungseng businesses, market gardens, and other activities of Jungseng people
brief biographies of internationally renowned Jungseng scholars from New Zealand, past and present (to be complied by Henry Chan)
brief biographies, reports, and stories of the achievement of Jungseng people in the professions, the arts, literature, sports, and other fields of endeavor in present day New Zealand.

We call for offers to write chapters on your village, family, the Jungseng community in your local NZ area, your family business or market garden.

If you are willing to assist in the production of the book by providing information, documents, photographs, research or editorial assistance, and especially if you are willing to write for the book, please contact Henry Chan at henry,[e-mail], or Kitty Chang at [e-mail], or Allen Chang at [e-mail]., as soon as possible.

Henry Chan will travel around New Zealand to assist writers if necessary.
There will be a workshop for authors of the History book on Sunday. 27 February 2005, in the Tung Jung Association Rooms in Torrens Terrace, Wellington.

Please assist us to make the History of the Jungseng New Zealand a book worthy of our people and community in New Zealand.


Henry Chan
National Library Research Fellow 2004
Alexander Turnbull Library
PO Box 12349
Wellington 6001
NEW ZEALAND
Telephone: [phone] ext 8874
Facsimile: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]