Post by NZBC on Apr 13, 2009 1:07:38 GMT 12
www.dnzb.govt.nz/DNZB/alt_essayBody.asp?essayID=3V4
Homemaker, storekeeper
Van Chu-Lin was born, probably in 1893 or 1894, in Zengcheng county in south China, in a small village a short distance north-east of Canton (Guangzhou). The only daughter of an oil vendor, Van Poy Wah, and his wife, Ah Day, Chu-Lin was well known for her beauty. Her parents promised her to Chun Yee Hop, a store proprietor who had returned from New Zealand with the explicit aim of seeking a young secondary wife who could give him an heir. He was many years her senior. Van Chu-Lin was about 21 when she arrived in Wellington on 2 August 1915 on the Ulimaroa ; the couple's marriage had been formally registered on 19 July after the ship docked in Sydney. Chu-Lin joined only about 120 women in New Zealand's small and marginalised Chinese community, which had been moulded by the highly restrictive immigration acts introduced since 1881.
Homemaker, storekeeper
Van Chu-Lin was born, probably in 1893 or 1894, in Zengcheng county in south China, in a small village a short distance north-east of Canton (Guangzhou). The only daughter of an oil vendor, Van Poy Wah, and his wife, Ah Day, Chu-Lin was well known for her beauty. Her parents promised her to Chun Yee Hop, a store proprietor who had returned from New Zealand with the explicit aim of seeking a young secondary wife who could give him an heir. He was many years her senior. Van Chu-Lin was about 21 when she arrived in Wellington on 2 August 1915 on the Ulimaroa ; the couple's marriage had been formally registered on 19 July after the ship docked in Sydney. Chu-Lin joined only about 120 women in New Zealand's small and marginalised Chinese community, which had been moulded by the highly restrictive immigration acts introduced since 1881.