This biography was written by Manying Ip, based on her own research and personal communication with Lucy on 6 September 2024. All quotations are from this communication.
Contents
1964 graduate
Chinese war refugee women and children arriving 1939
Lucy Fong King Chan (née Chung) was born in 1933. Lucy’s life story and her career path encapsulate a crucial milestone of the Chinese in New Zealand, when the group made up of sojourners was finally allowed to sink roots, then with unwavering determination, they built a prosperous and upwardly mobile community, achieving success within a generation. (1) Her story is typical of the cohort of New Zealand Chinese children who were unfortunate enough to have their childhood disrupted by the Japanese invasion of China (1937-1945) in their home villages. However, their plight also moved the New Zealand government of the time to take an unusually generous stop to ease immigration restriction against the Chinese, an ethnic group hitherto singled out as ‘undesirable’ that should be kept out by strict anti-Chinese legislation. (2) Lucy’s cohort belongs to the group of children generally known as ‘refugee children’ who were allowed to enter New Zealand on humanitarian grounds. (3)
To qualify, their fathers must have already been resident in New Zealand, contributing to the country’s economy by working in the market garden, fruit shops or laundries (occupations opened to the Chinese during that period). These Chinese men needed to pay a 200 pound-sterling bond (equivalent to 25200 NZD in 2024) for a temporary permit of 2 years for their wife and children, 2 years being the period that New Zealand authorities expected the War to last. On top of that, the father needed to sign a 500 pound bond (equivalent to 63000 NZD in 2024) , promising that any babies born during that period of temporary stay would be repatriated to China at the end of the war.
The terms of the temporary permit system granted to these refugee women and children were stringent, marked by the longstanding ‘othering’ spirit accorded to the Chinese. They nevertheless gave the Chinese a leeway to enter New Zealand in times of extreme peril, and it marked the beginning of the growth of a genuine settler Chinese community, although this was not the intention of the New Zealand government when the temporary relaxation was granted.
Significance of the arrival of refugee women and children
Before 1939, the Chinese were members of a broken-stem community of lonely bachelors: male only, devoid of family anchors, since they could not bring their wives and children with them and were denied the rights to apply for citizenship. These Chinese men were destined to be forever sojourners in New Zealand who must ‘return home’ to China. From the start, New Zealand intended the Chinese to be itinerant workers, brought in to work in the goldfields in the 1860s, and then they were expected to leave. New Zealand was to be kept as a ‘Better Britain of the South Pacific’, a haven for settlers from the United Kingdom.
The exorbitant poll-tax levied on the Chinese (since 1894), the introduction of an English test at the port of entry (from 1907 onwards), and the bar on all Chinese to apply for New Zealand citizenship (since 1907) ensured that all Chinese remained essentially itinerant workers.
The arrival of the women and children in 1939, albeit an initially a temporary measure, marked a genuine and fundamental shift of the NZ Chinese from being a transitory work force into a group of settler families. This was a highly significant milestone in the development of the NZ Chinese community.
It is no exaggeration to say that this marked the dawn of a new era, even though the beginning years were marked by hardship and much uncertainty among the refugee women and children. For the New Zealand general public, their social interaction with the Chinese slowly went beyond buying vegetables and fruits from the Chinese shops, now people saw the Chinese as families, not just shopkeepers who largely kept to themselves.
More importantly, New Zealand schools saw the arrival of groups of Chinese students, who were generally polite, studious, learnt quickly and excelled. New Zealand schools never barred or segregated the Chinese (as did schools in parts of the United States and Canada in early years), school grounds became the place where New Zealand European children and new Chinese arrivals could mix freely.
The teachers usually had positive and favourable experiences with these refugee children, many teachers were kind enough to offer these diligent and studious children extra tuition, especially in helping them with learning English. The happy result was that most of these children made spectacular progress and further established close and warm relationship with the teachers.
By the early 1960s New Zealand census (in the employment category) recorded the emergence of an educated professional group of ethnic Chinese medical doctors, engineers, lawyers and accountants. Within twenty years (a single generation), the Chinese made the leap from service industries to middle-class white-collar professions. (4)
Lucy’s Parents and the Ah Chees of Auckland
Lucy’s father CHUNG Shee Poy aka CHUNG Yip Chun arrived in New Zealand in 1919 as a young man of 18 with his father JOONG Bun Chiu, sponsored by his Aunt, Madame Joong AH CHEE, who was married to CHAN Dar-Chee, the famous AH CHEE Family patriarch. (5) (It should be noted here that ‘Chung’ and ‘Joong’ are alternative spellings of the same Chinese character.鈡)
The Ah Chee Family ran a highly successful market garden in Carlaw Park, and then extended into import-export business around Mechanics Bay. The Family owned no fewer than seven shops in its heydays at the turn of the century, three of them in Queen Street.
Madame Joong was an exceptionally modern woman, she was fluent in English, a Christian, and she operated a school in her home base of Canton offering English tuition to aspiring young men wishing to emigrate to New Zealand. According to her grandson Thomas (Tommy) Ah-Chee (the entrepreneur who co-founded Auckland’s first supermarket Foodtown), his grandmother always carried a bible with her. (6)
Lucy’s Father CHUNG Shee Poy also had a solid knowledge of functional written English prior to his migration, acquired most probably on the advice of Madame Joong, his aunt. Lucy’s Mother, NG Hop Yeen, was from the neighbouring village of Nga Yiel, and she was also taught to read and write, and did not have bound feet (unlike many of her peers). She was married at seventeen, as was the custom in those days. After marriage, her husband migrated with his father (old Mr Joong) to seek better fortunes in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Hop Yeen stayed in China to be the dutiful daughter-in-law. Lucy’s parents, with their considerable literacy skills, would be placed in the top 5% of the Chinese population of their time.
Lucy wrote in reply to my query on what prompted her to pursue a medical career. “I think it was my Dad’s teaching that I learned from—he didn’t say much. But he was so honest in everything he did. He used to say that you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t harm other people. You should do what you can to help others even if there’s no reward. He would always encourage you to do your best and not blame others for your failure.” CHUNG Shee Poy had ambitions to become a doctor, and therefore encouraged Lucy when she showed academic qualities to get ahead.
It should be noted that Lucy’s father must be among the early ones to apply for the ‘refugee permit’ to bring out his wife and family. The Permit was approved on 16 June 1939. Her mother and her children arrived on 3 September of the same year. This means that:
- The Family had good sources of information of the impending relaxation of immigration exclusion laws
- The Father had the money set aside ready to make the application.
Life as school girl in Hamilton
Lucy arrived in NZ on 3 September 1939 on the Niagara—one of the first ships carrying the Chinese refugee wives and children. Lucy was seven years old. “Dad met us at the port of Auckland and took us to Hamilton. He had a fruit shop in 69 Victoria Street, the Dai Tung/Tai Tung and known as The Tung Fruit Company.”
It should be noted that the practice of having the family staying in the shop (either upstairs or at the back of the premises was a very common practice among the fruiterers at the time. It saved on rent, and it was convenient for the family to help with keeping the shop running at all hours.
Lucy only “started school regularly at eight years old”. Many refugee children, especially girls, had similar experiences. This was largely because the Temporary Permit only allowed them an initial two-year stay. Some parents who needed an extra pair of hands at home or at the family gardens or shops would keep their daughters (often the eldest one) home to work instead of sending them to school to learn a new language and try to fit in a new syllabus.
Lucy was sent to a Catholic school first, and then moved around until she settled in Frankton Primary. Then she attended Hamilton High “which was co-ed when I started. About a year after that it became a girls only high school (now Hamilton Girls High School).”
“After I left school I did nurse aiding for the holidays. Then Dad gave me the option of going back to the fruit shop to work or carry on studying to go to medical school. I didn’t like working in the fruit shop and Dad always wanted to do medicine…so he wanted one of his children to do medicine and that ended up being me. I went to Otago to do the intermediate year and got accepted into medical school a year after that (1956 or 57)…
“I did my 6th year of medical training in Auckland and then my first-year house surgeon training at Whakatane Hospital. I worked a year in Hong Kong (seeing outpatients at Kowloon Hospital) then came back to Hamilton and worked at Waikato Hospital.”
I asked Lucy if she experienced anything negative, e.g. racism/sexism, her reply came back clearly and firmly, but without elaboration: “I didn’t have any negative experiences while at medical school that I recall. I just slotted in and did all the work that any other doctors were doing and wasn’t treated any differently as a female or Chinese.”
Socially, the late 1950s and 1960s were New Zealand’s socially tolerant years. People were generally relaxed and the Chinese as a tolerated minority has ‘proved’ itself by being low-key, law-abiding, diligent and well-assimilated.
Lucy started as a General Practitioner in Hamilton in 1974. “They needed a female doctor. I think I was the first female Chinese family doctor in those days. I did obstetrics and built up my own general practice.”
Lucy had a very successful career as a family doctor in Hamilton, well loved and trusted by her patients.
“I enjoyed being a family doctor ….I would always listen to my patients, and I didn’t like to dictate to them what to do. I don’t recall having any trouble getting patients but rather having trouble coping with the number of patients as I had more than my other fellow male GPs in the practice. I was very busy as I could communicate with the Chinese patients, many did not speak good English, …. when I sold my GP practice in 1999, I recall I had over 2000 patients. I then went back to work in the same practice as locum part time, before completely retiring in 2000.”
When asked about her regrets and triumphs, Lucy replied very positively on her satisfaction with her career, “I had no regrets being a family doctor. I felt my training allowed me to serve and help other people with their lives….even after I retired, I’d meet patients coming up to me in the supermarket proudly telling their children that I was the doctor that delivered them. Often the ones I delivered had children of their own! That is because I have spent all my life in one place—in Hamilton.”
The single negative experience that really irked Lucy was her status as an ‘alien’ in New Zealand. Similar to her contemporary cohort of refugee children, Lucy’s status was governed by the temporary permit which was extended time and again when the Japanese invasion merged into the Second World War in 1941-45.
When the War ended, China experienced even bigger turmoil in the subsequent civil war 1946-1949 between the Nationalists and Communists. By 1947, the Presbyterian Church successfully pushed the government to grant the refugee women and children the right to stay in New Zealand. But since the Chinese had no right to apply for naturalisation, their status was officially ‘Alien’. They were obliged to carry an ‘Alien Registration Card’ with their thumb prints and photographs which they must show to the police station when they move residence: “I had to report to the police station every time I left to go down to Dunedin for the Medical School and also when I returned to Hamilton. Every year I had to do that twice. I had to do that even up to the mid and late 1950s.”
For the Chinese, the right to apply for naturalisation was only allowed in 1951, and the Chinese had to satisfy Internal Affairs on several counts in order to apply. The applicant needed to renounce their Chinese nationality. Such rules were applied only to the Chinese, no other ethnic group needed to abide by such restrictions. The number of successful Chinese naturalisation was kept low. Of the 400 applications for naturalisation submitted in 1950, only 20 were granted. (7) No wonder Lucy had to wait in the naturalisation queue.
Conclusion
Lucy Chan (Chung)’s arrival in New Zealand and her medical career showed the resilience of her community and her family, as well as her personal perseverance. From being a young daughter of a refugee family under a temporary permit, she used the best opportunities that a New Zealand education could give her, and built a successful medical career benefitting the Hamilton community as one of the longest serving GP. Like many of her peers (the cohort of refugee children), Lucy’s determination and unyielding spirit made her an outstanding citizen of her country of adoption.
References:
- Lily Lee, Farewell Guangdong, Refugee Wives and children Arrive in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1939-1941. Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, 2021.
- For the ideals of keeping New Zealand white, and hence the necessity of keeping coloured migrants (like the Chinese) out, see Nigel Murphy “Joe Lum v. Attorney General The Politics of Exclusion” pp. 48-67 in Unfolding History, Evolving Identity. Edited by Manying Ip. Auckland University Press, 2003.
- Manying Ip, Home Away From Home: Lifestories of Chinese Women in NZ, New Women’s Press, 1990. p.179; pp24-25.
- For a discussion of how the new refugee families benefitted from the NZ education system, and the many examples of positive interaction between teachers and students, see “The Gift of Education” Chapter 4, in Manying Ip, Dragons on the Long White Cloud. Tandem Press, 1996. pp. 74-77.
- For Madame Joong and CHAN Dar-Chee, see Dragons on the Long White Cloud. pp. 40-44.
- ibid. p. 42.
- “Naturalisation of Chinese” Internal Memorandum for the Hon Minister of Internal Affairs. 22 June, 1950. I.A. 116/7 Part 2. National Archives of New Zealand.
