Bill Wong, affectionately name "Billie MacWong" for his Dunedin connections was a long-time Dunedin Identity and RNZAF's first Chinese Pilot Officer

For at least 1,000 years, Chinese traders have ventured all over Southeast Asia, making homes and setting up communities. From the mid-1800s that adventurous spirit took them afield to the Americas and across the Pacific.

Thirty-six Chinese New Zealanders served in World War I. Most were the sons and grandsons of early Chinese settlers who had married European women in the mid to late 1800s. Four of these young men never returned.

Violence was common around the gold fields of New Zealand, but especially for Chinese.

Although goldmining dominates early Chinese New Zealand history, there were a surprising variety of others who did not chose that life.

A former engineering student, Victor Low was put to work on in the tunnelling corp. His job was to dig tunnels under German lines. He is mostly remembered for surveying the Bulford Kiwi, a giant memorial to the NZ presence at Sling Camp on England's Salisbury Plain.

Aotearoa's first Chinese came from a small area within Guangdong, about the size of Manawatū-Whanganui. The first settlers came in the 1840s, but it was not until the 1860s goldrush, that Chinese began coming in their hundreds.

At the height of the Chinese goldmining period, two settlements stood tall: the first was the Lawrence Chinese Camp in Otago. The second was Canton, Round Hill in Southland. Like small townships, each settlement had its own shops, a hotel, a community space, temple and homes. Both were important centres for the hundreds of Chinese miners in the areas they served.

By the mid-1930s there were more New Zealand-born Chinese than ever before. Those who enlisted often chose the Royal New Zealand Air Force. It must have felt glamorous compared with working in a fruitshop, market garden or laundry.  

Wellingtonian Bill Chun was working in a Kilbirnie box factory when he decided to enlist. He was sent to the Pacific as a war photographer.

Appo Hocton is the first known Chinese New Zealander, arriving in Nelson in 1842 as one of the earliest Nelson colonists.

Although frowned upon in both the Chinese and European communities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Chinese European marriages were very successful, and there are many descendants of these marriages today.

This story is a placeholder to show that in the final release there will be contemporary material

Like other colonists, the earliest Chinese in Aotearoa were independent-minded risk takers. The earliest arrivals took what opportunities they saw, including farming, hospitality and service work. But the discovery of gold led to a whole new wave of Chinese migrants.

When Chinese arrived on the goldfields of Otago they were meet with both warmth and hostility. An essential part of community life was encouraging the good relationships and pushing back against infringement of rights.

Young Sui Hei (Young Hee) crossed cultural lines that few Chinese in the late 1800s were able to do. His anti-opium petition helped bring about the Opium Prohibition Act of 1901.

Chinese goldmining communities had numerous social and welfare needs. Some of these were met by the Chinese themselves. Other needs – such as hospital care - were provided by the wider community.

Rice, oil, dried fish and soy sauce. Without these staples how could a Chinese gold miner expect to live? With thousands on the Otago and the West Coast fields, and a healthy European population too, Chinese shops became a community hub. Many of the owners became influential people in their own right.

Chinese miners were a significant part of Otago and West Coast goldfields. But they may not have come if it were not for the efforts of Melbourne businessman, Ho A Mei.

In 1937 Japan and China went to war, foreshadowing the events of WWII. New Zealand's Chinese community responded immediately, raising funds and later lobbying desperately to get refugee visas for their families in China.

Appo Hocton’s descendants are proud of their famous ancestor. But that wasn’t always the case, as his great granddaughter Diana Clark recalls.

Gerald Chong had one of the hardest jobs in WWI, he was a stretcher bearer on the Western Front. Amazingly, he made it back home and then enlisted again in WWII.

Fiesty and independent, New Zealand gave Annie Ah Long the opportunity to build her own life.

From 1881, New Zealand introduced more than 100 laws and policies aimed at Chinese. Many aimed to limit Chinese migrants to New Zealand. Others aimed to limit the rights of Chinese who were already living here. This included not being able to be naturalised and not being able to get social welfare - whether you were naturalised or not. This is a list of the major laws and policies.

Almost all Aotearoa's early Chinese came from an area in southern China about the size of the Hawke’s Bay Region. Roughly centred around Guangzhou city, each of the home counties was culturally and linguistically diverse, despite their geographical proximity.

By the mid-1870s Chinese were the largest minority group on the West Coast goldfields with numbers peaking at about 2,200.

Chinese miners were the first large group of Chinese to come to New Zealand. Their influence is felt today on the land and the people of Aotearoa.