Almost all New Zealand’s early Chinese migrants come from an area in southern China that’s about the size of the Hawke’s Bay Region.^[1] That land area comprises several different home counties that are roughly centred around Guangzhou city, the provincial capital of Guangdong (Canton) just north of Hong Kong.

The Cantonese areas close to the coast have a centuries-long history of migration and trade with the outside world. When new opportunities arose in the Americas and Australasia in the mid-1800s, it was the Cantonese who became emigrants, gold seekers and settlers. The largest number of migrants came from the Seyip 四邑 region (the four counties west of Guangzhou). In Canada, the United States and Australia it is Seyip people who predominate. Aotearoa New Zealand is unique as the majority of its early migrants came from the Upper Poon Yue 番禺 district.

Although Poon Yue people predominated, Aotearoa was home to migrants from at least 12 different counties:

• Poon Yue, Nam Hoi and Shun Duk - these counties were often grouped together and called the Sam Yup or three counties.
• Seyip (comprising the Sun Wui, Toi San, Hoi Ping and Yan Ping counties)
• Jung Seng and Tung Goon (these two separate neighbouring counties often grouped together)
• Fah Yuen (this county often worked with the neighbouring Poon Yue people)
• and the three separate counties of Sun On (Hakka), Heung Shan (Zhong Shan) and Gaoyiu

Poon Yue, Seyip and Jung Seng were by the far the largest groupings in New Zealand. At the turn of the last century, the Presbyterian Missionary Alexander Don compiled a 'roll' that captured a significant sample of the Chinese New Zealand population. The roll contains 3,682 names. An analysis of home counties between 1896 and 1913 shows:

• 69.95% Poon Yue
• 12.4% Toi San
• 7.8% Jung Seng
• 2.4% Heung Shan
• 1.33% Fah Yuen
• 1.08% Shun Duk
• 3.94% Other^[2]

Despite the geographic proximity of the different counties, there were significant cultural and linguistic differences between them. People tended to identify by county rather than country. For example, a person from Poon Yue would identify as Poon Yue first and 'Chinese' as a very distant second.^[3] There was little mixing between county folk. For example, a Poon Yue person would work and socialise with other Poon Yue, and even shop in Poon Yue-owned shops. This was partly due to a strict allegiance to family and clan, but also because of language barriers. Each of the different counties had their own dialects, some of which were not intelligible to the others. Those from Seyip, for example, were not able to understand people from Poon Yue and Jung Seng, and vice versa.

Who were the early Chinese settlers?
Explore more

Partly because of these and other historical differences, each county group had a different settlement experience in New Zealand.

• Poon Yue county – the home county of the largest group of early settlers is now called Upper Poon Yue^[4] In 1901 it was 6-20 miles north of the old city of Canton (now Guangzhou).^[5]  This area was particularly affected by the Opium Wars and the foreign invasion of Guangzhou. The invasion led many to migrate as gold seekers. The vast majority of New Zealand’s Chinese goldminers were Poon Yue. On the goldfields, they set up the earliest home town and clan support groups. When gold became harder to win in the 1880s, many left Aotearoa or turned to other occupations like market gardening. Because of the market garden link, many Chinese Māori have Poon Yue ancestry.
• Seyip county, comprising Sun Wui, Toi San, Hoi Ping and Yan Ping, this area has the honour of providing the first five Chinese gold miners to Otago, arriving in December 1865. Seyip itself was about 100 miles southwest of old Canton (Guangzhou) city, and was considered remote and isolated in the 19th century. The terrain was hilly and not as fertile as the land on the plains. For this reason, the Seyip migrants tended to have less capital than others. In New Zealand, they often worked as gold seekers and later set up laundries and market gardens - both of which did not require a large amount of initial investment.
• Jung Seng county is home to the smallest of the three main groups. Their county lay 35-40 miles east of the old city of Canton and was blessed with fertile land and plenty of water. The inhabitants were mostly orchardists and not rice farmers. Those who came to New Zealand tended to have more capital and were more likely to set up businesses. There were a few notable early Jung Seng businesses which supplied goldminers, but most Jung Seng migrants came after the gold rush – from the 1890s onwards. The majority went directly to the North Island, setting up fruit shops with sidelines in importing and exporting small goods. In 1926 the Jung Seng county folk set up the Tung Jung Association of New Zealand.

There was also a small cohort of migrants who arrived before the goldrush. Unfortunately we know little about their home counties although most came via Hong Kong and Victoria. Some also took English names such as William Patterson, which makes their lives and origins difficult to track.  However, we can surmise that all of the men were Cantonese.^[6]

‍