Yesterday a friend of Kiwese sent through this opinion piece: ‘Why focus on other cultures and not our own?’ by NZ Herald columnist Brian Rudman. I eyeballed it somewhat carefully – any article that opens with possessive pronouns around culture and a cartoon dragon engulfing a white, flag-waving, Fred Dagg figure in a wife beater warrants several deep breaths through theContinueContinue reading “Responding to Brian Rudman’s Push for More Nationalism and Less Dragons”
Category Archives: Speak
Started from the Bottom Now We’re Here: 14 Years Since the Poll Tax Apology
“Sorry,” “arohamai,” “对不起,” “ma bad.” Kiwis tend to over apologise for everything – sorry for being late, sorry for moving your bag, sorry for ever so slightly scuffing your foot on the bus. But what about when ‘sorry’ really means something? The Poll Tax was a tonnage restriction and tax on all Chinese arrivals to New Zealand from 1881 to 1944. Fourteen years agoContinueContinue reading “Started from the Bottom Now We’re Here: 14 Years Since the Poll Tax Apology”
Chinese New Year (Chunjyeah!)
Ayi Wan Lin phoned on the weekend. Forgot to reply to that text, flicked it away for later consideration while the eternal online shopping hole of Taobao was draining my essence. Chunjie seems to creep in just as you’ve been blobbing into the festive glow of Christmas, New Year’s and a self-administered hangover period. It’s chill. Then you realise that laowai holidays didn’tContinueContinue reading “Chinese New Year (Chunjyeah!)”
Mian Mian Says
Mian Mian 棉棉 is a writer from Shanghai. A mainstay of the 00后 Beijing-Shanghai art community, Mian Mian’s confessional blog writings published in On High In Blue Tomorrows《于忧郁的明天升上的天空》 are scattered with bands, albums, films, poems and lyrics, some of which I have collected here for you to enjoy. There is something about trawling that I like. The thrill of a bargain geneticallyContinueContinue reading “Mian Mian Says”
Tell You What 2016
As the annual exchange of useless crap among family and friends beneath a conifer pine approaches, Kiwese is here to shamelessly remind you that Tell You What: Great New Zealand Nonfiction 2016, published by Auckland University Press, is available in stores now! Earlier this year, I received an email from Auckland editor Jolisa Gracewood. She’d stumbled across the blog, and was keen for HanzuContinueContinue reading “Tell You What 2016”
Year of the (Scape)goat: Responding to Phil Twyford on Chinese sounding names
Crime rates rising? Road toll increasing? Quality of secondary or tertiary education declining? No jobs? Housing bubble in Auckland? Just blame the Chinese. New Zealand’s social media is aflame with hot and sour responses (from people with Chinese sounding names and non-Chinese sounding names) to comments from Labour’s housing spokesman Phil Twyford on TV3’s The Nation in an interview with Lisa Owen on Saturday evening,ContinueContinue reading “Year of the (Scape)goat: Responding to Phil Twyford on Chinese sounding names”
He Tangata: Interview with Mayor Meng Foon
Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa, “the Great standing place of Kiwa,” formerly “the first city to see the sun” (jeez… thanks, Apia), whānau hometown Gisborne on the North Island’s East Coast is a very special place indeed. Beaches, cicada song, 50c ice-blocks from the dairy, backyard cricket with the cuzzies! Those hot summers up at Por Por’s are seared into my memory, us Chinese kids barefootContinueContinue reading “He Tangata: Interview with Mayor Meng Foon”
“Respect that, bow down bitches / 尊重吧，向她鞠躬”: ‘Flawless’ and Language Learning
Sometimes there are days in as a language student in China where group discussions just make me want to scream and/or smash my head against a wall for not being able to sufficiently articulate myself on the thinly veiled sexism and objectification that lies beneath almost every text or topic that relates to women. At least not inContinueContinue reading ““Respect that, bow down bitches / 尊重吧，向她鞠躬”: ‘Flawless’ and Language Learning”
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