Why travel to Asia? It is all right here.
Auckland
Lantern festival, Albert Park
26-28 February 2010
They said there would be lots of people, but we never imagined there would be so many spectators attend the annual lantern festival in Auckland’s Albert Park. Just about everybody living in New Zealand’s largest city came by, including the Mayor of Auckland John Banks and even the Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key.
When we arrived in Auckland on Thursday we were struck at how different the city was from the small East Coast town of Gisborne. It took us an hour or so along crowded roads to arrive in downtown Auckland, even though we were going against the flow of traffic leaving the city for the sprawling suburbs.
Auckland has a tropical feel, with high humidity, a strong Polynesian and Pacific island presence, and also a high proportion of young people and Asian immigrants. Staying in the CBD, close to three universities, we found the streets full of students starting the academic year, from many Asian Pacific nations.
We met with a mover and shaker in the Chinese world, Wong Liu Shueng, who has spearheaded the Chinese ‘coming out’ and opening up to New Zealand. As a cultural awareness educator, she’s worked in changing the hearts and minds of many who aren’t keen on the growing Chinese presence in New Zealand. Growing up in the only Chinese family in small town Carterton, she’s knows first hand about racism and the hardships endured by Chinese in New Zealand, and also the struggle to break out of the traditional Chinese mindset to live more easily in this nation.
We were particularly interested in talking to her about one of her projects, relating to a ship the Ventnor which sunk off the Northland coast more than a century ago, carrying with it the bones of nearly 500 Chinese on their journey back to their homeland. The bones and coffins never made it, but instead washed up on beaches near Hokianga harbour, and some were cared for and buried by local Maori.
We also met with another leading light in Chinese research, Manying Ip, at the University of Auckland. Author to a number of books, including Dragons on the White Cloud, Home Away from Home: Life Stories of Chinese Women in New Zealand, and Being Maori-Chinese: Mixed Identities, she’s been doing oral history for two decades, collecting stories of the highly visible yet low profile Chinese community in New Zealand.
She’s been exploring the issue of identity with one of her most recent books, which looks at the fusion and confusion among mixed Maori-Chinese in New Zealand. Assigned to the under-class in early New Zealand, Maori and Chinese found each other natural allies, a bond developed through market gardens and existing on the fringe of mainstream Pakeha society.
For three evenings we’ve been exhibiting in a marque at the Auckland Lantern Festival. It starts each evening at 5pm, and goes through to 11pm, but during the day and late into the night thousands of people come to sample the food, listen to music, watch performances and admire the array of lanterns and lit-up sculptures around the park.
We’ve had a steady stream of visitors. Some just glance at the paintings on their stroll through the park, other venture inside to read the panels and inspect close-up the paintings Mu brought from Lijiang. After the official opening we had a visit from the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Mayor of Auckland and other dignitaries. Mu unfortunately had disappeared, but John Key come into the tent, shook hands, looking at the paintings, while John Banks stood by. Camera flashes went off and after our 2 minutes of fame, the entourage went on to the next tent, where some Taiwanese lantern painters were working away.
The three-day event finishes with a giant fireworks display. After that, we have three more days in Auckland, where we are making a short film wearing spacesuits around
Auckland and painting/interviewing more Chinese New Zealanders.
After the festival, we took part in a schools programme with Asia:NZ, visiting two Auckland primary schools: New Windsor and Parnell. Not an ordinary school visit, though, as Mu wore a spacesuit for both events, to amuse the 400-or so children and give the impression he was coming from space. The youngsters, aged 6 to 12 years old, really got into the performance. We encouraged them to sing songs to get Mu to paint. Some members of the audience were selected and Mu painted them quickly, and then got two kids to paint him, while in the background the Mongolian musicians from the band Hanggai strummed instruments, creating a other-worldly atmosphere.
At Parnell school the selection procedure of finding subjects to paint involved throwing a Frisbee into the crowd and then after a commotion, finding out who held onto the object. A young girl emerged from the maul and came up to be painted. The school visits are about encouraging children into art and creativity, and making it fun. They also help our project reach out to younger people, who will inherit the future.
Thanks to Neal Fineggan for the ride from Gisborne to Auckland, to Christopher for hosting Mu two nights, to the team at Asia:NZ including Jennifer King and Janine Chin, and especially to the Spaceship crew brothers Ian and Craig for the loan of two spacesuits.
