October 2020 has been a great month for our book, Merchant Miner Mandarin, about Choie Sew Hoy and his life among his fellow miners and merchants in Victorian Otago.
The splendid review (reproduced below) written by Michele Ayers, Librarian at Motueka High School, went up on The School Library website on the same day that the book was shortlisted in the New Zealand Heritage Book Awards.
The Heritage winner will be revealed by the NZ Society of Authors on Thursday 29th October, at St Michael and All Angels Church, 95 Oxford Terrace, Christchurch, at 7pm. (That's 7pm, not 7.30pm. The time has been changed but is definitely 7pm.)
As part of the Word Festival, Jenny and I will be giving an illustrated talk on researching Choie Sew Hoy's life on Friday 30 October, at 3pm, at The Piano, 156 Armagh Street, Christchurch. Admission is free. See you there.
Merchant, Miner, Mandarin: The life and times of the remarkable Choie Sew Hoy
What really happened in
Aotearoa during the 1860s onwards?
Well
known author Trevor Agnew and his partner Jenny Sew Hoy Agnew – a direct
descendant of Choie Sew Hoy – have crafted a culturally relevant biography that
secondary students and adults alike will find informative. Sew Hoy’s biography
is woven together with aspects of entrepreneurism, trade, racism, social
aspects, political bias, and employment discrepancy in New Zealand.
This
nonfiction work will contribute significantly to school library collections and
inform students of lesser known Aotearoa history. Year 13 History students
undertaking independent research will have a comprehensive resource at their
fingertips.
Sidebars
throughout the book offer quick access to social conditions. In 1870 where even
though the miners were barely surviving the harsh conditions in the Lake
District they were quoted by the Otago Witness paper as having “… plenty wood,
plenty fire, plenty tucker”. The inclusion of maps, photos and cartoons further
reveal the flavour of New Zealand’s social history and attitudes towards Chinese
then. A 1910 NZ Truth cartoon depicts a Chinese King with the caption ‘Long
live the Chow now’ – it was a very public, racist attack on Chinese industry
and success in NZ.
Gold was
a get rich quick but unreliable income. Chinese were not only challenged by
conditions, but often by violent opposition. Chinese miners proved industrious
in mining and diversified into other industries including tree fungus trade,
market gardens, scrap metal trade and new gold extraction designs (the Sew Hoy
dredge).
Choie Sew
Hoy’s life discloses the energy and entrepreneurship required to survive in a
foreign land. There is no doubt that, additionally, negotiating and helping to
improve the conditions for Chinese workers’ also contributed to Sew Hoy’s
status. These aspects and many more in Sew Hoy’s biography offer a fascinating
read of Aotearoa history.
Title: Merchant, Miner, Mandarin: The life and times of the
remarkable Choie Sew Hoy
Author: Jenny
Sew Hoy Agnew and Trevor Agnew
Illustrator: Gavin Bishop (Cover)
Publisher: Canterbury University Press
ISBN: 9781988503097
RRP: $49.99
Format: Paperback
Date of Publication: June 2020
Ages: Secondary students upwards
Do you have any advisory warnings for this book? No
Reviewer: Michele Ayres, Librarian, Motueka High School, Tasman
How are you recommending this book? Highly recommended
What’s the book’s opening sentence? It is late in the 19th century.
