Merchant Miner Mandarin:
the Remarkable Life of 
Choie Sew Hoy

Merchant Miner Mandarin:
the Remarkable Life of
Choie Sew Hoy (2020) 
Jenny Sew Hoy Agnew
Trevor Agnew
Canterbury University Press
287 pages, Paperback

Looking Back:

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

19 October 2020

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.