Farewell Guangdong

It was September 1938 when Lau Yuet Seen received word from her husband to leave Fah Dei for Hong Kong as soon as possible. The Japanese troops were close to landing north of Hong Kong. "I made careful preparations for the dangerous walk ahead with my two children... Me, my son Allen, and my baby Freda set off on our journey as soon as it was dark. Freda was only four. We were scared and frightened..." As the Japanese attack, Lau Yuet Seen (Xana Tang), on foot with her two children, flees her village Woo Bui in Poon Yue County. Yuet braves sea pirates and a long journey at sea without a word of English, finally celebrating her reunion with her husband Lim Yuen Loy 林潤來, a fruiterer in Cambridge. But the celebration is short-lived because Chinese women are granted only two years' temporary permit by the New Zealand Government. Their husbands must pay a £200 deposit for their entry and a £500 bond -- forfeited if any child is born during their two-year stay.

Ou Shee, also known as Mary Ou Shee Ngan, was born in 1917 in Singapore. When she was 12, she moved to her family village Sel Goong (Sou Gau Leng), in Poon Yue County, Canton. Ou Shee was only 14 when she became the third wife of Ngan Kwang 顔挺光 from Sha Choong and Yuen Har, Poon Yue. Ngan Ting was in his forties, a 'New Gold Mountain Man' working as a fruiterer in Wellington. Known as the Canton Operation, the Japanese invade southern China between October and December 1938. Sha Choong village is only about 10 kilometres from the port. Ou Shee and her stepson Sui Foong hear the planes overhead; they can see palls of smoke and hear the bombing of Canton's railway station, the port, and factories in the distance!

Liu Boo Lung, also known as Wong Boo Lung (or recorded as Leu Ah Wee), was born on 18 February 1916 in Tong Hor Chuen (village), Sun Wui County, Southern China. During the Japanese invasion, Liu Boo Lung fled Sun Wui with her daughter, Gin (5), her mother-in-law, Chan Shee, and brother-in-law, Wong Fong Sue (15), to New Zealand to join her husband, Norman, and her father-in-law, Wong Chew, at Mangapapa in Gisbourne. In this episode, inspired by her great-grandmother's dramatic journey, Brecon Dobbie performs her critically acclaimed poem Diaspora Overboard for director Lynda Chanwai-Earle (herself a descendent of Chinese refugees).

"[In 1938] the Japanese invaders began to move south. The approaching invasion meant everyone's lives were in jeopardy. There was anxiety and fear in the village. The prospect of leaving their ancestral home and the uncertainty of fleeing into the unknown was a huge decision... Some felt that there was no option but to flee; for others, it was a risk they could not take." Yuk Sum was nine years old when her family's flight from war-torn China began. "I remember it was the 28th of August, 1938. Gripped by fear, a large group of people left on foot together, carrying their possessions. On the following day, some of the group turned back. There were some who had accompanied their loved ones on the beginning of their journey; some were too frightened, and others, including Ma [grandmother], who realised that the journey would be too difficult for them. Our group of almost 20 continued on."

Ho Yuke So was born on 17 November 1910. Her parents couldn't afford to keep her, so she and her sister were sold. Yuke So was sold as a maid to the Chan family from Sun Gai. Yuke So's daughter Florence recalls stories about old China. "When my mother was sold, she was very upset about it, that her father and mother would sell her! And that her brothers would allow it! "My grandmother [Yuke So's mother-in-law] had bound feet. Apparently, her feet were only about three inches! They would fit in a soya sauce dish, and of course she could never do anything." Yuke So became the third wife of Chan Him Chong (also known as Jack Chong), a fruiterer who was working at 365 Lake Road, Takapuna. Jack was born in 1883, making him 27 years older than Yuke So. He arrived in Wellington on 3 May 1906 on the Monowai. Poll tax no. 1896.

Born in 1905, Fong She (also known as Chin Fong She) was from a Fong clan village in the Sui Nam district, Canton. Her husband, Chin Moon Ock, first arrived in New Zealand on the Moeraki on 16 March 1920, aged 17. Poll tax no. 1025. Fong She lost three children to poverty before enduring a perilous journey across land and sea to be reunited with her husband in Dunedin. Fong She and her husband toiled in their laundry at 35 Hanover Street. While helping in the laundry, she also gave birth to six children: Peter (1941), May (1942), Mabel (1944), Reta (1945), Joyce (1947), and Marjory (1948). After Peter's birth, the family moved from living on the laundry premises to a house at 7 Hanover Street. Eldest son Peter Chin became the first Chinese Mayor of Dunedin (2004-2010). Peter recalls growing up in his home city during the 1940s, and his mother's cheerful disposition.

"Shew Shee [Sue She], my mother, was not given a name but called Ngee Goo in the village and Ma by our family in New Zealand. She was born in February 1901 (the year of the ox), just after Chinese New Year, in the market village of Nam Mun, in the district of Dai Chung, where all people spoke Loong Du -- a non-Cantonese dialect. That was our mother tongue when she brought us up in New Zealand. Ma was the second eldest of a family of three daughters and two sons born to Sue Lum. "Her father had a meat stall at the local market and was a seller of fresh pork. He died when she was about 12 or 13 years old. Ma told me that they frequented the local tea shops, where he smoked opium. "After her father died, Ma left Nam Mun and spent a few years with a Luma aunt in On Tong, her mother's village. She did not return to Nam Mun until she was 18.