Chinese gold miners’ struggle in 1800s New Zealand shown in Hong Kong video artwork
Displayed at Tai Twun in Hong Kong, Lisa Reihana’s DigiRadiance: Gold_Lead_Wood_Coal shows Chinese miners in New Zealand in 360 degrees
The mistreatment of Chinese workers in the second half of the 19th century, particularly during the San Francisco gold rush and the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway from British Columbia to Eastern Canada, are well known and documented.
Less so are the hardships faced by Chinese migrants in the gold mines of New Zealand in the late 1800s.
A new, immersive digital installation at Tai Kwun, in Hong Kong’s Central neighbourhood, titled DigiRadiance: Gold_Lead_Wood_Coal, shines a light on this neglected episode in history.
Presented by New Zealand video artist Lisa Reihana in the heritage arts centre’s F Hall Studio, her video montage loop is projected on four blank walls, sketching out narrative threads about these workers and their stories.
“I knew of them from when I was a student at art school,” says Reihana, who is of Maori descent. “One of my friends was a Chinese girl from Punyu [now Panyu, in Guangdong province], who talked about it. I also have Maori-Chinese relations in the family.”
