WORKING HARD
The fruits of Chinese labour
Rooted in limited English skills and a penchant for working hard, there have been few relationships more fruitful.
The colourful history of Chinese Kiwis growing and selling produce has come in for reflection and celebration with the release of a two-volume tome, chronicling its cultural impact.
Fruits of Our Labours covers region by region the nation’s Chinese-owned fruit shops, though the phenomenon has begun to approach its best-used-by date.
‘‘With introduction of selfservice retailing and supermarkets, the days of the Chinese fruiterer have all but ended,’’ Manawatu¯ Chinese Association president Allanyoung said.
Elizabeth Leong was the daughter of Joe Kwong Lee, who ran the Commercial Fruit Mart in the old Commercial Hotel building on the corner of The Square and Main St, where Stephen Parsons House of Travel is now.
‘‘My father came from school teachers. His idea was to make money and go back home, but war broke out.’’
While many Chinese had been in New Zealand since the 1800s, the Japanese invasion of China in 1939 brought in a new wave of people fleeing from the conflict.
‘‘Because many Chinese couldn’t speak English and still had to make a living, they took up occupations where they could [get by] with limited English fruiterers, market gardeners and launderers,’’ Leong said.
Her father sold the business in 1966, and it became the Commercial Delicatessen.
‘‘There was Young’s Fruit Supply under the Manawatu¯ Standard building on The Square. It took the book for me to find out all the history,’’ Leong said.
Owner operator of Palmerston North’s Pioneer New World, Darrin Wong spent his earliest years in an apple box at the back of Wong Jang, his parents’ shop in Taihape. He learned to read when he was 5 or 6 by copying letters off the labels of soft drink bottles.
The company founded by Wong Foon Cheong evolved into Taihape New World and celebrated 100 years in 2010, but wound up in 2013 when Wong’s brother Conrad sold the supermarket.
Wong represented the modern face of fruit and vege selling, but while his older children help out in the office and stack shelves, ‘‘they don’t want a bar of it’’.
‘‘The children of fruit and vege sellers have gone into the professions as accountants, dentists, doctors and lawyers,’’ his mother Yvonne said.
Fruits of Our Labours was launched at the Palmerston North Central Library earlier this month.