Asian Kiwis find their own way
As reports of anti-Asian racism rise amid the coronavirus pandemic, three Asian New Zealanders share their experiences of being typecast – and how they’ve proved the stereotypes wrong. Brittany Keogh reports.
The day after a girl bullied her for having black hair, Kris Bartley brought a can of blue hair dye to school. After spraying her and her friends’ ponytails the colour of a Smurf, she walked up to the bully: ‘‘We’re all the same [now],’’ she said of herself and her schoolmates.
Bartley, who runs the vegan cafe Sweet Release onWellington’s Manners St, may have a strong New Zealand accent now at age 35, but when she first moved to Christchurch from the Philippines as a child, she spoke barely a word of English, and classmates would tease her for being different.
It’s an experience many AsianKiwi people can relate to.
The Human Rights Commission has seen a threefold increase in reports of racist comments being made against ethnic Asian people since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response to the worrying spike in hate speech, Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon launched a campaign called ‘‘Racism is no joke’’.
The schoolyard incident wasn’t the last time Bartley would experience racism and stereotyping.
At the height of New Zealand’s coronavirus outbreak, a stranger coughed in her face and muttered ‘‘f...ing Asians, Covid Covid’’.
When Bartley became vegan after opening her shop five years ago, she once again felt like the odd one out – but this time in her own ethnic community.
‘‘Our traditional food is meatbased and rice-based. A couple of people said to me, ‘Asians can’t be vegan,’’’ she says.
‘‘If someone offers you food in my culture, if you say no it’s very, very naughty.’’
It was only after she won a global Pinoy award recognising her success as a baker and entrepreneur that Bartley felt less conflicted about being a Filipino vegan.
For Bartley, baking is about connection.
‘‘A lot of Asians, they shake with one hand and cover on top, like, ‘OK, I’ve got two free hands – I’m not armed.’
‘‘With food, [that’s] basically what you’re doing. You’re showing your hands – ‘I’m not armed, this is what I’ve got to offer,’’’ Bartley says.
Fresh out of film school, Lucy Zee was working in her first job as a television writer when she started questioning her career choice. Her colleagues regularlymade racist jokes. She hated it so she quit.
Zee had gone into media, after her overseas experience, imagining it would be fun and interesting.
Of Chinese heritage and raised in Auckland and Waihi, she had always thought reading the news would be a cool gig.
But when she suggested it as a future career to a relative, they responded: ‘‘Have you ever seen a Chinese newsreader [in New Zealand]? They don’t exist.’’
The comment led to her reconsidering the goal. ‘‘I was like, yeah, that’s a fact,’’ she said.
When she was a teenager, the only Chinese women she saw on New Zealand television were cast as doctors or sex workers.
Zee is now an accomplished videographer, presenter and editor. She toured with musicians and mademusic videos after quitting her television writing job, before somewhat unexpectedly falling into roles in front of the cameraworking as a journalist and video producer for TVNZ’s Re: and RNZ’s The Wireless.
Zee is hopeful the faces on our screens are becoming more representative of New Zealand, featuringmore women of Asian heritage.
Still, she sometimes cops criticism for not fitting stereotypes. People on Facebook will post comments on her videos, saying: ‘‘Oh, they had to choose the fattest Asian.’’
It didn’t really bother her, though. ‘‘I’m a child of the internet – I’ve read my fair share of cyberbullying messages.’’ Instead, she just thought: ‘‘If you want to see a superskinny, pale Asian that doesn’t swear, why don’t you go on camera? I’m not being nasty, just genuinely there needs to be more Asian representation.’’
Like Bartley, fourthgeneration Chinese-New Zealander Bev Hong first encountered racism in the playground.
At school, she discovered the best way to protect herself from racist bullying was to surround herselfwith friends.
Now in her 50s, Hong said that when she was growing up in Palmerston North she felt like she had two ‘‘selves’’.
She strongly felt the need to navigate the tensions between her wha¯nau’s expectations and other people’s expectations.
‘‘You wouldn’t see a Chinese person in a student bar,’’ for example, when she was at university, so she felt awkward when she occasionallywas out for a drink with her basketball teammates.
She is now a social policy researcher at Ko¯ta¯ta¯ Insight in Wellington, a senior associate at Te HerengaWaka’s (Victoria University) Institute of Governance and Policy Studies, a part-time artist and amum to a 17-year-old.
Hong is determined to ensure her son is secure in his identity as a fifth-generation Chinese-Kiwi (he’s also Irish, from his father’s side).
After a young ethnic Chinese boy asked her ‘‘Why do they hate us so much?’’ a couple of years ago, Hong realised just how much work Aotearoa still had to do to stamp out racism.
She has recently been doing her bit to combat the issue – and to celebrate the contribution of Chinese people to New Zealand – by organising the Aotearoa Poster Competition, which was an idea in response to an increase in antiChinese racism in New Zealand.
Its aim was to give artists a voice, to be a national initiative on behalf of Chinese communities, and to engage the public in conversation.
Thewinning posters have been acquired by Te Papa for its Asian history collection.
Hong said talking about racism and owning up to our dark history as a nation was difficult. But she felt we were making progress.
‘‘I think that there is a stepchange ... I think that it’s related to the conversation that tangata whenua have brought to the table.’’
Ultimately, Hong said she felt privileged to live in New Zealand, reflecting on what her life could have been like in China.
‘‘It [New Zealand] is a wonderful place and I’m really optimistic for the future.
‘‘It feels like we’re starting to have those real conversations to create a society that truly respects, accepts and embraces cultural diversity. But there’s a lot still to be done.’’