Businessman and researcher kept links to history alive
b February 10, 1938 d February 12, 2024
It is a good bet that few New Zealanders know the story of the SS Ventnor.
Keeping the memory of the Ventnor alive was something Wellingtonian Gordon Wu, who died in February, aged 86, worked hard to achieve.
The Ventnor sank off Northland’s Hokianga Heads in October 1902,carrying the remains of 499 Chinese gold miners, being taken to China for reburial.
Over the next few months their remains washed ashore, and members of Te Roroa and Te Rarawa iwi interred them in their urupā.
It created a unique bond between the New Zealand Chinese community and Northland Māori which, 122 years later, is a strong one.
Gordon Wu was born in 1938, in the home of a Hataitai, Wellington, midwife.
The second child of Leslie Yew Tong and Foonlin Wu, he was raised in a twobedroom cottage in Abel Smith St.
With no toilet, they had to go to the family fruit and vege shop, Wong She and Co, in Cuba St to use the bathroom.
When the hard-working family raised enough money, his parents purchased a home in Newtown with a large section. Each of the siblings was allocated a garden plot to look after and they grew radishes to sell at the shop.
As an adult, he won 15 minutes of fame when he successfully grew a pineapple. He had learned the value of being a good gardener by being the sibling that grew the most radishes for the family shop.
Gordon went to St Mark’s School and then Rongotai College, which he left at 16. As a youngster he was not interested in sport, but enjoyed photography, playing the violin and singing in the choir at the Chinese Anglican Church.
As the eldest son, it was his responsibility to work in the family fruit and vegetable shop.
His son, Danny, said that it was not an easy job.
“His life at Wong She’s was hard, manual work. He hauled 90kg sacks of potatoes off the truck and into the shop. Veges were washed and trimmed by hand. This was in the days before refrigerated shelving.”
Every Saturday he would pack the entire contents of the shop and put everything into the cool store before washing down the shop.
At 18, he did his compulsory military training at Linton Military Camp where he was drafted into the medical corp. At a time when Chinese faced widespread racism, he won an efficiency trophy.
In the mid 1960s, he began corresponding with a Chinese woman, Yvonne Chan, in Hong Kong. After four years of correspondence, he visited her and spent six months learning Chinese.
Returning to New Zealand, he married Yvonne in 1961. Gordon ran a number of businesses, including the Strathmore Dairy for 11 years.
After the dairy came two cafes – the Edelweiss on Perrett’s Corner and the Carriageway in Willbank Court.
Running cafes was hard work, as they made a lot of the food themselves. After tiring of making pies and scones, he spent a lengthy time as a real estate agent before retiring.
It was after retirement that Gordon really flourished. With a natural green thumb, he loved gardening, particularly growing vegetables and fruits. In 2018, he featured on Stuff for growing a pineapple.
Although his family labelled him as “mad” for trying to grow the tropical fruit, he was delighted to show them otherwise.
"I've tried growing mango, I've tried growing bananas, I've tried growing lychees, none of them succeeded.“
His home garden resembled a market garden with different crops all year round. It wasn’t just edible crops that enjoyed growing, he had a large collection of orchids and would proudly send his children pictures of them in full bloom.
With his love for gardening, it was only natural that he served on the committee of the Wellington Chinese Garden Society, looking to establish a Chinese garden on the capital’s waterfront.
Danny recalls his father “fancied himself” as a musician and singer.
“He loved to play the violin, harmonica and piano accordion whenever he got the opportunity. Us kids all learnt the piano and it was so irritating practising with him humming in the background.”
The choirboy in him was always determined to have a voice.
“He would sing along to songs mostly out of tune and rhythm but he would sing. I could not believe it when he told me he sang at a family wedding recently.”
Gordon also worked hard to promote Cantonese. Believing it would keep their culture alive, he gave free lessons to anyone wanting to learn the language.
In his later years it was in his passion for history and genealogy that his greatest achievements came.
Chinese Kiwis had long faced hostility in New Zealand and Gordon gave them a voice, helping out on numerous books on Chinese stories including Fruits of Our Labour, a book examining the importance of the humble fruit and vege store in Aotearoa.
He also became a skilled researcher. That was never more handy than when it came to the Ventnor.
In countries like Australia and New Zealand, which experienced gold rushes, Chinese always had to deal with the tricky issue of returning home if they died.
Chinese benevolent societies collected an annual fee and took responsibility for getting their remains to China.
In New Zealand, the first repatriation took place in 1883 by the Otago-based
Cheong Shing Tong Society.
The Ventnor carried the remains of 499 Chinese who were exhumed from cemeteries across Aotearoa, including Karori.
The story of it sinking and the washing up of bones was quickly forgotten by everybody, other than Northland iwi.
In 2007, cultural consultant Wong Liu Shueng began hearing stories about bones being washed up and buried by local Māori.
In an article in New Zealand Geographic, Wong spoke of talking to Māori elders who remembered being told: “There’s Chinese over there. Don’t play in there.”
It set off a series of events which led to the discovery of the wreck, a documentary and the involvement of the Chinese government.
One big question, however, remained – what were the names of the 499 men? A research group headed by Wong
Liu Shueng failed to find any relevant documents, until Gordon visited National
Archives in 2016.
He found a list of exhumation requests with Chinese names appended from 39 cemeteries.
Among the names was Gordon’s great-grandfather, Ng Jor Ching, of whom Gordon said: “He is the brother of my grandfather's natural father. He went back to China and married. Came back to New Zealand and had no children. When he died – his wife had no children, so she adopted his brother’s youngest son. She brought up grandfather as her son.“
In other words, Ng Jor Ching was Gordon’s great-grandfather by adoption and his great-grand uncle by blood.
His discovery of the Ventnor names came just in time for them to be added to a memorial put up by the New Zealand Chinese Association.
Throughout his life, Gordon had a great sense of community. When the Wahine sank in 1968 he took food from his Strathmore dairy to feed survivors and rescuers, and he was a member of a number of Chinese community and church groups.
One notable organisation was the Tung Jung Association of New Zealand, set up to encourage Cantonese culture and language among descendants from the Tung Goon and Jung Seng counties of Guangdong.
He was the heart and soul of the organisation for over 20 years. As well as welcoming new arrivals he researched family history to help Chinese understand who their relatives were and where they came from in China.
Family friend and historian Kirsten Wong wrote an obituary for the Tung Jung newsletter, noting the depth of his influence and knowledge.
“In our little group of history buffs we had an in-joke, ‘what Gordon doesn’t know about Wellington (its Chinese community), isn’t worth knowing’.”
It was his willingness to serve the community that was his greatest strength, she said. “With Gordon’s passing a world has been lost – not just of knowledge but of a certain old-fashioned way of doing things. Gordon was a people person. He valued community service and he valued relationships. Whatever he could do to help, he did.”
Speakers at his funeral spoke of a man who worked hard for his family and community.
In 2021, he was awarded a Queens Service Medal for services to the Chinese community.
Danny said his father was “chuffed” when he rang to say he was getting a gong.
“The family were so proud that his community contributions were recognised.”
Gordon is survived by siblings Grace, Harvey and Victor, wife Yvonne, and his children Karen, Danny and Rodney.
– by Nicholas Boyack
Sources: Danny Wu, Rodney Wu, Kirsten Wong, Willie Wong, Kevin Leong and New Zealand Geographic.