SinoDefence Forum

bladerunner

As you all know the Chinese were probably the first Asian race to settle in large numbers outside their motherland of which some of the forum participants could be the descendants of.. I find it encompasses a long and interesting history and was wondering do any of you have any interesting and unique stories to offer concerning notable achievements by these pioneering settlers in lands totally foreign to them.

For a start heres my favourite,CHONG, Chew.. Most New Zealanders regard him as the pioneer of the New Zealand Dairy Industry, and in my opinion if it hadn’t been for his race , he might have gone on to become the equivalent of Henry Ford in the Dairy Industry.
The reason he holds a special place for me is that as a immigrant , he did not retreat to running a business in amongst the Chinese community, but established a business where he had to duke it out with European competitors,so to speak, who copied his ideas.

Chew Chong 1830-1920

Chew Chong was born in China in 1830. He attended school there and then worked for 10 years as a household servant in Singapore. In 1855 he came to Victoria where he spent 11 years on the goldfields, mining and storekeeping. The Otago gold rush induced Chew Chong to come to New Zealand in 1866. After two years in Dunedin, he began travelling through the country buying up old metal for export to China. During these journeys Chew Chong discovered an edible fungus in Taranaki which was growing profusely on recently burned decaying logs. It was similar in taste to a Chinese plant which was highly prized as a delicacy and used also for medicinal purposes. Chew Chong offered to buy this fungus at 2d. per pound. He made his headquarters in New Plymouth where in 1870 he opened a store. The fungus cost nothing to produce and was easily collected. It was spread out to dry and then packed into flax baskets or jute bags and brought into Chew Chong's store on market days. From New Plymouth it was sent to Dunedin and thence shipped to China by local Chinese merchants. Between 1872 and 1882 more than 1,700 tons of this “Taranaki Wool” were exported from New Zealand, to the value of over £78,000. The sale of fungus saved many Taranaki dairy farmers, for they sold their butter to the local store in exchange for goods, and fungus was their only source of ready cash, apart from bush-felling or road-building contracts.
Chew Chong bought butter, too. He opened branches of his store in Inglewood and Eltham and, in 1885, sent two kegs of Eltham butter to England. He lost money on this venture but it has been claimed that this trial shipment marked the beginning of New Zealand's flourishing dairy-export industry. In December 1887 Chew Chong opened a dairy factory at Eltham, near the Waingongoro River bridge. It was named the “Jubilee Dairy Factory” and the word “Jubilee” was registered as the brand name. The equipment was first class, including two Danish cream separators, and at the Dunedin Exhibition of 1889, Chew Chong won the coveted silver cup for the best half ton of butter packed suitably for export.
For some years Chew Chong also owned the Mangatoki Dairy Factory and was a shareholder in the Egmont Cooperative Box Co. He was, in fact, the dominating influence in the South Taranaki dairy industry in the late eighties and early nineties. Soon, however, he had to face competition. A cooperative dairy factory opened at Eltham in June 1892, backed by the Bank of New South Wales. Chew Chong had to pay high prices to retain his suppliers. He struggled on for some years but, in 1901, he had to close the Jubilee factory and his three creameries which were sold at a heavy loss.
Chew Chong retired from business and returned to live in New Plymouth where he died on 7 October 1920, a highly respected local citizen. An illuminated address which was presented to him a few years before his death expressed the appreciation of the settlers for the enterprise he had shown as a pioneer of the dairy industry in Taranaki.
On 16 February 1875, at Te Henui, Chew Chong married Elizabeth Whatton, daughter of a Taranaki settler, and by her he had three sons and four daughters.

by Herbert Otto Roth, B.A., DIP.N.Z.L.S., Deputy Librarian, University of Auckland.

Shifty

Tsien Hsue-shen

He is a scientist who was a major figure in the missile and space programs of both the United States and People's Republic of China. During the 1940s Tsien was one of the founders of Jet Propulsion Laboratory[2] at the California Institute of Technology. During the red scare of the 1950s the United States government accused Tsien of having communist sympathies. Tsien and his family were wrongfully imprisoned [3] in an isolated island off Los Angeles. Stripped of his security clearance, Tsien decided to go back to China. After being under house arrest for 5 years, from 1950-55, Tsien was released in exchange for the return of US pilots captured during the Korean war. Notified by U.S. authorities that he was free to go, Tsien immediately arranged to go back to China in September of 1955 on American President Lines, Pres. Cleveland via Hong Kong. He returned to China and led the Chinese rocket program, and became known as the "Father of Chinese Rocketry" (or "King of Rocketry").

Got that from his wikipedia page.
I selected him because of my partiality towards aerospace.
It really is a pity. You'll understand when you read up on him.

bd popeye

REAR ADMIRAL GORDON PAI'EA CHUNG-HOON US Navy

ADM Chung-Hoon is one of my personal heroes. When assigned to the USS Arizona BB-39 as a young Ensign he often stood up for the Black and Filipino mess attendants who he knew were harshly treated at times.. He once fought with another officer over that officers treatment of a Black Mess Attendant. This at a time when racism was rampant in the USN. A very brave act indeed.

An Arliegh Burke class DDG is named for the Admiral.

USS Chung-Hoon DDG-93

http://www.chung-hoon.navy.mil/site%20pages/home.aspx

__________________
Discover the Chinese and World Military picture threads!


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


..And the Chinese Daily Life Photo thread!!


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


..And don't forget

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


"I am what I am.... 'Dat's all what I am"

crobato

Founders and Cofounders of the following are Chinese immigrants

ATI
nVidia
Youtube
Yahoo

Also, the most celebrated sheriff of New Orleans, noted for his colorful language, is a Chinese immigrant. Can't remember his name now.

__________________
"Lets do a thermal sweep."

bladerunner

Whats happened to Mr Wang of Wang computers, how did he rate overall

Obcession

The recent Governor General of Canada (before the incumbent one took the position) was a Chinese-Canadian, not sure if she's immigrated here or born here.

jpgr4

Jose Rizal, born 1861, is Philippine national Hero. He is a descendant
of a chinese Immigrant from Jinjiang.He is fluent in Chinese. He
wrote two great book in spanish.Look him up in Wiki.

AssassinsMace

How can one forget Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen? Father of China's space and missile program and one of the founders of the US Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Also the guy who thought up the idea for the space shuttle.

Shifty

Well I thought I posted about him but somehow my post got lost
He was a colonel in the United States Military researching missile technology for them. He was originally from China and went to school at MIT. When he did go back to China, he basically started the Chinese Space Program by himself. Obviously it takes hundreds of people to build a rocket, and he couldn't build one himself, but still he definitely got the program off the ground, so to speak. I omitted the "tumultuous" period of his life on purpose, its a little "political".

Semi-Lobster

That would be Adrienne Clarkson (neé Adrienne Poy). She was born in Hong Kong but was raised in Canada.

sumdud

Well there is the Queen's Representative of Alberta, and also
Gary Locke, former governor of Washington, now chosen by Obama as Secretary of Commerce.

__________________

Give us a break. Don't try ranting at SDF.

Spike

Current Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu was born in Shanghai.

Former Mayor of Victoria (1999-2008) Alan Lowe, is of Chinese descent.

bladerunner

Im surprised you left out Heather Fong.
S.F. First Chinese Women Chief of Police.

AssassinsMace

Or Fred Lau before her who was the first Asian police chief in the US.

crobato

Probably the colorfully mouthed Sheriff Harry Lee?

__________________
"Lets do a thermal sweep."