Yang Jian: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYang Jian: General Debate[Sitting date: 26 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6177. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr JIAN YANG (National): I would like to take this opportunity to talk about the Chinese community’s contribution to New Zealand’s resilient and diversified economy. As we know the Chinese immigrants came to New Zealand in the late 19th century many of them as goldminers. One prominent figure at that time was Choie Sew Hoy. Choie Sew Hoy built the world’s very first gold dredge in 1888.Another prominent person in those years was Chew Chong and he unlike many other Chinese goldminers settled down as a storekeeper in New Plymouth trading in fungus—basically exporting fungus to China and then selling Chinese imported goods in those years. Fungus became what we would call Taranaki wool because it was so valuable. In some years the export of fungus from Taranaki was actually more than five times greater than the export of butter. So that was how important the Chinese community has been in terms of contributing to the New Zealand economy. Chew Chong also later on built butter factories and he actually installed perhaps the first freezing equipment in New Zealand’s butter factories.Today we have a much larger Chinese community of course. Our contributionto the New Zealand economy just like the New Zealand economy itself has been very diverse. First of all trade is an obvious example. Our trade with China has increased dramatically and the Chinese community’s contributionis obvious. And tourism—tourism has contributed a lot to the New Zealand economy. It is now contributing 7 percent of our GDP which is even bigger than the dairy industry and it has grown fast—7 percent last year. Last year we had over 3 million visitors coming to New Zealand and China is of course one of our most important markets. China is the second-largest source of international visitors after Australia. In the year ended in July this year over 310000 Chinese visited New Zealand which was an increase of over 29 percent. It is actually 29.5 percent. So that is how the tourism industry has been important and how the Chinese market has been important and also how the Chinese community here in New Zealand has been making great contributions to our tourist industry.There is international education. International education is now worth $2.85 billion or 1.33 percent of GDP—$2.85 billion. It has created over 30000 jobs in New Zealand. Against this background I was dismayed at Labour’s accusation about Chinese property buyers. This highlights Labour’s misunderstanding or lack of understanding of Chinese history in New Zealand.There are many sad stories about Chinese names in New Zealand. In the 1860s when Chinese goldminers came to New Zealand many of them did not speak English. They lost their names. They did not have their own names. There was one story about a Chinese goldminer called Yu—but Yu was not his real name. It was simply his name because people said: “Hey you come over.” So Yu became his name. Another story is from theChinesesettlement in Arrowtown. I have visited that settlement a few times. There was one place there called the Ah Lum store. No one would miss the Ah Lum store but Ah Lum is not a proper Chinesename. “Ah” is used for a nickname in China. So it is basically part of a nickname. The sad story is that these goldminers passed away without having a proper name. Today things have changed. I am here in New Zealand with a properChinese name. So this is New Zealand—this is today’s New Zealand. This is a very tolerant multicultural New Zealand. Thank you.