Alan Chun

Alan Chun 陳洪振 Sai Jowl village 西州村

6 April 1921 – 11 January 2021

Alan‘s mother was his father‘s Chun Yee Hop 陳宜合second wife. This second marriage was arranged by his first wife, Lei Yim Yung, (李豔容) and the three of them were said to have got on very well. The first wife arranging for a second wife for her husband to take overseas with him was a common occurrence back then.

Alan‘s mum was called Wun Chu Lin (温翠蓮). She was 16 years old when she married the then 42-year-old Chun Yee Hop. She arrived in Wellington in 1915 and had her first New Zealand born child a year later in 1916. This was big sister Mavis and subsequently had 17 children in successive years, all of whom survived and grew up to have full and successful lives.

Alan was the eleventh of 18 siblings and the fourth boy. His parents called him "Arng”.

Like his older siblings Alan was born at home, which was then Sing On Kee fruit shop at 207 Willis Street (next to St Peter's Anglican Church in Ghuznee Street).

Like his older siblings Alan went to Newtown School. He started in 1936 before graduating to South Wellington Intermediate in 1942, and then to Wellington Tech in 1944.

He was a quiet and good-natured young man, with a mischievous sense of humour. Hard working and conscientious, Alan was also very helpful. She recalls that he loved his roller skating and his music, particularly Joni James and Mantovani and his orchestra. He was very neat and meticulous. Everything was always very tidy and he always dusting his room and his records.

Alan started working in the family business very early. The family moved to Hing Lee in Riddiford Street, Newtown when Alan was four, but it was Sang Lee in Kilbirnie where he worked after school. The vegetables were always perfectly arranged, and the price tags done with an artistic eye.

In 1946, at the age of 15, Alan left Tech to work full time at Sang Lee, in Coutts Street, Kilbirnie. The hours were long, and the work was physically challenging. That was the year Alan‘s mother died from cancer. She was only 49 and left seven children under the age of 15. His Dad, Yee Hop, died just two years later in 1948, aged 78. It was a difficult time and the older siblings, especially Mavis, fought hard to the keep the family together. They succeeded.

The fruit shops were sold. Eldest son Bill bought the Zenith Seed Company in 1951. In 1953, eldest daughter Mavis organised the purchase of a huge house in Homewood Avenue, Karori, which would be home base for all the unmarried Chuns.

Alan spent the next 36 years working in the Zenith Fruit Shop, next to Zenith Seeds, in Manners Street– apart from a brief period where he ran another Zenith fruit shop in Titahi Bay with his younger brother Ray.

Alan was 22 when the family moved into Homewood. It was a home full of vibrant young people. There was music and dancing, friends and family, card evenings, mah jong and other parties 24/7.

Alan took part in everything. He loved having money of his own and he loved motorbikes and cars. With his brother Stan and other mates like Jack Ngan, he travelled all over the country. A return bike ride from Wellington to Auckland was nothing. Life was good.

Then came the overseas trips. A trip to Japan changed Alan‘s life forever. On one trip he met a young woman named Fumiko Nakamura. The couple were married in Tokyo in 1966 when Alan was 35 years old and Fumiko 33. They had a second New Zealand wedding when they returned. They purchased a nice three-bedroom family home in Radnall Way, Johnsonville, which was their home for the rest of their lives.

Alan and Fumiko tried for children, but this didn't happen. They then had a perfect opportunity to adopt Fumiko‘s niece, Junko, who was five when her parents separated. Adoption was a difficult family situation that took 11 years of negotiation. Alan and Fumiko never gave up. Finally, in 1983 they were successful, and 16-year-old Junko travelled to Wellington to complete the new family.

After some years, Junko went overseas where she met a German man and had a son with him but the marriage didn't work out and Alan was thrilled when Junko and Wolf (her son) decided to come back permanently to New Zealand. He and Fumiko were so pleased that they met them halfway in Japan, so they could bring them home personally. They were equally thrilled when Junko and Alan‘s nephew Neville married. Two more grandchildren came along to light up the lives of Alan and Fumiko.

Following an operation on his heart, he had a stroke and lost a lot of his sight. He also began to lose his hearing. Both of these things increasingly reduced his quality of life, but he was still determined to look after Fumiko who was also ill at the time and who passed away in 2012.

In 2020, Alan moved into Sprott House in Karori. During these declining years he was supported with tremendous and unstinting devotion by his daughter Junko and the Chun family until his passing – just short of his 90th birthday.

Alan is survived by his daughter Junko, his nephew Neville and all his grandchildren.

1. ↑ Tung Jung Association of NZ. (2021). Autumn 2021 issue. Tung Jung Association of NZ.