From Aotearoa to Guangzhou with Love

My first day in Guangzhou, I’m unexpectedly ‘voluntold’ to be interviewed by a local news crew seeking the perspective of a “less Chinese-looking” relative. The interviewer asks: “So, what do you think of China?” It feels like the classic celebrity question, “What do you think of New Zealand?”

Margaret Agnew (right), and her daughter Felicity at the entrance to the Choie Sew Hoy clan graveyard near Sha Kong. Image: Margaret Agnew

Guangzhou, southern China’s largest city, is a study in contrasts. Mopeds loaded with entire families zip along multi-lane roads alongside luxury EVs. Towering skyscrapers dominate the skyline, yet everyday life is visible in the clothes hanging from high-rise windows. The welcome we’ve received is warm and open, starkly different from China’s portrayal in Western media. Entering the country feels oddly familiar – security and fingerprint scans at the border reminiscent of entering the US– but what stands out is the apparent absence of homelessness in a city of well over 18 million people. No graffiti either. It’s striking compared to places like LA, Paris, London, or Hong Kong.

The news crew also interview my 12-year-old daughter as a representative of the younger generation, while 90-year-old great-uncle Duncan Sew Hoy represents the elders. One question throws me: “Do you think of yourself as Chinese?” No-one asked this when I visited my father’s ancestral home (do I feel Scottish?) but ethnicity adds a deeper dimension to identity, it seems. Or perhaps the question is due to national pride?

Choie Sew Hoy family shrine in Sha Kong village. A photo of Choie Sew Hoy is the one at the centre top, Image: Margaret Agnew

How Chinese are you?

What does it mean to be Chinese several generations on and half a world away? I grew up calling my maternal grandmother ‘Porpor’ and now my children use the same term for my mother. Does that make me Chinese?

As a sixth-generation Chinese-New Zealander, I trace my lineage back 33 generations, with the last several rooted in Aotearoa. This is my first visit to China, retracing my heritage 156 years after my great-great-great-grandfather, Choie Sew Hoy (generation 28), arrived in Dunedin in 1869. Alongside my daughter and other whānau, I’m exploring our family origins in southern China. Both the Sew Hoy and Wong branches of my Kiwi family tree are from Guangdong villages, and this journey feels like a return to the roots.

Margaret and her whānau met members of the Choie Sew Hoy family from across Australia and New Zealand. Image: Margaret Agnew

The 2025 family reunion brings together over 221 descendants from 12 countries for four days of activities honouring our family legacy in Guangzhou: visiting ancestral shrines, grave sweeping, and celebrating with banquets. The aim of the reunion is to “pay respect, give thanks to our ancestors, learn and understand more of the country our ancestors left to journey to NZ, and to teach our young generation their identity and founding roots”. We’re also donating funds to restore the Choie Bing Sum Tuition House (c. 1868) built by Choie Sew Hoy’s father for the family’s girls’ education, defying gender norms of the era when only boys could attend school. Once restored, it will serve as a family shrine and gathering place, a testament to our clan’s connection to the past and hopes for the future.

Tracing the ancestors’ footsteps

Visiting the ancestral Sha Kong 社崗村 and Sarm Hua 三華村 villages highlights just how rapidly China has changed. Urban growth has turned them from sleepy rural villages to part of the sprawling Guangzhou metropolis within decades. Choie Bing Sum’s previous grave had to be moved over a decade ago to make way for industrial growth. These remnants of our family’s historic sites offer a poignant glimpse into the past. Uncle Mike Chui (the surname Choie takes many romanised forms, including Xu, Tsui, and Choi) shows us his old home. The wood-fuelled kitchen and rooftop balcony remain, along with ginger jars preserved high on an ornate shelf.

Honouring ancestors in Sha Kong: Felicity Agnew-Walshe, left, and Margaret Agnew. The photos show their ancestors in a line down the middle as eldest sons. Image: Margaret Agnew

He wasn’t born here, Mike explains. He was born in hospital – very sick, not expected to live. His young mother, overwhelmed, left him outside for nature to take its course. His uncle, with self-taught medical knowledge, nursed him back to health. That uncle went on to become the village’s unofficial medical advisor. Mike thrived – later moving to Christchurch, becoming a father of three, a successful entrepreneur, and, now retired and a recent grandad, he is a national target shooting champion.

The 2025 Choie Sew Hoy family reunion starts with a morning of grave-sweeping or Ching Ming: paying respects to our ancestors, accompanied by offerings of food, wine, fake money, and thousands of firecrackers. One of the memorials in the clan graveyard is dedicated to Choie Sew Hoy, though his remains are not there. They were lost when the SS Ventnor sank off the Hokianga coast in 1902, carrying 499 disinterred Chinese coffins – of ‘former friends’, as the Cantonese called them – back to China for reburial. Some washed ashore and have been cared for by Te Rarawa and Te Roroa iwi for generations, for which we remain deeply grateful.

The 2025 Choie Sew Hoy reunion attendees in Sha Kong, Guangzhou. Image: Nicholas Young

Food and festivities

At the village-style banquet in Sha Kong’s town square/basketball court, our group join hundreds of village elders for the feast, drawing curious attention from locals. Passers-by on scooters nearly collide gawking at our gathering. A local schoolgirl is overheard commenting to her friend in Cantonese: “they still look yellow”.

Whole fish, pig and chickens (with cooked heads intact) are served alongside other regional delicacies. During our trip, some dishes are polarising – sponge cake wrapped in seaweed paper and fish floss isn’t for everyone – but we try most things. The blend of tradition and modernity is striking; hotel breakfast buffet includes steamed bao, chicken’s feet, and noodles, while robots deliver room service.

Food overloading a lazy susan at Sha Kong village banquet. Image: Nicholas Young

Sightseeing includes a Pearl River night cruise, Shameen Island tour, and a visit to the 72 Martyrs memorial in Huanghuagang Park, which commemorates a revolutionary battle in 1911 against the Qing Dynasty. Up against thousands of imperial fighters, 86 men died in the doomed battle, only 72 were identified – many had the surname Choie. Funded by global donors, this tribute to their ultimate sacrifice is topped by a stone version of the Statue of Liberty.

Grand finale

The final day of the reunion is a whirlwind of grandeur, culture, and tradition. Traffic halts at the stone gateway to Choie Sew Hoy’s ancestral village Sarm Hua as lion dancers, drummers, flags, and firecrackers herald our arrival. The disruptive spectacle draws crowds of onlookers, as we’re welcomed with soft yellow scarves bestowed by locals. I’m told the village council spent equivalent to NZ$100,000 to host the day’s festivities for us, ‘the overseas Xu clan relatives returning home’.

At the Sarm Hua village gate lion dancers welcome the reunion. Image: Supplied

From there, we’re whisked to a cultural heritage centre that houses homes, a school, businesses, museums, and our clan’s ancestral hall and shrine – our Choie/Xu ancestors have lived here since the 900s CE. After more ceremonies, a banquet, and countless photos, schoolchildren entertain us with kung fu displays and music. My blonde-ish daughter and her half-Zambian cousin become instant hits, posing for photos with local children.

The programme ends with speeches, presentations, thank-yous, and yet another feast at an impressive complex that seats hundreds. My daughter notes ashtrays on the tables, surprised by how commonplace smoking is. Despite the air-conditioning and high ceiling in the grand ballroom, the haze of cigarette smoke lingers. Heat, food overload, and smoke make her woozy by the time we’re heading back to our hotel, but her sleepy words make it all worthwhile: “Thanks for being part of such an awesome family.” This is her second Choie Sew Hoy reunion – 2019 in Dunedin with over 400 attendees she may not remember (she was only 6) – but it’s unlikely to be her last.

Homecoming and history

Guangzhou pulses with energy – its chaotic markets, busy Pearl River, towering apartments, and endless construction embody a city in rapid development. This journey through the megacity and subsumed ancestral villages offered contrasts of modernity and tradition. It highlighted the immense transformation of China while preserving the roots of cultural history.

Dinner for hundreds in Sha Kong village square. Image: Margaret Agnew

Engaging in ancestor-honouring rituals, sharing stories, and experiencing the vibrant metropolis reminded me of my family’s resilience, through wars, sacrifice, survival, and migration. Through it all, the enduring legacy of the pioneering entrepreneur Choie Sew Hoy. Did he dream of 1000 descendants thriving around the world? As I retraced the steps of my forebears, and watched my daughter befriend a cuzzy from Brizzy, I found myself deeply moved by the ties that bind us. A shining reminder that we start and end with family.

(With deep thanks and appreciation to the reunion organising committee and volunteers led by: Wayne Chui, Mike Chui, Serena Chui, Ken Chui Wing Chan, and Kevin Sew Hoy.)

Banner image: Being welcomed to Sarm Hua village gate, which is now in the city Guangzhou. Image: Margaret Agnew

Asia Media Centre