Future Dragonz - Chinese Young Professionals Network

Raymond Lum is the owner operator of Sword Productions - local Christchurch film production studio specialising in commercial videos. Website: www.swordproductions.co.nzYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SwordProductionsTVRaymond is a New Zealand born Chinese who grew up in New Zealand decades earlier than our other New Zealand born Chinese guests so far. Having only white friends growing up, this shaped his worldview. He didn't find any of the Chinese girls his mother introduced to him attractive and married a white Kiwi girl!His goal is to acquire poll tax trust funding and use this to produce a film to give people exposure to what Chinese gold miners experienced during the poll tax era.Timecode:- 0:00 Introduction- 1:30 Raymond talks about his film production business - Sword Productions- 7:55 What is the poll tax? Raymond talks about his film project about the poll tax.- 15:00 Discussion about the experience of early Chinese immigrants- 21:20 Raymond's family history - 25:00 Raymond's experience growing up in New Zealand back in the 80s- 28:47 Raymond talks about marrying a white Kiwi girl.- 32:30 Does enjoying alcohol mean you're more likely to date a kiwi girl?- 38:40 Does Raymond's white wife like chicken feet?- 40:03 Raymond talks about his religion

I travelled to Wellington for the NZCA conference - the conference for New Zealand's largest Chinese organisation. Mervin Singham was a speaker at the conference. He is the Chief Executive of the Ministry for Ethnic Communities. He managed to grab him for a short spot interview right before he left the conference.

Mengping is a professional Chinese language teacher teaching in Christchurch. As a stark contrast to many members of Future Dragonz, Mengping is a recent immigrant from China. So her experiences are vastly different from earlier immigrants. She also recounts her experience undertaking the dreaded national exam all Chinese secondary school graduates face - the Gaokao (高考). Her advice to get a good result is to drink Redbull! Timestamps: -01:03 What inspired Mengping to come to New Zealand? -06:27 Why Mengping decided to do her PhD in UC? -10:48 How to improve Chinese language teaching. -13:10 Why Chinese movie subtitles don't match the dialog? -20:40 Language learning and linguistic theory -26:23 Mengping's PhD research -29:20 Why learning Japanese and Korean is more popular than Chinese? -33:17 What Mengping finds weird about New Zealanders? -35:08 What Mengping thinks about meat pies? -36:32 How much does she miss authentic Chinese food? -37:49 Mengping is vegan - how can she survive in China? -41:20 What she thinks about Chinese from other provinces? -41:07 Minority ethnic groups in China -46:36 Why Chinese people aren't outdoorsy people -56:31 Private tutoring industry in China -1:01:22 Mengpeng's experience in the Gaokao (高考) -1:04:41 Comparison between China and New Zealand secondary school examination systems. -1:11:39 Redbull is a good luck charm for the Gaokao (高考) -1:14:45 Reminiscing back to student days -1:15:34 Importance of social relationships

Ever considered an arts degree but don't want to disappoint your ancestors? In this episode, our guest Jim Huang talks about his long journey of how he abandoned Engineering school to pursue his true passion - photography. Now he is a renowned photographer at Zhuoya Photography. Timecode: - 0:30 Jim introduces himself - 1:04 Jim explains his photography specialization - 2:25 Zhouya Photography's clientele - culture of pre-wedding - 4:02 Why Jim's parents allowed him to do an art's degree? - 5:20 What Jim did at his first year at University - 8:40 Tertiary courses Jim explored after deciding he didn't like his first year - 12:05 Who suggested Jim to do photography? - 17:58 Jim felt empowered after starting photography at CPIT (now Ara). - 20:00 Jim continued studies after completing his photography diploma - 22:52 Story of Jim immigration to New Zealand. - 27:22 Jim's high school experience - 31:49 Jim's advice to aspiring Asian artists - 36:33 Funny segment at the end

This is the inaugural Future Dragonz podcast where our host George interviews our incumbent leaders: Melissa and Tony. We do a deep dive into the history of early Chinese settlers in New Zealand like Choie Sew Hoy (because Melissa is a descendant) and the hardships they faced like the poll tax. We also talk about the New Zealand Chinese Association (NZCA) and the founding of the Future Dragonz group. Timecode: - 00:31 George explains the format of the podcast - 01:20 Auckland's covid lockdown situation - 06:44 What the Future Dragonz group? - 08:05 Tragic story of the Future Dragonz Christchurch launch night - 11:40 What is the New Zealand Chinese Association (NZCA)? - 15:30 Most celebrated events of Future Dragonz in the past - 20:15 Melissa's family history - gold miners - 21:00 Tony's family history - ancestors were affected by the poll tax. - 23:55 Why our ancestors did everything they could to leave China? - 29:20 Melissa's family history continued - relationship to Choie Sew Hoy - 35:22 George talks about his family history - 40:40 How cultural revolution affected Chinese - 43:10 Founding of Future Dragonz Christchurch - 46:45 George's role in Future Dragonz Christchurch - 52:49 Advice to George on how to run Future Dragonz - 1:00:55 Easter tournament - major event of NZCA - 1:03:28 How did Tony and Melissa meet?