Altered stories

“New Zealand remains a comfortably social democratic society, less dynamic but also less brash or polarised than Australia,” writes Guardian political blogger Michael White in a posting which looks at the reintegration of Chinese culture in the Pacific Rim, beginning in the former gold-mining settlement of Arrowtown. “All around the Pacific Rim established states … are trying to create a coherent narrative that does not marginalise the Chinese dimension – or squeeze it into stone huts down by the river. [In New Zealand] they discriminate no longer. So the narrative has had to change and has been marked, in the modern fashion, by historic apologies for past wrongs and inclusive archaeology such as the informative display boards at Arrowtown. After all, Asian tourism is also crucial to the Kiwi economy. Chinese tourists were there the wet morning we visited.”