Dragon Tails Conference 2019

1 January 2022

From Wednesday 20–Saturday 23 November, Wai-te-ata Press co-hosted Dragon Tails 2019: Translation and Transformation, the sixth Australasian Conference on Chinese diaspora history and heritage, at Victoria University of Wellington.

The conference theme for 2019, Translation and Transformation, highlighted the processes of interpretation and change that have been central to the histories of Chinese diaspora around the world.

Wai-te-ata Press organised a Taiwanese panel for the Friday, building on their existing research relationship. The panel included Mr Chang Chien-Kuan, director of Ri Xing Type Foundry, and Dr Chen Shiunn-Shyang, director of the National Science and Technology Museum in Taiwan.

“This tenth anniversary conference represented a significant milestone; not only was it the first time Dragon Tails was held in New Zealand, but it provided an opportunity for the University to profile diverse scholarship undertaken by many esteemed alumni and deepen our community engagement in tangible ways,” says Dr Sydney Shep

The conference also offered a tour of the Dominion Federation of New Zealand Chinese Commercial Growers heritage type collection and printing demo using the full-form Chinese types. This collection, housed at Wai-te-ata Press, is the only surviving set of original types in New Zealand.

Asia New Zealand Foundation’s James To explains the historical significance of this collection and its history in an Asia Media Centre article—A Chinese ‘living’ time machine. “The collection has become a centrepiece for New Zealand and international researchers on the Chinese diaspora,” he writes.