Phoebe H. Li, Golden Enterprise: New Zealand Chinese Merchants, 1860s–1970s, Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, Wellington, 2024. 229 pp. $75. ISBN 9780473699987.
Reviewed by Sophie Loy-Wilson, University of Sydney.
“In October 2022, Selwyn Doo, the descendant of an established New Zealand Chinese merchant family, contacted historian Phoebe H. Li to relay his families’ memories of Auckland’s Chinatown, stories passed down through generations of the Doo family. Li had already interviewed Selwyn’s cousin, Thomas Doo III, in 2018. A graduate of China’s prestigious Tsinghua University, Li’s work has always drawn on a wide array of primary source material, combining intellectual, economic and social history approaches with great effect. Selwyn passed a story on to Li, and that story made its way into Li’s magisterial new book, Golden Enterprise: New Zealand Chinese Merchants, 1860s–1970s.”
Read the full review here.