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Chinese Scholars’ Studio Project in Wellington

Chinese Scholar's Studio
An example of a traditional Chinese scholar’s studio

The New Zealand China Friendship Society is one of the partners supporting Victoria University of Wellington to create a Chinese Scholar’s Studio in Wellington.  The Wellington Branch of the NZCFS has been granted funding from the NZCFS Simon Deng Li Fund for the project, and will add a contribution from its own reserves.

The studio would provide an exciting opportunity to showcase unique Chinese New Zealand initiatives with the wider community. The publicly-accessible studio space would reflect the special New Zealand context of our Chinese heritage, featuring traditional Chinese furniture, musical instruments and scholarly material, including New Zealand’s only original restored Chinese printing type collection. It would provide a focus in Wellington for Chinese related programmes and for scholars interested in Chinese research and study as well as a space for community and school outreach work. The work of the NZCFS could be promoted through the studio and members would be encouraged to use the space.

The studio will provide a home for the restoration and conservation of New Zealand’s only surviving original Chinese printing type collection, which would be used again for new Chinese language printed publications. The collection was used by the NZ Chinese Commercial Growers Press to print its monthly newsletters and was recently rediscovered in a farmer’s field in Pukekohe. The collection holds significant cultural history for the Chinese community and Victoria University is seeking to conserve it and repatriate it to Wellington. 

The studio would also have an important link to other Chinese cultural heritage in Wellington such as the Chinese Garden that is being proposed and the Chinese historic district on Haining and Frederick Streets.  The location for the studio will be at Victoria’s Kelburn campus, in a central publicly accessible space in the main library building.

For more details on the project please see Chinese Printing and Scholars Studio