Sat, 23 Sept
|Karori Library
Chinese Heritage Typeset, A Talk with Wai-te-ata Press
Wellington City Libraries
Location
23 Sept 2023, 12:30 pm – 24 Sept 2023, 1:30 pm
Karori Library, 247 Karori Road, Karori, Wellington 6012, New Zealand
About
From 1940-1970, a Chinese Wellingtonian, Dan Chen was the funding editor of The Growers Journal for the Dominion Federation of NZ Chinese Commercial Growers. Initially he hand-calligraphed the newsletter, but he had a vision of moving to a fully-fledged lead typeset and printed newspaper, and eventually did in the early 1950s. In 1953, when Dan was asked by an Evening Post reporter how he knew the location of each of the 7,500 characters for the type-setting work, he grinned cheerfully and said, “Memory.” This typeset provides greater understanding to the history and culture of Chinese Aotearoa and is New Zealand’s only surviving typeset in the Chinese language. It was endowed to Wai-te-ata Press by Dan’s descendants and now, for the first time, this heritage typeset is presented to Wellingtonians by Dr Sydney Shep and Dr Duncan Campell. This is a talk not to be missed!