Auckland film screening connects Chinese migrant history with New Zealand's cultural past

A surprise box-office hit from China has brought the poignant history of migrant remittance letters to Auckland audiences this month, shedding light on a legacy that connects Aotearoa to the global Chinese diaspora. The film, entitled "Dear You," is a low-budget production shot in the Teochew dialect of the Min Chinese language. It documents the history of "qiaopi" or "yinxin"—brief letters often accompanied by money sent home by migrants to their families. Reported on 17 July 2026 by RNZ Asia, the film recounts how migration from the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Fujian as early as the eighth century eventually led to a sophisticated remittance network across Southeast Asia and Oceania. These records, which carried emotional messages of affection and family obligation, were officially added to UNESCO’s International Memory of the World Register in 2013. Local relevance is highlighted through the experiences of Song Lam, a writer and longtime researcher of Māori culture and history who has lived in New Zealand for 36 years. Lam, who resides in an Auckland retirement village, recalls her childhood in Guangdong province during the 1950s. She watched her mother, the only literate person in their village at the time, write these essential letters for neighbours who had relatives working abroad. Lam shared memories of the emotional weight these letters carried, such as the monthly joy of a neighbour receiving word from a son in Singapore. The film and Lam’s reflections serve to preserve a unique form of cultural documentation that once linked gold miners in the Otago goldfields and other early settlers back to their ancestral homes.