Tomorrows people: Huang fits in just fine

A Taiwanese student tells JENNY FORSYTH how he makes the most of two cultures.

Mark Huang squirms selfconsciously as his parents sing his praises from across the room.

"He has a mental abacus," Huang's proud father, Ku-Ching, says. "That is why he's so good at maths."

The Taiwanese family has a rapid-fire conversation following this revelation. The heated exchange is in Mandarin, but Huang's body language follows the international language of teenagers. "Shut up dad. You're embarrassing me."

Though Huang may seem indignant, his parents have every reason to be proud.

Their only son has been in New Zealand for only two years but he already speaks fluent English and has represented New Zealand at an international maths competition. He has passed five scholarship exams, including classical studies, and rated 17th in the country. He was also dux of Macleans College this year.

All the Huangs are model immigrants. Ku-Ching Huang, aged 48, and Sue Tai, 47, are retired school teachers. (Yes, they agree, teachers must be better paid in Taiwan.)

They decided to move to New Zealand after a holiday in 1996 convinced them that this was the right place. That they chose to live in Godzone is a compliment, considering that they have travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, America and Canada.

After emigrating in January last year they rented for a month before buying a brick home in an uburban Pakuranga street.

Although they have a few Taiwanese friends they are determined not to join any formal associations. They are trying to immerse themselves in Kiwi culture, studying English part-time and playing at the local tennis club.

"I'm not Taiwanese or a New Zealander," 19-year-old Huang says, "I'm somewhere in between.

"I see myself as an immigrant but also as a Kiwi. It was hard leaving Taiwan behind. I did pretty well there and thought it would be hard to start studying here.

"I miss my family and friends and the dog we had to leave behind, but I think New Zealand is a great country. I definitely want to stay and work here."

But he has no regrets about leaving Taiwan itself. "There were a lot of reasons for me coming here. My family wanted me to see the world and New Zealand is a multicultural society.

"Also, the political situtation in Taiwan is not too bright. China is communist and Taiwan is democratic, but men in China always want to take over Taiwan.

"Then the environment in Taiwan is not too good either. There is too much pollution. It is much better here."

His appreciation for green New Zealand is understandable, given the city he grew up in.

Until he was seven, when Taiwanese start school, he lived with his grandparents in the farming area of Chiai. Such an arrangement is quite common, Huang says.

Later he moved to live with his parents in Kaohsiang, Taiwan's second busiest city.

"We had our own house in a five-storey block. I used to play basketball in the weekends. Taiwan is so small that they don't have the fields for sports like cricket or rugby. I played Chinese chess, did Chinese painting, and read a lot."

Family has always been the focal point. "Family is still very important. It's a Chinese tradition. Family is the core of everything. That's why we still phone our family all the time in Taiwan. Recently it was double 10, the 10th of October, which is China's independence day. Of course we phoned home for that too."

Religion, though it has played a part in his life, is not something he has strong beliefs about.

"The majority of Taiwanese are Buddhist but we are Catholic. My secondary school was a Catholic college called St Dominic's, but we didn't do biblical studies. I never saw a Bible, but we did sing a few hymns."

Though he is not a practising Catholic, Huang and his family obviously live by a strict moral code.

This hard-working teenager approaches his ambition to be a doctor with almost evangelical zeal: "I can see medicine as my only future career."

He says he can discern the tension between Pakeha and immigrants and is "compelled to do something about it."

"I've never found prejudice at school or when I've been doing voluntary work at the Howick Recreation Centre and a St Mary's Bay rest home. But I see all sorts of tension because a lot of immigrants can't express themselves when they have difficulty. I think I could do something to bridge the gap."

Huang, who wants to study medicine at Auckland or Otago University, is so set on his career choice that he took classical studies to become a more rounded person.

He has also taken up cricket and touch rugby and likes to visit art galleries in his spare time.

He endeavours to watch the news each day. "I'm not particularly interested in politics, but of course I voted," Huang says. "I voted for National because I thought they were doing well.

"I think as long as the politicians are working for the people that's okay.

"New Zealand people are generally friendly and there are some quite interesting people here.

"You have the first transexual MP in the world, and there's that Sue Bradford who is always demonstrating, and there's the one with the dreadlocks," Huang says - before remembering to include himself as a New Zealander.

"I think I fit in well here. I also like it that it's a sport-loving country, although this year hasn't been a great year for us."

By us, he means New Zealanders.