Bev Moon’s knitted yum cha exhibition Fortune explores the early Chinese settler experience. Photo / Dianna Thomson Photography
Bev Moon’s knitted yum cha exhibition Fortune explores the early Chinese settler experience. Photo / Dianna Thomson Photography
Yum cha and knitting are not a traditional combination but they will come together in a feast for the eyes at the Whanganui Regional Museum.
The exhibition Fortune, a knitted yum cha banquet by Auckland-based artist Bev Moon, celebrates Chinese culture and heritage through knitting and cooking.
Moon (Seyip,Cantonese, Taishanese, Chinese) explores history and culture through drawing, sculpture, painting and textiles. She began the knitting project that resulted in Fortune – an assortment of dim sum dishes, wontons, dumplings, pork buns, spring rolls and more made of wool – during Auckland’s Covid-19 lockdown in late 2021.
“Knitting is something I have done from the age of 9 when my late mother, Yip Sue Yen (Sue Eng), showed me how,” Moon said.
“She was a great knitter, as was her mother Lee Choy Kee (Yip Choy Kee). She and my mother were superb cooks as well.”
Moon said she tried to source the right yarn shades, weights and textures to create patterns for various wrappers and shapes.
“I folded and stuffed them the way Mum taught me when I helped make yum cha with her, all those years ago. Slowly the number of dishes grew into a feast and I realised it was an homage of sorts, not only to my mother but my grandmother as well.”
Bev Moon started knitting the installation during Auckland’s lockdown in late 2021. Photo / Richard Ng
The exhibition explores the early Chinese settler experience through Moon’s mother and grandmother and the anti-Chinese laws that existed in New Zealand until the 1950s.
Born and raised in Wellington, Moon is descended from Taishanese men who arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand in the 1880s. Because of the “poll tax” on Chinese immigrants, their wives had to remain in China.
Moon’s mother and grandmother were two of only 500 Chinese women and children eventually granted temporary refuge by the Government to escape the Japanese invasion in World War II.
A grant from the New Zealand Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust has paid for touring crates and exhibition elements, allowing the exhibition to tour the country.
The title Fortune has a double meaning. It references the luck Moon’s mother and grandmother had as two of only 500 to be granted refuge and the cost of completing the artwork because of the price of wool.
Director Bronwyn Labrum said the museum was “delighted to host this labour of love”.
“It is a beautiful and beautifully made homage to family history. Equally importantly, it highlights an underappreciated part of the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. Migration is an important topic right now as we grapple with skills and shortages and other needs. This exhibition reminds us directly of the draconian laws that many of our early migrants entered New Zealand under.”
The exhibition opens at 10am on Saturday, February 10, coinciding with Chinese New Year celebrations. Educator Wen Xiong, of Wen’s Story Den, will perform a lion dance in the museum’s atrium at 1pm and a lantern-making activity will run throughout the day. Moon will give a free talk and tour of the exhibition at 1.30pm.
A schedule of public programmes, including Chinese calligraphy, puppet making, Chinese language for adults, dumpling making and a special “night at the museum” event for children over the coming months will support the exhibition.
Fortune is on at the Whanganui Regional Museum, Watt St, from February 10 to July 14.
