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Many may identify me as being a white female. Five years ago I found out that my great great great Grandfather is Chew Chong. White? My identity suddenly became complicated and I became curious. This blog is to show the information that I have collated on Chew Chong and how he came to be in the NZ Business Hall of Fame.

Description of this man they call Chew Chong

Chew Chong was born in Canton (Guangzhou) China.
He doesn't know when he was born! He guesses it was between 1827 and 1844. He went to Otago, New Zealand in 1867 (fact - not a guess). He was a fluent speaker of English. He was a small, well-dressed gentleman and was described as 'generous, kind, honest and good-humoured'. Chew Chong married Elizabeth Whatton and together they had 11 children, 4 of these children unfortunately died young.

Death Notice in the paper


Through his various business endeavours, Chew Chong had broken away from the Chinese Community in New Zealand, however, he still had a strong Chinese Identity.

Source of information

History - Fungus and Butter

Chew Chong exists in the Business Hall of Fame for two main reasons. Fungus and Butter.
After living in Otago he shifted to Taranaki where he found the Jew's Ear Fungus which he identified as being food and medicine which he shipped back to China. It was also known as Taranaki Wool. He grew this particular fungus and set up stores all across Taranaki - including Inglewood and Eltham. In these stores he started trading goods. One of these goods was BUTTER.
1885 saw the opening of the Jubilee Butter factory in Eltham, he also added four creameries and he bought another nearby factory.
1889 and he was away - installing a Hall's refigerating machine, the first of these in any New Zealand butter factory.

Interesting facts about my great great great grandfather

• February 26th 1900, a serious fire serious fire broke out in four of Chew Chong's shops in Eltham. 
• During his time in New Plymouth he was known to help people that had the La Grippe parasite influenza. It states in a newspaper article from the Wanganui Herald that he could treat the parasite for "no fee or reward, but is willing to afford every information on the subject for the sake of suffering humanity." 
• It was rare for inter-racial marriages to occur at the time that Chew Chong married Elizabeth Whatton. He was well-respected in the Taranaki region, whereas Chinese in the South experienced a lot of racism.