Choie Sew Hoy (; 1836–1901) also known as Charles Sew Hoy was a notable New Zealand merchant, Chinese leader, gold-dredger and a New Zealand Business Hall of Fame laureate. He was born in the village of Sha Kong in the Poon Yu District (now part of Baiyun District, Guangzhou) of Guangdong Province, China in about 1838.
Early life
Choie Sew Hoy was the eldest of four sons of Choie Bing Sum, a farmer in the village of Sha Kong (Altar Hill), in the Upper Poon Yu (Panyu) district of Canton (Guangdong) Province, China. Because of war, famine and poverty, some families in Canton Province used their access to the international ports Canton (Guangzhou) and Hong Kong to send young men overseas to work.
In the second half of the 19th Century, these men formed a living chain of migrant labourers. They sent money back, guided other family members and, sometimes, returned home relatively wealthy. Following the California gold rush, Choie Sew Hoy was one of thousands of Cantonese who went to Gum San, "the gold mountain" of California.
When the rush to Dai Gum San, the "big new gold mountain" of Australia, began, Choie Sew Hoy went to the goldfields of Victoria, but he took part in the Victorian gold rush as a merchant rather than a miner.
In 1865 the Otago Provincial Council invited Chinese miners in Victoria to come to the Otago goldfields, and Choie Sew Hoy moved his enterprise to Dunedin, New Zealand in 1869. noted: the People's Republic of China established in the year 1949. Since then, some administration regions have changed their names. in June 1954, Upper Poon Yu changed its name to Bai Yun district, governed by Guangzhou city. therefore, the ancestral hometown of Charles Sew Hoy now administered by Bai Yun district of Guangzhou city.
Career as a merchant
In 1869, Choie Sew Hoy set up his business in Dunedin providing Chinese miners in Central Otago with supplies and equipment and also acting as a wholesale supplier to Chinese shopkeepers on the goldfields. His combined store and warehouse was in Stafford Street, not far from Dunedin's Rattray Street wharf and close to the coach depot for Central Otago.
Choie Sew Hoy named his company Sew Hoy and signed documents as Sew Hoy, so most non-Chinese knew him as Mr Sew Hoy. Meanwhile, his fellow Chinese in Otago knew that his family name was Choie. The black and gold sign which hung outside his store said 'Sew Hoy' in Roman letters but 'Choie Sew Hoy' in Chinese characters.
Choie Sew Hoy became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1873. He had a good command of English, speaking at meetings and sometimes interpreting at court hearings. He was quoted by the New Zealand press on topical issues, such as immigration and the poll tax.
The Sew Hoy company imported and sold the specialised Chinese food and goods required by the Chinese, many of whom, like Choie Sew Hoy, were from the Poon Yu district. Choie Sew Hoy also imported items to sell to Dunedin's European settlers. His store's newspaper advertisements offered tea sets and tea pots, as well as a range of teas. Also on sale were crystallised fruit, Chinese silks, cane chairs, blinds, bird cages and 'real Chinese gongs.'
In 1873 Choie Sew Hoy and several other Chinese merchants of Dunedin were the first Chinese to charter a ship to sail direct from Otago to Hong Kong. The barque Harriet Armitage carried cargo and 116 Chinese passengers from Otago to Hong Kong in March 1873. Sew Hoy's contribution to her cargo included scrap metal and 78 bales of fungus. Forty-five of the Chinese passengers, it was reported, "took with them 2,740 oz [ounces] gold, of the value of £10,000, which, we believe, represents the result of little more than three years' hard work."
The Harriet Armitage made her return voyage to Dunedin in October 1873 with what New Zealand newspapers described as "a cargo of China notions" which was "consigned to the principal Chinese firms" in Otago. Among the four Chinese passengers the Harriet Armitage carried to Dunedin was Choie Kum Yok, Choie Sew Hoy's oldest son, aged 18.
In 1876 Choie Sew Hoy and another Otago Chinese merchant, Kwong Sing Wing, chartered the North German barque Anna Dorothea to make a return voyage from Otago to Hong Kong. Freshly fitted out to carry passengers the Anna Dorothea sailed from Port Chalmers with 104 Chinese passengers, who took with them 1646 ounces of gold.