Abstract
New Zealand's Chinese music history has been an important cultural element in the making of the nation. Historical migration was especially prevalent from the mid 1860s as a result of an invitation to Chinese gold miners to prospect in New Zealand, and significant migration emerged again from the 1990s due to a relaxing of the immigration laws. In the colonial setting, Chinese miners usually formed their own settlements beside other miners, and even formed distinct groups with their own shared linguistic and cultural heritage. While activities between Chinese and other miners were characterized by difference in social and cultural space, there are various historical newspaper reports of social action and confluence between diverse communities. This paper is a study of historical Chinese music performance in nineteenth-century colonial New Zealand. I focus on assembling and interpreting newspaper stories that portray an often neglected sphere of New Zealand's music history.