Life for a Chinese migrant was extraordinarily difficult during the late 1800s and early 20th century.
Racism was rife in the staunchly British domain of New Zealand and arrivals from the Orient were generally regarded as second-class citizens.
Officialdom had little time for the Chinese and its disregard for them is evident in the lack of archival information available to modern-day researchers.
Language barriers also contributed to an uneasy environment and a haphazard approach to record-keeping.
Some of this may explain the story of Wong Chong, a 37-year-old market gardener who died in 1918 and is buried in a section set aside for his countrymen at Waikumete Cemetery.
Chong's headstone stands out among an assortment of memorials bearing epitaphs written in Chinese.
It includes the English words: Erected by the Gee Kung Tong Society.
Little is known of Chong – aside from his single status and address at 58 Albert St in Auckland.
But it is his membership of Gee Kung Tong that makes him of special interest.
The organisation formed as a secret body in 1674 to lobby for the return of the Chinese Ming dynasty overthrown by invading Manchurian armies three decades earlier.
It went by various titles, including the Triad Society which now has criminal underworld connotations in China and abroad.
A branch formed in New Zealand in 1907 and was better known as the Hung League or Chinese Masonic Society.
It had no links to western Freemasonry despite the similarity in title and was, first and foremost, a support network for people like Chong struggling to make a living in foreign and often hostile surrounds.
Members worked with the wider Chinese community on numerous projects – mediating in disputes, assisting with education and promoting aspects of the culture many were keen to preserve in a colonial setting.
The organisation also provided a patriotic link for people interested in keeping tabs on the political situation back home.
It seems likely that those accepted into the society took on new names as part of their initiation.
Chong, who died in the midst of a global flu epidemic, is a classic example.
His name, when translated from the epitaph on his stone, is Goh Gum.
The same situation applies to two other men buried nearby.
"It was common practice for Chinese at the time to assume different names following a major change in life or circumstance," historian Nigel Murphy says.
"So it is a distinct possibility that Goh Gum is a Gee Kung Tong name."
Interest in the society dropped after World War Two as communism swept through China and many immigrants abandoned plans to ever return.
Membership was virtually nil by the time a decision was made to disband in 1975.
- Western Leader
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