Homemaker, storekeeper
Van Chu-Lin was born, probably in 1893 or 1894, in Zengcheng county in south China, in a small village a short distance north-east of Canton (Guangzhou). The only daughter of an oil vendor, Van Poy Wah, and his wife, Ah Day, Chu-Lin was well known for her beauty. Her parents promised her to Chun Yee Hop, a store proprietor who had returned from New Zealand with the explicit aim of seeking a young secondary wife who could give him an heir. He was many years her senior. Van Chu-Lin was about 21 when she arrived in Wellington on 2 August 1915 on the Ulimaroa; the couple's marriage had been formally registered on 19 July after the ship docked in Sydney. Chu-Lin joined only about 120 women in New Zealand's small and marginalised Chinese community, which had been moulded by the highly restrictive immigration acts introduced since 1881.
Within several months of her arrival Chu-Lin faced a fierce legal battle, which moved from the Magistrate's Court to the Supreme Court, when she was charged with landing in New Zealand without having taken the reading test required by the Immigration Restriction Act 1908. It was said to be the first case of its kind in New Zealand and dragged on into the following year. Van Chu-Lin appears to have been a victim of circumstances: Chun Yee Hop had procured the naturalisation papers of another man and married Chu-Lin under the false name to ensure her entry into New Zealand. Both he and Chu-Lin were charged and convicted. They lost their appeal. In addition to fines and court costs Chu-Lin was required to pay another £100 poll-tax. During these traumatic early years her first-born child died and she also had a miscarriage. -
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