R.I.P. Joe Kum Yung

File under: history, Wellington

This morning there was a ceremony on the corner of Tory and Haining Streets to mark the centenary of the racist murder of Joe Kum Yung by Lionel Terry. While Terry's action was that of a lone nutter, it's frightening to think of how much he was supported by the public at the time.

Nowadays it's hard to visualise a thriving Chinatown among the apartments, film studios and scrappy light industry of Haining St. There are a few visual reminders next door in Frederick St, but in a town as young as Wellington, history leaves just the faintest of physical traces.