Portraits of perseverance

A display of more than 100 photographs shows the lives of Chinese migrants in New Zealand more than a century ago, reports Wang Kaihao.

When describing the history of early Chinese migrants overseas in the 19th century, "blood and tears" are commonly used words in China's textbooks; many endured miserable lives as laborers and faced discrimination from locals.

But, Phoebe Li, a Chinese New Zealander sociologist, who is curating a photo exhibition in Beijing about Chinese migrants' 170-year history in her country, wants visitors to see the story through a different prism.