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Overview
Mount Taranaki, on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island looms in the background of this scene carved in tōtara wood. A mirror-glass river runs through the centre of the work, and a waka (canoe) and Maori meeting house stand in the foreground. The New Zealand scene was carved about 1905 by William Gee, a Chinese man living in Wellington, New Zealand.
Gee's work
Gee was well known in Wellington, and admired for his carving in a time when Chinese immigrants were not popular in New Zealand. Listing his occupation as 'carver and gilder', he created highly detailed New Zealand town and forest scenes. He also produced larger, commissioned work, such as church fittings, in wood and stone.
Gee's smaller pictorial work would have been a remarkable cross-cultural example of Chinese woodcarving coupled with New Zealand motifs. However, most of it has not survived. This work, Te Papa's only example of Gee's talent, is simple and was produced late in his life.
William Gee
William Ah Gee (1844 -1914?) was one of Wellington's earliest Chinese settlers. He was born in China's Canton Province, arriving in Wellington in 1868, aged twenty-four. Prior to moving to Aotearoa New Zealand, Gee had worked in Melbourne, Australia for an award-winning Chinese business, Kem Wah, which specialised in ornamental wood carving. In 1871 he married Jane Melbourne, and by the late 1870s he was living in Blenheim, at the top of New Zealand's South Island.
One of William’s sons, Billy Gee, would go on to become a cabinet maker. Billy was often credited by the renowned Chinese New Zealand artist, Guy Ngan, as an important teacher and mentor.