The Quiet Achievers: From Gardens to Gold Medals

The Quiet Achievers is a comic book collaboration between author Helene Wong and myself. We were commissioned by Auckland War Memorial Museum to produce a contemporary, engaging work which would be accessible to a broad audience. The comic pages were designed to be displayed as large (A1) format digital prints in conjunction with the Being Chinese in Aotearoa: A photographic journey exhibition, while also being able to be produced at a significantly smaller size, in book form.

The project’s aim was to highlight the largely unknown stories of how Chinese New Zealanders have helped shaped Auckland. We wanted to break the stereotypes of what Chinese New Zealanders are like; we interviewed and researched unusual stories and unexpected characters to show the diversity of the Chinese New Zealand experience.

The exhibition was opened during Chinese New Year 2017 and ran for a year. The Quiet Achievers has since been lent to Auckland City Library, Te Kongahu Museum of Waitangi, and New Zealand Portrait Gallery.

Copies are available to purchase from Auckland War Memorial Store.

Publisher: Auckland War Memorial Museum, 2017