Cover Story
Speak Mandarin?
by Matt Nippert
Justin Zhang’s Skykiwi website usually only makes the news when his users break the law. There was the woman convicted for selling illegal abortion pills earlier this year, and the bizarre 2005 confession of a kidnapper who apologised to the community and claimed he was merely trying to cover gambling debts.
The anonymity of Skykiwi, of which Zhang is a director, is probably due to its language policy – the site is only in Mandarin. But with 90,000 regular visitors, outstripping the mainstream news stable Stuff, Skykiwi deserves attention – particularly as it’s probably the most illuminating window into a growing and increasingly influential minority.
Despite a downturn in international student numbers – nearly 30,000 Chinese opted to school themselves downunder in 2003, but that number had shrunk by four-fifths by 2006 – there are still about 90,000 students from abroad studying here, with the vast majority from Asia.
And despite the decline, domestic traffic to Skykiwi has continued to grow – evidence, says Zhang, that many international students are choosing to stay, work and live here.
To help ease the transition, Skykiwi is translating New Zealand news into Mandarin and facilitating discussions of everything from dating to immigration legislation.
Skykiwi’s outreach programme recently stretched to sitcoms. A 20-part weekly web drama, Sunshine Beyond the Rain, debuted this month: it chronicles the lives of Chinese students living here.
And there’s no doubt we need those students. The international education sector generated $2 billion last year and Michael Cullen recently expressed hopes it will reach $2.5 billion in four years. Students are also a rich source for the increasingly common “suck it and see” approach to immigration. They’re often the skilled, educated people we want, they’re getting used to the Kiwi lifestyle and they’re more likely to fit in.
