MANYING IP
Associate Professor Manying Ip's energetic scholarship has embedded the long-standing presence of the Chinese in New Zealand in our historical awareness. After her first major book, The life and times of Zhang Yunaji, 1867-1959, published by the Beijing Commercial Press (1985), she began, with Home Away from Home (1990), to use oral history to develop projects about the Chinese diaspora and the evolving identity of Chinese New Zealanders, leading to the publication this year of her seventh book, Being Maori-Chinese (2008). The latter is a significant work for New Zealand society, looking at human relationships in two minority communities: one indigenous, the other immigrant.
Her work includes New Zealand's wider relationships with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. She has formed links with scholars working elsewhere on the Chinese diaspora, and throughout her studies her commitment to social and humanitarian issues is continually apparent. Her work has been praised by political scientists as well as historians, and she has played an important role as a public intellectual, tackling difficult and often contentious issues relating to the Asian diaspora in New Zealand with disarming insight and intelligence. She seeks constantly to reach out to a wide audience without eroding the quality of her research, and to this end she has worked in several different media, including film and museum displays. She has served on the Human Rights Commission since 2003; she was on the Chinese Poll Tax Apology Consultation Committee, which guided the Prime Minister; she has worked with the Asian Health network; and she has helped to organize the New Zealand Chinese Association 'Going Bananas' series since 2005. In 1996 she was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her work on behalf of the New Zealand Chinese community.
Associate Professor Ip's research has been genuinely pioneering. She has single-handedly carved out a research area, populated it with high quality projects and writings, and contributed to discussions which are of marked public interest. Her publications will be of enduring interest and value, and consulted and cited, for many years to come.