Couple's contribution to historical research recognised
Thursday, 30 December 2021
Christchurch couple Jenny Sew Hoy Agnew and Trevor Agnew have both been awarded the Queen’s Service Medal.
Sew Hoy Agnew, 78, receives her award for services to historical research and the Chinese community. Agnew, 77, receives his award for services to children’s literacy and historical research.
In 2020, the couple published a biography of Sew Hoy Agnew’s great-great-grandfather, Choie Sew Hoy, a Chinese gold miner who became a successful businessman and community leader in Dunedin.
The couple are both former high school teachers and have researched and written for publications for many decades.
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Sew Hoy Agnew said her ancestry had led to her becoming a researcher and reviewer on Chinese and other Asian topics.
She said she was pleased to have added to New Zealanders’ knowledge about members of the Chinese community, who, while physically visible, were at the same time invisible to many.
Sew Hoy Agnew grew up speaking Cantonese in Dunedin, then learned English when she started school, became a French and English teacher, and now works editing books and manuscripts. The couple are both now learning te reo.
Agnew worked as a history teacher and a teacher-librarian, and has for many years reviewed children’s books and interviewed authors and has contributed newspaper and magazine columns and articles.
“History has always been an important part of what I have been doing,” he said.
He is also part-way through compiling a database of New Zealand children’s books, which already numbers into the thousands.
Agnew said the book on Choie Sew Hoy had been a good retirement project for them both.