John McKinnon, New Zealand's ambassador to China, at the exhibition at the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China. [Photo by Wang Kaihao/China Daily]

"It (the scenario) changes, but they are people with skills and ambitions," says McKinnon.

In 2002, Helen Clark, New Zealand's prime minister at that time, officially apologized to the Chinese for the restrictive laws of the past, which Huang Jikai, the director of the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China, sees as a milestone, showing an improvement in the social status of the Chinese there.

"The Chinese (in New Zealand) not only know the local economy, politics and customs well, but also carry their own traditions," says Huang. "They thus function as an important pillar in improving bilateral communications today."

"So, it is crucial to study the history of the overseas Chinese if we want to figure out the recent history of China," says Wang Jianlang, the head of the history research institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Wang notes that an expert panel studying Chinese migrant history in New Zealand was established in his academy in 2014. "No matter what motive they had to go to New Zealand in the first place, or which job they took, they have today become ambassadors for cross-cultural communication."

Contact the writer at wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

9 am-5 pm (entry free with ID cards, but entry stops at 4 pm), closed on Mondays, through Jan 21, 2017. 2/F, Overseas Chinese Museum of China, Dongzhimennei Bei Xiaojie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6409-3039.