A man in New Zealand who was told to “go back to China” has spoken about his experience, which was witnessed by his young child during a school run.

Andy Wan, originally from Hong Kong, was driving his seven-year-old son to school in Auckland, and had slowed down and indicated to parallel park his car when the driver behind him became angry.

Wan, who has lived in New Zealand for 24 years, said he indicated before stopping in front of the parking spot, but an Audi pulled in close behind him, leaving him little room to move into the parking space.

The driver in the other car turned aggressive after Wan got out to check if there was enough room to park, telling him to “f*** off” and “go away”.

“You need to go back to f***ing China you ching chong,” she yelled during the racist tirade, which was caught on Wan’s dashcam.

Wan said he was concerned about his young son having to experience similar acts of racism.

“At school, all the kids play around, no matter what the skin colour,” he said. “They’re happy together, so why do these people still have this kind of thinking?”

He said his son was confused after witnessing the aggressive exchange.

“He kept asking me what happened,” Wan said. “He thought, ‘oh, how come so mean? We are just parking, what’s wrong with us? We didn’t do anything wrong’.”

Wan said there was no oncoming traffic, so the woman could have easily pulled into the other lane and gone around him as he tried to park. “It doesn’t mean because I have an Asian face, she can yell like this.”

The parking incident, which happened on May 19 in Greenhithe, north of Auckland, might have been exacerbated by anti-Chinese sentiment sparked by anger over the coronavirus, he said.

“I guess mostly because Covid-19 makes people more against China,” he said.

He did not experience incidents like that too often in New Zealand, but noticed people seemed to be less tolerant towards those with an “Asian face”.

“I just don’t want my son to get hurt … because he’s Asian or something,” Wan said.

According to statistics from the 2018 census, some 707,600 people identified as being part of the Asian ethnic group, comprising 15.1 per cent of New Zealand’s population.

Wan’s incident was not the first racist incident to make headlines in New Zealand this week.

The NZ Outdoors Party became entangled in accusations of racism after a group of their supporters filmed themselves harassing and threatening a young Asian woman after an event in downtown Auckland.

In the video, unidentified supporters of the political party can be seen chasing the woman and holding phones in her face, with one person screaming at her to go back to her own country.

The woman yells back, telling the filmers they are racist.

“This lady here, she was rubbing out all the chalk,” the man filming can be heard saying, before the video quickly devolves into yelling on both sides.

Another woman who is filming tells the young woman “get away from here … you are racist against us New Zealanders … go back to your own country”.

At one point the other woman says she is going to “kingpin” her and calls her a “smart little b****”.

The young woman reveals in the video she rubbed out chalk slogans stating “it’s okay to be white”, because the saying is commonly associated with Nazis.

She also tells the group that the phrase “all lives matter” is only ever used in reaction to “Black lives matter” as a way to erase Black people.

The Outdoors Party co-leaders Alan Simmons and Sue Grey have condemned the video, saying the racist comments go against what they stand for.

New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon said the slogans were “known to be associated with groups who deny that racism exists or who would minimise its impact”.

“Such statements are often intended to convey a message of intolerance, racism and division. There is no place for that in New Zealand,” said Foon, a New Zealander of Chinese descent.

He encouraged bystanders to step up when they saw incidents like this, to “intervene, to record the interaction, and to report”.
“Racist behaviour, use of racist stereotypes, making people feel like they don’t belong in Aotearoa is unacceptable,” Foon said, using the Maori name for New Zealand. “Not only are such actions inconsistent with our values, they infringe on human rights and damage efforts to build inclusive communities.”

Meanwhile on Friday, the city of Hamilton tore down a statue of the colonial military commander after whom it was named, joining a growing list of places worldwide that are reckoning with their past.

Statues and place names honouring figures such as slavers and colonial military figures are being reassessed worldwide in response to anti-racism protests sparked by the police killing of Black American man George Floyd.

A crane hoisted the bronze sculpture of Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton from the town square Friday morning, as a small group of cheering spectators looked on.

Hamilton was a naval commander who fought indigenous Maori defending their land against British colonial expansion in the 19th century.

Hamilton City Council acknowledged the statue’s extraction was part of a push to remove memorials “which are seen to represent cultural disharmony and oppression” sparked by global anti-racism protests.

“I know many people – in fact, a growing number of people – find the statue personally and culturally offensive,” mayor Paula Southgate said.

“We can’t ignore what is happening all over the world and nor should we. At a time when we are trying to build tolerance and understanding … I don’t think the statue helps us to bridge those gaps.”