The price tag draws my eye. My mind starts converting currencies on its own. Thirty-six yuan for 550 grams, roughly NZ$9. In Rotorua, NZ$9 buys a full kilogram. Here, the same fruit costs nearly double. <\/p>\n
I convert currencies without thinking these days. After years of living across borders, you stop knowing what anything should cost. <\/p>\n
This fruit holds a story most people here don\u2019t know. Its wild origins are in China. In 1904, a New Zealand teacher named Isabel Fraser brought wild kiwifruit seeds home. <\/p>\n
Generations of growers bred it, made it golden, and built it into a global brand. Then they shipped it back to where it started. <\/p>\n
I keep wanting to say it \u201ccame back.\u201d But it didn\u2019t. It was exported. It arrived as an import, with a sticker on it, and people here buy it for twice the price. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s everywhere now. Shops, supermarkets, relatives\u2019 tables. Nobody here thinks of it as Chinese fruit. It isn\u2019t. Not anymore. <\/p>\n
I was born here too. Then I moved, from one country to another, until I settled in New Zealand. That\u2019s where my daughter was born. That\u2019s where my home is now. I got a new passport. But my name is the same. The one my parents gave me. <\/p>\n
The fruit couldn\u2019t keep its name. Chinese gooseberry, kiwifruit, golden kiwifruit, Zespri. Every new name took it further from where it started. <\/p>\n
Now it comes back here as an import, and nobody recognises it. I come back, and my mother still calls my name. <\/p>\n
In New Zealand, a golden kiwifruit is just fruit. Here, it\u2019s an import. Same thing, two prices. <\/p>\n
My daughter eats beside me. She bites into the fruit and tastes only sweetness. She can\u2019t see the history, the trade, the hidden costs packed into this one fruit. <\/p>\n
For a moment, I stop converting. I set aside prices and histories. I just taste the fruit. <\/p>\n
I eat one. My mother asks if I want another. <\/p>\n
At home in New Zealand, I\u2019m a Kiwi. Here, I\u2019m my mother\u2019s daughter. <\/p>\n
Then the box is empty. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The price tag draws my eye. My mind starts converting currencies on its own. Thirty-six yuan for 550…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6743,28949,4413,4444,17515,16118,2065,23834,191,23553,141882,4188,117,111,43,139,69,38715,180,15391,80,35111],"class_list":["post-635427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-became","tag-chen","tag-chinas","tag-chinese","tag-experience","tag-export","tag-fruit","tag-golden","tag-here","tag-kiwifruit","tag-lifang","tag-living","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rotoruas","tag-shares","tag-wild","tag-zealand","tag-zealander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}