Progress Of White Russian Family

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31114, 18 July 1966, Page 2

Progress Of White Russian Family

A Chinese-Russian refugee family which came to Christchurch from Harbin, North China, a year ago, has found its decision to seek a new life has been rewarded by a degree of hospitality and acceptance that they have never known before.

Mrs Klavdia Rezchikova - Chang, her mother Pavlina Rez* chikova, who is over 80, and her daughter Vera Chang, who is 20, were brought to New Zealand by the National Council of Churches in July last year.

Their sponsor in Christchurch, the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, has been so pleased with their progress that this month it brought another White Russian family to settle in Christchurch.

The Rezchikova-Chang family has had to make tremendous adjustments but Miss Chang, being younger, has taken most hurdles within her stride. Now Interpreter Miss Chang’s progress has been little short of remarkable. When she arrived here she knew one phrase in English—“no English”—but she has taken lessons each week and attended conversational English classes at the Technical Institute, and is now so proficient that she can act as an interpreter for visiting Russians. She has been working in the mending room at Miller’s factory since she came to New Zealand, and also taking typing lessons at the Technical Institute with a view to finding herself a job in an office. She passed her first typing examination with a very good mark last month and she will sit another in November. She did without other things to buy herself a typewriter so that she could practice typing at home. The picture shows Miss Chang, at her typewriter, watched by her grandmother and her mother at her home in Christchurch yesterday.

For the first time in her life she has been to the movies and ridden a bicycle. In Miss Chang “The Sound of Music” has a true admirer. She has been to the film seven times and she has taken her mother and her grandmother. Mrs Rezchikova-Chang works

with her daughter while her mother stays at home to do the housework and the cooking. Mother and daughter do the weekly shopping on Thursday, “because Thursday is pay day.”

Like the rest of the family, Mrs RezchikovaChang had never had anything to do with electricity until she came to New Zealand, but she now uses refrigerators, heaters and radios and other electrical appliances. After careful consideration she invested in a refrigerator and is paying for it on time payment. In her spare time she likes gardening or visiting Russian and Polish friends.

As she is not particularly strong, she took some time to adapt herself to the climate. However, she has settled down and now like her mother and her daughter she has put on weight. Although she has not learned to speak English, sh? has settled down to her job, which is very different from her former one as a ChineseRussian interpreter at a government institution in Harbin. The grandmother, Mrs Rezchikova, has not learned to speak English either. It is enough that she can go and visit her Russian and Polish friends living in Christchurch. She attends the Methodist Church Friendship Club twice a month and makes herself understood by miming. Assisting Friends Last week she walked several miles through the streets to help some Polish friends with their poultry farm when they were confined to their beds with sickness. She 'loves walking and keeps good health. She keeps the house very neat and tidy and she prepares a Russian meal for the family each evening. After years on a frugal, meatless and almost sugarless diet in Harbin, she finds plenty of new scope in the kitchen. “There was not much flour for us in Harbin,” Miss Chang explained. The family is very fond of pastries and other delicacies. A few months ago the family was joined by a golden tabby cat, Maura, now the pride of the household. “She eats what we eat,” said Miss Chang. Life had become increasingly difficult for Russians in Harbin, and they have emigrated to all parts of the world; explained Miss Chang, who still corresponds with her friends who have settled in countries such as Switzerland and Belgium.

"I tell all my friends to come here to live, but they will have to save so much money,” she said. In her spare time, Miss Chang reads as much as she can. “We studied Shakespeare at our school,” she said. And she also practises her typing.