Editor to eyeball Chinese-Kiwi life

A newspaper aimed at the Chinese community is starting up in Auckland - in English - and its Singapore-born editor, Lincoln Tan, knows that some of its stories will make him unpopular as he probes Chinese-Kiwi life.

"I'm not here to win a popularity contest," says Mr Tan, 37. "But things have to be put on the table."

Mr Tan made national headlines in 2004 when he organised an anti-racism march in Christchurch against the National Front.

The 24-page first issue of iBall, with a print run of 25,000, appears fortnightly from next Friday. It joins a growing number of ethnic media in a city where 39 per cent of residents, according to the 2001 Census, were born outside New Zealand.

iBall - think "eyeball" as well as "i" for international and the ball shape's inherent balance, says Mr Tan - will be available from public drop bins in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

It promises a blend of the tabloid (peeping Toms target Asian women at Queen St Burger King) to mainstream news (kids claiming customary fishing rights at Western Springs catch eels to order for Asians) to upfront discussion of discrimination (MP Pansy Wong talks about how colleagues' mocking of her accent made the Singapore papers).

Although aimed at Chinese - the 2001 Census showed that 85 per cent of Auckland Chinese speak English - Mr Tan believes it will have wider appeal.

But Mr Tan says he won't try to preserve the Chinese community's "face" - a defining aspect of the culture - if issues such as domestic violence and high abortion rates need to be aired.

Mr Tan migrated from Singapore in 1997 with his wife Bee Koh - "I just wanted to get a life".