Organized by the New Zealand China Friendship Society and supported by the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, the "Rewi Alley Memorial Exhibition" will be held at the Wharewaka Function Centre in Wellington from April 21 to 23, 2023. The exhibition will display more than a hundred rare historical pictures, dozens of calligraphy and painting works related to Rewi Alley, as well as dozens of items used by him during his lifetime.

Welcome to come and visit the exhibition!

The Life of Rewi Alley

Rewi Alley was born in Springfield, New Zealand, on December 2, 1897, and passed away on December 27,1987 in Beijing at the age of 90.

As a young man, he participated in World War I and returned to New Zealand to manage a ranch.

In 1927, he came to China and witnessed the social turmoil and people’s suffering and was determined to join the struggle for change. He dedicated himself to helping the ordinary poor people and participating in disaster relief work. He also provided support and assistance for the early struggle of the Communist Party of China. At the beginning of the War of Resistance against Japan, he and his Chinese and foreign friends, including Edgar Snow, initiated the "Gung Ho" movement, overcame numerous difficulties, and organized various industrial cooperatives, which strongly supported the War of Resistance.

In the 1940s, together with George Hogg, he founded the Shandan Bailie School, and strove to explore and develop a new type of education that was suitable for China's national conditions, combining theory with practice, education with production, to train technical personnel for China, especially for the birth of the new China.

After the liberation of China, he traveled throughout China, wrote diligently, and introduced to the world the changes and achievements of the new China to the world. He actively devoted himself to the cause of liberating oppressed people and defending world peace, playing a unique role in promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the people of China, New Zealand, and other countries, and enjoying a high reputation in the international community.

In the early 1950s, He initiated the establishment of the New Zealand China Friendship Society and was one of the early founders of the New Zealand-China friendship. He was respected and loved by the people of both New Zealand and China.