K. Emma Ng
K. Emma Ng—writer and curator, New York.
K. Emma Ng is a writer and curator from Auckland. She lived in Wellington for seven years, studying at Victoria University of Wellington before becoming the 2013 Blumhardt Curatorial Intern at the Dowse Art Museum. Between 2014 and 2016, she was the Curator and Manager at Enjoy Public Art Gallery, where she oversaw a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, publications, and events. Emma has written for publications such as Art New Zealand, ArtAsiaPacific and The Pantograph Punch. She is currently based in New York City, where she graduated with a master’s degree in design research and criticism from the School of Visual Arts.
In her book, Old Asian, New Asian, K. Emma Ng shines light onto the persistence of anti-Asian sentiment in New Zealand. Her anecdotal account is based on her personal experience as a second-generation young Chinese–New Zealand woman. When Asian people have been living here since the gold rushes of the 1860s, she asks, what will it take for them to be fully accepted as New Zealanders?