From Tahiti to Hawaii

Margaret Lai came to Hawaii via Tahiti, but her roots stretch to Longgang, a small village near Shenzhen, China. In the early 1900s, a number of Chinese migrants from Longgang were working in French Indochina (now Vietnam). They were sent to Tahiti, along with the Vietnamese, as laborers. These early workers sent word to their fellow villagers and encouraged them to come to Tahiti. Lai’s father arrived around 1910 to work in a store. Later, he brought his wife and child to Tahiti. They had ten children; Margaret was the youngest.