Weiwei Verran

China-born Kiwi copper forging vital links with city’s multi-cultural melting pot 

Words Jill Nicholas

Pictures/video Stephen Parker

A killer crash which clamed the lives of tourists from her home country was Constable Weiwei Verran’s stepping stone to becoming a police ethnic liaison officer.

Rotorua-based, she hasn’t been on the front line long when a bus carrying 24 Chinese tourists flipped on the Mamakus. That was September, 2019. Five died, a child included.

The visitors were from Weiwei’s birth place, Chengdu, China’s fifth largest city.

With Mandarin her first language, her association with the victims began as their translator.

Over the traumatic days and weeks that followed she became their rock; the mentor who bridged the cultural divide dealing with issues they faced in systems frighteningly different from China’s.

The skill with which she handled the role won Weiwei a district commander’s commendation.

Three years on her memories of her time with the victims and their families remain raw. They still make her weep.  She will never forget them or gloss over the profound effect they had, not just on her, but all involved.

As a professional police officer, Weiwei’s training doesn’t allow her to wallow in the past, however fraught. It did, however, have a positive spin-off for her. It opened her eyes to the role the police can play in this city’s diverse communities.

When the ethnic liaison role became available her hand shot up. She was appointed a year ago. She’s one of two sworn officers holding the position in the Bay of Plenty police district.

Multi talents 

To meet Weiwei is to meet a woman of multiple talents, someone who has travelled many pathways.

Policing is the sixth career this 46-year-old has pursued since graduating from Chengdu’s Sichuan University with a business management degree. It’s the equivalent of this country’s MBA.

From childhood, she’s been a multi-disciplined sportswoman. An ace at tennis, she plays for Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty.

At the national police championships in Wellington in August she won the open women’s singles for the third successive year. In addition, her pair took the open doubles title.  

She’s an accomplished musician who’s played the violin since she was five.

When she was born her parents were in China’s army; her father was a soldier, her mum in intelligence. She recalls it was of the top secret kind. 

Her playground was a military base. It was the only environment she and her brother knew until she was seven.

 “We had lots of freedom, lots of space to play in, scary tunnels to explore. We weren’t supposed to go in them but of course we did, I still recall their strange smell.

“We climbed trees, played ping pong, there was a swimming pool and at weekends we watched movies outside. The base had its own farm so we always had fresh milk.”  She reminds us that’s a rarity in much of China.

The young Weiwei was fascinated by her parents’ guns. “We used to play with them; it was super cool.” 

The safety conscience police officer in her prompts her to hastily add they weren’t loaded.

Gymnast professional 

 At kindergarten she fell in love with gymnastics. Reaching primary school age (seven in China) she enrolled in a school that specialised in it. She turned professional at eight, taking part in tournaments, but at 10 her body outgrew her sport’s physical requirements.

“I started to get injured because I was too tall. The coaches told my parents I needed to do something else.”    

She tried rhythmic gymnastics but didn’t like it. Nor did she take to diving, despite being picked to join a squad. There was a major drawback; Weiwei couldn’t then swim. 

Enter tennis: “There was a stadium opposite my school. When I was 12 I walked past the tennis courts, stopped and watched for a long, long time. I asked the coach if I could play. She said I was too old to be a professional. I said I just wanted to play tennis. I played for over a year and really, really loved it.”

When the stadium was demolished it was too far for her to travel to another. “So I totally gave up on tennis.”

In her high school years she replaced it with ping pong and badminton, winning tournaments in both codes. 

University study, coaching 

A tennis racquet was back in her hand at university. As a member of the university team she won, or was placed in, a slew of tournaments and national championships. In her final year she was third in the Asian Universities competition. “That was very surprising.”

The conversation moves from sport to the academic. Weiwei studied international trade. She has no idea why, other than it was popular at the time.

With her degree secured, she joined the civil service, spending seven years issuing business licenses.

Weiwei‘s reputation as a tennis champ spawned a busy side hustle, coaching  ministers and high ranking officers from government departments. “I met lots of very interesting people.”     

Another ambition was burning away: to study and play tennis in the USA. She passed the required English language test and had offers of full and half scholarships from several universities.

However, 9/11 scuppered that. “I went to the embassy four times, was declined four times. I guess they saw a single young woman from China and wondered why I’d want to go to America.”

After her fourth rejection she went home in tears.

New Zealand arrival

“My dad suggested I try somewhere else, he looked on the internet and said New Zealand looked good, not too many people, that it was green and beautiful.”

Weiwei applied for a student visa; it was approved within six months.

She arrived in Christchurch during Easter Weekend 2003. “It was virtually deserted. I was having doubts about coming here.” 

She needn’t have fretted. By the end of her first week at Canterbury University she’d made friends and knew her decision had been right. 

“ I was there doing compulsory language study. In China English was my worst subject but it improved quite fast.” 

So fast that after a month she was accepted into Christchurch Polytech to study for an accountancy diploma.

She supported herself by waitressing in a cafe and at Jade Stadium when the All Blacks played.

“It meant I could watch the rugby. I still don’t know the rules but I like the haka.”

She moved to Rotorua on New Year’s Day 2006. Before the month was out she had a job with a local chartered accountant. She stayed two years.

Rotorua becomes home

Rotorua entranced her. “I was flatting at Lake Tarawera. It was so beautiful. I‘d swim in the lake every day and think ‘this is heaven’.”

It comes as no surprise that she joined the Rotorua Tennis Club. “It gave me lots of opportunities to make friends. I felt like I’d found a new family here.”

By the time she’d secured permanent residency Weiwei had had her fill of figures. She swapped accountancy for the hospitality sector; waitressing and working as a receptionist at the since demolished Geyserland Hotel. “It seems like lots of places I’ve been in get demolished.”   

From the hotel her career course veered in yet another direction.

At a Malaysian friend’s suggestion she began teaching Chinese at local primary schools. Her work load grew to include relieving at Boys’ High.             

“I started to think seriously about becoming a qualified teacher so I went back to Canterbury University and enrolled to study for a post graduate diploma in primary teaching through Waiariki Polytech [now Toi Ohomai].”

She graduated 18 months later, teaching until she became full time mum to son Grayson. That was in 2015. She’d married his dad, Graeme Verran, six years earlier. Need we say they met through tennis?

Policing realities

Grayson was three when joining the police became more than a blip hovering on her radar.

“I’d always loved watching action movies on TV, series like FBI. I wanted to be cool like one of them. My friends said I was too skinny but I really needed to peruse this dream. I have two cousins who are police officers in my home town.”

She applied, passed the academic, medical and physical tests and was accepted. 

Her parents came from China to help care for Grayson during the 16 weeks she spent at police college.

“At 43 I was the oldest female in my wing. I’ve never regretted joining the police I love every moment of my job.”

The work’s never scared her; not even when she was in the thick of a genuine life and death situation.

“This man with mental problems was trying to kill his wife. Three kids were in the house, we could hear screaming inside. My colleagues managed to open the door; the man was stabbing his wife. I was able to take her to a safe place then come back to help get the kids out.

“That was a very different job but I wasn’t frightened at all.”

Nor was she when protestors stormed Wellington’s Pipitea marae where she was based during the parliament grounds occupation last March. 

Dealing with the awful effects of the Mamaku crash didn’t frighten her either. The coach had flipped in high winds, fog and rain.

Caring for the bereaved, distraught

At Rotorua Hospital Weiwei was one of the first officers to deal with the victims. 

“I went into a little room at A&E where this grandma was sobbing. She said ‘my whole family are dead, I saw them’. All I could do was hold her hand. Her son was seriously injured. She lost her husband, daughter-in-law and granddaughter who was about to have her fifth birthday party . . . Phew, when a child’s involved it’s hard, very hard, heart breaking.”

Weiwei spent considerable time with the woman she still calls Grandma.

Over several weeks she accompanied her on daily trips to the mortuary to be with her family’s bodies.  

 “Other bereaved families started coming, they were with these big Chinese officers from Auckland who burst into tears too.”

Weiwei spent ten hours a day for more than a month at the hospital.

Eyes opened 

“It opened my eyes. I realised what kind of work I could do to support people, to help communities, not just the Chinese community but all the ethnic communities in Rotorua.”

Dealing with the crash aftermath was the passport to Weiwei’s present policing role. It’s one that’s become more vital with the spate of nationwide ram raids and robberies. Often it’s those of differing ethnicities who’ve been targeted. Weiwei’s charged with negotiating that cultural and language divide.  

“I love my job so much. I can learn their cultures from different people, I can understand how they think and I can promote their different cultures to my work mates.

I am the bridge between the ethnic communities and the New Zealand police.

 “When I go out I don’t represent myself, I represent the whole New Zealand police. I want these people to know they can have confidence in the New Zealand police.”