Choie Sew Hoy (Tsu Shiu Hoi; or Charles Sew Hoy, as he became to be known - Sew Hoy became his adopted last name) was born in Canton (China), the son of a farmer, in 1837. As a young man, he left China for California (USA) and then Victoria (Australia), to try to make a fortune on the goldfields (although photographic evidence shows that for his lifetime, he still wore traditional Chinese dress). He soon decided to enter into the supply business, establishing himself as a merchant. By 1869, Sew Hoy arrived in Dunedin (New Zealand), and he decided to open a chain of stores with the specific purpose of supplying his fellow countrymen during the Otago goldrush, as European business places were not adequately catering to their needs. Sew Hoy quickly gained success as a importer of Chinese food and hardware, and as a large scale money-lender. He lent money to new Chinese miners and mining projects, and was therefore instrumental in encouraging the Otago goldfields mining.

By the early 1880s, most of the alluvial gold had been removed from the rivers, so Sew Hoy formed the 'Sew Hoy Big Beach Mining Company' in order to dredge the remaining gold deposits from the river beds. With a capital of £8,775, the company commissioned the new steam-run bucket dredge from a Dunedin foundry, and began to dredge the Shotover River at Big Beach in 1888. After a tenuous start, the risky venture paid off, with the dredge making £40/day (29 ounces/day) - by August of 1889, the original £9 stocks traded at £120! The directors of the company decided to issue shares (in order to enlarge the company's capital), an increase from £3,000-£90,000, £11,000 of which was used to make three new dredges.

It was thanks to the Sew Hoy Big Beach Mining Company's success that the dredging boom of 1889 began, a testimony to Sew Hoy's importance to the Otago region. The company's efficiency quickly improved as the workers gained experience, and soon they were able to run over pre-worked ground, with excellent results. The success of the company was continued at Tucker Beach (where a previous company had failed to find gold) - within seven years of operation, the company had retrieved in total 18,513 ounces of gold, worth £71,362. Inevitably, however, the goldfields became exhausted, and the company went into liquidation.

Beginning in 1888, but lasting longer, was another of Sew Hoy's gold concerns, a sluicing operation based at Nokomai, which relied upon water brought from the Nevis River (over 20 miles away). This lasted until 1943, having begun hydraulic elevation in the mid-1930s.

During these years, Sew Hoy returned to Canton, and married Soy May. The couple had two sons, one of which returned to New Zealand, the other of which stayed for business connections in Canton. He remarried a European, and lived in Dunedin. His business has stayed in family hands, but is now mainly concerned with the manufacture of clothes, comprising eight export manufacturing factories employing over 400 people.

In 1901, Choie (Charles) Sew Hoy died, leaving a legacy of honesty, friendliness and excellence.

Sew Hoy was popular with both European miners and Chinese miners - when the Reverend Alexander Don (chief Presbyterian minister to the Chinese) visited, he noted that "...[there were] some hundreds of calling cards stuck on the wall." He was also very influential, as a Poon Yue miner told the Reverend "If Sew Hoy said a stone rolled uphill, you would believe it." This quote also shows his integrity.

Sew Hoy's success proved that Chinese goldseekers could run a commercial gold mining enterprise at high profit, and that they were able to enter into commerce with skill. He was also renowned for his generosity, giving large sums of money to charitable organisations, and always being willing to help a new Chinese immigrant get started in business. Ironically, he was 'buried' with a charity he supported - the exhumation of Chinese migrants in order that their bodies could be returned to China - as the ship carrying all the bodies, and his, sank.

His life and importance to Arrowtown, Otago, and indeed Chinese/European relations of the era was summed up well by his obituary in the Otago Daily Times: "...his name invariably figured on subscription lists for public functions and charitable purposes, he became a freemason in 1885, led to the first dredging boom in Otago, in business he had a reputation for upright and honourable dealing." The mere fact that he was given an obituary in an age of discrimination against Chinese immigrants to New Zealand shows his importance, and how esteemed he was by his peers of all nationalities.