The Waiheke Island house once owned by Chinese poet Gu Cheng (顾城) and his wife, writer Xie Ye (谢烨), is for sale. Gu's family told RNZ it is selling because it can no longer keep up with maintenance.
The property, in a quiet crescent in Ōmiha, was listed through Ray White with a deadline sale date of 5 November. RNZ reports it has drawn a steady stream of visitors from China for more than three decades.
Who was Gu Cheng?
Gu Cheng, born in 1956, was a leading figure in the Misty Poetry (朦胧诗) movement that emerged in China in the late 1970s and early 1980s, after the Cultural Revolution. Known as the "fairytale poet", he wrote the two-line poem "A Generation" (《一代人》), one of the most widely read modern Chinese poems: "The black night gave me black eyes / But I use them to seek the light."
He and Xie Ye moved to New Zealand in early 1988, and their son was born soon after. Gu taught Chinese literature at the University of Auckland. Xie, also a writer, transcribed his poems and helped him communicate in English.
Both died on 8 October 1993. A coroner's finding from February 1994, seen by RNZ, said Xie died from a head injury inflicted by her husband during a domestic altercation. A separate finding said Gu's death was self-inflicted. A police statement from the time, released to RNZ under the Official Information Act, said Gu attacked his wife with an axe.
What the family says now
In a statement released through Ray White, the family called the property a "holy house for our family since the beginning".
"For more than 30 years we could not imagine it in other people's hands, so we did not sell it," the statement said. It said Gu built many parts of the house himself, "so it is quite like a big artwork of his".
The family said the house had been damaged over time by weather and by people. Windows, doors and walls were broken repeatedly, things were stolen, "even the firewood Gu Cheng had chopped", and they replaced the roof after it rusted through. Most visitors, they said, were respectful and left flowers, fruit, notes and cards.
"We are selling a house. We are not selling Gu Cheng's or Xie Ye's names," the statement said. If someone wanted the house for a museum or memorial, "that is a different conversation, and it would be on different terms".
The family said it deliberately left the couple's names off the listing and did not advertise on Chinese property sites, hoping the sale would not revive old gossip. It said recent reports, repeated and translated many times since, had undone that.
The statement also disputes parts of the long-standing account. It says neither death happened at the property, that police found no evidence on an axe they tested, and that no court or inquest found Gu intended to kill Xie. RNZ noted the family's statement on the axe contradicts the official police report at the time.
Will the house be preserved?
Ray White Waiheke branch manager Denise Whitfield told RNZ there had been "a good level of enquiry", and that buyers eligible to purchase in New Zealand had been introduced to the property. She could not comment on price or next steps.
Duncan Campbell, a senior fellow at the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre and a friend of the couple, said he hoped people would focus on their writing rather than the tragedy, and suggested the house could become a writers' residence. Family friend Mike Lee told RNZ it would be a great pity if it were sold and probably demolished, and that he would prefer it preserved as a heritage site.
If you plan to visit
The house is private property. The family's statement makes clear that years of uninvited visits and damage are part of why it is being sold. Please don't enter the site or take anything from it.
For more on Chinese New Zealand writers and history, read our pieces on Alison Wong and the Chinese settlement at Arrowtown.
If you or someone you know is affected by family violence, you can call Are You OK on 0800 456 450, or 111 in an emergency.
Source: RNZ, "'Holy house': Why Gu Cheng's family is selling poet's Waiheke home" (Liu Chen, 3 November 2026).
