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Chinese Jamaicans

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Chinese Jamaicans
File:Clive Chin cropped.jpg
Notable Chinese Jamaicans:
Sean Paul • Clive Chin
Regions with significant populations
Kingston
Languages
Jamaican English, Jamaican Patois
Religion
Christianity, Rastafari, Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
Jamaican British, Jamaican Americans, Jamaican Canadian, Chinese Brazilian, Indo-Jamaicans, Asian Brazilian, Asian American

Chinese Jamaicans are the descendants of migrants and immigrants from China, who are citizens of Jamaica, or descendants of Jamaicans. Over the years, many Jamaicans of Chinese descent have emigrated abroad.

Migration history

Most Chinese Jamaicans are Hakka and can trace their origin to the Chinese labourers that came to Jamaica in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries.[2] The two earliest ships of Chinese migrant workers to Jamaica arrived in 1854, the first directly from China, the second composed of onward migrants from Panama; they were contracted for plantation work.[3] A further 200 would arrive in the years up until 1870, mostly from other Caribbean islands. Later, in 1884, a third wave of 680 Chinese migrants would arrive; with the exception of a few from Sze Yup, most of these were Hakka people from Dongguan, Huiyang, and Bao'an. This third wave of migrants would go on to bring more of their relatives over from China.[2]

Since the 1970s, there have been a significant emigration of Chinese Jamaicans from the island, primarily to the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Since 2005, there have been an estimated 7,000 further migrants from the People's Republic of China to Jamaica, mostly moving into areas such as Kingston, Montego Bay and Mandeville.[citation needed]

Community organisations

In comparison to Overseas Chinese communities elsewhere, hometown associations related to migrants' places of origin in China were not very influential among migrants to Jamaica.[4] Some secret societies such as the Hongmenhui were active in organising plantation workers in the 1880s; however, the first formal Chinese organisation in Jamaica was a branch of the Freemasons.[5] Later, the Chinese Benevolent Association (中華會館) was founded in 1891.[6]

The first Chinese-language newspaper in Jamaica, the Zhonghua Shang Bao (中華商報), was founded in 1930 by Zheng Yongkang; five years later, it was taken over by the Chinese Benevolent Association, who renamed it Huaqiao Gongbao (華僑公報). It continued publication until 1956, and was revived in 1975.[7] The Chinese Freemasons also published their own handwritten weekly newspaper, the Minzhi Zhoukan (？？周刊) until 1956. The Pagoda, started in 1940, was the first English-language newspaper for the Chinese community. The local branch of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) also began publishing their own paper, The Chung San News (中山報) in 1953.[5]

Cultural syncretism

Interracial marriages came almost immediately, and along with continued immigration the Chinese Jamaican community grew, so that it became the second-largest Chinese Caribbean population, behind only Cuba. The 1946 Jamaica census recorded, 12,394 Chinese Jamaicans: "2,818 China-born, 4,061 local born, 5,515 Chinese coloured," with the latter referring to multiracial people of mixed African and Chinese origin.[8]

Assimilation has taken place through generations and few Chinese Jamaicans can speak Chinese today; most of them speak English or Jamaican Patois as their first language. The vast majority have anglicized given names, and many have Chinese surnames. The Chinese food culture has survived to a large degree among this group of people.

Notable people

This is a list of notable Chinese immigrants in Jamaica, and Jamaicans of Chinese descent.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Li 2004, p. 57
  2. ^ a b Li 2004, p. 44
  3. ^ Li 2004, p. 43
  4. ^ Li 2004, p. 53
  5. ^ a b Li 2004, p. 52
  6. ^ Li 2004, p. 47
  7. ^ Li 2004, p. 51
  8. ^ Hakka Chinese Jamaican

Bibliography

  • Li, Anshan (2004), "Survival, Adaptation, and Integration: Origins and Development of the Chinese Community in Jamaica", in Wilson, Andrew R. (ed.), The Chinese in the Caribbean, Markus Wiener Publishers, pp. 41–68, ISBN 9781558763159

Further reading

  • Bryan, Patrick (1996), "The Creolization of the Chinese Community in Jamaica", in Reddock, Rhoda (ed.), Ethnic Minorities in Caribbean Society, University of the West Indies Press, pp. 173–272, ISBN 9789766180249
  • Lee, Russell (1998), "The Chinese Retail Grocery Trade in Jamaica", in Wang, Ling-chi; Wang, Gungwu (eds.), The Chinese Diaspora: Selected Essays, vol. 2, Singapore: Times Academic Publisher, pp. 112–130, ISBN 9789812100931
  • Shibata, Yoshiko (2006), "Searching for a Niche, Creolizing Religious Tradition: Negotiation and Reconstruction of Ethnicity among Chinese in Jamaica", in Kumar, P. Pratap (ed.), Religious Pluralism in the Diaspora, Brill, pp. 51–72, ISBN 9789004152502
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