Welcome to Republic of Cantonia.The World Cannot Remain Silent!Please help us to promote the Cantonian people to the world for our struggle for human rights, liberty, democracy and freedom from China and Han Chinese racists.
我哋係大粵獨立建國理念嘅建構者！我哋堅定捍衛大粵民國（Republic of Cantonia）嘅國家主權！我哋係粵獨嘅先鋒！我哋將擊敗支那！我哋將終結嚟自支那嘅殖民統治！我哋將脫支獨立！我哋將鏟除所有試圖異質化大粵嘅支那文化毒瘤！我哋將恢復古南越3000年前久遠嘅傳統！我哋將喺大粵重新敲響得勝嘅銅鼓！
本論壇100%基於大粵民國（Republic of Cantonia）係主權獨立國家嘅立場！祇要妳唔係支那人，噉無論妳嚟自邊度，具邊國國籍，係邊種膚色，講邊種語言，妳祗要認同大粵民國（Republic of Cantonia）係主權獨立國家，噉我哋就係同一國嘅！歡迎妳註冊加入成為我哋嘅會員！為粵獨發聲！為大粵嘅獨立、自由、民主吶喊！
Cantonese Australian (simplified Chinese: 华裔澳洲人; traditional Chinese: 華裔澳洲人; pinyin: Àozhōu huáyì; Cantonese Yale: ou3jau1wa4yeui6) is an Australian of Chinese heritage. In the 2006 Australian Census, 669,890 Australian residents identified themselves as having Chinese ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry.
The early history of Chinese Australians had involved significant immigration from villages of the Pearl River Delta in Southern China. Less well known are the kind of society Chinese Australians came from, the families they left behind and what their intentions were in coming. Many Chinese were lured to Australia by the gold rush. (Since the mid-19th century, Australia was dubbed the New Gold Mountain after the Gold Mountain of California in North America.) They sent money to their families in the villages, and regularly visited their families and retired to the village after many years, working as a market gardener, shopkeeper or cabinet maker. As with many overseas Chinese groups the world over, early Chinese immigrants to Australia established Chinatowns in several major cities, such as Sydney (Chinatown, Sydney), Brisbane (Chinatown, Brisbane) and Melbourne (Chinatown, Melbourne).
The White Australia Policy of the early 20th Century severely curtailed the development of the Chinese communities in Australia. However, since the advent of Multiculturalism as a government policy in the 1970s, many ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia) have immigrated to Australia.
In 2005-6 China (not including Hong Kong or Macau) was the third major source of permanent migrants to Australia behind the United Kingdom and New Zealand but with more migrants than from India. Between 2000–01 and 2005–06, the number of skilled migrants coming to Australia from China more than tripled, from 3,800 to 12,500 people.[1]
Brief chronology
see also Chinese immigration to Australia
Earliest arrivals: 1788 to 1848
From the very beginning of the colony of New South Wales, links with China were established when several ships of the First Fleet, after dropping off their convict load, sailed for Canton to pick up goods for the return to England. The Bigge Report attributed the high level of tea drinking to 'the existence of an intercourse with China from the foundation of the Colony …' That the ships carrying such cargo had Chinese crew members is likely and that some of the crew and possibly passengers embarked at the port of Sydney is probable. Certainly by 1818, Mak Sai Ying (also known as John Shying) had arrived and after a period of farming became, in 1829, the publican of The Lion in Parramatta. John Macarthur, a prominent pastoralist, employed three Chinese people on his properties in the 1820s and records may well have neglected others.
Indentured labour: 1848 to 1853
Individuals such as Macarthur’s employees were part of the varied mix that was early Sydney Town. It was the increasing demand for labour after convict transportation ceased in the 1840s that led to much larger numbers of Chinese men arriving as indentured labourers, to work as shepherds and irrigation experts for private landowners and the Australian Agricultural Company. These workers seemingly all came from Fujian via the port then known as Amoy (Xiamen) and some may have been brought involuntarily, as kidnapping or the 'sale of pigs', as it was called, was common.
Between 1848 and 1853, over 3,000 Chinese workers on contracts arrived via the Port of Sydney for employment in the NSW countryside. Resistance to this cheap labour occurred as soon as it arrived, and, like such protests later in the century, was heavily mixed with racism. Little is known of the habits of such men or their relations with other NSW residents except for those that appear in the records of the courts and mental asylums. Some stayed for the term of their contracts and then left for home, but there is evidence that others spent the rest of their lives in NSW. A Gulgong resident who died at age 105 in 1911 had been in NSW since 1841 while in 1871 the Keeper of Lunacy still required the Amoy dialect from his interpreters.
Gold rushes: 1853 to 1877
Large numbers of Chinese people were working on the Victorian goldfields and fewer on the smaller NSW fields in the mid 1850s, when major gold finds in NSW and the passing of more restrictive anti-Chinese legislation in Victoria resulted in thousands of miners moving across the border in 1859. Many more Chinese goldseekers came by ship through Twofold Bay and Sydney and onto the various diggings. Fish curing, stores and dormitories in places such as The Rocks, soon developed to support the miners on the fields as well as those on their way to the diggings or back to China. The presence of numerous Chinese on the diggings led to anti-Chinese agitation, including violent clashes such as the Lambing Flat riots, the immediate result of which was the passing of an Act in 1861 designed to reduce the number of Chinese people entering the colony.
From miners to artisans: 1877 to 1901
Colonies of Australia occurred in 1873 in the far north of Queensland at the Palmer River, and by 1877 there were 20,000 Chinese there. After the ending of this Queensland rush, people either returned to China or dispersed, including a significant number[quantify] coming into NSW either immediately or in subsequent years. This openness of the land borders and the rise in Chinese numbers after a period of decline again raised anti-Chinese fears in NSW, resulting in restrictive Acts in 1881 and 1888.
Mining was a risky endeavour and very soon after arrival Chinese people began trying other ways of earning a living. People opened stores and became merchants and hawkers, while a fishing and fish curing industry operating north and south of Sydney supplied dried fish in the 1860s and 1870s to Chinese people throughout NSW as well as Melbourne. By the 1890s Chinese people were represented in a wide variety of occupations including scrub cutters, interpreters, cooks, tobacco farmers, market gardeners, cabinet-makers, storekeepers and drapers, though by this time the fishing industry seemed to have disappeared. At the same time, Sydney’s proportion of the Chinese residents of NSW had steadily increased. One prominent Chinese Australian at this time was Mei Quong Tart, who ran a popular tea house in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney.
Domiciles and Australian-born Chinese: 1901 to 1936
By the time of Australian Federation, there were around 29,000 ethnic Chinese in Australia:[2] Chinese people in NSW were a significant group, running numerous stores, an import trade, societies and several Chinese language newspapers. They were also part of an international community involved in political events in China such as sending delegates to a Peking Parliament or making donations at times of natural disaster. The NSW immigration restrictions of 1888 had not had a great impact on total numbers and a continued inflow of Chinese from Queensland mitigated even this. The passing of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, however, froze the Chinese communities of the late 19th century into a slow decline.
Continued discrimination, both legal and social, reduced the occupational range of Chinese people until market gardening, always a major occupation, became far and away the representative role of 'John Chinaman'. It was as gardeners that most pre-1901 now granted status as ‘domiciles’ under the 1901 Act, visited their villages and established families throughout the first 30 years or so of the 20th century, relying on the minority of merchants to assist them to negotiate with the Immigration Restriction Act bureaucracy. Only the rise of a new generation of Australian-born Chinese people, combined with new migrants that the merchants and others sponsored, both legally and illegally, prevented the Chinese population of NSW disappearing entirely.
War and refugees: 1936 to 1949
By the war period numbers had nevertheless fallen greatly and Australian-born people of Chinese background began to predominate over Chinese-born people for the first time. Numbers increased rapidly again when refugees began to enter Australia as the result of Japan’s war in China and the Pacific. Some were Chinese crew members who refused to return to Japanese-held areas and others were residents of the many Pacific islands evacuated in the face of the Japanese advance. Still others included those with Australian birth who were able to leave Hong Kong and the villages on the approach of the Japanese. At the same time the anti-Japanese War helped inspire the development of organisations focused on China rather than the districts and villages of people's origin only, and aimed at making Australia aware of the danger of Japan and the need to assist China. A few of these organizations, such as the Chinese Youth League, survive to this day.
Cafes to Citizens: 1949 to 1973
In the post-war period, assimilation became the dominant policy and this led to some extension of rights with gradual changes to citizenship laws. At the same time cafes began to replace market gardens as the major source of employment and avenue for bringing in new migrants, both legal and illegal. These changes, combined with the increased number of Australian-born Chinese, the final return of the last of the domiciles who still wished to do so and the arrival of Chinese background students under the Colombo Plan from various parts of Asia, brought about the end of the dominance of south China in the link between China and Australia that had existed for nearly 100 years.
Re-migration and multiculturalism: 1973 to the present
The final end of the White Australia Policy saw new arrivals from the Chinese diaspora and for the first time significant numbers from non-Cantonese speaking parts of China. The first wave of arrivals were ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia during the 1970s; this was followed by economic migrants from Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, whose families often settled in Sydney while the breadwinner returned to Hong Kong to continue earning an income – a significant reversal of the traditional migration pattern.
After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the Australian Prime Minister of the day, Bob Hawke, allowed students from mainland China to settle in Australia permanently. Since then, immigrants from mainland China and Taiwan have arrived in increasing numbers.
New institutions were established for these arrivals and old ones such as the Chinese Chamber of Commerce revived; Chinese language newspapers were once again published. The equality of citizenship laws and family reunion immigration after 1972 meant that an imbalance of the sexes, once a dominant feature of the Chinese communities in Australia, was not an issue in these later migrations.
Chinese newspapers are published in Australia and three shortwave and longwave radio channels broadcast in Cantonese and Mandarin. The Australian public broadcaster SBS also provides television and radiprate on weekends. Chinese Australian social websites like 新足迹 (http://www.oursteps.com.au), FREEOZ (http://www.freeoz.org) also blossomed. Several Chinese Australians have received the Order of Australia award and there are current representatives in both State and Federal parliaments.
In the late 1990s, many of the suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne have turned to Satellite Chinatowns, such as the Chatswood area, Hurstville area, Carlingford/Eastwood/Epping area, Box Hill, Auburn, Burwood, Springvale, Beverly Hills, Glen Waverley, Campsie and Parramatta.
Demographics
According to the 2006 Australian Census, 206,591 Australians declared they were born in China (excludes SARs and Republic of China (Taiwan)).[3] A further 71,803 declared they were born in the Hong Kong SAR, 2,013 in the Macau SAR and 24,368 in Taiwan:[3] a total of 304,775 or 1.5% of those counted by the Census.[4] Chinese ancestry was claimed by 669,896, either alone or with another ancestry, and Taiwanese ancestry was claimed by 5,837 persons.[5] The 2001 Australian Census reported that Chinese was the sixth most common self-reported ancestry.[6] Just under 40% of those claiming Chinese ancestry were born in mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan; 26% were born in Australia with other notable birth places being Malaysia (10%) and Vietnam (8%).[6]
Chinese Australians have historically been of predominately Cantonese descent from Hong Kong and Canton province. Due to recent immigration from other regions of mainland China and Taiwan, Mandarin and other Chinese languages are increasingly spoken as well. The Australian Bureau of Statistics lists 225,300 speakers of Cantonese (40.4% of Chinese Australians), followed by Mandarin at 139,300 (25.0%) and other Chinese languages at 36,700.[7] Second or higher generation Chinese Australians are either monolingual in English or bilingual to varying degrees with Chinese.
According to the 2006 Census, Sydney was home to over half (53%) of the Chinese population. Melbourne had just over one-quarter of the Chinese born population (26%). Together, the other Australian capitals had 15% of the Chinese populations.[8]
In Sydney there were 292,338 persons, or approximately 7% of the population, who identified themselves as having Chinese ancestry (either exclusively or with another ancestry). Other Australian cities with large Chinese populations include Melbourne (182,550 or 5.1%), Perth (53,390 or 3.7%) and Brisbane (50,908 or 2.9%).[9] 53% of mainland China-born and 51% of Hong Kong born residents were enumerated in Sydney, while the largest portion of Taiwanese-born residents are in Brisbane (34%).
Chinese migrants are drawn from the Chinese diaspora. The 2001 Australian Census[citation needed] lists the main source countries and regions for overseas born ethnic Chinese as:
Country/Region Population Country/Region Population China 132,020 East Timor 4,880 Hong Kong 59,810 Philippines 2,230 Malaysia 51,910 Thailand 2,210 Vietnam 41,230 Laos 1,450 Taiwan 21,520 Burma 1,030 Indonesia 19,620 Mauritius 820 Singapore 19,120 South Korea 190 Cambodia 9,500 Ghana 110 Religion
In the 2006 Census, among persons born in Mainland China, the religious breakdown was as follows: 57.8% declared no religion or atheism, 17.6% declared Buddhism, 15.1% declared Christianity, 0.6% declared other religions and 8.6% did not answer the question.[10]
Notable persons
Academic
Victor Chang: heart surgeon Jane Hutcheon: journalist Kelvin Kong : first Chinese Australian surgeon Mabel Lee: linguist Helene Chung Martin: former ABC correspondent, author of Shouting from China and Lazy Man in China Terence Tao: mathematician Charles Teo: neurosurgeon Karen Tso: finance reporter Vanessa Woods: scientist, author and feature writer for the Discovery Channel John Yu: paediatrician and 1996 Australian of the Year Ouyang Yu: poet, novelist and author of The Eastern Slope Chronicle Liangchi Zhang: scientist Yang Hengjun: political blogger, author of "Fatal Weakness" series. Business and finance
Kwong Sue Duk: pioneer herbalist and merchant Neale Fong: doctor and sports administrator Sir Leslie Joseph Hooker: real estate magnate, founder of L.J. Hooker Stern Hu: businessman Bing Lee: businessman who started up the Bing Lee franchises Yew-Kwang Ng: economist at Monash University Trevor O'Hoy: Former CEO of Foster's Group Su Lin Ong: chief economist with RBC Capital Markets Mei Quong Tart: 19th Century businessman and public figurehead David Wang: businessman Xiaokai Yang: economist Ern Phang: lawyer Chen Jian: ownder of Ocean Meats Australia, seafood importing business [11] Arts and entertainment
Tony Ayres: screenwriter and director Jason Chan: actor and director Queenie Chan: comic artist Jun Chen: painter Jimmy Chi: composer, musician and playwright Lee Lin Chin: news reader Elizabeth Chong: chef, author and television presenter Anna Choy: actress and presenter Li Cunxin: ballet dancer, author and public speaker Jeff Fatt: performer with the Wiggles Lisa Ho: fashion designer Shen Jiawei: painter Jenny Kee: fashion designer Vernon Ah Kee: Indigenous artist with Chinese heritage Kylie Kwong: chef, restaurateur and media presenter Lawrence Leung: comedian Guang Li: actor Adam Liaw: winner of MasterChef Australia 2010 Renee Lim: actress and media personality Nina Liu: actress Jaymee Ong: actress and model Cindy Pan: physician and media personality Jackie Chan: actor Chris Pang: actor Sam Pang: writer, actor, director, producer and presenter Alice Pung: author Rose Quong: actor, performer and writer Sarah Song: television actress and presenter Shaun Tan: artist, author and illustrator Ling-Hsueh Tang: actress Vico Thai: television and film actor Wang Zheng Ting: musician, conductor and composer Angela Tsun: weather presenter Annette Shun Wah: media presenter James Wan: film director, writer, and producer of Saw fame Hannah Wang: actress Ai Xian: painter and sculptor Bin Xie: painter Hu Xin: actress Poh Ling Yeow: artist, grand finalist on MasterChef Australia 2009 Politics
Harry Chan: former Mayor of Darwin, former President of the Legislative Council (Northern Territory), Territory Parliament Alfred Huang: former Lord Mayor of Adelaide Michael Johnson: former Member of Parliament, Federal Parliament William Ah Ket: barrister and early 20th century campaigner for Chinese rights Alec Fong Lim: former Lord Mayor of Darwin Jing Lee: Member of the Legislative Council (South Australia), State Parliament Bill O'Chee: former Senator (Queensland), Federal Parliament Helen Sham: former Member of the Legislative Council (New South Wales), State Parliament John So: former Lord Mayor of Melbourne Tsebin Tchen: former Senator (Victoria), Federal Parliament Henry Tsang: Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier; Deputy Lord Mayor, Sydney, 1991–1999 Penny Wong: Senator (South Australia), Federal Parliament, Member of Cabinet, Minister for Climate Change and Water 2007-2010, Minister of Finance and Deregulation 2010 - (Incumbent) Peter Wong: former Member of the Legislative Council (New South Wales), State Parliament Peter Yu: prominent Western Australia Indigenous leader Military
Major General Darryl Low Choy: soldier and academic Caleb Shang: World War I: soldier, Western Front Billy Sing: World War I: soldier, Gallipoli and Western Front Jack Wong Sue: World War II special forces soldier, mariner and author (Western Australia) Sports
Les Fongh: Australian rules footballer in WAFL Wally Koochew: Australian rules footballer Hokei Lau: Rugby League player in NRL Cheltzie Lee: figure skater Anthony Liu: figure skater Miao Miao: table tennis player Hunter Poon: first player of Chinese descent to appear in Australian first-class cricket Richard Chee Quee: NSW cricketer Kenneth To: swimmer Melissa Wu: diver See also
Chinatowns in Oceania Chinese New Zealander Jook-sing Model Minority References
^ "Migration: permanent additions to Australia's population". 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 2007. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 7 August 2007. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf ... 20MIGRANTS. Retrieved 2008-05-30. ^ Price, Charles. 'Asian and Pacific Island Peoples of Australia' in Fawcett, James T and Cariño, Benjamin V. Pacific Bridges: The New Immigration From Asia and the Pacific Islands. New York: Centre for Migration Studies (1987), p. 176 ^ a b c d The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes this data as being a count of people born in "China (excludes SARs and Republic of China (Taiwan))" ^ "20680-Country of Birth of Person (full classification list) by Sex - Australia" (Microsoft Excel download). 2006 Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNav ... ion%20list)%20by%20Sex&producttype=Census%20Tables&method=Place%20of%20Usual%20Residence&topic=Birthplace&. Retrieved 2008-05-27. Total count of persons: 19,855,288. ^ "20680-Ancestry (full classification list) by Sex - Australia" (Microsoft Excel download). 2006 Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNav ... ion%20list)%20by%20Sex&order=1&period=2006&tabname=Details&areacode=0&navmapdisplayed=true&. Retrieved 2008-05-27. Total responses: 25,451,383 for total count of persons: 19,855,288. ^ a b "4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 2003 : Population characteristics: Ancestry of Australia's population". Australian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf ... enDocument. Retrieved 2008-05-19. "The 2001 census found that: Due to the historic migrations of people from China, especially to Southeast Asia, Chinese ancestry was associated not only with Australia (26%), China (25%) and Hong Kong (11%) but with several other birthplaces, such as Malaysia (10%) and Viet Nam (8%)." The ABS states in relation to the ancestry question for the 2001 census the purpose of an ancestry question is to capture current ethnic or cultural affiliations, which are by nature self-perceived, rather than to attempt to document actual historic family origins. ^ 2001 Australian Bureau of Statistics, "Languages other than English spoken at home" ^ [1] 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, Sep 2009 ^ 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics [2]. ^ [3] ^ Mark Morri and Katherine Danks (February 11, 2011 12:00AM). "Drugged, mutilated, then cut". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 6003972236. Retrieved February 11, 2011. Brawley, Sean, The White Peril - Foreign Relations and Asian Immigration to Australasia and North America 1919-1978, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1995. Cushman, J.W., "A 'Colonial Casualty': The Chinese community in Australian Historiography", Asian Studies Association of Australia, vol.7, no 3, April, 1984. Fitzgerald, Shirley, Red Tape, Gold Scissors, State Library of NSW Press, Sydney, 1997. Macgregor, Paul (ed.), Histories of the Chinese in Australasia and the South Pacific, Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne,1995. May, Cathie, Topsawyers: the Chinese in Cairns 1870 to 1920, James Cook University, Townsville, 1984. Williams, Michael, Chinese Settlement in NSW - A thematic history (Sydney: Heritage Office of NSW, 1999) http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au External links
From Quong Tarts to Victor Changs: Being Chinese in Australia in the Twentieth Century Chinese Australia website Tracking The Dragon - A history of the Chinese in the Riverina online exhibition Tracking the Dragon A guide for finding and assessing Chinese Australian heritage places The Harvest of Endurance scroll -- an interactive representing two centuries of Chinese contact with, and emigration to, Australia at the National Museum of Australia Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia Culture Victoria – Dreams of Jade and Gold – Chinese Australian families
Total population 147,570 3.4% of the population of New Zealand[1] Regions with significant populations Auckland, Wellington Languages New Zealand English, Chinese languages, others
Religion Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, others
A Cantonese New Zealander (simplified Chinese: 华裔新西兰人; traditional Chinese: 華裔紐西蘭人) is a New Zealander of Chinese heritage. They are part of the ethnic Chinese diaspora (or Overseas Chinese). Chinese New Zealanders are the fifth largest ethnic group in New Zealand.
The first records of ethnic Chinese in New Zealand were the immigrants from Guangdong province, China, who arrived during the 1860s goldrush era. Due to this historical influx, there is still a distinct Chinese community in the Southern city of Dunedin, whose current mayor Peter Chin is of Chinese descent. However, most Chinese New Zealanders live in the North Island, and are of more recent migrant heritage. Chinese New Zealanders may broadly be defined into two categories; the earlier generation, and recent or temporary migrants that have arrived since the 1980s.
At the last census in 2006, Chinese New Zealanders accounted for 3.7% of the total population, the largest Asian ethnic group in New Zealand (approx 42% of all Asian New Zealanders). As at the 2001 Census, 75% of Chinese in New Zealand were born overseas. In 2002, the New Zealand Government publicly apologised to the Chinese for the poll tax that had been levied on their ancestors a century ago.[2]
[edit] History
Further information: Chinese immigration to New Zealand [edit] Early Immigrants
The first immigration to New Zealand took place on the strength of two invitations from New Zealand's Otago goldmining region to potential goldminers of Guangdong province in 1865. These original goldmining communities suffered discrimination due to racist ideology, the economic competition they represented to the Europeans, and because of the implied 'disloyalty' within their transient, sojourner outlook. [3] While many believe there was a 'White New Zealand' policy similar to Australia's, New Zealand never had such a policy openly sanctioned and was open to Pacific Island immigration from its early history. [4] However in the 1880s, openly sinophobic political ideology resulted in the New Zealand head tax, also known as the 'Poll Tax', aimed specifically at Chinese migrants. Despite official barriers the Chinese still managed to develop their communities in this period, and numbers were bolstered when some wives and children from Guangdong Province were allowed in as refugees just before World War II. Chain migration from Guangdong continued until the new Communist Chinese regime stopped emigration. This original group of Cantonese migrants and their descendants are referred to in New Zealand as 'Old Generation' Chinese, and are now a minority within the overall Chinese population.
[edit] After the Second World War
Ethnic Chinese communities from countries other than China began establishing themselves in New Zealand between the 1960s and 1980s. These included ethnic Chinese refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos following the conflicts and upheavals in those countries; Commonwealth (i.e. English educated) professional migrants from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia; and Samoan Chinese as part of the substantial Pacific labour migrations of the 1970s.
Between 1987–96, a fundamental change in New Zealand’s immigration policy led to a substantial influx of ethnic Chinese business, investor, and professional migrants, particularly from Hong Kong and Taiwan. This period saw a spike in overall migration from the Asian region, including other Chinese people from East Asia and Southeast Asia. New Zealand's immigration system increasingly experienced the impact of global events, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the fall of Suharto.
[edit] Recent issues
The nationalist New Zealand First Party fought the 1996 general election on an anti-immigration and very thinly veiled 'anti-Asian' platform,[5] winning the balance of power and altering immigration policy towards skills-based immigration. From the late 1990s to the 2000s, skilled migrants from Mainland China became the new significant demographic group of Chinese immigrants.
[edit] International students
Mainland Chinese in New Zealand also include a substantial population of international students completing tertiary qualifications. These students, viewed by some as temporary residents, are often socially isolated from both mainstream and Chinese New Zealander society. There have been media reports of these groups facing victimisation from within their own communities [6] as well as from the population as a whole, and as being involved in Asian crime syndicates. Similarly, 1.5 generation Hong Kong migrant youths who engaged in low-level criminal activity in the 1990s, were also mistakenly considered to be professional 'Triads' by much of the non-Chinese public at that time. [7]
However, despite much speculation, the political and administrative status of Chinese international students as non-residents has hampered the undertaking of verifiable research about their health, societal well-being or their actual level of involvement in crime.
[edit] Demography
[edit] Composition
As of the most recent census, the majority of the overseas-born Chinese were under 25 years of age, and 12% had lived in New Zealand for less than one year. The median age of the Chinese ethnic group in New Zealand is younger than the national average.
[edit] Employment
According to the 2001 Census, New Zealand-born Chinese had a higher median income (NZ$20,200) than other New Zealanders (NZ$18,500), but overseas-born Chinese New Zealanders had a median income less than half of the national median (NZ$7,900).
According to the 2006 Social Report (New Zealand Ministry of Social Development), based on the 2005 Household Labour Force Survey, the 'Asian and other' category displayed the second-highest level of unemployment after New Zealand's indigenous people (the Māori) and the highest level of underemployment. Possibly reflecting the asset-rich status of migrants as well as their barriers to employment, the 'Asian and other' category was simultaneously one of the most income-poor ethnic categories in the country while also being the ethnic category with the highest access to the internet. (Note: At this time, the 'Other' ethnic groups (Middle Eastern, African and Latin American) comprised less than 1% of the population, and the 'Asian' groups approximately 9%.)
[edit] Notable persons
[edit] Politics
Peter Chin, Mayor of Dunedin, 'Old Generation' Cantonese New Zealander. Dunedin born Chinese, married to Noleen for 46 years, with four children and eight grandchildren. Forty three years a practicing lawyer in Dunedin underpins 15 years of Council experience. He has been a Dunedin City Councillor since 1995 and was elected Mayor of Dunedin in 2004. Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2003 in acknowledgment of his services to local body and community affairs. A member of the NZ Chinese Poll Tax Advisory Team, chairperson of the Dunedin Chinese Gardens Trust,involved in the performing arts. Has performed for Dunedin Opera Company and Dunedin Operatic Society, and comperes concerts; featured in the film "Illustrious Energy", TV documentary series "Hanlon" and the TV series "Gold".Was defeated as Mayor on October 9 2010. Meng Foon, Mayor of Gisborne , 'Old Generation' Cantonese New Zealander Raymond Huo, Member of Parliament since 2008, 1st generation mainland Chinese [4] Pansy Wong, New Zealand's first ethnic Chinese MP and first Asian MP, 1970s Generation Hong Kong migrant New Zealander of Shanghai heritage. National MP for Botany Pansy Wong has announced her resignation from Parliament at a news conference 14 December 2010. [edit] Arts and sports
Bic Runga, singer/songwriter, of Māori (indigenous New Zealander) and Chinese Malaysian parentage. Chang, presenter with The Edge radio station. [8] Li Ming Hu, known for her role as Li Mei Chen in New Zealand's popular TV show, Shortland Street, second-generation New Zealander of Singaporean and Taiwanese parentage. Raybon Kan, comedian, second-generation New Zealander of Mainland Chinese parentage. Li Chunli, gold medal-winning table tennis champion, 1980s generation migrant New Zealander and Mainland Chinese. [9] Caleigh Cheung, actress and fashion writer, known for her roles on Shortland Street and Ride with the Devil, New Zealand born Cantonese with Hong Kong and Old Generation parentage. [10] Wing (singer) singer, emigrated from Hong Kong. Robyn Wong, NZ champion mountain biker, represented NZ at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games [11] Denise Kum, born in Auckland – She graduated Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland in 1992 Eddie Wong Sensei, 7th Dan, respected Yoshinkan Aikido instructors in Oceania (New Zealand and Australia). Over 40 years experience in aikido, more than 25 years in Tai Chi Chuan and Chinese Kung Fu. First introduced to Yoshinkai Aikido in 1965, when he joined David and Hisae Lynch's dojo, after having spent 3 years studying Judo, Jiujutsu and Karate. In 1979 he had a dojo in Manukau Road,Epsom, with his wife Mary, teaching Yoshinkai Aikido; later relocated their dojo to Mt. Albert, Auckland. Edward Wong, Auckland – Queens Service Medal 2010, for services to martial arts [edit] Journalists, writers and advocates
Mai Chen, prominent constitutional lawyer, Chair of the short-lived Pan Asian Congress of 2002, 1970s generation and 1.5 generation Taiwanese migrant New Zealander Derek Cheng, reporter for the New Zealand Herald, second generation New Zealander of Hong Kong Chinese parentage. Manying Ip, Professor at the University of Auckland School of Asian Studies, community spokesperson during the 'Asian Invasion' 1990s, and author and editor of numerous seminal texts on Chinese people in New Zealand. 1970s 1st Generation Hong Kong migrant New Zealander. [12] Errol Kiong, reporter for Radio New Zealand and the New Zealand Herald, first generation migrant New Zealander and Malaysian Chinese. Tze Ming Mok, cultural commentator, blogger and literary writer; second generation New Zealander of Chinese Singaporean and Malaysian parentage. Leader of a march against white supremacists in Wellington 2004. Editor of the May 2006 issue of Landfall, a New Zealand literary journal.[13] Lincoln Tan, senior reporter for the New Zealand Herald, founder of iBall newspaper (iBall has been renamed as ASIAN TODAY after Lincoln's departure); first generation migrant New Zealander and Peranakan Singaporean. Leader of a march against white supremacists in Christchurch 2004. [14] Alison Wong, poet, Old generation Cantonese. (1960 – ) is a poet and fiction writer. Born in Hastings, New Zealand, great grandparents on both sides migrated from China's Guangdong; Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Victoria University. As the Earth Turns to Silver – published 2010, shortlisted for Australian PM awards; Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago,poetry collection Cup Gilbert Wong, New Zealand's most senior Chinese journalist, for many years New Zealand's only prominent Chinese journalist, Old Generation Cantonese. Steven Young, key figure and leader in the Old Generation Chinese community associations, specifically the Wellington Chinese Association. Known for bucking the 'model minority' impulses of the Old Generation community in the 1990s by speaking out against the New Zealand First Party, for which he was expelled from the Wellington Chinese Association, only to return as its President in later years. Web-archiver of numerous resources on the Old Generation communities. [15] Jack Yan, graphic designer and publisher of fashion magazine Lucire, 1.5 generation Hong Kong migrant New Zealander. Jane Yee, columnist on Stuff.co.nz and C4TV presenter, Chinese and Pākehā New Zealand parentage. Simon Wong, journalist, Marlborough Express, AUT Graduate 2009. Gordon Wong, commercial lawyer, first Chinese to become a Partner in a major law firm in New Zealand Kimberlee Downs, student AUT – 2009 won Television New Zealand Journalism Diversity Scholarship at Auckland's AUT University. Dr Renee Liang, 2010 Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award Recipient, consultant paediatrician , poet, short story writer and playwright, Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland, graduate with a Postgraduate Diploma in Drama Studies.Second generation Chinese New Zealander, paediatrician. Wries poetry,plays, short stories; MC at Poetry Live Auckland, member Guerrilla Poets. Alistair Kwun, Communications and Strategy Advisor for the New Zealand Chinese Association Auckland; P R ‘Going Bananas"; commentator in the media on intercultural issues. A market researcher,people connector,media and strategy junkie. Kim Webby Independent Media Production Professional Jason Moon – Born in Wellington, Victoria University graduate with double degrees in Marketing and Education; third generation Chinese New Zealander -Presents Asian Report on Radio NZ. Sonia Yee – Spoken Features Producer at Radio New Zealand National, Educated Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School and University of Canterbury, Spectrum at Radio NZ; The Golden Tide – five part documentary series- [edit] See also
Demographics of New Zealand Head tax (New Zealand) Model minority Sinophobia [edit] References
^ QuickStats About Culture and Identity – Asian, 2006 Census, Statistics New Zealand. Retrieved 2007-07-13.[dead link] ^ [1][dead link] ^ http://www.handsonhistory.co.nz/pre-chinese.htm[dead link] ^ Immigration regulation – Controlling Pacific Island immigration – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand ^ ABC Radio National – Background Briefing: 7 July 1996 – Whose Country Is It Anyway? ^ [2] ^ stevenyoung.co.nz | Chinese Voice 6 February 1997 issue | Chinese, Shanghai, Year, Restaurant, Asian ^ Display – Music – The Edge ^ New Zealand Olympic Committee ^ http://www.actors.co.nz/people/viewAnyb ... dyID=61447 ^ [3] Robyn Wong profile at Penny Farthing Cycles website ^ Manying Ip | Faculty of Arts Staff | The University of Auckland ^ Public Address | Yellow Peril ^ Lincoln Tan articles on NZ Herald ^ stevenyoung.co.nz – The Chinese in New Zealand [edit] External links
Entry on Chinese New Zealanders in Te Ara, the Online Dictionary of New Zealand Steven Young's web archive on Chinese in New Zealand
Total population 8,000 (~1% of Fijian population) Regions with significant populations Suva Languages Fijian, Cantonese, Shanghainese
Religion Buddhist, Chinese folk religion, Christianity [1]
Related ethnic groups Chinese Australian, Chinese New Zealander, Chinese in Samoa, Chinese in Tonga
The Chinese diaspora in Fiji consists a small, but influential, community in the multiracial society that makes up modern day Fiji. In the early 2000s their numbers were estimated at around 6,000, or a little over half of one percent of Fiji's population. The most recent estimation puts the population at 8,000 making the concentration of Chinese in Fiji at around one percent.[2] Around 80% of Chinese in Fiji speak Cantonese as their native language and around 16% speak Shanghainese as their native language. Chinese in Fiji also speak the local Fijian language. Chinese in Fiji have a strong Buddhist background and some retained Confucian traditions. There are also a considerable number of Fijians who are of partial Chinese extraction, being descended from marriages between Chinese and indigenous Fijians. For electoral purposes, Chinese people are counted as General Electors, an omnibus category for Fijian citizens not of indigenous, Indian, or Rotuman descent, which is allocated three seats in the 71-member House of Representatives.
Contents
[hide] 1 History 1.1 Recent controversies 2 Prominence 3 References 4 External links [edit] History
The history of Chinese people in Fiji dates to the 1850s, when Moy Ba Ling, also known as Houng Lee, reached Fiji in a sail boat from Australia and settled in Levuka. He later returned to China, before bringing his relatives and some others to settle in Fiji, in connection with the gold rush. Later arrivals came looking for sandalwood and beche-de-mer. According to Dixon Seeto, the current President of the Chinese Association of Fiji, the first shops in rural areas of Fiji were opened by Chinese merchants.
Chinese people were enfranchised for the first time in 1964. The former European roll was redefined to include other minority groups and renamed the General Electors roll. Despite being only a splinter of the electorate, General Electors were then allocated 10 of the 36 seats in the Legislative Council, as the legislature was then known, though this figure has gradually been reduced since independence in 1970.
Around a thousand Chinese settled in Fiji in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and in February 1995, the Fijian Cabinet approved a plan to allow up to 7000 Hong Kong Chinese to immigrate to Fiji. Conditions included payment of F$30,000 to the government, and investment of F$100,000 in government-approved projects. Many of these invested in restaurants, retailing, and market gardening (mostly in Kalabu, Tamavua, Delaivalelevu, Vikoba, Sawani and Waibau), and have intensified horticulture around Suva. A further wave of Chinese has arrived since the late 1990s, many of them from the northern part of China. Many of the more recent immigrants have opened bakeries and other food outlets in Fijian villages, creating employment for local people, says Fiji Times editor Samisoni Kakaivalu.
The exact date of Moy Ba Ling's arrival is not known, but on 17 September 2005, the Chinese community celebrated the 150th anniversary.
[edit] Recent controversies
A 357-kilogram heroin bust in 2000 and a Suva drug laboratory, with a value estimated at close to F$1 billion, in 2004, raised public concerns about the activities of some of the more recent Chinese immigrants. The activities of a few of them, says Fiji Law Society President Graeme Leung, have unfairly stigmatized the Chinese community in the eyes of the public.
On 4 October 2005, Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Orisi Rabukawaqa said that the Army had uncovered an immigration scam. Almost seven thousand Chinese nationals, he claimed, had entered Fiji illegally since 2003. He alleged that bribery in the office of the Registrar General had resulted in massive falsification of documents, with Chinese immigrants being falsely identified as ethnic Fijians. Military investigations showed that illegal immigration was related to increasing rates of prostitution, gambling, money laundering, and illegal fishing.
On 6 October, Justice Ministry Chief Executive Sakiusa Rabuka challenged the Military to substantiate its allegations, telling the Fiji Village news service on 9 October that the allegations made by the Military were "baseless." Only one case had been found, he said, of an Asian national trying to change his birth certificate.
As more evidence came to light, however, the local Chinese community called for a crackdown on corruption in the immigration service. Government-appointed Senator Kenneth Low, who is also President of the Chinese Business Association in Fiji, alleged on 8 November that corrupt immigration officials were granting Fijian citizenship to illegal Asian immigrants for money and sex, and called on the government to establish a commission of inquiry into illegal immigration.
Dixon Seeto spoke out on 15 December against violent attacks made against Chinese market gardeners and farmers. Both men and women were being assaulted by youths seeking cash, he claimed, when bringing their produce to the market at around 3 or 4 a.m. He called for more police patrols to prevent such attacks.
[edit] Prominence
Well-known persons of whole or partial Chinese descent include Cabinet Minister Pio Wong, Senators Kenneth Low and James Ah Koy, Peter Lee ( former long serving General Manager of Coca Cola Fiji and currently heading Fiji's largest conglomerate - Carpenters ) and prominent lawyer Graeme Leung. At the 150th anniversary celebrations, Fiji's Vice-President, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, paid tribute to the contribution the Chinese community has made to Fiji. "The Chinese community has never been a large one but their influence has been felt far beyond their numbers," he said.
Total population 5,000–20,000[1][2] Languages Tok Pisin and English; Cantonese (among older people);[3] Mandarin (among new immigrants)[4]
Religion Christianity,[2] minority Buddhism[4]
Related ethnic groups Chinese Australians
Chinese people in Papua New Guinea form a very diverse community. As of 2008, only about 1,000 of the "old Chinese"—locally-born descendents of late 19th and early 20th-century immigrants—remain in the country; most have moved to Australia.[5] However, their numbers have been bolstered significantly by new arrivals from overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and later from mainland China.[6] There are also a few migrants from the Republic of China on Taiwan.[7]
Contents
[hide] 1 Migration history 1.1 Origins 1.2 Australian invasion 1.3 Japanese invasion 1.4 Post-World War II 1.5 Independence era 2 Community structure 2.1 Politics 2.2 Business and employment 2.3 Organisations 2.4 Education 3 Culture 3.1 Language 3.2 Religion 3.3 Ethnicity and identity 4 Notable people 5 See also 6 References 6.1 Notes 6.2 Sources 7 Further reading [edit] Migration history
[edit] Origins
Beginning in 1888, the German New Guinea Company (GNGC) imported hundreds of indentured Chinese labourers each year, from Xiamen, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sumatra to work on coconut and tobacco plantations. They suffered a fatality rate as high as 40% due to tropical diseases and harsh treatment.[8] However, from 1898, the German government formally took over administration of the territory from the GNGC, and promoted free immigration instead of indentured labour. Carpenters, shipbuilders, engineers, tailors, and shopkeepers flowed into the territory, spreading out to various towns including Rabaul, Kokopo, Kavieng, Lae, and Madang.[9] Ships regularly sailed back and forth to Hong Kong. From a population of 200 in 1890, the Chinese community grew to 1427 by 1913. Of those, just 101 were women.[8][9]
[edit] Australian invasion
In 1914, Australia invaded and occupied New Guinea; during the occupation, which continued until 1919, they refused further entry to Chinese.[8] In 1920, New Guinea was formally placed under Australian control as a League of Nations mandate; the new administration extended laws of Australia, in particular the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, over New Guinea, making it far more difficult for Chinese to gain entry to the territory. Chinese who had settled there before 1922 received permanent residency, but those few who arrived afterwards could only receive temporary residency.[10]
The Australians' 1921 survey of their new territory found a total of 1,424 Chinese (1,195 men, 229 women).[11] The gender imbalance in the Chinese community would largely persist due to the policy of refusing entry to wives and children whom New Guinea-resident Chinese men had left behind in China; as a consequence, some Chinese men took indigenous women as wives instead. The children of their marriages tended to be brought up within the Chinese community.[11]
There were also roughly 100 Chinese on Papua; however, movement between New Guinea and the Papua area was restricted, so the community there remained small.[10][12] A 1933 survey found just five Chinese in Papua; Filipinos formed the dominant Asian group, with a population of 88. Port Moresby had only a single Chinese family, headed by Luk Poi Wai, a tailor.[13]
By the eve of the Pacific War, the Chinese population in New Guinea exceeded 2,000.[10]
[edit] Japanese invasion
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, with the Japanese invasion of New Guinea looming just over the horizon, the Australian government moved to evacuate white women and children from the territory. However, they made no similar moves to evacuate the Chinese population there. In early 1942, in response to the pleas of community members, this stance softened slightly, and 300 Chinese were flown to Australia; however, the majority of Chinese women were refused permission to leave.[11][14] Left behind to face occupation by the Imperial Japanese Army, Chinese women became victims of atrocities at a far higher rate than indigenous women. According to community leader Chin Hoi Meen, "Chinese girls had to be supplied to [the Japanese] on demand"; under threat of beatings, death, or imprisonment in a soldiers' brothel as comfort women, Chinese women were also forced to enter into relationships and cohabit with Japanese officers.[15] Chinese men were interned in concentration camps to perform hard labour.[16] A total of 86 local Chinese residents died during the war, 37 of those having been killed by the Japanese.[15] Among the dead was the head of the PNG branch of the Kuomintang, the main political party of the Republic of China at the time; he was executed by Japanese troops as a warning to the community.[16]
In addition to their crimes against local Chinese people, the Japanese sent about 1,600 Republic of China Army prisoners-of-war to Rabaul as slave labourers; many died and were buried there.[17][18] Some soldiers of Taiwan origin came as auxiliaries with the Japanese army as well.[7]
[edit] Post-World War II
In 1946, the total Chinese population in Papua and New Guinea stood at roughly 2,000 people.[12]
A new immigration policy promulgated in 1948 permitted entrance and temporary residence, in the form of exemptions from immigration restrictions, to Chinese engaged in overseas trade of a minimum volume of £1,000 per year. They would also be permitted to sponsor one assistant if their trade volume reached £2,500 per year, and one additional assistant for every £2,500 above that threshold, whose exemptions were to be reviewed every five years, and to nominate a temporary substitute to come to PNG in their place for up to three years if they had to leave the territory. Wives of traders who had lived in the territory since 1921 were granted a permanent exemption from immigration restrictions; others were granted temporary exemptions to be reviewed at three-year intervals. Finally, their dependents who left the territory could be granted re-entry permits with a validity of as long as five years.[19] However, World War II and the ongoing Chinese Civil War had disrupted many of the Chinese community's links to China; even after 1949, though local Chinese were able to regain contact with their relatives in China, they found it difficult to go for visits or send their children their due to the lack of diplomatic relations between Australia and the new People's Republic of China government.[14]
The 1966 census found a total of 566 persons born in China (64 men and 17 women in Papua; 297 men and 188 women in New Guinea), 288 persons holding Chinese nationality (206 men, 72 women), and 2,455 persons who responded "Chinese" when asked their race (1,391 men, 1,064 women).[11] As late as the 1970s, local men continued to go to Hong Kong to find Chinese women to marry, and then brought them back to PNG.[20]
In the 1950s, the Australian government gave the Chinese community a choice of taking up Australian citizenship; this decision marked one of the Australian government's earliest breaks in the White Australia policy.[13]
[edit] Independence era
With independence in 1975, the bulk of the Chinese community in PNG chose to depart for Australia.[2] However, their numbers began to be bolstered again by newcomers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, from Singapore, from Indonesia, and from the Philippines arriving to work as timber merchants or traders.[6] In the 1990s, as the local currency depreciated, their numbers decreased.[21] However, the number of Chinese would continue to grow with the arrival of many new immigrants from the People's Republic of China, who came not just as employees of Chinese mining firms but also as independent traders.[5]
[edit] Community structure
[edit] Politics
Prior to PNG's independence, the Chinese community had no role in local administration; instead, their political participation was directed towards China. The New Guinea Branch of the Kuomintang (KMT) provided de facto leadership for the community.[22] Though the Chinese Civil War ended with the victory of the Communist Party of China and the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC), most Chinese in PNG remained supporters of the Kuomintang and their Republic of China (ROC) government based on Taiwan, until the 1960s, when they began to realise that the KMT's plan to retake mainland China was unlikely to be realised.[2] However, their fears of being labelled as communists led them to maintain at least public loyalty to Taiwan well after that, flying the flag of the Republic of China and continuing to send representatives to the ROC's National Assembly in Taipei until Australia's recognition of the PRC in 1972.[22]
After independence, some of the Chinese who held PNG nationality became involved in local politics, primarily as fundraisers or middlemen for major politicians. A few, especially those of mixed blood, attained prominent positions in the government; the best known example is former prime minister Sir Julius Chan.[2]
[edit] Business and employment
This section requires expansion. Due to the bureaucracy and delays involved in obtaining a work permit for foreigners, many companies bring in workers from China illegally, with some estimates suggesting as many as 300 Chinese people arrive each week without proper documentation.[23]
[edit] Organisations
Migrants formed surname and hometown associations in Rabaul during the late 1910s and early 1920s.[16] Port Moresby, in contrast, lacks any such association, due to the diversity and short history of the Chinese community there.[4] Local Chinese there formed one social club, the Cathay Club, in the 1960s; some new Chinese immigrants have joined as well. They typically organise sports and games for their members.[24]
[edit] Education
In Rabaul, there were two Chinese schools, each associated with a Christian denomination and established with teachers specially hired from China.[3] The Overseas Chinese School (华侨学校) was established with support from the Methodist missionaries in 1922, while St. Theresa's Yang Ching School (养正学校) was set up two years later by Chinese community leaders with support from the Catholic church. Chinese schools also sprang up in Madang and Kavieng.[25] Many families also sent their children back to China for further studies, but this practise came to an end due to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, and did not resume after peace returned.[14] The wealthiest members of the community were also able to send their children to Australia for further studies.[13]
In the 1950s, subsidies from the Australian government allowed an increasing number of Chinese from New Guinea to attend Australian universities.[14] Their primary destinations were Queensland and New South Wales.[2]
[edit] Culture
[edit] Language
Most early Chinese immigrants traced their roots to southern coastal regions of China, especially Guangdong; Siyi dialect became the lingua franca among them, though others spoke various dialects of Cantonese or Hakka[3] As a result, many younger ethnic Chinese have forgotten the language, or never learned it.[13] Starting in the 1970s, many Chinese families hired indigenous women as nannies, who then taught Tok Pisin to the children.[16]
[edit] Religion
Most Chinese in Papua New Guinea are at least nominally Christian.[26] The German colonial era saw the first Chinese converts to Catholicism.[3] Chinese Catholic and Methodist churches have been operating in Rabaul since the 1920s.[16] In contrast, there is only one Buddhist temple in PNG, the Manjusri Buddhist Centre (曼珠精舍) in Port Moresby, established in 1994 by Malaysian Chinese expatriates and now operated by the Taiwan-based Fo Guang Shan order; they generally conduct sermons in Mandarin.[4]
[edit] Ethnicity and identity
Due to gender imbalances, mixed marriages between Chinese men and indigenous women have long been common in PNG's Chinese community. The offspring of such marriages tended to be accepted as Chinese if they were raised within the community and learned the language.[27] However, at the same time, the Chinese community tended to look down on indigenous people as "savages"; prior to independence, Chinese were in the middle tier of a racial hierarchy, discriminated against by whites but equally lording it over the indigenous people; after independence, they came to resent the political power those same indigenes had been given over them.[28]
Even within the Chinese community, tensions exist between different groups of immigrants. Local Chinese in particular blame mainland Chinese for disrupting previously-peaceful inter-ethnic relationships between the Chinese community and indigenous peoples.[29] In particular, mainland Chinese migrants' activities have earned them a poor reputation not just among indigenous people, but among local Chinese and ethnic Chinese expatriates from Southeast Asia as well; the latter view them as "crooks" and "conmen".[5] Mainland Chinese migrants' practise of illegally opening shops in sectors which are restricted to PNG nationals, such as low-end hospitality and retail businesses; these bring them into direct economic competition with local people.[5] For example, during September 2007 anti-Chinese riots in Mount Hagen, PNG's third largest city, Chinese-owned warehouses became targets for arsonists and armed robbers.[30]
[edit] Notable people
Sir Julius Chan, Prime Minister, 1980–82 and 1994–97[13] Byron Chan, son of Julius and member of parliament for the Namatanai District[13] Chin Hoi Meen, businessman and community leader, recipient of the King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom[31][32] Robert Seeto, former governor of New Ireland Province[33] Ni Yumei Cragnolini, president of the Chinese Association[34] [edit] See also
Regions with significant populations Samoa 150 (2003)[1] American Samoa 100 (2003)[1] Languages English, Samoan[2], Cantonese
Religion Congregationalist, Roman Catholic[3]
Related ethnic groups Samoans, Chinese
The majority of Chinese nationals currently residing in Samoa are expatriate businessmen Samoa,[4] and there are at least 30,000 people in Samoa who are of mixed Samoan and Chinese descent,[5] although they are classified as ethnic Samoans in official census.[6] Around the world, about 25% of all Samoans claim Chinese ancestry. Nearly all Chinese nationals in Samoa reside within the Apia municipal area; neighbouring American Samoa,[7] also has a small population of Chinese expatriates.[8]
Contents
[hide] 1 History 2 Language 3 Names 4 Notable Samoans of Chinese descent 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 External links 8 External links [edit] History
Historical records of Chinese settlement dates back to at least the 1870s. Two Chinese sailors under the command of Bully Hayes were based there for two years, and one of them settled down in 1876 and married a Samoan wife. A few Chinese traders also settled in Samoa and raised local families, and maintained close ties with Samoa's paramount chief, Malietoa Laupepa. In 1880, Malietoa issued a subsequent ban on people of Chinese descent from settling in Samoa.[9] Four years after Western Samoa came under German rule in 1899, the colonial governor Wilhelm Solf lifted Malietoa's ban and shipped in Chinese labourers from 1903 onwards.[10] Chinese coolies reportedly complained of tough working punishments as well as brutal physical punishments which they had to face, and these reports prompted the provincial governor of Canton to stop sending Chinese coolies to the German colonies.[9]
Chinese immigrants were almost entirely men, and most of the labourers took Samoan women as wives and by 1918 offspring of Chinese-Samoan descent were a visible minority, although smaller in terms of population compared to offspring of European (particularly German) and Samoan descent.[11] [12] This eventually led to a ban in 1931 that prohibited Chinese men from interacting with Samoan women on all grounds. By the end of World War II only 295 Chinese remained, all of whom had either taken Samoan wives or were unmarried. Many Chinese coolies had since returned to China or remained in Samoa with their families.
In 1994, China provided financial assistance to fund the construction of the government office building in Apia.[13] More recently the Chinese government has funded various other Samoan government constructions. Aeau Peniamina, deputy leader of Samoa Democratic United Party, caused a minor controversy in January 2005 when he remarked that "there are too many Chinese in the country". Joe Keil, the Minister of Tourism, who is of part-Chinese descent, promptly rebutted Peniamina's remarks.[14]
Chinese-Samoans are well-represented in the civil service,[15] and China established diplomatic relations with Samoa in November 1975.[16] Chinese-Samoans are especially well represented in the retail, import-export, and restaurant sectors, notably in Apia.[17]
[edit] Language
The majority of the Chinese coolies came from the Guangdong province and generally spoke Cantonese or Hakka as their primary language.[3] However, their descendants in Samoa have adopted Samoan and English as their mother tongues, while Cantonese is still reportedly spoken by a few elderly people.[18]
[edit] Names
Many people of Chinese descent in Samoa took their fathers' first names as their surnames, rather than their actual Chinese surnames due to Chinese personal naming convention where the family name is written first and the given name next. Many of these names are of Cantonese origin, as the majority of the Chinese who settled in Samoa came from Taishan and Panyu. Chinese-Samoans often have surnames that start with "Ah," "Po," or "Ho" and common examples of Chinese-Samoan families include Ah Kuoi, Ah Van, Ah Mu (of whom some descendants have adopted the name "Rivers"), Po Ching, Ah You, Ho Ching, Ah Kam, Ah Liki, Ah Sam, Ah Mau, Ah Ching, Ah Fong, and Ah Wong.[19] The retention of the "Ah" prefix is also common in Chinese-Hawaiian surnames, such as Akina, Ahuna, Akee, Akiona and Akaka.[20] The practice stems from the Cantonese word "ah" (阿) used before proper names when respectfully addressing family members - as in "ah-po" (阿婆), maternal grandmother; "ah-gong" (阿公), maternal grandfather; "ah-ma" (阿嫲), paternal grandfather;etc. [21] Likewise, some European-Samoan names begin with "Misi," the Samoan transliteration of "Mister" (Mr.) - as in Misiluki (from "Mr. Luke"), Misimua (from "Mr. Moors"), Misipaulo (from "Mr. Paul"), Misitea (from "Mr. Stair"), and Misikea (from "Mr. Gurr") [22][23]
[edit] Notable Samoans of Chinese descent
See Category:Samoans of Chinese descent Aumua Ming Leung Wai, Attorney General of Samoa Eveni Tafiti, Multicultural Counselor of Weber State University[24] Verona Lovel Parker, Miss Samoa 1997[25] Tuaimalo Asamu Ah Sam, CEO Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Muagututagata Peter Ah Him, Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa Paul Chan Tung, member of Samoa national rugby union team (sevens) Maualaivao Pat Ah Him, Minister of Health and member of 15th Samoan Parliament Papaliitele Niko Lee Hang, Minister of Communication and Information Technology and member of 15th Samoan Parliament Tapuai Toese Ah Sam, member of 15th Samoan Parliament Ah Mu, first Chinese-Samoan member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Willie Poching, professional athlete Patrick Ah Van, professional athlete Monty Betham, professional athlete Hans Keil, Ministry of Tourism, Samoa Isaak Ah Mau, professional athlete Leeson Ah Mau, professional athlete [edit] References
Scot Barmé (2006). WorldMark Encyclopedia of The Nations–Asia and Oceania (Twelfth Edition ed.). Thomson Gale. ISBN 1-4144-1093-X. http://www.amazon.com/Worldmark-Encyclo ... 0787605115. Crocombe, R. G., Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the West, 2007, ISBN 9820203880 Pan, Lynn, The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas, Harvard University Press, 1999 ISBN 0674252101
Tu'u'u, Misilugi Tulifau Tofaeono, History of Samoa Islands: Supremacy & Legacy of the Malietoa, Tuga'ula Publication, 2002, ISBN 0958219915 Tom, Nancy Y.W. The Chinese in Western Samoa 1975-1985. Apia: Western Samoan Historical and Cultural Trust [edit] External links
Chinese in the Pacific: a bibliography Dragons in little paradise: Chinese fortunes in Samoa, 1900-1950 - mis [edit] External links
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