Chinese Guyanese
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Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
arrived in
British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...
in 1853, forming an important minority of the indentured workforce. After their indenture, many who stayed on in
Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
came to be known as successful retailers, with considerable integration with the local culture. The most notable person of Chinese ancestry,
Arthur Chung Arthur Raymond Chung (10 January 1918 – 23 June 2008) was the 1st President of Guyana from 1970 to 1980.
, was independent Guyana's first President from 1970 to 1980, and the first Chinese head of state of a non-Asian country.


History

Fourteen thousand Chinese arrived in British Guiana between 1853 and 1879 on 39 vessels bound from Hong Kong by the
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
officials to fill the labor shortage on the sugar plantations engendered by the abolition of slavery. Smaller numbers arrived in other British colonies such as Jamaica,
Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
and
Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
. The Chinese achieved considerable success in the colony, a number of them having been Christians in China before the emigration. Some, particularly in the early years were "the offscourings of Canton--gaol-birds, loafers and vagabonds," who swiftly deserted the plantations and took to bootlegging, burglary and robbery and kept
brothels A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub pa ...
and gambling houses. Others were fleeing the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars conflicts of Canton. Most were bound under five-year indentures—civil contracts enforced by penal sanctions—to work on the sugar plantations. Eighty-five percent of these Chinese immigrants were men staying at Guyana, and most returned to China or emigrated to other parts of the Guianas and the Caribbean after completing or escaping their indentures. Those who remained soon turned to trade, competing effectively with the
Portuguese Guyanese A Portuguese Guyanese is a Guyanese whose ancestors came from Portugal or a Portuguese who has Guyanese citizenship. Demographics People of Portuguese descent were mainly introduced to Guyana as indentured laborers to make up for the exodus of ...
and
Indo-Guyanese Indo-Guyanese or Indian-Guyanese, are people of Indian origin who are Guyanese nationals tracing their ancestry to India and the wider subcontinent. They are the descendants of indentured servants and settlers who migrated from India beginnin ...
, who had also entered as indentured laborers, in the retail sector. Look-Lai reports important Chinese import and wholesale traders by the 1880s and that the 1890s saw Chinese "druggists, butchers, hucksters, cart and boat cab owners, barbers, laundrymen and legal sellers of opium and ganja (marijuana)" and holding 50% of food shop licenses and 90% of liquor licenses. By the end of the 19th century, the Chinese had transcended their early reputation for criminality and come to be regarded as worthy, law-abiding, industrious citizens. Unlike other communities of
overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Terminology () or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, refe ...
, the Chinese of Guyana swiftly abandoned traditional Chinese customs, religion and language. Their eager acceptance of Christianity contrasted sharply with the strong attachment of other overseas Chinese communities to their ancestral religions and to Christian missionary conversion efforts. Many of the first generation Chinese Guyanese were Christians while in China, and most others converted swiftly on arrival. They built and maintained their own Christian churches throughout the Colony and paid their own Chinese-speaking catechists. In 1860, Mr. Lough Fook, who had come from China to spread the gospel among the immigrants, established The Chinese Baptist Church of British Guiana, first at
Peter's Hall Plantation Peter's Hall was a plantation on the east bank of the River Demerara in Dutch Guiana and British Guiana. It was probably laid out in the mid-eighteenth century and by the early nineteenth century had over 200 slaves before that institu ...
and later at Leonora. An
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
missionary, Wu Tai Kam, arrived in the colony from Singapore in 1864 and successfully proselytized among the immigrants. He was given a government stipend as missionary to the Chinese immigrants, and was instrumental in founding the Chinese settlement at
Hopetown Hopetown is a town which lies at the edge of the Great Karoo in South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is situated on an arid slope leading down to the Orange River. The first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was fo ...
. For those who were lucky enough to marry the few Chinese women in the colony, or to have migrated as families, domestic life was characterized by a sense of good breeding in familial relations. They always hung curtains in their rooms, and decorated them with looking-glasses and little picture; their homes were regarded as models of cleanliness and comfort. The descendants of the Chinese from China spoke and wrote English fluently, so that by the 1920s there was no longer a need for Chinese-speaking pastors. In the first years of the 20th century, prosperous Guyanese Chinese began sending their sons and daughters to England for university education. By the mid-twentieth century, the descendants of the original immigrants had assimilated so completely into mainstream British colonial culture that they had become uninteresting to anthropologists. Anthropologist Morton Fried found them completely at home in European culture and its local manifestation, with no ancestral cult, no ancestral tablets, no ceremonial burial ground or permanent record of genealogy and no trace of Chinese medicine. The grandchildren and great grandchildren of the original immigrants did not even know the Chinese characters for their own names. The young anthropologist declared with exasperation, "these people are scarcely Chinese." The Chinese continued to prosper in the retail trades, and contributed substantially to the development of the colony's gold, diamond and bauxite resources, and to its professional community and its political, religious and sporting life. The three pillars of the community were the Chinese Association, the Chinese Sports Club and St. Saviour's Church, an Anglican house of worship founded, funded and pastored by the Chinese Guyanese. The 20th century saw substantial emigration by the Chinese Guyanese professional class, a process accelerated following independence, making the Chinese Guyanese principally a diaspora community today. In 2012, 7.72%, of foreign-born Guyanese nationals were born in China.


Notable people

* Anthony Chinn, Actor *
Arthur Chung Arthur Raymond Chung (10 January 1918 – 23 June 2008) was the 1st President of Guyana from 1970 to 1980.
, President of Guyana * Doreen Chung, First Lady of Guyana *
Jonathan Foo Jonathan Alexander Foo (born 11 September 1990) is a Guyanese cricketer. An all-rounder, Foo is a leg spin bowler and lower order batsman for Guyana who made his national debut in the 2010 Caribbean Twenty20. He played a leading role in the fin ...
, ethnic Chinese cricketer of Indian descent *
Hilton Cheong-Leen Hilton Cheong-Leen, CBE, JP (; 6 August 1922 – 4 January 2022) was a Hong Kong politician and businessman. He is the longest uninterrupted serving elected officeholder in Hong Kong history as an elected member of the Urban Council of Hong Ko ...
, Hong Kong politician *
Sandra Granger Sandra Marie Granger (née Chan-A-Sue; born 1947) is a retired Guyana, Guyanese academic and civil servant who was the First Lady of Guyana, as the wife of President David A. Granger. Early life Granger was born in the Bourda neighbourhood of Ge ...
, First Lady of Guyana * Robert Victor Evan Wong, politician, civil engineer, businessman, rancher


See also

*
Chinese Caribbeans Chinese Caribbeans (sometimes Sino-Caribbeans) are people of Han Chinese ethnic origin living in the Caribbean. There are small but significant populations of Chinese and their descendants in all countries of the Greater Antilles. They are all p ...
* Caribbean Chinese cuisine


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chinese Guyanese Asian Guyanese Ethnic groups in Guyana Guyanese