Chinese community in Paris

As of 1990, the majority of Asians living in the Paris area were ethnic Chinese originating from several countries.Guillon, p
187
The largest group includes ethnic Chinese from Indochina, and a smaller group originates from Zhejiang.Guillon, p
189

History

During World War I, the French brought workers from Zhejiang to work in the war efforts. When the war ended, several thousand remained, most of whom originated from Qingtian, while most of the imported Chinese workers went back to China. These Chinese worked as stall-holders in fairgrounds.

In the 1920s, there was a community of Chinese students living in Paris. Many of them had become political activists. Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping lived in a flat near ''Place d'Italie''. In 1921, they published ''Youth'', a Chinese-language newspaper, from this flat.

A group of Chinese from Wenzhou, Zhejiang settled Paris in the 1930s. According to the 1936 Census, slightly more than 2,000 Chinese lived in Paris.

As of the 1930s the Chinese population included employees of French companies, including workers in leather shops and factories such as those owned by Renault. Other Chinese included artisans and tradespeople. After World War II additional Chinese from Zhejiang arrived. During that period many Chinese became leather goods wholesaler dealers and manufacturers.

Michelle Guillon, author of "The Chinese and Chinese Districts in Paris", wrote that "before 1975" the Chinese in Paris "were not perceived as immigrants but rather as a little group that added a touch of exoticism to the capital, thanks to their restaurants in the Latin Quarter."Guillon, p
198199

Immigrants from Cambodia and Vietnam had arrived in Paris since the colonial era but had arrived in the largest numbers post-1975. Guillon wrote that there was a likelihood of "many members of the Chinese minorities (Cantonese and Teochew) among these refugees" and that these refugees had been persecuted in Laos and Vietnam in the 1970s, but "it is impossible to work out any count on the criteria of legal nationality" since they had stayed in Laos and Vietnam and had taken Laotian and Vietnamese nationalities many years prior.

The French dispersed refugees so they would not join communities where foreigners were already settled, and the government set up many shelter and lodging centres in central and western France. However the ethnic Chinese from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam banded together after leaving the shelter and lodging centres and settled in Paris. Later groups of ethnic Chinese Indochinese immediately went to Paris after arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Ethnic Chinese Indochinese families living in provincial French cities felt isolation. They moved to Paris as ethnic Chinese companies opened there. In the 1980s, additional Chinese from Zhejiang arrived.

In 1998, Guillon wrote that the Chinese now were "a constituent part of the Parisian population."Guillon, p
199

In 2011, several muggings assaults on ethnic Chinese occurred in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, causing ethnic Chinese to hold demonstrations against violence. David Chazan of the BBC
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