Arrival of the Chinese
The following article was first published in The Gleaner on September 1, 2003.
THE STORY of the Chinese in Jamaica is linked to Panama and railways. In the mid-19th century, many Chinese looked West: to California, answering the call of the gold rush, and to Panama, where labourers were required for the building of a railroad from Panama City to Colón. Both options promised improvement in their lives and those of their children and led many Chinese to break the law and leave China prior to 1891 – the year the Chinese Government officially allowed emigration.
The first large group of 267 Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong on July 30, 1854, just months before those from Panama, on a ship called Epsom. They were destined for indentureship. Later that year, 205 Chinese workers demanded to leave Panama, fearing yellow fever. They arrived in Jamaica on November 1 and 18 on ships called the Vampire (195 people) and the Theresa Jane (10 people), respectively. Panamanian authorities sent them to nearby Jamaica solely due to its proximity and in exchange for Jamaican labourers.
Many were already ill on arrival and were sent to hospital in Kingston where they eventually died. Less than 50 immigrants survived. Of these, one, Robert Jackson Chin (Chin Pa-kung), opened a wholesale house on downtown Kingston’s Pechon Street (where the Desnoes and Geddes building now stands). In doing so, he unknowingly paved the way for many of his countrymen. Two others, Chang SiPah and Lyn Sam, opened grocery stores nearby. All three men provided guidance to successive batches of immigrants.
INDENTURESHIPS AND THE RISE OF THE CHINESE GROCERY
A decade later, in the 1860s, another set of Chinese arrived from Trinidad and British Guiana. There, they had worked as indentured labourers in the cane fields until hurricane and insects threatened their job security. Some 200 Chinese workers answered a call for threeyear contract labourers in Jamaica to tend to the American-led largescale planting of coconuts, bananas, and sugar. When their three-year contracts were up, some continued in the fields even though they were not welcomed with open arms by the newly emancipated slaves who
saw them as competition. Others started small shops of their own, where total weekly sales tended to amount to less than £8 on average.
By this time, Chinese grocers were becoming known for extending credit to favoured customers, selling by barter, providing round-the-clock service, and selling goods in small, affordable quantities. It is as a result of their importation activities that items such as rice, salt fish, salted meats, flour, and cornmeal became staples of the Jamaican diet.
A COMMUNITY GROWS
In the 1860s, a close-knit Jamaican-Chinese community began to emerge with many living above, behind, or somewhere near to their shops. Downtown, a retail area became known as Chinatown.
Two decades later, in the 1880s, another group of 680 immigrants arrived, this time, directly from China. They had been recruited as farm labourers. There were 501 men, 105 women, 54 boys, and 17 girls who docked in Kingston Harbour in 1884 after having survived a typhoon aboard the 67day voyage.
Upon arrival, they were claimed by the plantation owners who held their contracts and scattered them across the island. Among this group was Chin Tung-Kao, who, in 1891, would found the Chinese Benevolent Society to offer humanitarian and social aid as well as to protect Chinese customs and preserve their ethnic identity, at 131 Barry Street in downtown Kingston.
Following 1885, large-scale immigration of Chinese labourers occurred in an attempt to satisfy
the demand for field labour created by the departure of AfricanJamaican and East Indian labourers from the plantations. This fourth wave of immigrants totalled close to 700. Some came without contracts and were thus able to choose their occupation, which was generally divided between farming and the retail grocery trade.
These immigrants, like many of those who had come before, were not generally well-received by Jamaicans, and so they tended to stick together. There were continual racial slurs. Some were held in Spanish Town on arrival under armed guard until they were shipped out in mule carts to the various plantations.
FACING CHALLENGES
In 1888, more than 800 additional Chinese arrived and the Jamaican business community began to get nervous. Fearful that they would lose control of the retail grocery trade, they lobbied the Jamaican Government to impose the first in a set of immigration laws that would make it more difficult for Chinese immigrants to come to the island.
The new restrictions went into effect in 1905. Immigrants were now required to register with the authorities and provide a guarantee from a reliable person as to the soundness of their characters.
In 1910, new and even harsher conditions were added. Chinese immigrants arriving subsequent to that date had to pay a £30 deposit upon landing and also pass a physical and a test showing that they could write and speak 50 words in three different languages. This law made it more difficult, but not impossible, for already settled Chinese-Jamaicans to send for their relatives.
By the mid-1920s, the total number of Chinese who emigrated to Jamaica numbered close to 4,000. By 1930, an additional 2,000 Chinese had arrived. In 1931, however, the Jamaican Government issued a decree that no passport was to be issued to Chinese coming to Jamaica except to those under 14 years old who were allowed student permits. This was largely a result of ill-will towards the Chinese, who had by this time, branched out into laundries, restaurants, and bakeries in addition to retail groceries. They were doing well in the island, contributing to national development while providing for the families.
In the 1930s, during the labour riots, not surprisingly, many Chinese groceries were looted and robbed, and in some cases, their owners murdered. This decree stood until 1947, when the Chinese consulate (established in the 1920s and largely supported by the Jamaican-Chinese community) in Kingston succeeded in persuading the Jamaican Government to relax these restrictions, remove the quota system that had been placed on wives and children and parents and allow Chinese immigrants to send for their family members.
THE JAMAICAN-CHINESE
By this time, in the 1940s, many of the second-generation, those who were truly Jamaican-Chinese, began to rebel against their parents’ desires to remain wedded to Chinese culture. They left the family business, went into other professions and embraced aspects of Jamaican culture. Many also converted to Roman Catholicism. Resentment from African-Jamaicans waned as tolerance of aspects of Chinese culture grew and some amalgamations occurred.
Chinese Jamaicans have also made their mark in the political arena with MPs such as Rose Leon, Ferdinand Yap-Sam and Delroy Chuck. Similarly, Chinese Jamaican impact on the business world is far reaching with families and individuals controlling substantial restaurant, bakery and supermarket chains such as Island Grill and Purity, as well as banks such as NCB. This piece and others on Jamaican history can be found in the book Pieces of the Past by Ian Randle Publishers. SOURCE: http://old.jamaicagleaner.com/pages/history/s tory0055.htm