Chinese Jamaican
Encyclopedia
Chinese Jamaicans are the descendants of migrants from China
to Jamaica
. Early migrants came in the 19th century; there was another wave of migration in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the descendants of early migrants have moved abroad, primarily to Canada
and the United States
.
and can trace their origin to the Chinese labourers that came to Jamaica in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. The British parliament made a study of prospects for Chinese migration to the West Indies in 1811, and in 1843 made an attempt to recruit Chinese workers to come to Jamaica, British Guiana
, and Trinidad
, but nothing came of it. 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. 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.
From 1910, Chinese immigrants were required to pay a £30 deposit and pass a written test to demonstrate that they could write 50 words in three different languages; the restrictions on Chinese migrants were tightened even further in 1931, but relaxed again by 1947 due to lobbying by the Chinese consulate. The 1943 census showed 12,394 Chinese residing in Jamaica; these were divided into three categories by the census, namely "China-born" (2,818), "local-born" (4,061), and "Chinese coloured" (5,515), the latter referring to multiracial people of mixed African and Chinese descent. This made Chinese Jamaicans the second largest Chinese population in the Caribbean, behind Chinese Cuban
s. By 1963, the Chinese had a virtual monopoly on retail trade in Jamaica, controlling 90% of dry goods
stores and 95% of supermarkets, along with extensive holdings in other sectors such as laundries and betting parlours.
Since the 1970s, thousands of Chinese Jamaicans moved abroad as Jamaica's economy slowed; at first, they went primarily to Canada, which was more open to immigration than the United States, but the U.S. later became a major destination as well. As a result, clusters of Chinese Jamaicans can be found outside of Jamaica as well, in Toronto
, New York City
, and South Florida
. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a new wave of Chinese migration to Jamaica, consisting of Hong Kong
and Taiwan
entrepreneurs who set up textiles factories on the island targeting the U.S. market, and often brought in migrant workers from China to staff their ventures.
communities elsewhere, hometown associations
related to migrants' places of origin in China were not very influential among migrants to Jamaica. 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. Later, the Chinese Benevolent Association (中華會館) was founded in 1891. The CBA continues to operate from a two-story building with guardian lion statues in the front; the ground floor is occupied by the Jamaican-Chinese Historical Museum. The building has been featured on a Jamaican postage stamp
.
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. The Chinese Freemasons also published their own handwritten weekly newspaper, the Minzhi Zhoukan (民治周刊) 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.
Prior to Jamaican independence, there was an annual Miss Chinese Jamaica pageant
, initially organised as a fundraiser for the CBA. It came to be supported by The Pagoda, which wrote editorials exhorting girls from the Chinese community to join, and in some years offered sponsorship prizes such as, in 1955, a two-week trip to Miami for the winner, in an effort to spark participation in what was sometimes a sparsely attended event. However, as the pageant grew in popularity, it drew charges from Afro-Jamaican journalists that the ethnic pride on display there was "unpatriotic" and "un-Jamaican". The pageant renamed itself to the Miss Chinese Athletic Club, in an effort to avoid controversy, but nevertheless, held its final "openly racialised beauty contest" in 1962. Over the following years, Chinese Jamaican women did not participate in the Miss Jamaica
pageant for fear of racial controversy. However, this informal colour line was broken in 1973, when Patsy Yuen entered and earned the Miss Jamaica title in 1973, going on to place third in the Miss World
competition in London; however, Yuen publicly portrayed herself as a completely assimilated Jamaican with little connection to her Chinese heritage, claiming in media statements that she didn't even like Chinese food, in order to avoid "disrupt[ing] the official picture of the country's identity".
There was also a Chinese Jamaican community school, the Chinese Public School. It was set up first by the Chinese Freemasons in 1920 (under the Chinese name 華僑公立學校), and operated until 1922; a Chinese drama club revived the school in 1924 (and gave it a new Chinese name 新民學校, literally "New People's School"), charging tuition fees of £6. The drama club continued to operate the school until 1928, when the CBA purchased it for £2,300 and gave it its present name, and moved it into a larger building. The CBA promulgated a new constitution for the school in 1944, which stated that it would follow the curriculum of the Republic of China's Ministry of Education
, and that Chinese was the primary medium of instruction
while "foreign languages" were secondary. In 1945, with enrollments booming to 300 students and competitor schools being established as well, the Republic of China consulate called for donations to renovate the school, eventually raising £10,000. In the 1950s, there was heated debate in the community over the medium of instruction, with some suggesting curriculum localisation in the name of practicality, while others saw abandonment of Chinese-medium instruction as tantamount to abandonment of Chinese identity. Practical considerations won out; the curriculum was reorganised with English as the primary instructional medium in 1952, and by 1955, the school only had two teachers who could speak any Chinese. After that, the school's fortunes fluctuated, and it was finally closed down in the mid-1960s.
with the Afro-Jamaican women who worked in their businesses. However, Chinese women rarely married Afro-Jamaican men. Interracial marriage became less common as the number of women of Chinese descent in Jamaica grew. Nevertheless, by the 1943 census, nearly 45% of Jamaicans with some Chinese ancestry fell into the census category of "Chinese coloured" (mixed Chinese and African descent).
Along with other ethnic entrepreneurs associated with foreign capital—Lebanese, Syrians, and Cubans—Chinese entrepreneurs became a targets of antagonism from the Jamaican poor, who regarded them as "alien and exploitative". Unlike in other countries of the West Indies, where East Indians took the brunt of racial antipathy from black populations, in Jamaica the Chinese themselves found themselves the targets of ethnic prejudice fueled by worker unrest. This resentment against Chinese Jamaicans often manifested itself in the form of property crimes, especially arson. However, in the popular imagination, such arson was not seen as the result of attacks by poor Jamaicans, but rather as attempts at insurance fraud
, yet another example of "sharp" Chinese business practises. Anti-Chinese riots broke out in 1918 and 1938.
Resentments against Chinese Jamaicans again reached a boiling point in 1965. On 28 August, an employee of a Chinese-owned store in Kingston reported to police that three Chinese brothers beat her at the store; an angry crowd surrounded the store, and one member of the crowd was shot by a Chinese. Over the next few days, crowds of as many as 300 people were seen looting and burning Chinese stores in the Barry Street, West Queen Street, Spanish Town Road, Orange Street, and North Street area, with sporadic violence continuing until 1 September. During the disturbances, another eight people died; one of the dead had been shot by a Chinese trader defending his shop. The disturbances were an example of increasing tensions in West Kingston, foreshadowing later violence between the Jamaica Labour Party
and the People's National Party
in the lead-up to the 1967 general election
.
with them, most exemplified by the altar to Guan Yu
which they erected in the old CBA building and which remains standing there, even as the CBA moved its headquarters. However, with the passage of long decades since their ancestors first migrated from China, traditional Chinese religious practises have largely died out among Chinese Jamaicans. Some traditional practises persisted well into the 20th century, most evident at the Chinese Cemetery, where families would go to clean their ancestors' graves during the Qingming Festival
in what was often organised as a communal activity by the CBA (referred to in English as Gah San, after the Hakka word 嫁山); however, with the emigration of much of the Chinese Jamaican community to the North American mainland, the public, communal aspect of this grave-cleaning died out, and indeed it was not carried out for more than a decade before attempts by the CBA to revive it in 2004.
Christianity has become the dominant religion among Chinese Jamaicans; they primarily adhere to the Catholic Church
rather than the Protestantism of the majority establishment
. Anglicans
can also be found in the Chinese Jamaican community, but other denominations which are widespread in Jamaica such as Baptism (traditionally connected with the Afro-Jamaican community) are almost entirely absent among Chinese Jamaicans. Conversion of Chinese Jamaicans to Christianity came about in several ways; some made conversions of convenience in order to obtain easy legal recognition for marriages and births, while Chinese men who entered into relationships with local women were often absorbed into church community through the selection of godparents for their children, and the attendance of children at Sunday schools. Furthermore, Catholic teachers taught English at the Chinese Public School up until its closure in the mid-1960s, which facilitated the entry of Chinese Jamaicans to well-known Catholic secondary schools. There were a large number of conversions in the mid-1950s, evidence that the Chinese were "increasingly trying to adapt themselves to local society"; a former headmaster of the Chinese Public School, He Rujun, played a major role in attracting Chinese converts to Christianity in those years.
The newest wave of Chinese migrants from Hong Kong and mainland China are in many cases not Christians, but they have not brought with then any widely visible non-Christian religious practises. A few of them were already Protestants, and have formed their own churches, which conduct worship services in Chinese; due to language barriers, they have little connection to the more assimilated segments of the Chinese Jamaican community.
. The trend of Chinese Jamaican involvement in reggae began in the 1960s with Vincent "Randy" Chin
, his wife Patricia Chin, and their label VP Records
, where artists such as Beenie Man
and Sean Paul
launched their careers; it remains common to see Chinese surnames in the liner notes of reggae music, attesting to the continuing influence.
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 name
s, and many have Chinese surname
s. The Chinese food culture has survived to a large degree among this group of people.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. Early migrants came in the 19th century; there was another wave of migration in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the descendants of early migrants have moved abroad, primarily to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Migration history
Most Chinese Jamaicans are HakkaHakka people
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....
and can trace their origin to the Chinese labourers that came to Jamaica in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. The British parliament made a study of prospects for Chinese migration to the West Indies in 1811, and in 1843 made an attempt to recruit Chinese workers to come to Jamaica, British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
, and Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, but nothing came of it. 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
Ethnic Chinese in Panama
Ethnic Chinese in Panama, also variously referred to as Chinese-Panamanian, Panamanian-Chinese, Panama Chinese, or in Spanish as Chino-Panameño, are Panamanian citizens and residents of Chinese origin or descent....
; they were contracted for plantation work. 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
Sze Yup
Sze Yup, Sze Yap, Seiyap refers to the four former counties of Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping and Enping in the Pearl River Delta of southern Guangdong province, China. Xinhui is a city district and the other three are county-level cities, all four belong to Jiangmen prefecture administered from the...
, most of these were Hakka people from Dongguan
Dongguan
Dongguan is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong province, People's Republic of China.An important industrial city located in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, Shenzhen to the south, and the Pearl River to...
, Huiyang
Huiyang District
Huiyang District is a district of Guangdong Province, China. It is under the administration of Huizhou city....
, and Bao'an. This third wave of migrants would go on to bring more of their relatives over from China.
From 1910, Chinese immigrants were required to pay a £30 deposit and pass a written test to demonstrate that they could write 50 words in three different languages; the restrictions on Chinese migrants were tightened even further in 1931, but relaxed again by 1947 due to lobbying by the Chinese consulate. The 1943 census showed 12,394 Chinese residing in Jamaica; these were divided into three categories by the census, namely "China-born" (2,818), "local-born" (4,061), and "Chinese coloured" (5,515), the latter referring to multiracial people of mixed African and Chinese descent. This made Chinese Jamaicans the second largest Chinese population in the Caribbean, behind Chinese Cuban
Chinese Cuban
A Chinese Cuban is a Cuban of Chinese ancestry who was born in or has immigrated to Cuba. They are part of the ethnic Chinese diaspora .-History:...
s. By 1963, the Chinese had a virtual monopoly on retail trade in Jamaica, controlling 90% of dry goods
Dry goods
Dry goods are products such as textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, and sundries. In U.S. retailing, a dry goods store carries consumer goods that are distinct from those carried by hardware stores and grocery stores, though "dry goods" as a term for textiles has been dated back to 1742 in England or...
stores and 95% of supermarkets, along with extensive holdings in other sectors such as laundries and betting parlours.
Since the 1970s, thousands of Chinese Jamaicans moved abroad as Jamaica's economy slowed; at first, they went primarily to Canada, which was more open to immigration than the United States, but the U.S. later became a major destination as well. As a result, clusters of Chinese Jamaicans can be found outside of Jamaica as well, in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and South Florida
South Florida metropolitan area
The South Florida metropolitan area, also known as the Miami metropolitan area, and designated the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area by the U.S...
. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a new wave of Chinese migration to Jamaica, consisting of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
entrepreneurs who set up textiles factories on the island targeting the U.S. market, and often brought in migrant workers from China to staff their ventures.
Community organisations
In comparison to Overseas ChineseOverseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
communities elsewhere, hometown associations
Hometown society
A Hometown society is a society of immigrants from the same town or region. These aid organizations were established to deal with social, economic, and cultural problems, and provided a social framework for mutual assistance. Among the most common activities was the provision of insurance...
related to migrants' places of origin in China were not very influential among migrants to Jamaica. Some secret societies such as the Hongmenhui
Tiandihui
The Tiandihui is a fraternal organization that originated in China. The Hongmen grouping is today more or less synonymous with the whole Tiandihui concept, although the title "Hongmen" is also claimed by some criminal groups.As the Tiandihui spread through different counties and provinces, it...
were active in organising plantation workers in the 1880s; however, the first formal Chinese organisation in Jamaica was a branch of the Freemasons. Later, the Chinese Benevolent Association (中華會館) was founded in 1891. The CBA continues to operate from a two-story building with guardian lion statues in the front; the ground floor is occupied by the Jamaican-Chinese Historical Museum. The building has been featured on a Jamaican postage stamp
Postage stamps and postal history of Jamaica
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Jamaica.-Early postal service:Jamaica was the first British colony to operate its own postal service, appointing a Gabriel Martin as postmaster on 31 October 1671, shortly after British possession of the island was confirmed. Martin...
.
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. The Chinese Freemasons also published their own handwritten weekly newspaper, the Minzhi Zhoukan (民治周刊) until 1956. The Pagoda, started in 1940, was the first English-language newspaper for the Chinese community. The local branch of the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
(Chinese Nationalist Party) also began publishing their own paper, The Chung San News (中山報) in 1953.
Prior to Jamaican independence, there was an annual Miss Chinese Jamaica pageant
Beauty contest
A beauty pageant or beauty contest, is a competition that mainly focuses on the physical beauty of its contestants, although such contests often incorporate personality, talent, and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria...
, initially organised as a fundraiser for the CBA. It came to be supported by The Pagoda, which wrote editorials exhorting girls from the Chinese community to join, and in some years offered sponsorship prizes such as, in 1955, a two-week trip to Miami for the winner, in an effort to spark participation in what was sometimes a sparsely attended event. However, as the pageant grew in popularity, it drew charges from Afro-Jamaican journalists that the ethnic pride on display there was "unpatriotic" and "un-Jamaican". The pageant renamed itself to the Miss Chinese Athletic Club, in an effort to avoid controversy, but nevertheless, held its final "openly racialised beauty contest" in 1962. Over the following years, Chinese Jamaican women did not participate in the Miss Jamaica
Miss Jamaica World
Miss Jamaica World is a Jamaican beauty pageant for young women. The pageant has been running since 1963 as the Miss Jamaica Contest. The winner of Miss Jamaica World represents Jamaica at the Miss World pageant.- Winners:-External links:* *...
pageant for fear of racial controversy. However, this informal colour line was broken in 1973, when Patsy Yuen entered and earned the Miss Jamaica title in 1973, going on to place third in the Miss World
Miss World
The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951...
competition in London; however, Yuen publicly portrayed herself as a completely assimilated Jamaican with little connection to her Chinese heritage, claiming in media statements that she didn't even like Chinese food, in order to avoid "disrupt[ing] the official picture of the country's identity".
There was also a Chinese Jamaican community school, the Chinese Public School. It was set up first by the Chinese Freemasons in 1920 (under the Chinese name 華僑公立學校), and operated until 1922; a Chinese drama club revived the school in 1924 (and gave it a new Chinese name 新民學校, literally "New People's School"), charging tuition fees of £6. The drama club continued to operate the school until 1928, when the CBA purchased it for £2,300 and gave it its present name, and moved it into a larger building. The CBA promulgated a new constitution for the school in 1944, which stated that it would follow the curriculum of the Republic of China's Ministry of Education
Ministry of Education (Republic of China)
The Ministry of Education of the Republic of China is responsible for incorporating educational policies and managing public schools throughout the Free Area of the Republic of China. The ministry is a cabinet level governmental body of the Executive Yuan...
, and that Chinese was the primary medium of instruction
Medium of instruction
Medium of instruction is a language used in teaching. It may or may not be the official language of the country or territory. Where the first language of students is different from the official language, it may be used as the medium of instruction for part or all of schooling. Bilingual or...
while "foreign languages" were secondary. In 1945, with enrollments booming to 300 students and competitor schools being established as well, the Republic of China consulate called for donations to renovate the school, eventually raising £10,000. In the 1950s, there was heated debate in the community over the medium of instruction, with some suggesting curriculum localisation in the name of practicality, while others saw abandonment of Chinese-medium instruction as tantamount to abandonment of Chinese identity. Practical considerations won out; the curriculum was reorganised with English as the primary instructional medium in 1952, and by 1955, the school only had two teachers who could speak any Chinese. After that, the school's fortunes fluctuated, and it was finally closed down in the mid-1960s.
Interethnic relations
Early Chinese migrants, largely male, often entered into common-law unionsCommon-law marriage
Common-law marriage, sometimes called sui juris marriage, informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute, is a form of interpersonal status that is legally recognized in limited jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage...
with the Afro-Jamaican women who worked in their businesses. However, Chinese women rarely married Afro-Jamaican men. Interracial marriage became less common as the number of women of Chinese descent in Jamaica grew. Nevertheless, by the 1943 census, nearly 45% of Jamaicans with some Chinese ancestry fell into the census category of "Chinese coloured" (mixed Chinese and African descent).
Along with other ethnic entrepreneurs associated with foreign capital—Lebanese, Syrians, and Cubans—Chinese entrepreneurs became a targets of antagonism from the Jamaican poor, who regarded them as "alien and exploitative". Unlike in other countries of the West Indies, where East Indians took the brunt of racial antipathy from black populations, in Jamaica the Chinese themselves found themselves the targets of ethnic prejudice fueled by worker unrest. This resentment against Chinese Jamaicans often manifested itself in the form of property crimes, especially arson. However, in the popular imagination, such arson was not seen as the result of attacks by poor Jamaicans, but rather as attempts at insurance fraud
Insurance fraud
Insurance fraud is any act committed with the intent to fraudulently obtain payment from an insurer.Insurance fraud has existed ever since the beginning of insurance as a commercial enterprise. Fraudulent claims account for a significant portion of all claims received by insurers, and cost billions...
, yet another example of "sharp" Chinese business practises. Anti-Chinese riots broke out in 1918 and 1938.
Resentments against Chinese Jamaicans again reached a boiling point in 1965. On 28 August, an employee of a Chinese-owned store in Kingston reported to police that three Chinese brothers beat her at the store; an angry crowd surrounded the store, and one member of the crowd was shot by a Chinese. Over the next few days, crowds of as many as 300 people were seen looting and burning Chinese stores in the Barry Street, West Queen Street, Spanish Town Road, Orange Street, and North Street area, with sporadic violence continuing until 1 September. During the disturbances, another eight people died; one of the dead had been shot by a Chinese trader defending his shop. The disturbances were an example of increasing tensions in West Kingston, foreshadowing later violence between the Jamaica Labour Party
Jamaica Labour Party
The Jamaica Labour Party is one of the two major political parties in Jamaica, the other being the People's National Party. Despite its name, the JLP is a centre-right, conservative party.-Background:...
and the People's National Party
People's National Party
The People's National Party is a social democratic and social liberal Jamaican political party, founded by Norman Manley in 1938. It is the oldest political party in the Anglophone Caribbean and one of the main two political parties in Jamaica. Out of the two major parties, it is considered more...
in the lead-up to the 1967 general election
Jamaican general election, 1967
General elections were held in Jamaica on 21 February 1967. The result was a victory for the Jamaica Labour Party, which won 33 of the 53 seats. Voter turnout was 82.2%.-Results:...
.
Religion
Early Chinese migrants to Jamaica brought elements of Chinese folk religionChinese folk religion
Chinese folk religion or Shenism , which is a term of considerable debate, are labels used to describe the collection of ethnic religious traditions which have been a main belief system in China and among Han Chinese ethnic groups for most of the civilization's history until today...
with them, most exemplified by the altar to Guan Yu
Guan Yu
Guan Yu was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty of China. He played a significant role in the civil war that led to the collapse of the Han Dynasty and the establishment of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, of which Liu Bei was the...
which they erected in the old CBA building and which remains standing there, even as the CBA moved its headquarters. However, with the passage of long decades since their ancestors first migrated from China, traditional Chinese religious practises have largely died out among Chinese Jamaicans. Some traditional practises persisted well into the 20th century, most evident at the Chinese Cemetery, where families would go to clean their ancestors' graves during the Qingming Festival
Qingming Festival
The Qingming Festival , Pure Brightness Festival or Clear Bright Festival, Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping Day is a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice , usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar...
in what was often organised as a communal activity by the CBA (referred to in English as Gah San, after the Hakka word 嫁山); however, with the emigration of much of the Chinese Jamaican community to the North American mainland, the public, communal aspect of this grave-cleaning died out, and indeed it was not carried out for more than a decade before attempts by the CBA to revive it in 2004.
Christianity has become the dominant religion among Chinese Jamaicans; they primarily adhere to the Catholic Church
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
rather than the Protestantism of the majority establishment
Protestantism in Jamaica
Protestants in Jamaica make up just over 60% of the population. The five largest denominations in Jamaica are: Church of God, Seventh-day Adventist, Baptist, Pentecostal and Anglican. The full list is:...
. Anglicans
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
can also be found in the Chinese Jamaican community, but other denominations which are widespread in Jamaica such as Baptism (traditionally connected with the Afro-Jamaican community) are almost entirely absent among Chinese Jamaicans. Conversion of Chinese Jamaicans to Christianity came about in several ways; some made conversions of convenience in order to obtain easy legal recognition for marriages and births, while Chinese men who entered into relationships with local women were often absorbed into church community through the selection of godparents for their children, and the attendance of children at Sunday schools. Furthermore, Catholic teachers taught English at the Chinese Public School up until its closure in the mid-1960s, which facilitated the entry of Chinese Jamaicans to well-known Catholic secondary schools. There were a large number of conversions in the mid-1950s, evidence that the Chinese were "increasingly trying to adapt themselves to local society"; a former headmaster of the Chinese Public School, He Rujun, played a major role in attracting Chinese converts to Christianity in those years.
The newest wave of Chinese migrants from Hong Kong and mainland China are in many cases not Christians, but they have not brought with then any widely visible non-Christian religious practises. A few of them were already Protestants, and have formed their own churches, which conduct worship services in Chinese; due to language barriers, they have little connection to the more assimilated segments of the Chinese Jamaican community.
Cultural syncretism
Chinese Jamaicans have also had an impact on the development of reggaeReggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
. The trend of Chinese Jamaican involvement in reggae began in the 1960s with Vincent "Randy" Chin
Vincent "Randy" Chin
Vincent "Randy" Chin was a Jamaican record producer and label owner who ran the Randy's shop, recording studio, and record label, later moving to New York City and setting up the VP Records empire, now the world's largest independent label and distributor of Caribbean music in the...
, his wife Patricia Chin, and their label VP Records
VP Records
VP Records is an independent reggae record label, located in Queens, New York. It is best known for producing Caribbean singers.-The foundation:...
, where artists such as Beenie Man
Beenie Man
Anthony Moses Davis , better known by his stage name Beenie Man, is a Grammy award winning Jamaican reggae artist. He is the self-proclaimed "King of the Dancehall".-Biography:...
and Sean Paul
Sean Paul
Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques , who performs under stage name Sean Paul, is a Jamaican pop rap and reggae singer.-1973–1996: Early life:...
launched their careers; it remains common to see Chinese surnames in the liner notes of reggae music, attesting to the continuing influence.
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 name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s, and many have Chinese surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
s. 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
- Caribbean–People's Republic of China relations
- People's Republic of China–Jamaica relationsPeople's Republic of China–Jamaica relationsDiplomatic relations between China and Jamaica were established on 21 November 1972. The Chinese government established an embassy in Kingston in 1973. There was no formal representation from Jamaica to China until 1992, when the Jamaican ambassador to Tokyo, Japan was accredited as a non-resident...
- Chinese CaribbeanChinese CaribbeanChinese Caribbeans are people of 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...