Sino-Mauritian
Encyclopedia
Sino-Mauritians, also referred to as Chinese Mauritians or Mauritian Chinese, are Mauritians of Chinese descent. They form about 3% of the local population.
" from Sumatra
in the 1740s to work in Mauritius in a scheme hatched by the French admiral Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing
; however, they soon went on strike to protest their kidnapping. Luckily for them, their refusal to work was not met by deadly force, but merely deportation back to Sumatra. In the 1780s, thousands of voluntary migrants set sail for Port Louis from Guangzhou
on board British, French, and Danish ships; they found employment as blacksmiths, carpenters, cobblers, and tailors, and quickly formed a small Chinatown
, the camp des Chinois, in Port Louis. Even after the British takeover of the island, migration continued unabated. Between 1840 and 1843 alone, 3,000 Chinese contract workers arrived on the island; by mid-century, the total resident Chinese population reached five thousand.
The earliest migrants were largely Cantonese-speaking, but later, Hakka-speakers from Meixian, further east in Guangdong
, came to dominate numerically; as in other overseas Chinese communities, rivalry between Hakka and Cantonese became a common feature of the society.
By the 1860s, shops run by Sino-Mauritians could be found all over the island. Some members of the colonial government thought that further migration should be prohibited, but Governor John Pope Hennessy
, recognising the role that Sino-Mauritians played in providing cheap goods to less well-off members of society, resisted the restrictionists' lobbying.
During the 1880s, despite the continuous influx of immigrants, Mauritius' Chinese population declined; Chinese traders, legally unable to purchase land in Mauritius, instead brought their relatives from China over to Mauritius. After training them for a few years to give them a handle on the business and to introduce them to life in a Western-ruled colonial society, the traders sent those relatives on their way, with capital and letters of introduction, to establish businesses in neighbouring countries. For example, between 1888 and 1898, nearly 1,800 Chinese departed from Port Louis with ports on the African mainland—largely Port Elizabeth and Durban
—as their destinations. By 1901, the Sino-Mauritian population had shrunk to 3,515 individuals, among them 2,585 being business owners. Until the 1930s, Chinese migrants continued to arrive in Port Louis
, but with the strain on the local economy's ability to absorb them, many found that Mauritius would only be their first stop; they went on to the African mainland (especially South Africa
), as well as to Madagascar
, Réunion
, and Seychelles
. After World War II, immigration from China largely came to an end.
However, Sino-Mauritians continued to maintain the personal ethnic networks connecting them to relatives in greater China
, which would play an important role in the 1980s, with the rise of the export-processing zones. Foreign investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the factories they built in the EPZs, helped Mauritius to become the third-largest exporter of woollen knitwear in the world. Along with the investors came a new influx of Chinese migrant worker
s, who signed on for three-year stints in the garment factories.
s have greatly influenced Mauritian culture
, and Chinese food
is consumed all over the island by people of all backgrounds.
In a 2001 Business Magazine survey, 10 of the 50 largest companies were Chinese owned.
and French orally, while English—the language of administration and education—remains primarily a written language. In the 1990 census, roughly one-third of Sino-Mauritians stated Mauritian Creole as both their ancestral language and currently spoken language. The other two-thirds indicated some form of Chinese
as their ancestral language although only fewer than one-quarter of census respondents who identified Chinese as their ancestral language also indicated it as the language spoken in the home. Few Sino-Mauritian youth speak Chinese; those who do use it primarily for communication with elderly relatives, especially those who did not attend school and thus had little exposure to English or French. None use it to communicate with their siblings or cousins. Among those members of the community who do continue to speak Hakka, wide divergence with Meixian Hakka has developed in terms of vocabulary and phonology.
cadres on 20 October 1941, grew to enroll 500 students, but by the end of the 1950s, that had shrunk to just 300; they stopped classes entirely in the 1960s, although their alumni association remains prominent in the Sino-Mauritian community. The Chinese Middle School also faced the problem of falling student numbers, as more Sino-Mauritians sent their children to mainstream schools, and in the 1970s stopped their weekday classes, retaining only a weekend section. However, their student numbers began to experience some revival in the mid-1980s; in the 1990s, they established a weekday pre-school section. Most of their teachers are local Sino-Mauritians, though some are expatriates from mainland China. , the Chinese Middle School enrolled 200 students and employed 36 teachers, and looked forward to reviving full-time classes in the near future.
newspaper. It was founded in 1932. The rivalry between Beijing-friendly and Taipei-friendly newspapers reached its peak in the 1950s; then-editor-in-chief of the Chinese Daily News, To Wai Man, even received death threats.
The editor-in-chief, Long Siong Ah Keng (吴隆祥), was born in 1921 in Mauritius; at age 11, he followed his parents back to their ancestral village in Meixian, Guangdong
, where he graduated high school and went on to Guangxi
's Guangxi University
. After graduation, he signed on with the Chinese Commercial Paper and returned to Mauritius. He left Mauritius again in 1952 to work for a Chinese paper in India, but a position at the China Times enticed him back.
Originally a four-page paper, the China Times later expanded to eight full-colour pages.
's Tsinghua University
, graduating in 1952. The paper is printed by Down Printing, which is owned by Ng's son David.
Most of The Mirrors readers are in their forties or older; it has subscribers not just in Mauritius, but Réunion, Madagascar, Canada, China, Australia and Hong Kong as well. The paper's local readership has been boosted slightly by guest workers from China, but in 2001, barely exceeded one thousand copies. By 2006, that number had fallen to seven hundred.
. It began as a daily newspaper solely in Chinese, but then changed format to become a monthly eight-page newspaper, including one page each of English and French news. It mostly prints Xinhua wire reports, with one page devoted to local news. It employs about twelve staff members on a part-time basis.
and Chinese migrants in the early Soviet Union
also adopted such surnames.
Migration history
Like members of other communities on the island, some of the earliest Chinese in Mauritius arrived involuntarily, having been "shanghaiedShanghaiing
Shanghaiing refers to the practice of conscripting men as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence. Those engaged in this form of kidnapping were known as crimps. Until 1915, unfree labor was widely used aboard American merchant ships...
" from Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
in the 1740s to work in Mauritius in a scheme hatched by the French admiral Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing
Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing
Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d'Estaing was a French general, and admiral. He began his service as a soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, briefly spending time as a prisoner of war of the British during the Seven Years' War...
; however, they soon went on strike to protest their kidnapping. Luckily for them, their refusal to work was not met by deadly force, but merely deportation back to Sumatra. In the 1780s, thousands of voluntary migrants set sail for Port Louis from Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
on board British, French, and Danish ships; they found employment as blacksmiths, carpenters, cobblers, and tailors, and quickly formed a small Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
, the camp des Chinois, in Port Louis. Even after the British takeover of the island, migration continued unabated. Between 1840 and 1843 alone, 3,000 Chinese contract workers arrived on the island; by mid-century, the total resident Chinese population reached five thousand.
The earliest migrants were largely Cantonese-speaking, but later, Hakka-speakers from Meixian, further east in Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, came to dominate numerically; as in other overseas Chinese communities, rivalry between Hakka and Cantonese became a common feature of the society.
By the 1860s, shops run by Sino-Mauritians could be found all over the island. Some members of the colonial government thought that further migration should be prohibited, but Governor John Pope Hennessy
John Pope Hennessy
Sir John Pope Hennessy, KCMG , was an Irish and British politician and colonial administrator who served as the eighth Governor of Hong Kong.-Early life:...
, recognising the role that Sino-Mauritians played in providing cheap goods to less well-off members of society, resisted the restrictionists' lobbying.
During the 1880s, despite the continuous influx of immigrants, Mauritius' Chinese population declined; Chinese traders, legally unable to purchase land in Mauritius, instead brought their relatives from China over to Mauritius. After training them for a few years to give them a handle on the business and to introduce them to life in a Western-ruled colonial society, the traders sent those relatives on their way, with capital and letters of introduction, to establish businesses in neighbouring countries. For example, between 1888 and 1898, nearly 1,800 Chinese departed from Port Louis with ports on the African mainland—largely Port Elizabeth and Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
—as their destinations. By 1901, the Sino-Mauritian population had shrunk to 3,515 individuals, among them 2,585 being business owners. Until the 1930s, Chinese migrants continued to arrive in Port Louis
Port Louis
-Economy:The economy is dominated by its port, which handles Mauritius' international trade. The port was founded by the French who preferred Port Louis as the City is shielded by the Port Louis/Moka mountain range. It is the largest container handling facility in the Indian Ocean and can...
, but with the strain on the local economy's ability to absorb them, many found that Mauritius would only be their first stop; they went on to the African mainland (especially South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
), as well as to Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
, and Seychelles
Seychelles
Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....
. After World War II, immigration from China largely came to an end.
However, Sino-Mauritians continued to maintain the personal ethnic networks connecting them to relatives in greater China
Greater China
Greater China is a term used to refer to mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. As a "phrase of the moment", the precise meaning is not entirely clear, and people may use it for only the commercial ties, only the cultural actions, or even as a euphemism for the Two Chinas, while others may...
, which would play an important role in the 1980s, with the rise of the export-processing zones. Foreign investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the factories they built in the EPZs, helped Mauritius to become the third-largest exporter of woollen knitwear in the world. Along with the investors came a new influx of Chinese migrant worker
Migrant worker
The term migrant worker has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations' definition is broad, including any people working outside of their home country...
s, who signed on for three-year stints in the garment factories.
Demographics, distribution, and employment
Today, most Sino-Mauritians are businesspeople, with a "virtual monopoly" on retail trade. After the Franco-Mauritian population, they form the second-wealthiest group on the island. They own restaurants, retail and wholesale shops, and import-and-export firms. Chinese restaurantChinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
s have greatly influenced Mauritian culture
Culture of Mauritius
The culture of Mauritius involves the blending of several cultures from Mauritius' history, as well as individual culture arising indigenously.- Mauritian public holidays and festivals :...
, and Chinese food
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
is consumed all over the island by people of all backgrounds.
In a 2001 Business Magazine survey, 10 of the 50 largest companies were Chinese owned.
Language
Most Sino-Mauritian youth are at least trilingual: they use Mauritian CreoleMauritian Creole
Mauritian Creole is a French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius. In addition to the French base of the language, there are also some words from English and from the many African and Asian languages that have been spoken on the island.- Sociolinguistic Situation :Mauritian Creole is the...
and French orally, while English—the language of administration and education—remains primarily a written language. In the 1990 census, roughly one-third of Sino-Mauritians stated Mauritian Creole as both their ancestral language and currently spoken language. The other two-thirds indicated some form of Chinese
Varieties of Chinese
Chinese comprises many regional language varieties sometimes grouped together as the Chinese dialects, the primary ones being Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, and Min. These are not mutually intelligible, and even many of the regional varieties are themselves composed of a number of...
as their ancestral language although only fewer than one-quarter of census respondents who identified Chinese as their ancestral language also indicated it as the language spoken in the home. Few Sino-Mauritian youth speak Chinese; those who do use it primarily for communication with elderly relatives, especially those who did not attend school and thus had little exposure to English or French. None use it to communicate with their siblings or cousins. Among those members of the community who do continue to speak Hakka, wide divergence with Meixian Hakka has developed in terms of vocabulary and phonology.
Sino-Mauritian Identity
Despite having kept some ties with their traditional culture, Sino-Mauritians do not identify to the mainland Chinese culture per se, probably due to the high "Mauritianism" and very strong Mauritian identity in the country As Lemon Lau said in her study supervised by Hong Kong University on Sino-Mauritian identity, "Contrary to what could be observed in the U.S., when ones who looked like Chinese descendants being asked if they are Chinese, they would never give an asserting reply but they would rather say they were Mauritian. Had I not interrogated them further, they would not have given subsequent answer of them being a Chinese Mauritian."Chinese schools
Two Chinese-medium middle schools were established in the first half of the 20th-century. The Chinese Middle School (华文学校, later called 新华中学 and then 新华学校) was established on 10 November 1912 as a primary school; in 1941, they expanded to include a lower middle school. Their student population exceeded 1,000. The Chung-Hwa Middle School (中华中学), established by KuomintangKuomintang
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...
cadres on 20 October 1941, grew to enroll 500 students, but by the end of the 1950s, that had shrunk to just 300; they stopped classes entirely in the 1960s, although their alumni association remains prominent in the Sino-Mauritian community. The Chinese Middle School also faced the problem of falling student numbers, as more Sino-Mauritians sent their children to mainstream schools, and in the 1970s stopped their weekday classes, retaining only a weekend section. However, their student numbers began to experience some revival in the mid-1980s; in the 1990s, they established a weekday pre-school section. Most of their teachers are local Sino-Mauritians, though some are expatriates from mainland China. , the Chinese Middle School enrolled 200 students and employed 36 teachers, and looked forward to reviving full-time classes in the near future.
Media
Three Chinese-language newspapers continued to be published in Mauritius . A monthly newsmagazine also began publication in 2005. The newspapers are printed in Port Louis, but not widely distributed outside the city.Chinese Commercial Paper
The Chinese Commercial Paper (华侨商报) was once the largest and most influential Chinese-language newspaper in Mauritius. It stopped publishing in the 1960s, and merged with the China Times.Chinese Daily News
The Chinese Daily News (中华日报) is a pro-KuomintangKuomintang
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...
newspaper. It was founded in 1932. The rivalry between Beijing-friendly and Taipei-friendly newspapers reached its peak in the 1950s; then-editor-in-chief of the Chinese Daily News, To Wai Man, even received death threats.
China Times
The China Times (formerly 中国时报; now 华侨时报) was founded in 1953.The editor-in-chief, Long Siong Ah Keng (吴隆祥), was born in 1921 in Mauritius; at age 11, he followed his parents back to their ancestral village in Meixian, Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, where he graduated high school and went on to Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
's Guangxi University
Guangxi University
Guangxi University is a provincial university, located in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, China. It is also commonly abbreviated as .-History:Guangxi University was established in October 1928...
. After graduation, he signed on with the Chinese Commercial Paper and returned to Mauritius. He left Mauritius again in 1952 to work for a Chinese paper in India, but a position at the China Times enticed him back.
Originally a four-page paper, the China Times later expanded to eight full-colour pages.
The Mirror
The Mirror (镜报) was established in 1976. It is published on a weekly basis every Saturday. They have a staff of eight people. Their editor-in-chief, Ng Kee Siong (黄基松), began his career at the Chinese Commercial Paper in 1942 at the age of 25; after 18 years there, the paper was forced to shut down. He and a team of fellow journalists founded a paper to replace it, the New Chinese Commercial Paper; it was while working there that he met Chu Vee Tow and William Lau, who would help him to establish The Mirror. Another editor, Feng Yunlong (冯云龙), majored in French at BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
's Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
, graduating in 1952. The paper is printed by Down Printing, which is owned by Ng's son David.
Most of The Mirrors readers are in their forties or older; it has subscribers not just in Mauritius, but Réunion, Madagascar, Canada, China, Australia and Hong Kong as well. The paper's local readership has been boosted slightly by guest workers from China, but in 2001, barely exceeded one thousand copies. By 2006, that number had fallen to seven hundred.
Hua Sheng Bao
Hua Sheng Bao (华声报), also referred to as Voice of China, was founded in 2005. With regards to its editorial line, it is a supporter of Chinese reunificationChinese reunification
Chinese reunification refers to the bringing together of all of the territories controlled by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China under a single political entity...
. It began as a daily newspaper solely in Chinese, but then changed format to become a monthly eight-page newspaper, including one page each of English and French news. It mostly prints Xinhua wire reports, with one page devoted to local news. It employs about twelve staff members on a part-time basis.
Names
Most Sino-Mauritians use the full Chinese name of the male head of family or a respected ancestor who led the family as their legal surname, the result of an administrative procedure that had been widely used in British India (e.g. Muthu s/o Lingham) and which was extended to Mauritius, including not just Indo-Mauritians but Sino-Mauritians in its ambit. This practise is not unique to Mauritius; some Chinese in the PhilippinesChinese Filipino
A Chinese Filipino derived from two words: "Tsino" and "Pinoy" ) is a Philippine national of Chinese ethnicity but born/raised in the Philippines....
and Chinese migrants in the early Soviet Union
Chinese people in Russia
Ethnic Chinese in Russia officially numbered 34,578 according to the 2002 census. However, this figure is contested, with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission of the Republic of China on Taiwan claiming 998,000 in 2004 and 2005, and Russian demographers generally accepting estimates in the...
also adopted such surnames.