South African Chinese
Encyclopedia
Chinese South Africans are a group of overseas Chinese
Overseas 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....

 that were born and/or are currently living in 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...

. The community consists of both those whose ancestors came to South Africa throughout the early 20th century, until Chinese immigration was banned under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1904, Taiwanese industrialists who arrived in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, and post-apartheid immigrants (predominantly from mainland China) to South Africa, who now outnumber native-born Chinese South Africans. South Africa has the largest population of Chinese in Africa.

Early History

South African Chinese Population, 1904 - 1936
Gender 1904 1911 1921 1936
Natal Province
Natal Province
Natal, meaning "Christmas" in Portuguese, was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994. Its capital was Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Province included the bantustan of KwaZulu...

Male 161 161 75 46
Female 4 11 33 36
Cape Province
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...

Male 1366 804 584 782
Female 14 19 148 462
Transvaal Province
Transvaal Province
Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...

Male 907 905 828 1054
Female 5 5 160 564
Total 2457 1905 1828 2944


According to Melanie Yap and Daniel Leong Man in their book "Colour, Confusions and Concessions: the History of Chinese in South Africa", Chu Ssu-pen, a Chinese mapmaker, in 1320 had southern Africa drawn on one of his maps. Ceramics found in Zimbabwe and South Africa dated back to Song dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

 China. Some tribes to Cape Town's north claimed descent from Chinese sailors during the 1200s, their physical appearance is similar to Chinese with paler skin and a Mandarin sounding tonal language. Their name for themselves is "abandoned people", Awatwa in their language.

First Settlers

The first Chinese to settle in South Africa were prisoners, usually debtors, exiled from Batavia by the Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 to their then newly founded colony
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...

 at Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 in 1660. Originally the Dutch wanted to recruit Chinese settlers to settle in the colony as farmers, thereby helping establish the colony and create a tax base so the colony would be less of a drain on Dutch coffers. However the Dutch failed to find anyone in the Chinese community in Batavia who was prepared to volunteer to go to such a far off place. The first Chinese person recorded by the Dutch to arrive in the Cape was a convict by the name of Ytcho Wancho (almost certainly a Dutch version of his original Chinese name). From 1660 until the late 19th century the number of Chinese people in the Cape Colony never exceeded 100.

Chinese people began arriving in large numbers in South Africa in the 1870s to work in the gold mines of the Witwatersrand
Witwatersrand basin
The Witwatersrand Basin is a geological formation in South Africa holding the world's largest known gold reserves and having produced over 1.5 billion ounces. The basin straddles the old provinces of Transvaal and the Orange Free State and is of the same period as the Vredefort impact of 2.023 Ga...

, especially in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

. The Chinese community in South Africa grew steadily throughout the remainder of the 19th century, bolstered by new arrivals from China. The Anglo-Boer War, fought between 1898 and 1902, pushed some Chinese South Africans out of the Witwatersrand and into areas such as Port Elizabeth and East London in the Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London. It was formed in 1994 out of the "independent" Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province...

.

Contracted Gold Miners (1904-1910)

There were many complicated reasons why the British chose to import Chinese labour to use on the mines. After the Anglo-Boer War production on the gold mines of the Witwatersrand was very low due to a lack of labour. The British government was eager to get these mines back online as quickly as possible as part of their overall effort to rebuild the war torn country.

Because of the war, unskilled black labourers had returned to rural areas and were more inclined to work on rebuilding infrastructure as mining was more dangerous. Unskilled white labour was being phased out because it was deemed too expensive. The British found recruiting and importing labour from east Asia the most expedient way to solve this problem.

Between 1904 and 1910 over 63,000 contracted miners were brought in to work the mines of the Witwatersrand. Most of these contractors were recruited from the provinces of Chihli (Zhili
Zhili
Zhílì was a northern province in China from the Ming Dynasty until the province was dissolved in 1928 during the Republic of China era.-History:...

), Shantung (Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...

) and Honan (Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...

) in China. They were repatriated after 1910, because of strong White opposition to their presence, similar to anti-Asian sentiments
Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...

 in the western United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, particularly California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 at the same time. It is a myth that the contracted miners brought into South Africa at this time are the forefathers of much of South Africa's Chinese population.

The mass importation of Chinese labourers to work on the gold mines contributed to the fall from power of the conservative government in the United Kingdom. However it did stimulate to the economic recovery of South Africa after the Anglo-Boer War by once again making the mines of the Witwatersrand the most productive gold mines in the world.

Early Apartheid Era (1950-1970)

As with other non-White South Africans, the Chinese suffered from discrimination during apartheid
History of South Africa in the apartheid era
Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained...

, and were often classified as Coloureds, but sometimes as Asians
Asians in South Africa
The majority of the Asian South African population is Indian in origin, most of them descended from indentured workers transported to work in the 19th century on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area, then known as Natal. They are largely English speaking, although many also retain the...

, a category that was generally reserved for Indian South Africans
Indian South Africans
Indian South Africans are people of Indian descent living in South Africa and mostly live in and around the city of Durban, making it 'the largest 'Indian' city outside India'. Most Indians in South Africa are descendents of migrants from colonial India during late 19th-century through early...

. Today this segment of the South African Chinese population numbers some 10,000 individuals.

Under the apartheid-era Population Registration Act of 1950, Chinese South Africans were first deemed "Asiatic," then "Coloured," and finally:
In 1966 the South African Institute of Race Relations
South African Institute of Race Relations
Established in 1929 the South African Institute of Race Relations is a leading research and policy organisation in South Africa. The Institute is "one of the oldest liberal institutions in the country," and is independent of government and all political parties; it sees its role as serving its...

 described the negative affects of apartheid legislation on the South African Chinese community as well as the resulting brain drain
Brain drain
Human capital flight, more commonly referred to as "brain drain", is the large-scale emigration of a large group of individuals with technical skills or knowledge. The reasons usually include two aspects which respectively come from countries and individuals...

 in the following way:

Immigration from Taiwan

Number of Chinese granted
permanent residence
in South Africa
1985 - 1995
Date Number
1985 1
1986 7
1987 133
1988 301
1989 483
1990 1422
1991 1981
1992 275
1993 1971
1994 869
1995 350
Total 7793

By citizenship 1994 - 1995
Citizenship 1994 1995
ROC/Taiwan
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

 
596 232
PRC/Mainland
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

 
252 102
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...

 
21 16
Total 869 350


With the establishment of ties between apartheid South Africa and the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

 (Taiwan), Taiwanese Chinese (as well as some Hong Kong Chinese) started migrating to South Africa from the late 1970s onwards. Due to apartheid South Africa's desire to attract their investment in South Africa and the many poorer Bantustans within the country they were exempt from many apartheid laws and regulations. This created an odd situation whereby Chinese South Africans from the mainland continued to be classified as Coloureds or Asians, whereas the Taiwanese Chinese and certain other east Asian immigrants (esp. South Koreans and Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

) were considered "honorary whites
Honorary whites
Honorary Whites is a term that was used by the apartheid regime of South Africa to grant almost all of the rights and privileges of Whites to certain favored non-White groups.-The Japanese:...

" and enjoyed most, if not all, of the rights accorded to White South Africans.

In 1984, South African Chinese, now increased to about 10,000, finally obtained the same official rights as the Japanese in South Africa, that is, to be treated as whites in terms of the Group Areas Act. (Sanctions and Honorary White, Masako Osada)The arrival of the Taiwanese resulted in a surge of the ethnic Chinese population of 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...

, which climbed from around 10,000 in the early 1980s to at least 20,000 in the early 1990s. Many Taiwanese were entrepreneurs who set up small companies, particularly in the textile sector, across South Africa. It is estimated that by the end of the early 1990s Taiwanese industrialists had invested US$2 billion (or US$2,94 billion in 2011 dollars) in South Africa and employed roughly 50,000 people.

In the late 1990s and early first decade of the 21st century many of the Taiwanese immigrants left South Africa partly due to official recognition of the Peoples Republic of China and a post apartheid crime wave
Crime in South Africa
Crime is a prominent issue in South Africa. South Africa has a high rate of murders, assaults, rapes, and other crimes compared to most countries. Many emigrants from South Africa state that crime was a big factor in their decision to leave...

 that swept the country. Numbers dropped from a high of around 30,000 Taiwanese South Africans in the mid-1990s to the current population of approximately 6,000 today.

Post-Apartheid

Following the end of apartheid in 1994, impressive numbers of Chinese from mainland China began immigrating to South Africa, increasing the Chinese population in South Africa to 200,000-350,000 people, including illegal immigrants. In Johannesburg, in particular, a new 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,...

 has emerged in the eastern suburbs of Cyrildene
Cyrildene
Cyrildene is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is noted for a new Chinatown that exists on Derrick Avenue. This new Chinatown is now considered as the main Chinatown in Johannesburg, replacing the declining Chinatown on Commissioner Street in the inner-city of Johannesburg.-History:Up...

 and Bruma Lake, replacing the declining one in the city centre. A Chinese housing development has also been established in the small town of Bronkhorstspruit
Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng
Bronkhorstspruit is a small farming town 50km east of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa along the N4 highway towards Witbank. It lies on the border between the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces....

, east of Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

.

Black Economic Empowerment ruling

Under apartheid, some Chinese South Africans were discriminated against in various forms by the apartheid government. However, they were originally excluded from benefiting under the affirmative action
Black Economic Empowerment
Black Economic Empowerment is a programme launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving previously disadvantaged groups economic opportunities previously not available to them...

 programmes of the South African government. This changed in mid-2008 when, in a case brought by the Chinese Association of South Africa, the Pretoria division of the High Court of South Africa
High Court of South Africa
The High Courts are superior courts of law in South Africa. The courts were created in 1996 on the adoption of the Constitution of South Africa, and inherited the jurisdiction of the provincial and local divisions of the former Supreme Court of South Africa...

 ruled that Chinese South Africans who were South African citizens
South African nationality law
South Africa rewrote its nationality law since the end of Apartheid in 1994 and the establishment of majority rule in the country under the African National Congress...

 before 1994, as well as their descendants, qualify as previously disadvantaged individuals as Coloureds, and therefore are eligible to benefit under BEE and other affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...

 policies and programmes. However, Chinese South Africans who immigrated to the country after 1994 will be ineligible to benefit under the policies. This means that out of a community numbering possibly as many as 300,000, only about 12-15,000 will directly benefit from the ruling.

Immigration of Mainland Chinese

The immigration of mainland Chinese
Mainland Chinese
Mainland Chinese or Mainlanders are Chinese people who live in a region considered a "mainland". It is frequently used in the context of areas ruled by the People's Republic of China, referring to people from Mainland China as opposed to other areas controlled by the state such as Hong Kong or...

, by far the largest group of Chinese in South Africa, can be divided into three periods. The first group arrived in the late 1980s and early 1990s along with the Taiwanese immigrants. Unlike the Taiwanese immigrants, lacking the capital to start larger firms most established small businesses. Although becoming relatively prosperous a large number of this group left South Africa, either back to China or to more developed Western countries, around the same time and for much the same reason as the Taiwanese immigrants left. The second group, arriving mostly from Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...

 and Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...

 provinces in the 1990s, were wealthier and better educated as well as also being very entrepreneurial. The latest and ongoing group began arriving after 2000 and primary made up of small traders and peasants from Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

 province.

Although the Chinese South African community is a law-abiding community that has maintained a low profile throughout South Africa's modern history; there is speculation that local criminal gangs in South Africa barter abalone
Abalone
Abalone , from aulón, are small to very large-sized edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae and the genus Haliotis...

 illegally with Chinese nationals and triad societies in exchange for chemicals used in the production of drugs, reducing the need for the use of money and hence avoiding money laundering difficulties.

Notable Chinese South Africans

  • Patrick Soon-Shiong
    Patrick Soon-Shiong
    Patrick Soon-Shiong is a South African-American surgeon who was founder, chairman, and CEO of Abraxis BioScience, a biotechnology company developing cancer treatment. He is co-developer of the metastatic breast cancer treatment drug Abraxane....

     (陈颂雄), world-famous surgeon and billionaire
  • Chris Wang
    Chris Wang
    Yi-Ju Christopher Wang, commonly known as Chris Wang is an ANC member of the National Assembly of South Africa. He is the youngest MP of the country when elected in 2004....

     (王翊儒), member of the National Assembly
    National Assembly of South Africa
    The National Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape Province. It consists of no fewer than 350 and no more than 400 members...

    , originally an MP for the ID, now a member of the ANC
    African National Congress
    The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...

  • Eugenia Chang, member of the National Assembly
    National Assembly of South Africa
    The National Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape Province. It consists of no fewer than 350 and no more than 400 members...

    , for the Inkatha Freedom Party
    Inkatha Freedom Party
    The Inkatha Freedom Party is a political party in South Africa. Since its founding, it has been led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi. It is currently the fourth largest party in the National Assembly of South Africa.-History:...

  • Ina Lu
    Ina Lu
    Ina Lu , born 1982 in Taiwan, is a South African Chinese beauty hailing from Johannesburg. She was Miss Chinese International 2006.-Miss Chinese South Africa:...

     (呂怡慧), Miss Chinese International 2006
  • Sherry Chen
    Sherry Chen
    Sherry Chen is a South African businesswomen and member of Parliament. Chen immigrated to South Africa in 1981. First working at a textile factory as an English sectary for a Taiwanese firm that later went bankrupt...

     (陈阡蕙), Member of Parliament in South Africa, member of the Democratic Alliance
  • Shiaan-Bin Huang
    Shiaan-Bin Huang
    Shiaan-Bin Huang is a Member of Parliament of South Africa and member of the African National Congress . He was also regional chairman of the IFP before floor crossing to the ANC....

     (黄士豪), Member of Parliament of South Africa, member of the African National Congress
    African National Congress
    The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...


See also

  • Chinatowns in Africa
    Chinatowns in Africa
    This article discusses Chinatowns in Africa. There are least three major Chinatowns in Africa.As former colonies of Europe, the coastal African nations of Madagascar, Mauritius, and South Africa were the main receiving points of Chinese immigrants from the 1890s to the early part of the 20th century...

  • Asians in South Africa
    Asians in South Africa
    The majority of the Asian South African population is Indian in origin, most of them descended from indentured workers transported to work in the 19th century on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area, then known as Natal. They are largely English speaking, although many also retain the...

  • History of South Africa
    History of South Africa
    South African history has been dominated by the interaction and conflict of several diverse ethnic groups. The aboriginal Khoisan people have lived in the region for millennia. Most of the population, however, trace their history to immigration since...

  • Overseas Chinese
    Overseas 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....

  • Nan Hua Temple
    Nan Hua Temple
    Nan Hua Temple is the largest Buddhist temple and seminary in Africa, and is situated in the Cultura Park suburb of Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa. It is the African headquarters of the Fo Guang Shan Order, covering over...


External links

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