Mauritians of Chinese origin

Mauritians of Chinese origin, also known as Sino-Mauritians or Chinese Mauritians, are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to China.

Migration history

Chinese migration from Sumatra to Mauritius

Like members of other communities on the island, some of the earliest Chinese in Mauritius arrived involuntarily, having been "shanghaied" 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. The authorities responded by deporting them back to Sumatra.

Chinese migration from China to Mauritius

Late 1700s and early 1800s

In the 1780s, thousands of voluntary Chinese migrants (estimated to be more than 3,000) 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.

The first wave of migration from China to Mauritius occurred in the early 1800s, the Chinese migrants who came to Mauritius were mainly Hokkien from Xiamen (Amoy) in Southern Fujian province. Most of these migrants from Fujian were merchants and therefore according to the law they were not allowed to bring their families with them, were not allowed to buy lands unless they abandoned their Chinese citizenship and adopted British citizenship; therefore, this led to many intermarriages with women of the Creole and Indian communities in order to build their own families or buy land under the name of their spouses.

Circa mid-1800s

thumb|Early Chinese immigrants by Artist Raouf Oderuth

A second wave of migration from China mainly came from the city of Guangzhou (Canton). In the mid-1800s, they mainly came from the district of Shunde.

Late 1800s and mid-1900s

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.

In the late 19th to early 20th century, Chinese men in Mauritius married Indian women due to both a lack of Chinese women and the higher numbers of Indian women on the island. These Chinese were mostly traders.

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.

Mid-1900s to late 1900s

Between the 1950s and 1980s, there was a considerable reduction of contacts with China due to the establishment of the People's Republic of China; nearly all Chinese migration from China was stopped. Along with the investors came a new influx of Chinese migrant workers, who signed on for three-year stints in the garment factories.

After the 1980s, China reopened up to the world and migration from China to Mauritius slowly restarted and therefore, the old marriage network of the Hakka was re-established, allowing Hakka women from Meixian to marry the local Hakka Sino-Mauritians.) in Port Louis. In per capita terms, 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 restaurants have greatly influenced Mauritian culture, and Chinese food is consumed all over the island by people of all backgrounds. Fried noodles is one of the most popular dishes. Mauritians from all ethnic origin and background also enjoy the various vegetables and meat balls (Niouk Yen, Sow Mai, Van Yen, Fee Yen) which originate from the Hakka cuisine in Meixian.

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 Creole 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 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. Other of varieties of Chinese spoken in Mauritius aside Hakka are: Hokkien, Cantonese, and Standard Mandarin. The Chung-Hwa Middle School (中华中学), established by Kuomintang 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. A monthly news magazine also began publication in 2005. The newspapers are printed in Port Louis, but not widely distributed outside the city. 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-Kuomintang 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, Too Wai Man (杜蔚文), 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, where he graduated from high school and went on to Guangxi University. After graduation, he signed on with the Chinese Commercial Gazette 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.

Chinese arts and literature

Chinese literature / legends / stories

Some Chinese legends and stories continue to persist and to be transmitted in the Sino-Mauritian community due to their associations with the major festivals in which they partake in.

Chinese legends and stories which continue to persist within the Sino-Mauritian community, include:

The legend of Houyi and Chang'e, associated with the Moon Festival (Mid-Autumn Festival)
The legend of Nian, associated with Chinese New Year's firecracker tradition
The Story of Dragon Boat Festival related to the consumption of zong and the commemoration of Qu Yuan, associated with the Dragon Boat Festival

Dance and music

Sino-Mauritians continue to perform some traditional Chinese dances, like the dragon dance. The lion dance and dragon dance holds an important place in the Sino-Mauritian culture.

Martial arts

Chinese martial arts are practiced within the Sino-Mauritian community and are no more exclusive to their community in Mauritius. Some of these martial arts are:

Kung fu

{| class="wikitable"

|+List of clans in Mauritius

!Name of Clan

!Chinese characters

!Pinyin

|Lee), of their Chinese immigrant ancestor (i.e. the first generation Chinese immigrant who arrived to Mauritius) who had his full name turned into a last name during the immigration process. It is also customary for Sino-Mauritians to eat fried noodles on birthday celebrations.

Chinese calendar and zodiac

Some Sino-Mauritian still refer to the Tung Shing (Chinese almanac) to find auspicious dates and time for diverse events in their lives, including:

Their wedding date;

|Lantern Festival

|February or early March

|15th day of the 1st month

|Tin Hao (Mazu) Festival During the colonial era, some of the earliest converts to Catholicism were Chinese men who married with Christian Creole women. Other Sino-Mauritians are Protestant. Despite their identifying as Catholics, there is however a long tradition of religious parallelism among the Sino-Mauritian families, and as such, elements of Chinese religions still continue to exist even among the Christian Sino-Mauritian families. Typically, some syncretism occurred, incorporating elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and traditional ancestor worship. Sino-Mauritian Christians, especially members of the older generations, sometimes retain certain traditions from Buddhism. Catholics Sino-Mauritians still frequent Chinese pagodas. In Chinese Pagodas, altars can also be found for Guan Yin, the Goddess Mazu (also known as Tin Hao; the goddess of the sea and the protector of sailors), the God Choy Sun (the God of Good Fortune). The goddess Mazu is usually prayed by Sino-Mauritians to seek for protection for their relatives who travel abroad and to wish for their safe and good return home. On Chinese New Year, descendants of the deceased can practice the ancestral rites before the Ancestral tablets as a sign of respect.

| colspan="2" |Fok Tiak pagoda

|Magon street, Port Louis

|Buddhist temple (Buddha)

| colspan="2" |Heen Foh Lee Kwon Pagoda

|Guan Di Sino-Mauritians are also observed to have deep knowledge on the preparation and administration of herbal remedies. and the presence of Chinese pagoda throughout the island.

{| class="wikitable"

!List of Contributions

!Description

|Microcredit system

|Chinese and Sino-Mauritians working in retail trail provided basic necessities and staple food to the Mauritian community, they created a micro-credit system with the carnet laboutik (lit. "shop notebook") to sell food on credit for their customers who would their arrears during the sugarcane harvest season.

;Politics

Michael Sik Yuen, Mauritian government minister
Moilin Jean Ah-Chuen 朱梅麟: First Chinese Cabinet Minister, 1967–1976; First Chinese Member, Legislative Council, 1949
Joseph Tsang Mang Kin 曾繁兴: Cabinet Minister, 1995–2000; as a poet, Tsang has written a number of poems on the Hakka culture

;Government officials

Bernard Yeung Sik Yuen 杨钦俊: Chief Justice, Mauritius, 2008–2013

;Corporate

Gaétan Siew: Architect. Past Secretary General of African Union of Architects. Past President of International Union of Architects
Lawrence Wong: CEO of LaTrobe. President of Mauritius Cycling Federation

;Sports

Kevin Cheung: National swimmer
Karen Foo Kune: National badminton player; Sportswoman of the Year, 2004 and 2009; Ranked number one badminton player in the African continent on several occasions, Member of Parliament (2024–)
Kate Foo Kune: African Badminton Champion 2018, 2017
Elodie Li Yuk Lo: National beach volleyball player
Lim Kee Chong: International football referee
Nathalie Lee Baw: swimmer
Christophe Lim Wen Ying: swimmer
Elodie Poo-cheong: swimmer
Nicki Chan-Lam: British-born badminton player
Alicia Kok Shun: swimmer
Shannon Wong: Tennis