Abacus and Mah Jong: Sino-Mauritian Settlement and Economic Consolidation (European Expansion and Indigenous Response, V. 1)

Abacus and Mah Jong

European Expansion and Indigenous Response Edited by

Glenn J. Ames, The University of Toledo Editorial Board

Frank Dutra, University of California, Santa Barbara Pedro Machado, Santa Clara University Malyn Newitt, King’s College, London Michael Pearson, University of New South Wales José Damião Rodrigues, University of the Azores George Bryan Souza, University of Texas

VOLUME 1

Abacus and Mah Jong Sino-Mauritian Settlement and Economic Consolidation

By

Marina Carter and James Ng Foong Kwong

LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009

On the cover: The shopkeeper. © Laval Ng. Illustrations and Photographs © Marina Carter and James Ng Foong Kwong. Sketches © Neermala Luckeenarain. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Carter, Marina. Abacus and mah jong : Sino-Mauritian settlement and economic consolidation / by Marina Carter and James Ng Foong Kwong. p. cm. — (European expansion and indigenous response ; v. 1) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17572-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Chinese—Mauritius—Ethnic identity. 2. Chinese—Mauritius—Economic conditions. 3. Chinese—Mauritius—Social life and customs. 4. Land settlement patterns—Mauritius—History. 5. Economic development—Mauritius—History. 6. Mauritius—Colonization. 7. Mauritius—Economic conditions. 8. Mauritius—Race relations. I. Ng Foong Kwong, James. II. Title. III. Series. DT469.M445C554 2009 305.895’106982—dc22 2009008001

ISSN 1873-8974 ISBN 978 90 04 17572 3 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands

CONTENTS General Editor’s Preface ................................................................... Acknowledgements ............................................................................

ix xi

Introduction ........................................................................................ The Chinese Diaspora and the Colonial Indian Ocean .......... The Chinese Presence on Mauritius .......................................... Historiography and the Chinese Diaspora ...............................

1 2 4 6

Chapter One Slaves, Convicts, Field Workers and Artisans: The Chinese in the Colonial Labour Diasporas ....................... A Note on Nomenclature ............................................................ Dutch Settlements in the Indian Ocean .................................... Chinese Immigrants in the 18th Century Isle of France ........ The Importation of Chinese Labourers and Convicts into British Mauritius ....................................................................... Chinese Artisans in 19th Century Mauritius ........................... Chapter Two The ‘Celestial Shopkeeper’: The Growth of a Chinese Commercial Class in Mauritius ................................... Chinese Traders in the Isle of France and Early British Mauritius .................................................................................... Early Commercial Activities of Chinese Settlers ..................... A Temporary Setback: the Bank Robbery ................................. A New Wave of Chinese Immigrants and Geographical Dispersal of the Community ................................................... Chinese Entrepreneurs and the Rum Industry ........................ The Chinese Commercial Class: Contemporary Appraisals ... Chapter Three Expansion and Diversification: Sino-Mauritians and Economic Development ......................... Diversification of the Chinese Business Sector in 19th Century Mauritius ........................................................... Developments in the 20th Century Retail Sector .................... Diversification in Employment and Business in 20th Century Colonial Mauritius ....................................................................

19 19 20 21 27 44

49 49 55 61 65 71 73

77 77 83 94

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contents Sino-Mauritians and the Post Independence Mauritian Economic Sector .......................................................................

Chapter Four Managing Identity: The Politics of Community Formation and Networking ......................................................... Preserving the Brand—Policing and Governance within the Chinese Community ................................................................. Credit and Clan Networks ........................................................... Inter Community Links ............................................................... Chinese Networks Across the Indian Ocean and Remigration Strategies ............................................................. Struggle for Representation: Political Institutions and the Chinese Community ................................................................. Managing Minority Status—Sino-Mauritians in the Post-Independence Period ...................................................... Sino-Mauritians and Regional Networking .............................. Chapter Five The Construction of Community: Family, Kin, Social Networks ............................................................................. Family Life of Chinese Settlers in Mauritius ............................ Religion in the Life of the Overseas Chinese ........................... Cultural Organizations and Leisure Activities ......................... Issues of ‘Loss’ and Strategies of Adaptation: Language and Education Debates .................................................................... Chapter Six Sino-Mauritians in the Making of a Multi-Ethnic Society ............................................................................................. Inter-Community Networks and Economic Integration ....... Social Integration: Immigrants and Creoles ............................. The Fight against Stereotyping and the Search for Recognition ................................................................................

100

107 110 115 117 120 122 134 137

141 141 153 174 183

191 191 197 202

Conclusion ..........................................................................................

221

Appendices Appendix One Occupations of the Population of Chinese Origin, 1901 .................................................................................... Appendix Two The Distribution of the Chinese Population in the Districts of Mauritus, 1921 ..............................................

233 234

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Appendix Three The Urbanisation of the Population of Chinese Origin in Mauritius, 1952 ............................................ Appendix Four Two of Many: Case Studies of Sino-Mauritians

241 242

Bibliography ........................................................................................

245

Index ....................................................................................................

255

GENERAL EDITOR’S PREFACE As Adam Smith wrote in his seminal Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), “The discovery of America, and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind.” It is hardly surprising, therefore, that this process of European expansion and global colonization from ca. 1450 to 1900 has attracted extensive historical research and debate over the years. Since the Enlightenment, philosophers, economists, and historians have all sought to analyze and understand the vast range of human experiences embodied in this creation of a world market economy and global society. Much of the scholarly work completed from ca. 1880 to 1940 fell within the limits of what M.N. Pearson has aptly described as the “seeds of empire” school of imperial historiography. Eurocentric, Whiggish, even jingoistic, this work was largely compiled by English, Dutch, French, and Portuguese civil servants active in the administration of the twilight empires of those European powers. It was engendered by a need to glorify past colonial adventures as a means of legitimizing modern European imperialism and, as such, was less than objective. In the decolonization period from ca. 1945 to 1975, the field was tainted by this legacy. In the 1970s, the focus shifted to the long-ignored experiences of the indigenous peoples, sometimes characterized as “the Other”, in this process and their relationship with the Europeans, who were largely re-cast as aggressors and not “heroes.” Recently, more balanced studies have appeared, embracing both the European and indigenous perspective. This recent historiography has laudably succeeded in providing an analysis of the symbiotic economic, social, religious, and cultural interaction between Europe and the wider world which accelerated following the voyages of Columbus and Vasco da Gama. European Expansion and Indigenous Response is a series dedicated to contributing to this more balanced historiography. Its volumes will present a broad intellectual perspective, examining whenever possible European and non-European perspectives. These volumes will also utilize a multi-disciplinary approach with diverse forms of analysis from all relevant scholarly disciplines. Its monographs, edited volumes and edited translations will provide new ideas and new perspectives on a topic that has fascinated scholars for the last half millennium. Glenn J. Ames

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book draws extensively from the unpublished French language studies [mémoires de maîtrise et DEA] presented to the University of La Réunion by James Ng Foong Kwong, and supervised by Professor C. Wanquet to whom thanks are due. Deborah Brautigam made available drafts of her own work on Chinese business networks. Doris Ng, V. Govinden and Khalil Muthy, members of CRIOS, our research group in Mauritius, were a source of friendly support. V. Govinden, in particular, devoted much time and effort to photographing documents and sites and acting as go-between when the authors were in different countries. Mr Setai Lampotang and Mr Chris Lee of the Chinese Business Chamber encouraged Marina Carter to undertake interviews of the Chinese community, and provided some initial financial support. Mr Joseph Yip Tong and his family generously offered hospitality and facilitated the setting up of interviews. We are especially grateful to all those who helped us illustrate our story with their original or personal material: to Laval Ng for the original cover design, which incorporates the abacus and the mahjong, symbolising the spirit of Chinese business and culture respectively, to Neermala Luckeenarain for providing us with some original sketches, particularly relating to that period of history before the advent of the camera and to those marginal groups whose lives and labour were not captured for posterity by any engraver, and to those who opened up their family photograph albums to us. All the views expressed in this work, as well as any errors or omissions, are the sole responsibility of the authors. We are thankful to the editorial staff of Brill, and to the anonymous reader, for giving us the opportunity to make this text available to a wider audience and for assisting us in its preparation for publication. Mark Hall read the final draft and made some helpful suggestions. Jasmine and Ethan Carter, born in 2003 and 2006 in Toronto, Canada, are relatively new members of the global family of diaspora Chinese, and it is to them, and to all Sino-Mauritians who have re-migrated, and to their descendants, that this book is dedicated. We hope that they will see, in this account of one aspect of their history, its relevance to their

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own journey, and to understand, if we may paraphrase the words of the Mauritian poet of diaspora, Khal Torabally, that every migration is ‘un chant d’enracinement autant qu’un chant de déracinement’!

INTRODUCTION Around the world the ‘Overseas Chinese’ are numbered in tens of millions, of whom the vast majority reside in Asia.1 The diaspora Chinese have been described according to several categories, differentiated on grounds of employment, or generation, for example.2 Their very identities have been subjected to scrutiny and classification—were they yeluo guigen, or pioneer migrants intending to return home, or zhancao chugen, men who settled abroad and assimilated into host societies? Terminologies have been adopted to depict present day states of mind—they might have luodi shenggen or ‘sinking roots’ and be striving to reclaim a Chinese identity, or they may be shigen lizu i.e. ‘uprooted’.3 For the majority of long-settled overseas Chinese, the most apt definition is surely that of zhonggen or ‘multiple roots’ otherwise identified as cosmopolitanism, and in some studies as “blended identities”. In this view “no diaspora is an escape from China because no diaspora can escape Chineseness” whilst at the same time autonomy of beliefs over adherence to ‘traditional values’ is emphasized.4 If such recent studies have sought to redefine and broaden the limits of what constitutes an ethnic Chinese, the literature has also reassessed the myths and stereotypes of the diaspora populations. The academic interest once excited by the brand of dynamic capitalism fuelled by ethnic Chinese in South East Asia, has been tempered by recent studies which suggest overseas Chinese populations manifest a mixed economic

1 The term overseas Chinese in it widest sense, refers to all persons of Chinese ancestry living outside of the People’s Republic (PRC). Ethnic Chinese resident in Hong Kong and Taiwan are sometimes referred to as ‘offshore Chinese’. 2 Wang Gungwu classifies contract workers as huagong, and traders as huashang, their descendants as hua-ch’iao, and the overseas born who re-migrate as hua-i. Wang Gungwu China and the Chinese Overseas, Times Academic Press, Singapore, 1991. 3 Wang Ling-chi, ‘Roots and Changing Identity of the Chinese in the United States’, Daedalus, 120, 1991. 4 For the articulation of these debates see Chan, S., ‘What is this thing called a Chinese Diaspora?’, Contemporary Review, vol. 274, Feb. 1999, pp. 81–3; Lee, L., ‘On the Margins of the Chinese Discourse: Some Personal Thoughts on the Cultural Meaning of the Periphery’, Daedalus, 120, 1991; Wang Gungwu, The Chinese Overseas from Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy, Harvard University Press, 2000.

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sociology with a few prosperous employers and a mass of “dependent relatives who are poor employees”.5 The need to incorporate an “historical perspective beyond those shaped by nation states” has been stressed in new work more concerned with transnational institutions, flows and connections, and the ways in which local transformations are embedded in larger, global processes.6 This work aims to engage with the complexities surrounding evaluations of ethnic and national identity through a case study of the migration and settlement of Chinese to the island of Mauritius, and in the process to contribute to scholarly debates about ethnicity, nationalism, postcolonial theory and notions of hybridity. The Chinese Diaspora and the Colonial Indian Ocean Until the late 19th century it was illegal to leave China without special permission from the Emperor. A Chinese law on emigration in force in 1799 stated that all citizens “who clandestinely proceed to sea to trade, or who remove to foreign islands for the purpose of inhabiting and cultivating the same, shall be punished according to the law against communicating with rebels and enemies, and consequently suffer death by being beheaded”.7 It has therefore been said that migration from China in the colonial period had a ‘hybrid character’—prohibited in law but tolerated in practice—with migrants generally passing through the European territories of Macao, Hong Kong, Singapore or Penang, and even Calcutta, and that this is one important reason why Chinese diaspora communities remained relatively small compared to the contemporaneous migrations from India.8

5

Chan, S., ‘Chinese Diaspora’, op. cit., pp. 81–3. McKeown, A., ‘Conceptualizing Chinese diasporas, 1842 to 1949’ Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 58, no. 2, 1999. 7 Baker, H., The Overseas Chinese, London, Batsford 1987, p. 17. 8 Miege, Jean-Louis. Indentured Labour in the Indian Ocean and the Particular Case of Mauritius, Intercontinenta No. 5, Leiden, 1986. p. 21; Ly Tio Fane, H., La Diaspora chinoise dans l’océan Indien Occidental, Institut d’Histoire des pays d’outre-mer, Aixen-Provence, 1981. p. 259. For an up to date discussion of scholarly engagement with the term ‘diaspora’ and its applicability to Chinese and South Asian communities overseas see the introduction to Koshy, S. & Radhakrishnan R. (eds) Transnational South Asians The Making of a Neo-Diaspora, OUP, New Delhi, 2008. 6

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In the Indian Ocean region, Europeans were relative newcomers to a long-established zone of trade and migration.9 Following the establishment of European colonial settlements on the Indian Ocean littoral, the Chinese formed important minorities in the British, Dutch and Portuguese Asian empires.10 Push factors for migrants from the Celestial Empire to these colonial territories, included periods and incidents of political instability—‘warlordism’ and rebellion, and natural disasters, such as famines and floods. By the mid 19th century China faced a declining dynasty which had become corrupt and oppressive. Population growth was not matched by agricultural output; famine, drought, typhoons and epidemics aggravated the conditions of socio-economic dislocation. Banditry and frequent peasant revolts reflected this state of affairs. Western traders worsened the situation by flooding China with smuggled opium, leading to the outbreak of the first Opium War in 1839. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking obliged China to cede Hong Kong and to open 5 ports to foreign trade. The Tai Ping Rebellion (1850–64) affected 16 provinces and devastated 600 cities. It was thus against a backdrop of “death, destruction and faltering imperial authority that the mass emigration of Chinese took place”.11 The Chinese ‘coolie trade’ was the most notorious result of this conjuncture of circumstances when labour demand from the West met dislocation and desperation in the East, providing workers for plantations from Southern America to African islands and propelling destitute families into sacrificing their sons to the rising stream of exiles. As the outlawed but tolerated Chinese coolie trade swept away the surplus labour of Macao, Hong Kong, Singapore and Penang, Chinese artisans and merchants were making their way from the periphery of the Emperor’s authority, to embark in increasing numbers on ships leaving for other parts of the world. Artisans and traders joined those emigrating as the ‘coolie’ exodus reached its apogee in the 1850s. In 1866 Beijing declared “The Chinese

9 A useful overview of early Chinese and Indian navigation, trade and migrations in the Indian Ocean is provided in McPherson, K., The Indian Ocean A History of People and the Sea, OUP, Delhi, 1998, pp. 172–5, 250–1. 10 Emmer, P. & Morner, M. (eds) European Expansion and Migration, Oxford, 1992, p. 266. For an interesting study of the early Chinese community at the Dutch Cape colony and subsequently, see Yap, M. & Leong Man, D., Colour, Confusion and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa, Hong Kong University Press, 1996, pp. 6–8. 11 Pan, L., Sons of the Yellow Emperor, the story of the Overseas Chinese, London, 1990, p. 44; Yap, M. & Leong Man, D., Colour, Confusion and Concessions, op. cit., p. 25.

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Government throws no obstacle in the way of free emigration, that is to say, to the departure of Chinese subjects embarking of their own free will and at their own expense for foreign countries”, but it was not until 1893 that the legislative ban on emigration was fully lifted.12 Natives of those areas of China particularly affected by political and economic upheavals—like the province of Guangdong in southern China—could now emigrate en masse. Once a group had settled in a particular colony, a process of chain migration was put in place, with the pioneer sending for, or returning to China to fetch relatives or co-villagers to assist in the business opportunities created overseas. The Chinese Presence on Mauritius An embryonic and ultimately unsuccessful Dutch settlement in the 17th century, Mauritius was not permanently populated until French rule in the 18th century, and remained largely a port-based entrepot, until the mid 19th century when it was converted into a major sugar plantation colony of the British Empire.13 Since independence in 1968, Mauritius has transformed itself from a depressed and overpopulated monoculture into the so-called ‘little tiger of the Indian Ocean’ with diversification into textiles, tourism and financial services.14 The first people to visit this archetypal desert island may well have been Malay or Chinese sailors who were criss-crossing the Indian Ocean long before Europeans arrived on the scene. Chu’an Chin’s map of the world in 1402 plots several islands east of Africa, suggesting that the Chinese were aware of the existence of the Mascarenes. Between 1405 and 1433 a series of naval expeditions brought the Chinese to eastern Africa and their presence there has been confirmed by archaeological excavations. Chinese sources have mentioned the discovery of a rock with ancient Chinese inscriptions in the south of Mauritius, but this has not been confirmed by local historians.15 12

Yap, M. & Leong Man, D., Colour, Confusion and Concessions, op. cit., p. 29. For further details of the key periods of Mauritian colonial economic development see Storey, W.K., Science and Power in Colonial Mauritius, Rochester University Press, 1997; Allen, R.B., Slaves, Freedmen, and Indentured Laborers in Colonial Mauritius, Cambridge University Press, 1999. 14 Carter, M. ed. Consolidating the Rainbow: Independent Mauritius 1968–1998, Port Louis Centre for Research on Indian Societies, 1998. 15 This theory is discussed in Helly, D., ‘Des Immigrants Chinois dans les Mascareignes’, Annuaire des Pays de l’océan Indien, vol. 3, 1976, pp. 105–124. 13

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As a stop-off point for ships trading to and from the Indies, the population of the Isle of France [the French name for the island, 1715–1810] was multi-ethnic from the outset, with a small white settler community and a heterogeneous free coloured and slave population, principally east African and Malagasy, but augmented by Indians, South East Asians, and others of diverse nationalities offloaded from passing ships. The socio-economic landscape of Mauritius was permanently changed with the influx of almost half a million Indian immigrants who came to the island as indentured labourers during the last three quarters of the 19th century. Over the same period, several thousand Chinese immigrants, and a few Malagasy, Comorian and liberated Africans also arrived in Mauritius.16 These events were part and parcel of the creation of a global system of ‘free’ migrant labor during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, details of which are too well known to necessitate retelling here.17 While the vast majority of the Indians were destined for work on the sugar estates, bound into indenture contracts that prescribed type and duration of labour at a fixed wage for a designated employer, the Chinese were principally self-supporting pedlars, artisans, or relatives of prior immigrants. A further contrast between the two groups was that the former were classified as British subjects, and consequently, post-indenture, acquired full rights in the British colony of Mauritius, while the Chinese were considered aliens, and subjected to restrictions on land and property ownership, unless they applied for and were granted naturalization. Despite these distinctions, the contemporaneous immigration of Indians and Chinese to the island offers useful points of comparison in the methods each adopted to facilitate their integration and settlement on Mauritius. Economic and demographic developments in the mid and late 19th century which saw the conversion of marginal estate lands into smallholdings owned chiefly by ex-indentured Indian planters,18 and the establishment of Indian villages around these ‘morcellements’ were capitalized upon by Chinese immigrants, who used the opportunity to 16 Carter, M. and Ng Foong Kwong, J., Forging the Rainbow: Labour Immigrants in British Mauritius, Alfran, Mauritius, 1997. 17 One of the most effective and succinct retellings of this story of mass labour migration in the colonial period is that by Northrup, D., Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism, 1834–1922, Cambridge University Press, 1995. 18 This process is discussed more fully in Allen, R.B., ‘Indian Immigrants and the Legacy of Marronage’, Itinerario, vol. 21, no. 1, 1997, p. 107.

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expand a hold already acquired over the retail sector in the capital, to the rural districts. From a strong position in the retail and wholesale trades, as this study will show, Chinese settlers diversified, from the late 19th century, into other areas of the economy, such as manufacturing, to emerge as key players in the post-independence economic success story of Mauritius. Historiography and the Chinese Diaspora A popular account of how the overseas Chinese came to exist, begins with the 3rd century BC when China’s first emperor banished merchants south of the Yangtze River. It describes how the exiled regional groups became the modern Hokkien from Fujian, the Teochiu and the Cantonese from Guangdong, and the Hakka, and were scattered around southern China. Quietly building commercial networks, these groups established trading posts throughout Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean during the 12th and 13th centuries AD. This populist genre of historiography depicts the overseas Chinese as respected and wealthy merchants who, when European colonial powers arrived in the Indian Ocean region, interacted with them virtually as equals, benefiting from and assisting the expansion of trade networks.19 By the 17th century the Chinese were “trading all over the South China Sea with the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch, as well as with the indigenous societies.” Dutch expansion brought in more Chinese settlers, and the concept of the diaspora Chinese as ‘ideal middlemen’—neither part of the traditional economy nor of the Western system, but able to relate to both—was born.20 This view of Chinese emigration contrasts with another strand in the historiography which focuses on the 19th century and draws attention rather to the Chinese labour diaspora, emphasising the pull factors: the abolition of slavery, and the labour demands of the expanding western powers: Chinese labour was . . . signed up to cruelly unrewarding long contracts by rapacious merchants who cared only for profit and not for the misery and suffering they caused their hapless victims. It went to . . . hump cargo

19 Seagrave, S., Lords of the Rim: The Invisible Empire of the Overseas Chinese, New York, 1995. 20 Tanzer, A., ‘Carriers of prosperity’, Forbes, vol. 154, no. 2, 1994.

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in Singapore, to man the coal-mines in South Africa, . . . to tap rubber and wash for tin in Malaya.21

The dichotomy between the Chinese mercantile and labour emigration streams is paralleled in the Indian diaspora literature, with virtually no interaction between the two.22 The Chinese historiography, however, has emphasized one key element which both allows for an overlap of the experiences of trader and workers, and which has come to typify migration from the Celestial Empire, and which is virtually absent from Indian indenture studies. This is the role of networks in migration and specifically those based on family and kin ties. According to this view, individuals migrated at the behest of families who saw the movement as ‘one of a variety of investment strategies’. Such a strategy might involve putting one son to work on the family lands, another to work for neighbours and a third to venture overseas: “one of them was bound to bring success and fortune back to the family, or at least a steady stream of material support.”23 The economic strategy of migration moreover could extend beyond families to incorporate entire villages and lineages. These networks of migrants found expression as brotherhood, name and place associations, enabling individuals to maintain links with natal villages, repatriate funds, and through which leaders emerged and disputes were mediated. In turn, and over time the networks could support commercial growth—especially through informal credit pools—and function as cultural centres. One version of the debate as to the purpose and functioning of such networks injects a sinister element, seeing in the strength of traditional ties to families and clans, mafia-type loyalties.24 From the turn of the 20th century, encounters between Chinese migrants and intellectuals and officials from China brought a ‘diasporic nationalism’ into being. This proto-nationalism of the overseas Chinese was in due course modified in response to events of national

21

Baker, H., The Overseas Chinese, op. cit. See for example, the very different approaches to Indian migration in the colonial period in Tinker, H., A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830–1920. London, Oxford University Press, 1974, compared with Markovits, C., The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750–1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama, Cambridge University Press, 2000. 23 McKeown, A., ‘Conceptualizing Chinese diasporas, 1842 to 1949’, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 58, no. 2, 1999. 24 This approach is a characteristic of Seagrave, Lords of the Rim, op. cit., and a host of other works which view Chinese commercial networks as a threat. 22

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and global significance, as the communist take-over in China, the cold war, and decolonization created ‘hybrid identities.’ In the postmodernist vision of diaspora, the label Chinese would represent a range of locally significant meanings.25 Recent studies have focussed on ‘transnational’ networks and the extent to which they have replaced patrilineal ties, arguing that new links between overseas Chinese entrepreneurs bear witness to the emergence of a ‘global bourgeoisie’.26 Perceptions of identity among diaspora Chinese are also being extended as new areas of settlement are explored. Lok Siu’s work on the Chinese in Panama contends that the concept of diaspora should focus not just on rupture with the homeland but on fluid connections with dispersed co-ethnics. Some Chinese in the Caribbean may be shown to have a level of identification with China or a ‘Greater China’ which differs from others, so that increasingly ‘Chinese-ness’ is seen not as a static entity but as a “continuous interplay and negotiation of the concept”.27 The three Mascarene islands of Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues have been singled out as of particular interest to academic discussion of postcoloniality, situated as they are “geographically and theoretically, at the crossroads of the most consequential ruminations in recent postcolonial theory”.28 Having experienced several variants of European colonialism, been marked by slavery and indenture, and currently held up as a model of multi-culturalism, Mauritius, in particular, has been a focus of recent interest by scholars from a range of disciplines including political science, anthropology and economics.29 It has been said of the 25 Hall, S., ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora’ in Williams P. & Chrisman, L. eds. Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader, Columbia University Press, New York, 1994. 26 See also Yeung, H., Transnational Corporations and Business Networks: Hong Kong Firms in the ASEAN Region. Routledge, London, 1998. 27 See the case studies on Panama and Jamaica in Wilson, A. ed. The Chinese in the Caribbean. Markus Wiener, Princeton, 2004, and the review article by Chu, R.T., ‘Imagining, Contesting, and Negotiating Chinese-ness: Four Books on the Chinese Diaspora’, China Review International, Vol. 13, 2006, pp. 63–82. 28 Prabhu A., Hybridity: Limits, Transformations, Prospects, State University of New York Press, 2007, p. 17. 29 See for example, Miles, W.F.S., ‘The Mauritius Enigma’, Journal of Democracy, 10, 2, April 1999, pp. 91–104; Boswell, R., Le Malaise Créole: Ethnic Identity in Mauritius, Berghahn, New York, 2006; Eriksen, T.H., ‘Nationalism, Mauritian Style: Cultural Unity and Ethnic Diversity’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 36, 3, 1994; Srebrnik, H., ‘Can an Ethnically-based Civil Society Succeed? The Case of Mauritius’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 18, I, 2000; Carroll, B.W. & Carroll, T., ‘Accommodating ethnic diversity in a modernizing democratic state: theory and practice in the case of Mauritius’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 23, 1 Jan 2000, pp. 120–142, and Brautigam, D.,

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island that “in different spheres of daily life, and for different ethnic groups, the dominant cultural mode shifts, and there is no allegiance to one colonial power”.30 Consequently, scholars have concluded that the discourse around ethnic and national identity in Mauritius has much to offer in terms of understanding complex processes of negotiation, applicable to most contemporary societies. Eriksen, for example, believes that Mauritius provides an example of non-ethnic nationalism, because the state is seen as ethnically ‘neutral’ serving a multicultural society.31 In this context it is surprising that some of these same studies tend to view social groups in Mauritius as one-dimensional. This is particularly the case in relation to the creole population of the island, and to the so-called ‘malaise créole’, in which one segment of the population is considered to be disadvantaged in having no ‘ancestral culture’ to draw upon.32 In this debate the creoles are seen as suffering from an identity crisis in contrast to “Hindus whose culture remains strongly Indian, Muslims whose anchor is world Islam, Chinese who emigrate according to opportunity, and Franco-Mauritians whose cultural reference, of course, is France”.33 The ascription of particular characteristics and motivations to studied groups, which in fact could be applied to almost anyone, anywhere, is one of the pitfalls of current debates around these issues. In one study, for example, the author observes “Mauritians perceive themselves in many situations as being qualitatively different from members of other ethnic groups. . . . The very construction of the social person is based on ethnicity in Mauritius”.34 Again, the dangers of ascribing specific motivations to individuals and groups in attempting to explain what may be extremely complex decisions and

‘The “Mauritius Miracle”: Democracy, Institutions and Economic Policy’ in R. Joseph (ed.) State, Conflict and Democracy in Africa, Lynne Rienner, London, 1999. 30 Lionnet, F., ‘Créolité in the Indian Ocean: Two Models of Cultural Diversity’, Yale French Studies, vol. 1, 1993, p. 104. 31 Eriksen, T.H., Ethnicity and Nationalism. Anthropological Perspectives, Pluto Press, London, 1993 (2nd edition 2002) pp. 116–118. 32 The term creole as used throughout this book refers to the island-born population, without reference to ethnic origin. Today in Mauritius ‘creole’ connotes persons of mixed ethnicity, generally African and any other, and has a political significance. Conversely the language spoken in Mauritius is used here with the spelling ‘kreol’. 33 Miles, W.F.S., ‘The Creole Malaise in Mauritius’ African Affairs 98, 391 1999, pp. 211–228. 34 Eriksen, T.H., Common Denominators: Ethnicity, Nation-building and Compromise in Mauritius, 1998, pp. 14–15.

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actions, is unfortunately prevalent, especially in anthropological studies that attempt to get to grips with contemporary ethnic and national identities.35 Thus, Eriksen characterises Sino-Mauritians as adopting ‘Mauritian nationalism’ as a ‘strategic option’: As an economic elite, they have everything to lose in democratic communal competition. It is in their immediate interest that their ethnic identity is publicly under-communicated . . . The strategy has been to remain as invisible as possible externally, and to reproduce ancestral culture and forms of organisation intensely internally. The parallels to diaspora Jews are striking.36

This interpretation raises a number of questions. Can all individuals associated with a given ethnic group be considered to belong to the same economic class—in this case, an elite? To what extent can members of a visible ethnic group—like the Chinese—be considered able to ‘under-communicate’ their ethnic identity? Choices about the adoption of religion, language, and other ethnic signifiers can be predicated upon an almost unending set of factors, some embedded in long-forgotten historical contingencies and others subject to endless renegotiations. Pointing out that the colonial administration in Mauritius categorized arriving immigrants based on an ethnic or racial origin, so that a ‘racist’ approach pervaded the very nature of identity, Prabhu questions how a new vocabulary can be articulated for a society that was and is “structured and universally understood along racial lines”. She argues that “the construction of ethnicity is far more complex within the national sphere of Mauritius than the account provided from an anthropological understanding of the plurality of Mauritius”.37 At the same time, the work of Hastings and others has warned against the over-attribution to colonialism of ethnic identities that have outlived and often pre-dated colonial states and the societies they constructed.38

35 The fictional character of the collective identity is addressed in Benedict Anderson’s brilliant study Imagined Communities—Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, Verso, London, 1991. 36 Eriksen, T.H., Common Denominators, op. cit., p. 81. 37 Prabhu, A., Hybridity, op. cit., p. 59–60, pp. 90–99. 38 Hastings, Adrian, The Construction of Nationhood Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism, Cambridge University Press, 1997. For discussions of the relationship between nationalism and cultural identity see Breuilly, John, Nationalism and the State, Manchester University Press, 1982, p. 35 and Gellner, E., Nations and Nationalism, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1983, p. 7.

introduction

11

Similarly, caution is advised in the correlation of ethnic identity and nationalism with language. The complex question of the role of language in nationalism has been tackled by Hobsbawm who asserts “Where several languages coexist, multilingualism may be so normal as to make an exclusive identification with any one idiom quite arbitrary”.39 In such areas, census data concerning language use may well be unreliable since identification with a particular idiom can depend on a number of factors.40 These points are particularly relevant to Mauritius where ethnicity and notions of community and belonging impact on stated responses to languages spoken. In the 1983 census, for example, a significant number of Chinese reported speaking ‘Mandarin’, which has been explained as due to “the function of Mandarin as the official language of China and the fact that it is the only Chinese language taught in school in Mauritius”.41 The role of ‘ancestral languages’ is peculiarly Mauritian and derives in part from the fact that the link language of the island—‘kreol’—is seen as a ‘poor cousin’ of French, and English, both of which have, however, colonial connotations. The so-called ‘oriental,’ ‘ancestral,’ or ‘Asian’ languages, which, since the 1940s, have been progressively added to the school curriculum in public schools of Mauritius, are conversely a crucial element of ‘diasporic imagining’.42 The presence of ‘ancestral languages’ impinges upon an arena that is already crowded and contestatory in Mauritius. With Mauritians commonly hearing and reading French in the local spoken and written media, learning English, and where appropriate, an oriental language in school, and using ‘kreol’ in every day communication with friends, family and the wider society, it has been well stated that this language use is “not interchangeable. People in Mauritius do not arbitrarily choose between speaking creole and whatever their own domestic language is, because they use each for different purposes.”43

39

Hobsbawm, E.J., Nations and Nationalism since 1780. Programme, myth, reality. Cambridge University Press, 1990. 40 Christopher, A.J., 1992, ‘Ethnicity, community, and the census in Mauritius, 1830–1990’, The Geographic Journal, vol. 58, pp. 57–64. 41 Stein, P., ‘The Value and Problems of Census Data on Languages: An Evaluation of the Language Tables from the 1983 Population Census of Mauritius’ in Fishman, J.A. & Tabouret-Keller, A., Sociolinguistics and the Sociology of Language, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 1986, p. 273. 42 As Miles points out, the validity of these ‘ancestral languages’ is debatable: since they include “Mandarin Chinese and Arabic, though the forebears of no Mauritian community ever spoke them” Miles, W.F.S., ‘The Creole Malaise’, op. cit., pp. 211–228. 43 Hobsbawm, E.J., Nations and Nationalism, op. cit.

12

introduction

Thus, while ethnicity and the spoken word commonly go together, there are sub-ethnicities within every ethnicity.44 In the Mauritian case, such a sub-ethnicity could be that of a Hakka, or a Cantonese Sino-Mauritian. It could also be that of a Telegu, Tamil or Marathi Hindu.45 The Muslim community is similarly divided, with the descendants of small merchant groups, distinguishing themselves from the larger ‘Calcuttiya’ population descended principally from indentured immigrants.46 At the same time such an individual might also adopt any of a range of identities: educational, professional, cultural, religious, which cut across simple linguistic and other identifiers.47 What, in this case, is the primordial or over-riding ethnic identifier of a Sino-Mauritian? Hastings posits a definition of ethnicity as describing the group within which one is normally expected to marry. He adds, “If an ethnicity is an intermarrying society then it will have common ancestors and, undoubtedly, tends to define itself in terms of its common ancestors and very often some specific ‘myth’ of origin”.48 This interpretation has particular resonance for Sino-Mauritians, for whom ancestors are culturally significant, and for whom the founding myth has become the ethic of the poverty of their ancestors and the hard work which has brought them economic success. Even highly successful Sino-Mauritians hark repeatedly back to the humble origins of their forbears: “everyone thinks the Chinese have money, it is a stereotype that the sons of Chinese are all shopkeepers, but the Chinese . . . had to work hard to succeed, and were subjected to many humiliations and difficulties along the way”.49 This recognition of the sacrifices of their grandparents and the ethos of hard work which has been bequeathed to them, remains a powerful symbol for Sino-Mauritians today. 44

Hastings, A., The Construction of Nationhood, op. cit., p. 167. For a case study of the ethnic identity of one such sub-group within the Hindu population see Nirsimloo-Anenden, A., The primordial link: Telugu ethnic identity in Mauritius, Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Moka, 1990. 46 The first detailed study of the history and characteristics of Muslims in Mauritius is by Jahangeer-Chojoo, A., La rose et le henné: Une etude des musulmans de Maurice, Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Moka, 2004. 47 The contemporary reality of Mauritius belies the generalization that “socially as well as professionally, a Mauritian’s life is usually confined to people from the same community and similar economic and educational backgrounds” Simmons, A.S. Modern Mauritius: The Politics of Decolonization, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1982, p. 11. 48 Hastings, A., The Construction of Nationhood, op. cit., p. 169. 49 Interviews were conducted in 2002 in Mauritius. For further details see the note in the bibliography. 45

introduction

13

Diasporic myths, about the homeland, the act of exile, the trauma of the immigrant, and the inculcation of a set of specific ethics, are both potent and persistent. They also have a tendency to homogenise the process of settlement and to underplay the diversity of experience of migration and settlement. The present work uses the case study of Chinese in Mauritius to investigate the complex mechanisms and processes involved in the transplantation of groups of people within the colonial context, and in particular seeks to create a tableau within which the construction of a mythology of migration is set against the realities of the processes of negotiation and communication with the larger society. The book draws upon a wide range of contemporary travel accounts, speeches, political memoirs, literary works, official and unofficial documents, to tease out the minutiae of the migrant experience whilst assessing how the mythology of settlement was created and sustained. The migrant Chinese have been divided into several ‘varieties’ by scholars of diaspora, who tend to separate the contract labourer or ‘coolie’ from the commercial migrant.50 Chapter One assesses the diversity of diasporic experience through an account of the Chinese presence in late 18th and early 19th century Mauritius, through French and British rule. A small number of Chinese slaves, artisans and traders cohabited, in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery in 1834, and apprenticeship in 1839, with a few hundred Chinese labourers imported to the island in the early 1840s. The failure of the experiment to put the Chinese to work in agricultural labour is shown to derive, partly from their urban, artisanal background, and partly from their absorption into the existing Chinese population on the island. Throughout the 19th century, Chinese commerce was dependent on the willingness of men to travel long distances to trade: ships arriving at Mauritius regularly carried Chinese passengers who made long sea journeys with merchandise bought in one part of the British Empire for sale in another, while within the island itself, Chinese pedlars walked far and wide to sell their goods to villagers. The image of the trudging Chinese hawker, with his conical hat and his two baskets of merchandise attached to a bamboo and carried on his shoulder, appears in numerous engravings and illustrations of the 19th century Mascarenes. Studies of

50 See for example, the categories described in Wang Gungwu, The Chinese Overseas from Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy, Harvard University Press, 2000.

14

introduction

the dispersal of Chinese traders in the colonial period have remarked upon the strategies they employed to establish “a foothold in a foreign country”, either sending for, or returning to China to fetch relatives from the natal village “to share in the new opportunities”.51 Chapter Two details the mechanisms by which such a process of chain migration was established and sustained in Mauritius. The ‘middlemen’ role of the Chinese in the Mauritian economy has been articulated by Srebrnik who describes them as moving from retail to a position of domination in many commercial sectors and as “the inspiration” for the Export Processing Zone [EPZ] established on the island in the 1970s.52 Chapter Three investigates the economic role of the Chinese community in the various phases of the island’s history, from the last quarter of the 19th century, when the Chinese moved into production and manufacturing of some of the basic commodities which their compatriots were supplying to the local population. Many of the pioneer small-scale businesses set up by Chinese foundered once larger, multi-national companies arrived on the scene. The cigarette business collapsed in the face of competition from British American tobacco, for example. The island nation, dependent on imports for most of its manufactured goods, created new challenges for the Chinese community particularly during World War II when shortages stimulated Sino-Mauritian businessmen to venture into new areas. The capture of a niche market followed by diversification is a wellknown feature of overseas Chinese trading communities.53 The characteristically disproportionate role played by Chinese diaspora minorities in relation to their numbers, and their position as visible communities in complex post-colonial nations, has prompted scholars to cast them as subtle players, succeeding in conserving a vibrant ethno-cultural distinctiveness while outwardly integrating into their adopted societies. Much has been made in the literature of the importance of ‘clan’ and ‘credit’ organizations in infusing diaspora communities with innovative

51

Pan, L., Sons of the Yellow Emperor, op. cit., p. 18. Srebrnik, H., ‘Ethnicity and the development of a ‘middleman’ economy on Mauritius: The diaspora factor’ Round Table no. 350, 1999. 53 For example, an overview of the career of Robert Kuok, described as the ‘quintessential Asian tycoon’, mentions that he began with the capture of a niche market—flour, palm oil and sugar. He then “branched out into practically everything, from manufacturing to property, from hotels to media.” Economist ‘Empires without Umpires’ 7 April 2001. 52

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15

strategies for raising capital and contacts.54 In the case of Mauritius, it is alleged that despite rapid social change, it is still conceivable for local Chinese to “activate patriclan networks” in pursuit of career opportunities.55 The perceived tactic of ‘avoiding government’ on the part of overseas Chinese has been widely commented upon, in often excessively generalized and stereotypical terms.56 The Sino-Mauritians, specifically, have been described as opting for a strategy of low-visibility in order to deflect potential hostility, and to compensate for their miniscule group size. Indeed, it has been remarked that the Chinese on Mauritius have developed a unique political characteristic among the island’s ethnic groups: “Each community has had strong links with and identified with specific political parties at various times; the only exception is the Chinese community which has never formed its own party and never seems to throw its support behind any other specific party”.57 Lau, a Sino-Mauritian sociologist, has emphasized the Chinese predilection for Confucian-influenced harmony in determining their social and political strategies, asserting that they “display external signs of adaptation in order to function harmoniously in society”.58 SinoMauritian interviewees point out that the Chinese tradition has always been to avoid conflicts, and claim that this explains the tendency of the Chinese to avoid mixing in politics: “it is an attitude; one should not make waves.” They draw upon the community’s founding mythology, to stress that it is the memory of hard work and past suffering and humiliation that have taught the Chinese ‘the importance of succeeding in business and ‘staying out of politics’.59 Chapter Four reassesses these perceptions and generalizations, through an analysis of the methods

54 For example, “Membership of a clan or dialect association often paid off in contacts and sponsorships. There were also the rotating credit associations, a common way of raising at least some of the capital necessary to start a business”. Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor, op. cit., p. 137. 55 Eriksen, T.H., Common Denominators, op. cit., pp. 63–66. 56 The overseas Chinese “shy away from publicity and cling to their own community” according to Kraar, L., ‘The overseas Chinese’, Fortune, vol. 130, no. 9, 1994. 57 Srebrnik, H., ‘Can an Ethnically-based Civil Society Succeed? The Case of Mauritius’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 18, I, 2000. 58 Lau Thi Keng, J.C., Inter-ethnicité et Politique à l’Ile Maurice, l’Harmattan, Paris, 1991. 59 This bears out assertions made in other studies. For example, Mao and Tanzer have also linked “social and political insecurity” to the overseas Chinese drive to make money. Mao, P. & Tanzer, A., ‘The bamboo network’, Forbes, vol. 154, no. 2, 1994.

16

introduction

adopted by the Chinese settlers to police their community, regulate its size, and defend its interests. For pioneer migrants, generally predominantly lone males, clan and occupation-related organisations are said to have served as surrogate or substitute families. At the same time, the migration was often family oriented, in the sense that the decision to migrate may well have been a collective one, with family members helping to sponsor the migrant, and generally benefiting through remittances. The dispersed family may later be reunited as subsequent flows of migration are launched to join ‘family predecessors’.60 The role of family and kin has also been shown to have been important in the promotion of entrepreneurial strategy, with a number of studies suggesting that family ties serve both as a means of asserting identity, as well as to formulate stratagems oriented to commercial success and status within the group.61 It has been said of overseas Chinese that “the organization of the family and the family firm overlap” with both defined by social relationship networks.62 The notion that the typical overseas Chinese company was tightly controlled by intimate family members, led some Western observers to speculate that such firms would topple or splinter once they reached a certain size.63 Other research has shown, however, that while in such diaspora firms, management organised round a family or clan used to be the dominant mode, “highly effective management” has also been allowed to develop beneath, “both in family and non-family hands.”64 Recent academic research has restated the importance of the Chinese family in migration, and has served to demonstrate that opportunism and flexibility and hence ‘transnationalism’ is not a new feature of Chinese migration. Dispersal of the family is often viewed as a “resourceful and resilient way” of strengthening it.65

60

Chan, K.B., ‘A Family Affair: Migration, Dispersal, and the Emergent Identity of the Chinese Cosmopolitan’, Diaspora, vol. 6, no. 2, 1997. 61 Oxfeld, E., Blood, Sweat and Mahjong, Family Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community, Cornell University Press, 1993. 62 Crawford, D., ‘Chinese capitalism: Cultures, the Southeast Asian Region and Economic Globalisation’, Third World Quarterly 21, no. 1, 2000. 63 For a discussion of this literature see Redding, S.G., The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism, Berlin, 1990. 64 Heller, R., ‘How the Chinese Manage to Keep It All in the Family’, Management Today, vol. 46, no. 11, 1991. 65 Chan, K.B., ‘A Family Affair’, op. cit. See also Kotkin, J., ‘A Chinese century?’ American Enterprise, vol. 9, no. 4, 1998.

introduction

17

These generic characteristics of diaspora Chinese family firms have their counterparts in Mauritius, where kin and clan-based groups emerged from the retail and wholesale community to establish local manufacturing industries. Businesses based around families, like the Happy World Group, have continued to expand successfully. The role of family, kin and social networks in the Sino-Mauritian context are discussed in detail in Chapter Five. One aspect of the social or ‘leisure’ activities associated with the Chinese is gambling, and in the colonial context, opium dens. Scholars have found it difficult to square the frugal and investment-oriented ethos of diaspora Chinese with the observed habits of “inveterate gamblers”.66 Studies of early Chinese migrant societies have sought to explain such leisure activities as both a part of the ‘baggage of habits’ Chinese emigrants took with them and a device for “palliating the harshness of a life lived in an alien country without the company of women and the consolations of family.”67 Descriptions of visits to joss houses, with annexed gambling rooms, and opium dens are a stock in trade of Western published accounts of Chinese diaspora communities in the 19th and early 20th centuries, intent on emphasizing the ‘exotic’. The long-running stereotypes about the Chinese which also have a place in Mauritian folklore, can be attributed in part to collective memories of hardship and perceptions of unfair competition as one community is seen to be driving other ethnic groups out of a particular economic sector. Chapter Six looks at the genesis and enduring character of local anecdotes and appraisals of the Sino-Mauritians and discusses the ways in which the Chinese acted to counter hostility from the host society. Finally, in seeking to understand the settlement of the Chinese in Mauritius, this chapter draws together the themes of earlier sections of the book to underscore the extent to which the community could not and did not act in isolation, and to demonstrate therefore that their story is as much one of successful negotiation and transaction with other ethnic groups as it is of elucidating and distilling any recipe for socio-economic success from within the community itself.

66

See Oxfeld, Blood, Sweat and Mahjong, and the review of this work: Lee Tai Lo ‘Review Article—Chinese in Calcutta’, Pacific Affairs, vol. 68, no. 3, 1995. 67 Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor, op. cit., p. 39; Lee Tai Lo, Early Chinese Immigrant Societies, Heinemann Publishers Asia, 1988.

18

introduction Chisimayu

Nairobi

Lake Victoria

Mombasa

Victoria Les Amirantes

Pemba Zanzibar

TANZANIA

Dar es Salaam

SEYCHELLES

Mafia l. Groupe d’Aldabra

Lindi

Glorioso Is.

Moroni

Cargados Carajos Shoals

l

Tromelin I.

ne

an Ch ue

biq

am Mo z

Juan de Nova l.

(FRANCE)

12

OCEAN

MALAWI

Beira

INDIAN

Agalega Is.

(administered by France, claimed by Comoros)

MOZAMBIQUE

Diego Garcia

(MAURITIUS)

COMOROS Mayotte

Lilongwe

Chagos Archipelago

(U.K.)

Coetivy

Atoll de Providence Atoll de Farquhar

(FRANCE)

12

Lake Nyasa

Atoll de Cosmoledo

British Indian Ocean Territory

Mahé

(FRANCE)

(MAURITIUS)

MADAGASCAR

Port Louis

Antananarivo

Bassas da India

Saint-Denis

(FRANCE)

Reunion (FRANCE)

Europa l.

M

(FRANCE)

Rodrigues (MAURITIUS)

MAURITIUS

re n asca

s e Is l a n d Tropic of Capricorn

24

24

0 0 36

48

400 Kilometers 400 Nautical Miles

60

72

Location of Mauritius in the Western Indian Ocean

The Hakka Village of Moyean [Meixian] ancestral home of many Sino-Mauritians

CHAPTER ONE

SLAVES, CONVICTS, FIELD WORKERS AND ARTISANS: THE CHINESE IN THE COLONIAL LABOUR DIASPORAS The island of Mauritius in the southwest Indian Ocean was populated by European colonisers who brought labourers, companions and fellowsettlers from territories, principally elsewhere in the region, which they had occupied or where they traded. The Chinese presence in Mauritius probably dates from the 17th century when Dutch settlers brought convict labour from their South East Asian settlements to the island, but few details are available. More concrete evidence of Chinese settlement is available for the 18th century, when the French colonised the island. Their corsairs captured Chinese traders and artisans, enslaving some of them, and brought them to their Isle of France. Most were repatriated, but a few settled. Following the British take-over of the island in 1810, Mauritius—reverting to its Dutch name—was caught up in the great labour diasporas of the 19th century which definitively shaped the colonial Indian Ocean world. In this chapter the experiences of the Chinese as slaves, plantation workers and artisans are described and their place alongside the importation of servile and indentured African and Indian labour is discussed. A Note on Nomenclature Discovering the early presence of persons of a Chinese origin in Mauritius is complicated by the vague definitions of birthplace and ethnicity which were current in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Chinese taken to the Mascarenes in this period were mostly brought from Indonesia, and hence might also be confused with another category of immigrants known as ‘malais’ [malays]. Dutch records tend to designate immigrants with reference to the place from which they had been transported, rather than according to an ethnic origin. Conversely, in the 18th century French records, immigrants of Asiatic origin were often indiscriminately labelled as Indians, and in several cases the category of ‘chinois’ [Chinese] is subsumed within a broader definition of ‘indien’ [Indian]. For example, the anonymous Isle of France based

20

chapter one

author of a memoir about the colony in the mid 18th century opined that “the Indians, notably the Chinese” would make good settlers, being hard working. Similarly, Gratia Vigoureux, whom we know from other sources to have been Chinese, is described variously and confusingly in the archival record—sometimes as of ‘caste indienne’ and at other times as a ‘chinoise’.1 Even in the British 19th century records, the nomenclature of arriving Chinese was generally too abbreviated to denote a clear ethnic origin, but the proliferation of documents attesting to birthplace and other bio data of individuals, as they acquired property and settled on the island has enabled historians to trace three phases of Chinese settlement in Mauritius, involving, firstly Fukienese, secondly Cantonese, and thirdly Hakka immigrants.2 Dutch Settlements in the Indian Ocean Indian Ocean trade networks of the 17th century were dominated by the Dutch and the Portuguese. Fortified trading posts were set up, followed by the acquisition of colonial territories: the Portuguese established themselves at Malacca and Macao, while the Dutch East India Company (known as the VOC) was headquartered at Batavia (present day Djakarta) in Java, Indonesia. Migration to South East Asia by Chinese had predated European conquest of those islands, and, under Dutch hegemony from 1619, the Chinese population of Batavia increased to around 3,000. As well as the invited traders, some Chinese were involuntary residents, having been taken in kidnapping forays or seized from junks. In the 1680s a second wave of migration considerably increased the number of ethnic Chinese on the island. The Huguenot refugee, Francois Leguat, who visited Batavia in 1697 has left an account of his year-long sojourn. Leguat was surprised by his first encounter with Chinese people there whom he described as being ‘as white as Frenchmen’, hard working, and talented in commerce.3 1 Archives Nationales d’Outre Mer [ANOM] Depot des Fortifications des Colonies [DFC] Carton 10 Memoire no. 61 c. 1750; ANOM Etat Civil [EC] Pamplemousses, 1776. 2 Fukien or Fujian is a coastal eastern province; Canton (Guangzhou) is in South China; Hakka or ‘guest people’ are believed to originate in north China. Most Hakka Chinese in Mauritius trace their origins to Moiyean (Meixian) in the district of Kwangtung. 3 Oliver, P., The Voyage of Francois Leguat of Bresse to Rodriguez, Mauritius, Java and the Cape of Good Hope, London. The Hakluyt Society, 1891, 2 volumes.

the chinese in the colonial labour diasporas

21

After the formal acquisition of Mauritius by the Dutch in 1638, the labour supply of this new colony was in part derived from convicts—prisoners and rebels—imported from their base on Batavia. Ethnic Chinese may well have been among Batavian convicts sent to work on the island. It is certainly the case that some of the convicts transported from Indonesia to the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope were of Chinese origin. Whilst many of the Chinese in Batavia were wealthy traders and slave-owners themselves, persons who became indebted to the Company or who committed other offences—including resistance to Dutch colonisation projects—could be banished to the smaller Dutch settlements such as the Cape of Good Hope.4 There is a reference to three such condemned Chinese being disembarked on Mauritius in the spring of 1654 from the Haas.5 As most Chinese in Batavia at the time were from Fukien (Fujian), it is likely that some of the transported Chinese convicts were Fukienese.6 South East Asian convicts on Mauritius are known to have taken part in a number of arson attacks on Fort Frederick Hendryck, the principal Dutch settlement on the island, but their identification by a given name and an island origin [for example Piet of Batavia], rather than an ethnic status does not permit us to state definitively whether any of them originated from mainland China.7 Since the Dutch abandoned Mauritius around 1710, there are no known descendants on the island from this period of colonial settlement. Chinese Immigrants in the 18th Century Isle of France Whilst not as well entrenched in the Indian Ocean as the Dutch, the French made several attempts to muscle in on the spice trade during the 18th century, and the celebrated naturalist and traveller, Pierre

4 For numerous examples of the banishment of Chinese in Batavia to the Cape and elsewhere and details of crimes committed see Leibbrandt, H.C.V. Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope, 17 vols, W.A. Richards Cape Town, 1896–1906. 5 Moree, P.J., A Concise History of Dutch Mauritius, 1598–1710, Kegan Paul, 1998, p. 40. 6 Yap, M. & Leong Man, D., Colour, Confusion and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa, Hong Kong University Press, 1996, p. 6. 7 For a graphic account of life on the Dutch island of Mauritius at this time, and the problems arising from the convicts’ rebelliousness, see Momber’s despatch to the Cape, 26 Oct. 1706, reproduced in Barnwell, P.J., Visits and Despatches, Mauritius 1598–1948, Port Louis, 1948, pp. 87–92.

22

chapter one

Poivre, was a pioneer for French traders in the region, visiting Macao, Manilla and Batavia between 1741 and 1755. The French, who established a permanent settlement on their Isle of France (the new name for Mauritius) from 1715, also set up trading links with the port of Canton, on mainland China. It was as a consequence of these exploratory and commercial voyages, that a trickle of Chinese immigrants arrived on the island in the 18th century. Like the Dutch, the French were obliged to rely on servile labour to help establish the early infrastructure of their new colonies, and took the opportunity of Indian Ocean trade to exchange or import slaves. Within a few decades of French settlement, Chinese slaves were among those brought to the island. A Chinese source indicates that in 1727 some Chinese gardeners arrived from Calcutta, part of Poivre’s schemes to improve cultivation on the Isle of France.8 Records extant in the Mauritius Archives testify to the presence of Chinese from the 1740s. For example, on 10 April 1743, Simon, described as a Chinese carpenter, was listed among a group of slaves sold by the then Governor, Mahe de Labourdonnais to J. Baptiste Petit and his wife.9 There were also Chinese women on the island, as the will of a French sea captain, Louis Vigoureux, dated 22 December 1745, testifies. He described two of his female slaves as being ‘of Chinese nation’ and wished to reward them for their faithful service over a number of years.10 The forced settlement of a group of Chinese traders was less successful. In 1760, the Comte d’Estaing, a French privateer operating from the Isle of France, raided the Sumatran port of Benkulen, carrying off numbers of African slaves and ‘west coast Chinese’.11 They were loaded onto French ships but the convoy encountered bad weather, and one of the vessels, carrying many Chinese women and children, was separated from the others. A second ship was wrecked off Bourbon, but it appears that those on board were saved, as a statement of sale of the 8 Helly, D., ‘Des Immigrants Chinois dans les Mascareignes’, Annuaire des Pays de l’Océan Indien, III, 1976, p. 107. 9 Mauritius Archives [MA] Notarial Archives [NA] 8/3 Testament de Louis Vigoureux, 22 décembre 1745. 10 .MA NA 1 A/1 Acte de vente de Labourdonnais à J. Baptiste Petit et son épouse, 10 avril 1743. For further details of these and similar cases see Ly Tio Fane, H., ‘Une phase peu connue de l’immigration chinoise à Maurice’ L’Aurore, no. 27 Jan. 1991, p. 8. 11 Bastin, J., The British in West Sumatra 1685–1825, University of Malaya Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1965, p. 39; Wright, A. and Reid, T.H., The Malay Peninsula A Record of British Progress in the Middle East, T Fisher Unwin, London 1912, pp. 44–5.

the chinese in the colonial labour diasporas

23

slaves taken off that vessel indicates.12 Records of the incident conserved in the archives of the government of India, reveal that “upwards one hundred Chinese women and children were landed and left at Batavia by the French” and arrangements were made for them to return to the fort. The Court of Directors of the British East India Company also wrote to its representatives at Fort Marlborough informing them The introducing a number of industrious Chinese familys to reside under our protection upon the West Coast is a measure highly necessary and the more so since the French carried off those who had long resided at Fort Marlbro. We have therefore given directions to our Resident Supracargoes at Canton to pursue the orders we gave in the year 1757 and enforced every year since to engage as many such as they can to proceed to our settlements upon the west coast.13

Meanwhile, following his successful raids, privateer D’Estaing blithely informed the Isle of France administrators that he would attempt to persuade the Chinese families brought from Benkulen, to agree to remain [on Mauritius] where they would be “useful for your island because of the industrious qualities of this type of people”.14 A French visitor to the Isle of France at around this time, the Abbé Alexandre Pingre, noted the presence there of at least 60 of these individuals. He reported that after having been on the island for 7 or 8 months they had accomplished no work. As Pingre was leaving, he declared that the Governor was threatening to cut off their rations if they continued to refuse to work. It was intended to give them a 6 year contract, after which they would be free to leave the island.15 A rather different story emerges from the official Mauritian sources wherein it is stated that the traumatized Chinese who survived the

12 Etat de la vente des esclaves faisant partie de la cargaison du Bot no. 2 envoyé par le comte d’Estaing de Bancoul à l’île de France et naufragé à Bourbon, 1761, described in Lougnon, Albert Classement et Inventaire du Fonds de la Compagnie des Indes, G. Couderc, Nerac, 1956. 13 India Office Records [IOR] G/35/31 Court of Directors to Resident, Fort Marlborough, 4 June 1762. See also IOR G/35/12 for related correspondence from Fort Marlborough. 14 ANOM C 2/97 Correspondance du Comte d’Estaing aux Administrateurs de l’Ile de France, 15 août 1760, Batavia. Bencoulen is the colonial spelling for the province of Bengkulu in Sumatra, where the castle established by the British known as Fort Marlborough was also located. 15 Pingre, Abbé A.G., Courser Venus Voyage Scientifique à l’Ile Rodrigue, 1761, Editions Terres Créoles, Reunion 1993, p. 117.

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passage to the Isle of France could not be persuaded to work. DesforgesBoucher, the French Governor, reported that the men were “overcome with sorrow”, by the loss of their relatives, and furthermore were “not labourers, but merchants”. This was confirmed by the Chinese kapitan at Batavia, who requested their return. The French, desperate for labour, attempted to secure the services of the Chinese with promises of abundant food and brandy, but they insisted on being repatriated and left in 1762.16 These labourers were classed as free, as it is most probably they who are represented in the 1761 census as among the ‘noirs libres’ or free blacks—the term noir being, at this time, a catch-all term for any person who could not be classified as ‘white’, the top tier of the population. They are enumerated as 57 men and 23 women, with no children amongst them.17 Following this disappointment, the French Governor proposed to make more suitable arrangements to bring Chinese labourers to the island, hoping to engage “families of workers and cultivators” who would be offered return passages after their contracts expired, if they did not wish to remain. Some sources state that ‘thousands’ of Chinese artisans and labourers subsequently arrived at the Isle of France in the mid 1780s brought by English, Danish and French ships from Canton.18 Such a large influx of Chinese labourers is not borne out in local civil status documents or other 18th century records. Instead, the majority of the few Chinese on the Isle of France who do appear in local archival sources, seem to have been involuntary immigrants—brought by adventurers and privateers and kept as slaves. Civil status registers provide some evidence of the Chinese slave presence, resulting from this and other razzias of the redoubtable Isle of France based privateers. In 1761, two natives of Macao are listed among the register of government slaves, while: in 1792 a 60 year old male Chinese slave was recorded as having died in Flacq. Another, Jean Benoit, born on the Isle of France of Chinese parents, is reported as having died in the same region, in

16 This incident is discussed by, among others, Tsang Mang Kin, J., ‘Les Chinois de Maurice’ in Hua Lien Souvenir Magazine 2006, Trianon, pp. 80–86, and is mentioned by Pan, L., Sons of the Yellow Emperor, op. cit., p. 28. 17 ANOM DFC Carton 11 No. 132 Extrait du Recensement Général de l’Isle de France, 1761. 18 Fang Chih-ken (ed.) Selected Materials on the History of the Overseas Chinese in Africa, Peking, 1986, p. 121, also cited in Pan, L., Sons of the Yellow Emperor, pp. 28–9.

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1791. The advanced age of the former, and the creole, or island born status of the latter, indicate that their arrival is likely to have occurred decades earlier.19 Other information can be gleaned from travellers’ accounts. Visitors to the Isle of France frequently remarked on the heterogeneous character of the servile population. Bernardin de St Pierre, who arrived in Port Louis20 in 1768, noted the presence of ‘Chinese from Batavia’ whom he described as short of stature, with long hair. They did not accept their servile condition easily, being depicted as ‘sad and of ferocious passions’.21 Fortunately, slavery was not necessarily a life sentence. Long and devoted service, as evinced by the Chinese slaves of Louis Vigoureux mentioned above, was one way of escaping from slavery into the second tier of colonial society—to the status of ‘noirs libres’ or free coloureds. Women who served as the sexual partners of white or free men had the best chance of being freed, particularly if they had borne children to their erstwhile owners. In 1745, close to death, and dictating to a notary, Louis Vigoureux took great pains to ensure the freedom of his Chinese female slaves after his death. In consideration for the long service which Pauline and Gratia had rendered him, particularly looking after his property during his lengthy sea voyages, he bequeathed to the former, the sum of 500 piastres and 2 slaves. The child which Pauline was then carrying was also provided for—with a yearly pension until adulthood. The two slaves and the unborn child were also given their freedom.22 From enfranchisements like that accorded to Gratia and Pauline emerged a free Chinese community in the Isle of France who subsequently could themselves become slave owners. The census of 1776 lists a Gratia Vigoureux as residing in Port Louis at the ‘rempart’. She is described as 40 years old, a seamstress, and the owner of 3 slaves. Three children resided with her. The following year, in May 1777 the baptism of the daughter of a Mozambican slave named Marie is listed, the property of Gratia, registered as a free Chinese woman. Another 19 ANOM G1/505/7 Recensement general des Noirs, Negresses et Enfants appartenant a la Compagnie, existant au 20 avril 1761 non compris ceux du Port du Sud Est; ANOM Etat Civil [EC] Flacq Deces, 1791–2. 20 Port Louis is the principal port of Mauritius, located on the northwest coast. 21 Bernardin de St Pierre, Voyage à l’Ile de France, Merlin, Paris, 1773. 22 MA NA8/3C Testament de Louis Vigoureux, 22 décembre 1745. The freeing of the slaves suggests that they too may have been his own children.

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1.1. Colonial Macao

Chinese woman, Marie Louise, is recorded as residing at the home of Desennes, Inspector of Police in Port Louis during the 1770s. In February of 1778, another civil status entry informs us of the marriage of Jean Gabriel, the son of Gratia by an un-named man.23 Jean Gabriel’s occupation is listed as that of fisherman; his bride is named as Marie Francoise, the minor daughter of Adrienne Phebie, a free Malay woman. On 23 November 1780 the new born son of Jean Gabriel and Marie Francoise died. By then Jean Gabriel had taken up the trade of a tailor.24 In this way, the civil status records enable us to follow the lives of the otherwise little-known community of 18th century Chinese—first enslaved, then freed, and become slave-owners themselves. At least one male Chinese slave was enfranchised. Hyacinth Ambroise described in the 1780 Census as a 26 year old Chinese from Macao was the freed slave of Jean Michel Dumont. He married in Flacq on 2 Fructidor of Year III of the Revolution at the age of 40. His 15 year

23 The fact that Jean Gabriel’s father is not named implies that he may well have been a white man, since coloured men usually acknowledged children, even those born out of wedlock, whereas it was exceptional for white men to acknowledge paternity of slave children at this time. 24 ANOM EC Port Louis 1778 and 1780.

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old wife, Marie Jeanne, was the creole daughter of Antoine La Victoire and Marie Francoise.25 The Chinese free community on the Isle of France was also composed of individuals brought to the island on contract as skilled workers. French-Mauritian traders, having established direct commercial links with Canton in China, brought some of these early Chinese settlers back with them. For example, in 1783 Charles de Constant, a French commercial agent established in Canton, embarked 132 Chinese on the ship of Mauritian merchant d’Arifat. A number of artisans, including shoemakers, blacksmiths, tailors and carpenters were among them.26 Some Chinese came in as sailors aboard these ships. The hospital records for 4 July 1783 mention the death of Wu from scurvy. He was a Chinese born sailor, who had recently arrived on the ship La Vienna.27 The records of the free Chinese provide some evidence of the employments of this little known community. The 1788 census, for example, lists 46 year old Macao-born Vincent, who worked as a maroon hunter in Flacq, and owned a plot of land there.28 Domingue of Macao, 55, lived in Pamplemousses, and was a guard at the King’s reserves. Unusually, details of his parents have also been found in the records; they were described as Chinese Christians—named Felix Antoine and Anne.29 Whatever stories of migration, displacement and hardship lie behind these glimpses from the archival record of the miniscule Chinese community on the Isle of France, by the close of the Napoleonic Wars, when the island passed into the hands of the British, it had all but disappeared, through death and through absortion of descendants into the creole population. The Importation of Chinese Labourers and Convicts into British Mauritius With the British accession to power, the slave trade, and later slavery itself, was abolished, and attempts were made almost immediately after

25

ANOM G1 474 Recensement: année 1780. Ly Tio Fane, H., La Diaspora chinoise dans l’océan Indien Occidental, Institut d’Histoire des pays d’outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence, 1981, p. 65. 27 ANOM G1/505/6 Liste des Gens Morts aux Hopitaux du Roy pendant l’annee 1783 et porté sur les Registres des paroisses de cette Isle. 28 ANOM G1 476 Recensement: année 1788. 29 ANOM EC Pamplemousses, 1789. 26

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1.2. 18th century Canton

the conquest of 1810, to import ‘free’ labour to bolster and then to replace the dwindling slave population. The first British Governor of Mauritius, Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar was enthusiastic about the possibility of importing Chinese artisans and agriculturalists. Having previously authored a treatise on the viability of employing Chinese labour in the West India colonies, when he acceded to the Governorship of Mauritius he took steps to put his views into practice. Writing home in 1812 he remarked:

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The vast multitudes and unremitting industry of the Chinese and their progress in agriculture naturally lead us to look to that country of overflowing population, for a supply of thinly peopled colonies—artizans and manufacturers who are much wanted, may be equally procured from the same source . . . To obviate an objection which might be made to the introduction of Chinese with a prospect of permanent amelioration, arising from the circumstance that it is the male population alone of China that can be drawn from that country—supplies might be obtained from Batavia whence families may easily be induced to emigrate.30

Farquhar’s close associate, Charles Telfair, former naval surgeon turned planter, was given a concession of two of the Seychelles islands [St Anne and Ile aux Cerfs] in July 1811, to conduct the experiment with Chinese labour.31 These isolated islands were particularly chosen as being far from other plantations where labour was supplied by slavery. Farquhar’s next step was to apply to Sir Stamford Raffles, then Governor of Java, “to send to this island, by every favorable occasion, Chinese labourers, from the overflowing population of that nation, at Batavia”. Meanwhile Telfair planted provisions, cotton, spice and coconut trees, awaiting the arrival of his labourers. When the Chinese workers arrived at Mauritius, they were initially installed at Farquhar’s residence on Reduit, pending their distribution among the various planters. But from the moment of their landing, they exhibited such appearances of insubordination, and habits of idleness, thieving and gambling, that it became interesting, to know something of their previous history; when it was found, that the person who had been directed by Sir Stamford Raffles to select the Chinese labourers, had availed himself of the occasion to send us a parcel of vicious and vagabond Chinese artisans, and outcasts, utterly irreclaimable, to the course of honest and laborious industry, for which they were required. These people were therefore sent back to Java.32

Further arrangements due to be undertaken by Raffles, were interrupted by the restoration of Java to the Dutch, at the peace of 1814. Telfair himself did not give up on the scheme of importing Chinese labour, announcing, in 1827, “I have never lost sight of it; and it was again in progress to execution, last year, when suddenly stopped, by the 30 NA CO 167/10 Isles of Bourbon and France, 1812 Farquhar to Liverpool 28 July 1812. 31 NA CO 415/10 d’Unienville to Commissioners, 1 June 1827. 32 NA CO 415/10 Telfair to Commissioners, 9 May 1827.

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unexpected death of the persons who had entered into engagements, with the planters here, to land a stipulated number of Chinese labourers from Canton”. He described yet another attempt in May of the same year, when “several of the most opulent planters had subscribed for 100 labourers, each”.33 Immediate labour shortages were met, however, not by such schemes to import free skilled workers, but by convicts, imported from India, chiefly employed on public works, particularly the arduous labour of road building and repair. Among them were a few Chinese. Panjoo, a Chinese shop keeper in Bombay, had been convicted of selling stolen goods. Having purchased them—he claimed—in good faith from an Arab merchant, and displayed them publicly in his shop, he was seized by the police, his shop confiscated, and he was sentenced to transportation. Another Chinese transportee, named Anore, was put to work with Indian convicts, at the Grand River camp. In 1831 he was among several who were convicted for drunkenness.34 Schemes to import Chinese labour continued to be put forward, however, stimulated by the incipient abolition of slavery. On 9 August 1826, William Gordon reported to the Mauritian Governor, Sir Lowry Cole, on a visit he had made to China two years earlier, during which, he claimed: “I ascertained that free Chinese labourers might without difficulty be brought from that country for the purpose of being employed as hired and indentured agricultural servants in this island” but stating that he was anxious to “have the sanction of this government”. Having been commissioned to return to China to recruit labour, an agreement was drawn up with prospective employers, but Gordon died before the plan could be put into practice.35 Two years later, a different scheme was implemented, when a number of workers, reputed to be suitable for sugar cane labour, were recruited from Penang and Singapore. The experiment was again unsuccessful; the Chinese labourers—apparently dissatisfied with the terms and conditions of their contracts—reportedly abandoned their work and became vagrants. Captain R. Vickers, author of a pamphlet about 33

Ibid. MA RA 403 Police Générale Rapport du 6 au 7 octobre 1829; RA456 Police Générale Rapport du 19 au 20 mai 1831. For a detailed study of convicts in Mauritius, see Anderson, C., Convicts in the Indian Ocean: Transportation from South Asia to Mauritius, 1815–1853. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. 35 IB 21 William Gordon to Governor Lowry Cole, 9 August 1826. This was undoubtedly the plan to which Telfair had referred in his letter of 1827. 34

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slavery and apprenticeship in Mauritius, and who was on the island in the late 1820s, wrote that two British merchant ships had brought 400 Chinese there in August 1829. He described them as inferior workers and turbulent, despite being given daily rations, clothing and 6 Spanish dollars monthly. He claimed that “one murdered another not long after arrival, and another assaulted an overseer so violently as to nearly kill him”. A third followed the overseer on the estate of Mme Husson ‘one of the richest proprietors of the island’ and threatened him with a drawn knife, a threat which he may have carried out had he not been seized by the slaves in the sugar mill.36 De Froberville, a French colonist on the island recorded the planters’ dissatisfaction with their labour, stating that there was not an estate without a complaint about their conduct, while a British officer on military service at the time, commented succinctly on the whole experiment: “the want of slaves induced many of the planters to send for Chinese free labourers, and several hundreds were imported at a great expense; but unfortunately they did not answer, and were obliged to be reshipped for their native country again at the charge of those who sent for them”.37 A British merchant in Mauritius also admitted later, that “The choice of these men may not have been happy” He contended that they “exhibited immediately on their landing, a disposition to impose on their employers” despite regular contracts having been drawn up in Singapore and two months’ advance of wages paid to them there. “The whole plan, I regret to say, must be considered a failure”. He complained, in particular, that the police on the island “have no power to compel the labourers to perform their agreement, and hence the mischief, and defeat of the plan”.38 Not dissuaded by these abortive attempts to introduce Chinese labour, in 1832, colonists presented another scheme to the Governor. This was forwarded to the Colonial Office, where James Stephen minuted in response: “If free labourers will come and work, no one can doubt that

36 Vicars, R., Representation of the State of Government Slaves and Apprentices in the Mauritius; with observations. London, James Ridgway, 1830, p. 73. 37 E.L. ‘An Account of the Mauritius’ The United Service Journal, 1831. De Froberville complained “Les Chinois font des farces, on commence à se fatiguer de leurs services” cited in Helly, D., ‘Des Immigrants Chinois dans les Mascareignes’, Annuaire des Pays de l’Océan Indien, III, 1976, p. 109. 38 NA CO 167/168 Scheme for introduction of free Chinese and Indian labourers, Mr Passmore, 21 Jan. 1832.

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it would be a great advantage. But it seems that the difficulty is that when they come, they will not execute their agreement”. He pointed out that the flaws in the plan for importing Chinese labour would likely lead to further disappointment: The Malay or Chinese would make his contract at Singapore or at Canton with a person whose language he did not understand and without the least suspicion how valuable his labour really would be at Mauritius, and with no Guardian to prevent his being cheated. Arrived at Mauritius, he would find out that he had made a very improvident contract and would refuse to perform it.39

Stephen, on this as on many other aspects of the perennial labour question in Mauritius, was not willing to see contractual immigrants compelled by legislation to accept lower than the market value for their wages. As he foresaw, it would only be when wages rose significantly, following the abolition of slavery in 1839, that substantial numbers of Chinese labourers would willingly remain in estate labour for any length of time. Indeed, the dismissal of the 1829 immigrants as unsuitable and turbulent, cannot be taken at face value. They did not all become vagrants as suggested—numbers of them simply took up other employments in the capital, later petitioning to regularise their status, as we shall see below. As the apprenticeship system finally ended the involuntary labour of the ex-slaves in 1839, the sugar producing colonies of the West Indies and Mauritius once again looked to China as a source of labour. They noted the annual migration of Chinese to the labour markets of the Straits Settlements, and their aptitude for hard work in the plantations of Penang. As 1840 dawned Mauritius planters accordingly arranged for the importation of 1,000 labourers from the Straits Settlements on two year contracts.40 These contracts were forwarded for reference to West India planters, who would follow suit a decade later, when the Chinese ports of Namoa and Whampoa despatched an annual supply of “coolies” to Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica during the mid 1850s.41 Heavy mortality and high transportation costs prevented long term

39

NA CO 167/168 Minute of J. Stephen, 8 Dec. 1832. Campbell, P.C., Chinese Coolie Emigration to Countries within the British Empire, London, 1923, pp. 188–9. 41 The chief ports of embarkation for the infamous Chinese coolie trade were reportedly Amoy, Namoa, Shanghai, Swatau and Macao: Lubbock, B., Coolie Ships and Oil Sailers, Nautical Press, Glasgow, 1955, p. 32. 40

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recourse to this migration scheme, but between 1853 and 1884, more than 17,000 Chinese went to the British West Indies.42 The flow of Chinese workers to Mauritius—which had the great labour reservoir of India to tap nearby—was largely confined to periods when Indian emigration was temporarily suspended. Between December 1840 and July 1843, 19 ships brought 3,000 Chinese to Mauritius. Another 5,000 arrived between July 1843 and the end of 1844. This ended the main phase of Chinese labour immigration to the island. However in 1844–46, 1,720 Chinese went to the neighbouring island of Bourbon on labour contracts, and once these were completed, many left for Mauritius.43 An initial batch of 297 Chinese labourers from Prince of Wales island [Penang] was reported by the Governor to have arrived in July 1841. In the following month, 3 more ships brought another 518 Chinese labourers from Penang and Singapore. Such was the demand for labour in 1841 that many planters petitioned to employ any and every individual they came across.44 By the end of 1842, with immigration from India suspended, the Chinese were being seen as the saviours of the sugar economy, with the Governor reporting, Although many Indians have left the colony during the year, generally taking with them considerable sums of money, the number of labourers has not diminished as many Malagash and Chinese men have been introduced and have replaced the Indians who have returned to their own country.45

In 1843, a further 582 Chinese were imported to Mauritius, but by now Indian immigration had been reopened, diminishing the need for alternative sources of labour. On this occasion, the travellers’ reports were decidedly more favourable to the Chinese. A Royal Navy officer, who arrived aboard the Thunderer in 1843, reported witnessing, during his stay on Mauritius, the arrival of 28 ships bringing Indian, Chinese and Malay labourers. Of

42

Dookhan, I., A Post-Emancipation History of the West Indies, Collins, 1977, p. 49. PP 1846 (691) p. 178; PP 1850 (228) Return showing the number of immigrants admitted to Mauritius. See also Miege, J.L., ‘L’Indenture Labour Dans l’Ocean Indien et le Cas Particulier de l’Ile Maurice’ conference paper, Leiden, 1982, p. 22. 44 For example, Evenor Dupont and another colonist even competed for permission to take into their service 8 Burmese men who were shipwrecked and picked up by a vessel on her way to Mauritius. 45 CO167/241 Gomm to Stanley 15 Dec. 1842. 43

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1.3a–b. Chinese labour, at work in the Cane Fields

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these, he remarked, “The Chinese are said to be the steadiest and most industrious”.46 Another military man, an aide de camp, saw a ship full of labourers who had completed their contracts on Mauritius, bound for Singapore, and commented that the latter devote a certain number of years to the arduous culture of the sugar cane in that colony, and when they consider they have collected together a sufficiency to enable them to enjoy the remainder of their lives in ease and to purchase the scanty comforts which their very frugal habits bid them demand, they take the first opportunity of returning to the Presidency of Sincapore, where the Chinese form a considerable portion of the colony, and where they enjoy more freedom and liberty than in their own much boasted Celestial Empire, from which they, by the act of quitting, have expatriated themselves, their return rendering them amenable to capital punishment.47

The arriving Chinese labourers were dispersed quickly around the island to the proprietors of various sugar estates. Chapman & Barclay, one of the most important estate agents and planters, distributed 295 Chinese introduced by them in the following manner: Table 1.1. Distribution of a Group of Chinese Labourers Name of Proprietor

No. of Chinese

Hunter & Arbuthnot & Co. Hunter & Arbuthnot & Co. Hunter & Arbuthnot & Co. W.W.West Esq. Chapman & Barclay Chapman & Barclay Chaline Leclézio Chas. Rouillard Ulcoq Dupuis

48 25 25 100 20 11 19 18 10 10 9

Estate Belle Etoile (Flacq) The Mount (Pamplemousses) Belle Alliance (Pamplemousses) The Vale (Pamplemousses) Queen Victoria (Flacq) Bon Espoir (Pamplemousses) Terracine (Savanne) Grand Baie (Pamplemousses) Ile D’Ambre (Riviere du Rempart) Bras d’Eau (Flacq) Laura (Riviere du Rempart)

Source: MA RA 677 Distribution List.

46

Davy, H., ‘Voyage of H M S Thunderer to the Mauritius and Back’, The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle, 1844, p. 208. 47 Cunynghame, A., An Aide-de-Camp’s Recollections of Service in China, 2 vols, London, Saunders & Otley, 1844, p. 52.

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Why did these Chinese labourers come to Mauritius? Verbal examinations of new arrivals, conducted in 1841 to ascertain the voluntary character of the migration, provide important insights into the background and motivations of these workers. On the arrival of the Ganges from Penang in July of that year, Assene, a Macao-born 33 year old carpenter, explained that he had been unable to find sufficient work in Penang where he had been resident for 10 years, and had consequently come to Mauritius to seek work as a carpenter. Another immigrant, from Chuichou, had been a sugar maker in Penang and came to Mauritius assured of a supervisory job in the industry. Among other men arriving by the same ship, were a former pork butcher, a porter, a mason, a sailor, retailers, and a pepper planter.48 The men universally indicated that higher wages prevailing in Mauritius at that time—with earnings expected to be in the range of $6 to $8 per month, compared to $4 or $5 which was the average wage in Penang—had encouraged them to migrate. However, these wage rates were only available in Mauritius for a very limited period, when the crisis of slave abolition combined with a temporary halting of Indian immigration to produce an acute labour crisis. Once Indian workers began to arrive from January 1843, under a new government regulated system of immigration, wages fell. Not surprisingly, numbers of Chinese labourers left the estates without terminating their contracts, thereby becoming vagrants in the eyes of their employers and the local authorities. Chinese labourers in Mauritius and elsewhere acquired a reputation for being disorderly, recalcitrant and ultimately unsuitable for field work. It is clear that the recruitment and embarkation of many workers at this time was poorly managed. Among Chinese migrants to Latin America around this time, tellingly, 1 mutiny ocurred every 11 trips, and 4,000 Chinese, 200 crew and 12 captains lost their lives during violent clashes.49 Conditions on board the ships carrying Chinese labourers to and fro appear likely to have aggravated any sense of resentment, migrants may have felt about the circumstances of their embarkation. Joseph Conrad, in his short story ‘Typhoon’, surely captures the spirit of the age when he describes a ship carrying Chinese labourers caught in 48

MA RA 660 Statements of arriving Chinese labourers, 1841. Emmer, P.C., ‘Immigration into the Caribbean: the introduction of Chinese and East Indian Indentured Labourers between 1839 and 1917’, in Emmer, P. & M. Morner (eds) European Expansion and Migration, Oxford, 1992, pp. 245–76. 49

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a storm, and the captain remonstrating against a suggestion to change the course of the vessel to make their position more comfortable, with the words, “Never heard a lot of coolies spoken of as passengers before. . . . You want me to haul a full-powered steamship four points off her course to make the Chinamen comfortable! Now, I’ve heard more than enough of mad things done in the world—but this.”50 There were certainly questions posed about the recruitment of Chinese labour for the Americas, and their treatment on the passage. In 1852 riots had erupted against the abuses of the labour trade in the port of Amoy, and in 1859 an angry crowd attacked recruiters in Canton.51 British writer, Walter Besant, working in Mauritius as a college professor in the 1860s, provides an unusual insight into the atmosphere aboard a clipper taking a cargo of Chinese labourers to Trinidad, when he made a visit to the ship’s captain while the vessel was docked at Port Louis: The quarter deck was defended by four small cannonades loaded with grape; the captain’s cabin had a fine stand of arms; every sailor carried a weapon of some kind; every officer had a revolver and could use it. . . . The captain told me that the coolies had knives; that there were women among them, for whom they fought; that the women were sick of it, and had mostly got through the port-holes and so drowned themselves; and that he was most anxious to get his repairs done and be off again, because every night some of the coolies got out and tried to swim ashore—which, he said, was a dead loss to everybody, including themselves, because the sharks got them all.52

Captain Thomas Garry Fraser, also saw a ship en route to the Caribbean with Chinese labourers, docked at Mauritius. Afflicted with dysentery, but not allowed to land due to quarantine laws, “they were dying daily. The dead were dumped outside the reef”.53 Alongside evident irregularities in recruiting and shipment, it may be surmised that the Chinese immigrants’ previous work experience as artisans, and craftsmen or urban workers made plantation labour

50

Conrad, J., Typhoon and other Stories, Penguin, London, 2007 edition. Ng Chin-Keong, ‘The Amoy riots of 1852—Coolie Emigration and Sino-British Relations’ in Mathew, K. ed. Mariners, Merchants and Oceans. Studies in Maritime History, Manohar, Delhi, 1995; Pan, L., Sons of the Yellow Emperor, the story of the Overseas Chinese, London, 1990, p. 50. 52 Besant, Sir Walter, Autobiography, Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1902, pp. 122–3. 53 Gee, M., Captain Fraser’s Voyages 1865–1892, Stanford Maritime, London, 1979. 51

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exceptionally arduous and, for some, intolerable.54 Disorder and violence broke out on estates in Mauritius, as labourers complained of long hours, and rough treatment by overseers. On a few occasions they were considered to be the victims rather than the instigators of the disorders. For example, in August 1841, Le Bigot, the manager of one estate, was condemned to pay two Chinese £1 each, as damages in an assault case. In another case, fifteen Chinese workers on Daruty’s estate complained of brutality on the part of the Manager, Mr Chenaud. One man claimed that three of his teeth had been knocked out. Conversely, when the 18 Chinese working on the Queen Victoria estate complained of ill-treatment on the part of an Indian sirdar and a Creole overseer, the magistrate accepted the management’s version of events that the Chinese had behaved in a threatening manner, and condemned 5 men, said to be the ringleaders of disturbances, to 8 days in prison and deductions from their wages.55 A group of Chinese who arrived in September 1841, made a complaint even before having signed any engagement. In response, the estate manager claimed that the men “return to their houses, upon the least appearance of rain, to smoke opium, thus losing much valuable time . . . they are the worst introduction made into the colony; they are very insubordinate, passionate and so lazy that the Indians have reproached them for their idleness, which has given rise to several disputes between them”. The manager was found guilty of beating some of his workers, while they in turn were cautioned to perform their work punctually.56 In November 1841, a Chinese labourer, Wetia Hong, was put on trial for attempting to kill the chief overseer of the sugar estate where he was employed. He was one of 15 Chinese on the estate who refused to go to work and forcibly prevented estate supervisors from entering their huts. In the ensuing melee, Hong attempted to stab one of the overseers and, on being found guilty, was transported to Australia.57

54 For comparative accounts of Chinese ‘coolies’ in the colonial period see Adamson, A.H., Sugar Without Slaves. The Political Economy of British Guiana, 1838–1904, Yale University Press, 1972, p. 67; Moon-Ho Jung, ‘Outlawing “Coolies”: Race, Nation, and Empire in the Age of Emancipation’, American Quarterly 57.3 (2005) 677–701. 55 These cases are detailed in MA RA 669 Letters of Stipendiary Magistrate, Regnard, Flacq, August 1841. 56 MA RA 669. Letters of Stipendiary Magistrate, Regnard, Flacq September 1841. 57 JB 320 Trial of Wetia Hong, Nov 1841. Full details of this and other convict stories can be found in Anderson, C., Convicts in the Indian Ocean, op. cit.

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1.4. A sugar estate in mid 19th century Mauritius, with its diverse workforce

Despite the obvious risks of an immigration strategy which brought in labourers from diverse regions, and with differing expectations, sugar estate managers saw advantages in the maintenance of an ethnically diverse workforce. As one estate manager in Guyana wrote: “I think the safety of the whites depends very much upon the want of union in the different races of labourers and I should be glad to see some more . . . Chinese coming in”.58 Conflicts between labourers of different ethnic groups were indeed commonplace. In December 1843, for example, Ajee, a Chinese carpenter employed by Bestel in Plaines Wilhems complained of assault by a group of Indians.59 Where reasonable incentives were offered, numbers of Chinese did remain in employment, working as labourers or craftsmen. In August 1842, Leclezio petitioned to re-engage 15 time-expired Chinese labourers who had arrived the year before.60 The figures for engagement renewal in 1844, totalling 342 individuals across the island, equally demonstrate that Chinese were considered suitable workers.61

58 59 60 61

Adamson, A.H., Sugar Without Slaves, op. cit., p. 157. MA HA 106 Justice de Paix, Plaines Wilhems, 7 Dec. 1843. MA RC 29 Petition of Leclezio, 10 Aug. 1842. For details see PP 1845 (641) pp. 21, 43.

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Much evidently depended on the particular employer to whom workers were allotted, and some even benefited from socialist experiments then being tried on Mauritius. A number of progressive planters experimented with ‘association’ or profit sharing schemes. It was reported by one observer, for example, that M. Marcy, at Montagne Longue, has taken for associates a band of twenty and some Chinese. He shares equally with them the product of his canes. They display great ardour in the work, and push their enthusiasm even to working on Sundays, and on New Years’ day. I learn from M. Marcy himself that he is perfectly satisfied. Having finished cleaning and dressing the canes, they have asked permission to clear a savannah and bring it under cultivation.62

Many Chinese opted to re-engage with employers who could offer them more suitable work. In Savanne, in 1844, for example, Rouxelin, a woodcutter, had 21 Chinese workers in his service. In that district, 49 Chinese remained in the employ of Jamin, 13 at Eastwick Park, and 25 with Laverdant on Reunion estate while Bon Accueil employed 10 Chinese. The local magistrate dismissed allegations of widespread desertion, noting that only a few men were vagrants.63 By the summer of 1846, so many Indian labourers had been imported that the Governor felt confident in asserting that the Mauritian employer was able to depend for his labour needs almost entirely on immigrants: “the planter and his English provider, with the means of cultivating his estate, are and have been from the first dawn of emancipation more independent of native labour than those inhabiting any spot perhaps upon the face of the globe”.64 Wages for estate labour were now controlled by the fixed price offered to new arrivals, and between 1845 and 1847 the proportion of Chinese on estates declined sharply as some opted for repatriation and others entered employments in other sectors of the economy where a decent wage remained attainable. In 1848 Victor Charlier described Mauritius as a place of asylum for all the Asiatic peoples, oppressed at home, and who were willing to seek abroad, land, work and a means of living to be acquired by

62 A Friend of Progress ‘Progress of Association in the Isle of Mauritius’ Democratie Pacifique, 13 June 1847. See also R. d’Unienville, Tentative Socialiste à l’Ile Maurice, Société de l’Histoire, Mauritius 1998, for further details of this movement. 63 MA HA 116 Statement showing the number of labourers employed on the different estates in Savane. 64 PP1847 (325) Gomm to Gladstone, 25 August 1846.

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patient industry.65 This is a surprisingly upbeat appraisal of Chinese and Indian migration at a time when the notorious ‘coolie trade’ was at its height, and one which contrasts greatly with other contemporary accounts that described the post-abolition labour migrants as treated even worse than slaves.66 Certainly, for those Chinese unhappy to work at low wages, and unable to find alternative sources of labour at a price agreeable to them, repatriation was often a preferred option. Employers were not unwilling to rid themselves of men who were burdensome to the colony through illness or refusal to enter new contracts of employment. Thus, from mid 1843, tenders were obtained to ship Chinese labourers back to Penang. One batch of labourers was described as being “unfit for labour” all having “bodily disorders” of one kind or another. Commenting on a second group picked up as vagrants, the Chief of Police declared “it is very desirable that all time- expired labourers should be embarked if they will not re-engage as crime is increasing rapidly and there are a vast number of these people prowling about and without any known means of existence”.67 In 1846, the Commander of a French ship in Penang reported seeing two large merchant ships entering port, carrying Chinese labourers from Mauritius who had refused to renew their engagements.68 As long as Indian immigration could be supervised by government officials, it was preferred to other forms of labour recruitment. Thus, another suggestion that Chinese convicts be employed in Mauritius was rebutted in 1849. However, a small direct importation from China itself did take place in that year, when the ship Norfolk reportedly brought a group of workers for one J.L. Smith.69 An additional contingent of Chinese workers was received in 1853, in unusual circumstances. A Spanish ship, the Santa Lucia, having arrived in Port Louis from Macao with 222 men and boys bound for Cuba aboard, had to undergo extensive

65 Charlier, V.M., ‘Iles Madagascar, Bourbon et Maurice’ in Avezac-Macaya, M.A.P., Iles de l’Afrique, L’Univers. Histoire et description de tous les peuples, 1848, p. 61. 66 See for example Calvo, C., Etude sur l’Emigration et la Colonisation, Paris, 1875, p. 215. 67 MA PA 1 Colonial Secretary to Protector of Immigrants, 9 Jan. 1844; PB 1 Protector to Colonial Secretary, 28 Aug. 1843. 68 Account of Commandant Protet of the ‘Sarcelle’, quoted in Lacroix, L., Les Derniers Negriers, Amiot, Paris, 1952, p. 258. 69 NA CO 167/315 Anderson to Grey, 13 Dec. 1849. The arrival of the Norfolk is mentioned in Miege, J., Indentured Labour, op. cit., p. 23.

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1.5. A Chinese labourer, convicted of the offence of ‘vagrancy’ in Mauritius

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repairs in the port. In exchange for the work carried out, the Captain reportedly disposed of the men to the Dock Company who repaired the ship. Hearing of the incident, the Anti Slavery Society was soon demanding an enquiry, claiming that the Chinese had in fact rebelled against the Captain, not wishing to go to Havana. The Governor agreed that they had been allowed to remain for this reason.70 It must have been the Chinese disembarked from the Santa Lucia that William Ellis saw when he arrived at Port Louis in August 1853. He noted: “Most of the labourers about the wharves and warehouses are either Coolies or Chinamen. The latter appear generally more robust and hardy than the former, yet both are employed in working all day under the scorching sun without appearing to suffer inconvenience.”71 In 1856, when a new prohibition on migration to Mauritius was imposed by the Government of India, Governor Higginson was sympathetic to the Chamber of Agriculture’s plans to recruit Chinese immigrants. Higginson reported on the Chamber’s plan to the home authorities as follows: I am aware of no obstacle to the introduction of Chinese immigrants into Mauritius, provided they be legally and regularly imported; and to be so certified by the British Consul or Agent at the port of shipment; but the impossibility hitherto experienced, of procuring the proportion of Chinese females to males, required on our Indian Immigration (supposing this to be insisted on) will always form a formidable impediment to the introduction of laborers from that country.72

Higginson asked whether, given the difficult circumstances, the usual number of women required could be waived. A colonial office employee in London was supportive, minuting, “I am inclined to think that a limited number of Chinese might be brought to Mauritius without reference to females and under 3–5 year contracts.”73 Meanwhile, responding to the crisis in Mauritius, 202 Chinese contract labourers in Reunion were transferred to employers in the sister island in 1857. Within a few years however, the sugar industry was in crisis, and rather than calling for new immigrants, by the 1880s many Mauritian

70

NA CO 167/404 Stevenson to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton 26 Oct. 1858. Ellis, W., Three Visits to Madagascar during the years 1853–4–6. John Murray, London, 1858, p. 53. 72 PP 1859 (31–I) Higginson to Labouchere, 28 Jan. 1857. 73 NA CO 167/385 Colonial office minute, 30 March 1857. 71

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employers were instead complaining of competition from the Chinese commercial class settled on the island. Chinese Artisans in 19th Century Mauritius It was not only sugar estate owners who wanted to acquire labourers during the turbulent years of the early 19th century when slavery was being phased out and indentured labour phased in. Many Chinese immigrants who possessed a skill, found themselves in demand as wages rose on Mauritius, and, as we have seen, often transferred to jobs in the better paid artisanal sector. Such transfers, however, would only be contemplated if the authorities felt sure that an individual could gain a proper living. They were particularly reluctant to countenance requests from ex-labourers to set up in business on their own account. They were not likely, therefore, to look favourably on the petition of Ah Cheak who wished to remain on the island without re-engaging to his former employer. The police report declared: “The Chinese Ah Cheak no. 8280 arrived as a labourer, & it is objectionable that as such, he should be employed in any other capacity.”74 Some labourers accordingly made arrangements with colonists to enter fictitious engagements to secure their residence on the island. Thus in 1845, the authorities dismissed the engagement of a Chinese baker, Atave, with one Charles Chavry, commenting “This Chavry is in fact nobody, and is no doubt paid by them, as they conceived an Engagement prevents their removal from the colony.”75 The news of high wages spread quickly, and in the early 1830s, when skilled labour was at a premium, with the impending abolition of slavery, it was not uncommon for Chinese carpenters and joiners to arrive in Mauritius under their own steam. The Governor of the island supported their immigration, pointing out, in 1835, that “their industry is beyond question and example in that way is of so much importance to the lower classes in the colony that . . . the residence of such people is an advantage” When Athion, who was working on renovations to the Cathedral of Port Louis, sought permission to employ two recently arrived Chinese as carpenters in 1839, his petition was approved.76 Many of these Chinese artisans arrived from India, on the ships bring74 75 76

MA RA 837 Police Report, 11 Dec. 1845. MA RA 798 Petition of Atave & Aoury, 1 April 1845. MA RC 26 Petition of Athion, 11 Feb. 1839.

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ing indentured workers. Ching Ching, Affan, Aching, Key Ching and Akan, who disembarked from the William Wilson in September 1844, made it clear why they had come: “Your Humble petitioners having been induced by the representations of their countrymen that they could obtain a good livelihood in the colony—quitted their land and connexions in the hopes of bettering their situations.”77 The toing and froing of another group of Chinese familiar with the island—as traders—was thus instrumental in knowledge transfer among migrant groups of Chinese on the Indian Ocean littoral. Within a decade, the 3,000 strong Chinese population was divided chiefly between those engaged in petty trade, and those working in the urban areas as joiners, cabinet makers, butchers, basket makers, hawkers of fish and shoemakers, or in the rural districts, “earning a living as petty farmers, cultivating plots of groud and rearing poultry”.78 There are few extant accounts of Chinese artisans, although the observant William Ellis, noted, during his visits to Mauritius en route to Madagascar in the mid 1850s that while most of the craftsmen seemed to be creoles or ex-apprentices, a large proportion of the cabinet makers were Chinese.79 A British army officer, who spent three years on the island during the early 1850s watched Chinese carpenters and turners at work in Port Louis, and noted that the work of the latter was “uncommonly correct while their appliances were of the rudest kind, the lathe movement being invariably produced by a bamboo bow held in one hand while the tool was directed and its presence regulated by the other”.80 A Frenchman, Maurice La Chenais, also in Mauritius in the 1850s, noted that the Chinese artisans excelled at woodwork, and described them as creating charming furniture with their own simple and effective handmade tools.81 These observations are the more valuable, because the Chinese artisan in Mauritius would not prove to be such an enduring phenomenon as the Chinese shopkeeper and hawker. Instead, the later 19th century would see the comprehensive transition of the Chinese into the retail sector, the subject of the next chapter.

77

MA RA 780 Petition of Ching Ching, Affan & others, September 1844. PP 1859 (31–I) Report of J.M. Rennards, Acting Superintendent of Police in Higginson to Labouchere, 28 Jan. 1857. 79 Ellis, W. Three Visits, op. cit., p. 55. 80 ‘Sketches of Mauritius during a three years’ Residence’ The United Service Journal, 1865, p. 2. 81 La Chesnais, M., ‘Etudes sur l’Ile Maurice. Population Chinoise’, Revue du Monde Colonial, 2eme serie, Tome VII, Paris 1862, pp. 51–4. 78

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1.6. Contract of Emigrant Labourer, Singapore

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1.7. Emigrant Documents

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CHAPTER TWO

THE ‘CELESTIAL SHOPKEEPER’: THE GROWTH OF A CHINESE COMMERCIAL CLASS IN MAURITIUS Towards the end of the 18th century, developing trade links between Canton and Port Louis enabled China to import teak and mahogany wood from the Isle of France for ship construction, while French traders brought back a whole gamut of Chinese products to their island—such as rosewood and porcelain.1 Inevitably, these commercial links brought Chinese merchants to the island as voluntary immigrants. This chapter charts the immigration and settlement of a Chinese commercial class in Mauritius. Chinese Traders in the Isle of France and Early British Mauritius Residing at the Isle of France between 1801 and 1804, the French artist, Milbert, noted the presence of a small group of Chinese traders. He described them as seeking out the company of whites, and as spending their time in the cafes, smoking pipes, when they were not looking after their business affairs.2 Details about specific individuals are hard to come by, but we do know that a year before the British conquest, in 1809, Ouitaye, a Chinese trader, is recorded as arriving on the island. Chinese commerce was therefore already part of the life of Port Louis during the late French period, albeit a very marginal one.3 Under early British rule, established in 1810, the Chinese free community, centred on Port Louis, was a still negligible, but seemingly organised group of artisans and traders. A number of Fukienese merchants were now resident on the island—Tincon Assam, for example, who lived at Trou Fanfaron close to the port, arrived in 1811, a year

1 Port Louis functioned at this time as a commercial hub for various European and American merchant fleets. 2 Milbert, J.G., Voyage pittoresque à l’île de France au Cap de Bonne Espérance, et à l’île de Ténériffe, Paris, 1812, p. 186. 3 MA RA 689 Petition of Ouitaye, 1841.

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2.1. Port Louis showing the harbour and the principal commercial area

after the British takeover.4 Acoën, a sweet seller, first came to Mauritius around 1812, according to his own estimation.5 Within a decade, the small community was already establishing its domain in the capital. In 1817, a traveller reported that Port Louis now possessed a visible Chinatown: “a small district inhabited by Yellowmen and called the Chinese Camp”.6 It was with the arrival around 1816, of Hahime Choisanne (Liog Choi Sin), a wealthy Fukienese merchant, however, that the settlement of a Chinese trading community in Mauritius was given a real boost.7 In 1821 he petitioned the authorities asking to bring some of

4

MA RA 711 Petition of Tincon, 22 September 1842. Ibid., Petition of Acoën, 10 December 1842. 6 Billard, A., Voyage aux colonies orientales, ou lettres écrites aux Iles de France et de Bourbon pendant les années 1817–1820. Paris, 1822, p. 361. The old ‘camp des chinois’ is believed to have been located between the Camp des Malabars and Rue la Rampe. Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘La Naissance du Commerce Chinois, 1826–1875’, Mémoire de DEA, Université de La Réunion, p. 113. 7 In 1850 he stated that he had been on Mauritius “upwards of 34 years”. MA RA 1097/7715 Petition of Hahime, 27 June 1850. 5

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his compatriots to Mauritius. The Governor, Robert Farquhar who, as we have seen, was keen to sponsor Chinese immigration, gave the plan his full support. Appointing Hahime the first ‘Kapitan’ or leader of the Chinese, Farquhar granted him an official licence to bring immigrants from China, at his own expense. Hahime left in 1822, returning four years later on the ship Belle Alliance with Whangoo, Hankee, Nghien, Hakhim and Ahim.8 For the next few years, Hahime was to act as guarantor for several compatriots arriving to seek their fortune. Initially the numbers were small: Baron d’Unienville calculated that only 26 Chinese were resident in Mauritius in 1830.9 The 1828 census figures provide details of the occupations of these individuals: 1 was a boat builder, another a joiner, two were tailors, 10 porters, and 12 were in business as traders.10 However, over the following two decades, the number of arrivals was to dramatically increase. Events in China in this period boosted emigration, as the Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion aggravated local socio-economic problems. The success of Chinese businessmen in Mauritius—by 1837 Hahime already owned 3 shops in the port capital—made immigration to the island an attractive option for those with skills and ambition. Indeed, the local authorities were already finding the scale of Chinese commercial operations worrying. The Police Chief initially refused to issue Hahime licences for all three properties, until the Governor intervened in his favour.11 With numbers of would-be immigrants growing, Hahime now began to give preference to applications from members of his own family. Between 1841 and 1846 he sponsored several relatives to enter the colony, on the grounds of taking up employment in trades such as joinery and shoemaking. They were allowed permission to reside despite the fact that the authorities suspected that they would enter commerce, like their illustrious relative. The police commissioner’s report on the arrival of Acong, clearly demonstrates this: Acong arrived a few days since, he says, he is a shoemaker by trade, I much doubt his establishing himself in his trade, for in general these men give themselves up to employment in shops, in which they become

8

MA Z2D, Arrival Register 1826. d’Unienville, M., Statistique de l’île Maurice et ses dépendances. Paris, 1838, vol. 2, p. 61. 10 MA KK 20 Proclamation of 24 September 1828. 11 MA RB 148 Colonial Secretary to Hahime, 25 February 1837. 9

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2.2. Hahime’s shop at 83 Royal Road, Port Louis interested, with those who have the permission of a license. Hahime who has been many years in the colony and a most respectable man informs me that the young man is his own nephew.12

Hahime’s commercial empire meanwhile, continued to grow—he opened a fourth shop. A license was granted, but the Governor now felt it his duty to warn Hahime “that if any other Chinamen than those authorized are found employed in any of your shops, you will forfeit the licenses now granted; besides the men being subject to immediate removal from the colony.”13 Hence when, in 1846, Hahime asked for the residence permit of his nephew, Lock Affoah, to be renewed, and for the young man to be given a shop licence, the second request was refused peremptorily: “the Governor will not object to his obtaining a renewal of his residence during 1847 but declines sanctioning the license applied for, being issued to him.”14 The reason for such attempts to restrict the move into commerce on the part of arriving Chinese, was because the colony ostensibly needed ‘labourers’ and was providing permits for such, not for would be businessmen.15

12

MA RA 674 Petition of Acong, 4 October 1841. MA RB 166 Colonial Secretary to Hahime, 22 January 1841. 14 MA RB 188 Assistant Colonial Secretary to Hahime, 27 November 1846. 15 Indian immigrants arriving as indentured labourers were subjected to similar restrictions until a term of industrial residence [usually of 10 years] gave them the status of ‘old immigrants’ and thereby both social and economic freedom. 13

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140

Number of Immigrants

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 Year

Figure 2.1. Arrivals of Free Chinese, 1837–1850

It is estimated that more than 400 free Chinese [as differentiated from those arriving on labour contracts] disembarked in Mauritius between 1833 and 1846, although missing local arrival registers preclude the calculation of an exact figure.16 The petitions they presented for residence permits and commercial licences do however, provide some evidence of the development of the Chinese business community in this period. Figure 2.1 provides an overview of the growth of the trader class between 1837 and 1850. Already by this time, the stereotype of the Chinese trader has found its place in descriptions of Mauritius. Standing on the quay at Port Louis in 1843, a Royal Navy officer remarked upon the multi-ethnic character of the town, noting in particular,“the fiery Moslem and the subtle Jew, the avaricious Hindoo, the cunning Chinaman, and the dauntless independent Malagash”.17 After 1840, Hahime was not the only guarantor of new arrivals—a group of wealthy traders had by now emerged, who also acted to facilitate the immigration of would-be shopkeepers. A process of chain migration was in fact already underway. Akay, Ouitaye and Atchion,

16

Ly Tio Fane devised this figure from newspaper data, see La Diaspora chinoise dans l’océan Indien occidental, Aix-en-Provence, 1981, pg. 65. 17 Davy, H., ‘Voyage of H.M.S. Thunderer to the Mauritius and Back’, The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle, 1844, p. 174.

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2.3. Street scene, Port Louis, showing two Chinese pedlars in front of the Bazar

the other guarantors, were each allowed to offer security for up to ten individuals. The authorities were happy to make use of senior figures within the community to oversee the process of offering securities, particularly since new arrivals had begun to pay for guarantors from within the creole community, a practice open to abuse.18

18 MA RA 837 Petition of Akaye (no. 41), 1 December 1845; Petition of Athion, 18 December 1845.

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Early Commercial Activities of Chinese Settlers Throughout the 19th century, Chinese commerce was dependent on the willingness of men to travel long distances to trade: ships arriving at Mauritius regularly carried Chinese passengers who made long sea journeys with merchandise bought in one part of the British Empire for sale in another, while within the island itself, Chinese pedlars walked great distances to sell their goods to villagers. Indeed, the Chinese hawker, with his conical hat and his two baskets of merchandise attached to a bamboo and carried on his shoulder, was both an integral part and a symbol of the economic life of Mauritius in the 19th century. Some of those seen carrying goods in this way were market gardeners. One article described how they would grow produce and transport it to the town “in two baskets suspended from a flexible stick, carried across the shoulders . . . one sees them stopping from time to time, streaming with sweat”.19 Patrick Beaton likewise remarked that “the loads they bear balanced on their shoulders give one a high idea of their physical strength”.20 Initially, merchandise was supplied by commercial travellers—itinerant traders who arrived in the colony for 3 or 6 months with goods bought in India or Singapore for sale. For example, Hanne and several others who arrived together in 1846, hoped to remain 5 months, during which time they would dispose of their “investment of various articles of merchandize.”21 Their presence was tolerated only temporarily—they were required to leave once their permits expired. Thus in 1843, Achouay and Appoi were allowed to remain for “6 months with the understanding that at the expiration of that time they quit the colony.”22 Extensions were given if merchandise remained unsold at the end of the allotted time. The inclination for trade even among the Chinese artisans is demonstrated by Akim and 6 others, who, arriving from Calcutta in 1848, were described thus: “They are principally shoemakers & bakers but some of them have brought down merchandize for sale.”23

19

La Chesnais, M., ‘Etudes sur l’Ile Maurice’, op. cit., p. 52. Beaton, P., Creoles and Coolies or Five Years in Mauritius, London, Nisbet & Co., 1972 (first edition 1859) p. 49. 21 MA RA 870 Petition of Hanne (no. 501), 6 October 1846. 22 RA 747 Petition of Achouay, Achun & Appoi, 17 February 1843. 23 RA 984 Petition of Akim, Ungan, Asseck & others, 1 March 1848. 20

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2.4. Desforges Street, Port Louis

Prior to establishing shops, [only 10 shop licences had been issued to the community by 1837] Chinese traders commonly hawked their goods door to door, on foot, sometimes linking up with others to provide a better market for their merchandise. In 1836, two Chinese, Amanda and Hassam, both living in Port Louis, made arrangements to join forces for a term of two years, each taking no more than 5 piastres a month from their capital. At the expiration of this period they would share any remaining goods and the financier, Hassam, would be remunerated for his initial investment.24 This agreement provides a glimpse of the pattern of Chinese economic implantation in Mauritius. Commercial association was to provide the community with a stable means of subsistence while awaiting the availability of financial resources which would permit the realisation of more ambitious projects. The patience, assiduity and sense of solidarity that the carrying out of such agreements necessitated, were important business characteristics demonstrated by such Chinese hawkers in 19th century Mauritius. Later, clan associations would reinforce and extend

24

MA NA 78/14/2403 Société de colportage entre les Chinois Amanda & Hassam.

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the possibilities for such contractual arrangements as particularly shown by the new Hakka immigrant stream post 1860. Another characteristic demonstrated by the Chinese commercial class was an unerring eye for new opportunities, and early capitalization of identified niche markets. One such market was the sale of pork meat. In 1833, the local government allocated a section of the capital’s covered market or bazaar to meat sellers, with individual stalls for hire at 2 piastres per month—a relatively inexpensive rental.25 Several Chinese individuals took advantage of this to set up stalls in the Port Louis bazaar as pork butchers. In 1848, the collective of Chinese butchers included Avoine, Ako, See Puat, Tanmane, Assiam, Akan, Athing and Appien.26 A British naval visitor to the island in the mid 19th century, was favourably impressed with the appearance and general cleanliness of the ‘meat shed’ at the Port Louis bazaar which he described as “almost completely occupied by Chinese salesmen . . . Here we see large quarters of healthy-looking beef, white well-fed pork, the most tempting festoons of pork sausages, fine legs of mutton, all laid out and wrapped in white cloths—the butchers themselves giving the tone to general cleanliness”.27 The Chinese method of transporting their live stock was an additional source of interest to a number of observers. Patrick Beaton, for example, noted: When they purchase a pig, they conduct it to the slaughterhouse in a more expeditious way than by driving. They first bind the four legs together with a cord, and then insert a pole between them, which rests upon the shoulders of two sturdy bearers. To prevent the pig from expressing his disapproval of this treatment, he is thoroughly gagged, and becomes one of the quietest and most tractable animals in existence.28

The clean appearance of the bazaar reflected the strictness of local rules on the sale of such products in this pre-refrigeration era. All fresh meat had to be sold before the noonday bell [or the 1 pm bell in the cool season], which necessarily restricted the operations of the Chinese pork

25 The piastre was a unit of French currency, equivalent to 1 silver dollar and later to 2 rupees. 26 MA RA 957, Petition of butchers of Port-Louis, 24 April 1848. 27 Cope Devereux, W., A Cruise in the ‘Gorgon’, or Eighteen Months on HMS Gorgon, engaged in the suppression of the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa, including A Trip up the Zambesi with Dr Livingstone, Bell & Daldy, London, 1869, p. 279. 28 Beaton, P., Creoles and Coolies, op. cit., p. 50.

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butchers. They therefore requested permission to continue beyond these hours, but this was refused by the authorities for hygiene reasons.29 It was well nigh impossible for the butchers to sell all their meat stocks by this time, at a profit, and they would commonly begin to lower their prices near lunchtime, and in many cases were obliged to leave the bazaar after the bell had rung, and to continue their sales clandestinely elsewhere in the capital, or to pass on their products to the pedlars who would go from door to door. The local press noted these anomalies and added their voice, by making a point on behalf of the poorer classes, who had not completed their work or received their daily pay by 1 pm and were therefore unable to purchase fresh meat.30 These difficulties prompted Chinese traders to find a niche in the supply of commodities to the working classes. For example, in 1847 Amon acquired a shop licence for the sale of grains and salted meat products (known locally as ‘salaisons’). Others, like Ah Pang, applied to switch their licences from sweetmeats to the sale of these more essential items.31 Avoine found a solution to the problem by opening further premises, operating both a stall at the bazaar and a food shop in the capital.32 The variety of responses to local legislative restrictions, and the rapid identification of a need which was not being met, and moves to supply that need, demonstrate characteristic market strategies that were to make the Chinese hold on the retail sector of Mauritius unassailable by the later decades of the century: The success of the Chinese in spotting the demand for salted products and providing for their sale at convenient locations and times for the capital’s working class, is one of many examples of their commercial flexibility and opportunism. As ever, their flair excited jealousy, and by the mid 19th century, rumours were being floated that dog meat was sold by some of the Chinese butchers. This was indignantly denied, the butchers pointing out that the “public would immediately decry, and ruin the Pork Butcher for ever afterwards.”33 The stereotype of the Chinese as ‘dog eaters’ nevertheless proved difficult to extinguish, but this was a mere irritation in a developing story of remarkable economic success.

29 30 31 32 33

MA RA 957 Petition of butchers of Port Louis, 24 April 1848. Le Progrès Colonial, 23 September 1871, p. 2. MA RA 938, Petitions of Amon, and Ah-Pang both dated 12 November 1847. MA RA 1080 Petition of Avoine, 8 August 1850. MA RA 957 Petition of butchers of Port Louis, 24 April 1848.

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Plaine Verte

Camp des Malabares Champ de Mars Camp des Noirs de L’etat Champ de Lort

Hotel du Gouvernement La Route Royale (Principal Artery of Ville Blanche)

Les Casernes

2.5. Sketch of Port Louis, showing location of ‘Camp Malabar’ and ‘Ville Blanche’

As one early illustration of this business acumen, Ahine, from Peking, one of the free Chinese introduced by Hahime Choisanne in 1826, rose to become a merchant of considerable wealth and status, opening a chain of shops in the capital. In 1847 he was the proprietor of no fewer than eight stores which were placed at strategic points to maximise the number of likely clients. Thus, one of Ahine’s shops was located in the north of the capital, in the so-called ‘camp des Malabars’ or Malabar Quarter, where likely customers would be Indians, Another shop in the centre of town at would attract a more upper class crowd of whites and coloureds [the so-called ville blanche], while a shop in the south of the capital would have served a more modest creole customer base. Even more modest retailers, with only a single shop, would seek to maximise their clientele by offering an important range of items. Over time, they came to represent a unique style of emporium—not fashionable and chic, but rather eclectic, and intent on supplying all that the average consumer needed, in quantities that he could afford. The

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American diplomat, Nicolas Pike, who spent some years in Mauritius in the mid 19th century and was an acute observer, has left an account of the main shopping street of Port Louis at this time, in which he pointed out the unique appearance of the Chinese store: The principal street for shops is the Chaussée, nearly the oldest part of the town, built chiefly of wood and old-fashioned-looking, a great contrast to the interior of the shops. There, all is of the latest Parisian fashion, . . . A curious feature in this and other streets is the juxtaposition of one of these elegant magazines with a Chinese store, where are retailed salt fish, charcoal, wines, porter, cocoa-nut oil, rice, wood, lard, and the thousand etceteras required in a household; all of which are sold in the smallest possible quantities for the convenience of customers.34

In addition to seeking to meet the needs of a broad clientele, the Chinese shopkeepers operated sophisticated and complex systems of credit, drawing up notes of goods given to customers ranging from wealthy white proprietors to poor labourers. The credit system, together with the facility to purchase in small quantities offered by the Chinese shopkeeper was a service of real value to Mauritians and helped to ensure their popularity with customers. During the 19th century, a number of currencies were in use on the island “in keeping with the variety of nationalities” according to one observer, who noted “in daily dealings all manner of English coins, French livres . . . gold doubloons and mohurs, silver dollars, cents . . . are everywhere met with”. Typically, the smallest coin described as being in circulation was “a small thin coin, value three sous, called a marquee”, which it was implied, was used almost exclusively by the Chinese traders: In the Chinese stores any kind of provisions or drink may be bought, the former retailed in the smallest possible quantities to suit small means; salt fish, wine, oil, rice lard, and a thousand other domestic necessities. . . . You can buy at a Chinaman’s a marquee’s worth of anything that can be sufficiently subdivided.35

A more unusual but no doubt equally effective retail strategy of the Chinese shopkeepers was recounted by Patrick Beaton, a clergyman resi-

34

Pike, N., Sub-tropical rambles in the land of aphanapteryx. Personal experiences, adventures, and wanderings in and around the island of Mauritius, Sampson Low, London, 1873, pp. 58–9. 35 ‘Mauritius’, The Dublin Review, Jan. 1880, pp. 4–5, and 18–19.

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dent on the island for some years in the mid 19th century. He reported receiving regular visits at dinner time from a Chinese shopkeeper who lived on the opposite side of the street, and described one such incursion for the amusement of his readers: “He entered my dining-room with the freedom and ease of one who had the entree of the house, examined the food of the barbarian with the air of a connaisseur, opened my cupboard, and inspected my tea caddy. He generally concluded by inviting me, in broken English and Creole, to visit his store”.36 The anonymous writer of an article about Mauritius in the April 1863 edition of the North American Review offers a rather different perspective of the retail situation on the island by describing his encounters with creole shopkeepers who were “languid and indifferent” to his needs: “the shopkeeper removes not the cigar from his lips, and briefly replies to your inquiries, that he has no such article as you want. Point it out to him, and he lets you help yourself, charges you an immense profit, and relapses into indifference.” If this was an accurate portrayal of the chief competitor of the Chinese shopkeeper in the capital, it is little wonder that the latter proved so successful.37 A Temporary Setback: the Bank Robbery In 1846, an event occurred which led to questions being raised about the freedom of immigration of Chinese to Mauritius and provoked a crisis in the heart of the community. On 18 December of that year, it was discovered that an audacious robbery had been carried out at the Commercial Bank building in Port Louis, and a sum equivalent to £4,000 sterling stolen. The perpetrators were believed to be Chinese. The banks at that time dealt largely in silver rupees, the storage of which required “inconveniently large accommodation”. A British bank director in Mauritius later remarked that his employers profited from the misadventure of their rivals by building a carefully constructed stone strong room lined with sheets of gun metal. This precaution was taken, because, according to his account, the strong room of the Commercial Bank suffered from the defect of having a floor that was not robber-proof. The rupees were reportedly stored in bags in wooden boxes ranged around the strong room, protected by the best available 36 37

Beaton, P., Creoles and Coolies, London, op. cit., p. 49. North American Review, 96 April 1863, p. 377.

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2.6. Premises used by the Mauritius Commercial Bank at the time of the robbery

technology in the shape of “double iron doors, modern locks, detectors, and a night watch”. On opening one of the wooden boxes, however, it was found to be empty; and a large hole in its bottom revealed the means of access. It was ascertained that the thieves had ascended a street drain to a point opposite the bank, and thence had excavated their way ingeniously and accurately to a point under the floor of the strong-room. They then tunnelled upwards through the floor, and bored a hole into the box and removed its contents, and thus relieved the bank of the equivalent in rupees of four thousand pounds sterling. Some Chinamen were suspected of the theft, but none of the money was recovered.38

38 Begbie, H. ed., Ninety-One Years Being the Reminiscences of Falconer Larkworthy, Mills & Boon Ltd., London, 1924, pp. 132–3.

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Hostility and suspicion towards the Chinese community now surfaced openly in the newspapers, who reported fears that “the great majority are connected together . . . what can a police, or a Government do to protect society against a confederation of such people? Who can say how many of the robberies that have never been discovered have been committed by them?”.39 Hahime, as de facto leader or ‘Kapitan’ of the Chinese traders, acted quickly, sending a letter signed by himself and other Chinese notables to the Governor, expressing their “horror and detestation of such vile and dastardly crime” and offering support for the capture of the guilty parties. Hahime took pains to remind the Governor that the Chinese were “aliens in blood and language yet true and faithful subjects of Her Majesty”. The Governor responded with an assurance that “the confidence of Government in the respectable Chinese inhabiting the colony is not shaken by the deed committed by the unworthy part of their countrymen.”40 The community’s leaders did indeed launch an investigation into the crime, and by the following year had furnished evidence to the police which they hoped would be sufficient to lead to the identification of the culprits.41 Thirteen Chinese men were in fact brought to trial in April 1847 and after first being acquitted, were immediately re-arrested. At a re-trial, four men were convicted and sentenced to seven years hard labour, and the remaining nine were acquitted.42 The senior legal official of the colony, the Procureur General, later paid tribute to Hahime’s role in seeking to discover the perpetrators.43 The effects of the theft and subsequent trial included a period of turbulence and uncertainty in the community’s internal organisation [see chapter 4] and a negative stereotype generated about the Chinese which would last for some time. The Reverend Patrick Beaton, for example, declined his Chinese shopkeeper neighbour’s invitation to visit his premises, as a result of their ‘roguish reputation’ and his book of memoirs written after his departure from Mauritius, described the Chinese as “the most skilful thieves in the colony.”44 39

Le Mauricien, 30 December 1846. MA RA 870 Petition of Hahime & others to the Governor, 18 December 1846. MA RB 188, Assistant Colonial Secretary to Hahime & others, 23 December 1846. 41 MA RA 937 Hahime to the Governor, 3 February 1847. 42 Le Cernéen, 24 April, 13 July 1847. 43 MA RA 1089, Report of Procureur General, 31st May 1850. 44 Beaton, Creoles and Coolies, op. cit., p. 49. 40

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The event also led to some colourful stories being circulated about the whereabouts of the stolen loot. Whatever their veracity, it is certain that the events caused suspicion to fall upon the otherwise innocent activities of the Chinese in Mauritius for some time after the incident. As an example of the rumours then current, an American whaleman recounted the following probably apochryphal story, about a Chinese funeral cortege being stopped en route to the cemetery, located close to the harbour, in the capital, by British soldiers at the nearby barracks: the sentry noticed that the body seemed to be remarkably heavy, causing a frequent stoppage and change of bearers. As the guard was relieved, the man on duty remarked, jokingly, that a fat Chinaman was being taken to his long home. To the sergeant the movement seemed suspicious, and he at once proceeded to the funeral cortege, who at his coming precipitately fled, leaving the suppositious corpse to its fate. Upon breaking open the coffin, instead of a dead Chinaman, it was found to contain the greater portion of the stolen bullion, which was thus being conveyed to a safe resting place.45

The bank robbery occurred a few years before a period of exceptional prosperity in Mauritius, as high sugar prices brought huge profits to the planters, who began to clamour for increased labour importation, in order to expand the land under cane cultivation and thereby generated increased returns. With Chinese among the potential sources of supply, a positive assessment of the community was extracted from a local government official, who reported, in 1857, that the 3,000 strong Chinese community was mostly composed of shop employees, supplemented by “joiners, cabinet makers, butchers, basket makers, hawkers of fish and shoemakers”. In the rural districts, a few others could be found “cultivating plots of ground and rearing poultry”. Rennards, the author of the report, asserted, “Generally speaking, these people are a laborious, intelligent and well behaved portion of the community, and it is very rare indeed to find Chinese contravening the laws.”46 However, the economic boom years of the 1850s and early 1860s did not, in the event, precipitate a flow of would-be plantation labourers from China to Mauritius—instead, it prompted further waves of Chinese artisans

45

Sailor Charley, Life in a Whaler; or Perils and Adventures in the Tropical Seas, London, Ward & Lock, c. 1871, p. 377. 46 NA CO 167/385 Rennards, Acting Superintendent of Police, to Colonial Secretary, 27 January 1857.

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400

Number of Immigrants

350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0

1851

1852

1853

1854

1855 1856 Year

1857

1858

1859

1860

Figure 2.2. Arrivals of Free Chinese, 1851–1860

and traders, with new ethnic groups among them, to seek their fortune on the diminutive British island in the western Indian Ocean. A New Wave of Chinese Immigrants and Geographical Dispersal of the Community Between September and December 1858, ten ships from Madras, Calcutta and Singapore brought numerous traders, several carpenters and one shoemaker, chiefly from Hokien and Canton, to the island.47 More precise figures of immigration of free Chinese settlers in the boom decade of the 1850s are given in Figure 2.2. The dip in the 1854 figures may well be related to a severe cholera epidemic in that year, which resulted in heavy mortality in Mauritius. Up to this date, Mauritius had received chiefly Fukienese and Cantonese immigrants; however, from the beginning of the next decade, a turning point in the history of Chinese settlement in Mauritius may be pinpointed, with the arrival of the first groups of Hakka immigrants. Some were surely escaping repression meted out after the Hakka-led Taiping Rebellion was finally quashed by the Chinese government.

47

MA Z2A 36, Arrival register, 1858.

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The Beijing Convention, signed that year, had also lifted restrictions on emigration.48 It is difficult to establish precise details concerning early Hakka arrivals on Mauritius—the ship registers that enumerated arriving passengers [as opposed to contract labourers] generally recorded only a single name which is insufficient to distinguish between Fukienese, Cantonese or Hakka arrivals. Research carried out among families on Mauritius has proved more fruitful. Information provided by the grandson of an early Hakka immigrant, Chin Ton, has revealed that on 27 July 1860, at least seven Hakkas embarked on the Ville Paris bound for Mauritius from Singapore. They were Chan Heyou, Tan Chow, Chan See, Ong Hassan, Le Bow, Chan Buck, and Chin Ton himself. All were aged between 31 and 40.49 The earliest member of the influential Lee clan of Hakkas in Mauritius—Lee Ah Van—is also believed to have arrived on the island in the 1860s.50 Lee Ah Van originated from a village in Moiyean [Meixian, Guangdong, China] from which region virtually the totality of Hakkas on the island hail. Subsequent notarial documents reveal that these men were veritable pioneers since the vast majority of Hakka immigrants in the 19th century, arrived post 1875. The profitability of the sugar economy in mid 19th century Mauritius had also brought tens of thousands of Indian labourers to the island. The hugely expanded estate workforce created a new market for essential commodities which the Chinese trading community was poised to exploit. Geographical dispersion of Chinese to service the new rural populations, and expansion into service industries designed to meet their needs, were two of the ways in which Chinese commerce responded to the demographic and economic changes occurring in the second half of the 19th century. It was the most recent group of Chinese immigrants—the Hakkas—who dominated the move to the rural areas as they sought to make the transition from shop workers to shop keepers, and to create new opportunities in a marketplace where the choicest retail opportunities in the island’s single urban setting at the port capital, were already in the hands of earlier arrivals.

48 For further details see Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘Les Hakkas à l’Ile Maurice’, op. cit., especially chapter 2 ‘La Revolution Taiping 1851–64, le Signal de depart des Hakkas’ pp. 18–31. 49 Ibid., p. 37. The archival document in question is MA Z2D Arrival Register, 1860. 50 MA NA 118/250 ‘Statuts de la Société Loong See Tong Lee’, Aug. 1900.

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2.7. A rural shop in Black River, Mauritius

The Chinese shops set up in the rural areas to serve the needs of agricultural labourers on estates and in nascent inland villages, and the fishermen living in coastal areas, were usually built of wood and corrugated iron. They could thus be easily demolished and rebuilt if more space was required, and costs were kept to a minimum in an environment in which the shopkeeper was generally a tenant, rather than an owner. The shops were usually of a relatively small size, generally measuring less than 25 by 20 feet. This was in part due to taxes chargeable per size of establishment. Location and size of shops on estates tended to be regulated by the plantation owners. That set up by Fon Han on the Belle Rive sugar estate in March 1875, for example, measured 26 × 22 feet, while the contract for another estate shop drawn up in 1874 for Lee Chong and Choolong in Flacq was to be built on a plot of land of 30 square feet and constructed facing the road which connected the plantation house to the factory of the estate.51 The shop was usually constructed in the centre of the property—both to ensure access for all estate workers, and to place it within close range of the supervisory staff of the plantation. The length of the tenancy was usually decided by the estate owner, and in general could be extended for up to ten 51

MA NA 116/4 Bail, 15 March 1875; NA 107/105 Bail, 21 Aug. 1874.

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years. In most cases the price of the lease was related to the size of land to be let, while the costs of constructing the shop might be deducted from the monthly rent due. The expansion of Hakkas of the Lee clan into the rural districts in the last decades of the 19th century provides an interesting demonstration of the gradual infiltration of the community as new business opportunities were spotted. In 1875 Ah Van opened a shop in Black River, to be followed by Fock Sam in 1894, and by his son Li Pun Loong in 1899. The district of Savanne saw the opening of shops by Isthone in 1880, Ah Kew in 1889 and Lee Hee Sing at Chemin Grenier in 1894. In Grand Port, St Hubert, Mon Desert and Riche-en-Eau estates successively gained a Chinese shop with a Hakka proprietor from the Lee clan between 1884 and 1899. Lee Kat began serving labourers of the Sans Souci estate at Moka in 1894, and in the same year, a shop was set up in Curepipe by two members of the clan. Two shops were opened in the year 1897 by Li Shing and Lee Few in Flacq.52 Thus by the turn of the century, the Hakka village or estate shop was a central feature of rural life in Mauritius. In the management and opening of shops, the Chinese followed a kind of hierarchical apprenticeship. Work would generally first be obtained as a commis or shop assistant, with the new arrival being put to work in the kitchen to serve meals to other employees rather than being placed directly behind the counter. Acquisition of a rudimentary knowledge of the Creole language and familiarity with the organisation of merchandise was part of the initial process of adaptation. Learning how to divide goods into the small packages which labourers could afford to purchase, was often a job for the after-hours, so that apprentices generally endured very long working days. Their remuneration at this stage, may just have been food and lodging at the back of the shop. The employee might then aspire to become a chef-commis, or right hand man of the owner, with responsibility for ordering goods, hiring and paying staff, maintaining client credit records, and other administrative matters such as ensuring that the shop license was up to date and the rent paid. In the absence of the owner, he would be expected to be able to run the shop on his own. The owner, for his part, would

52 MA NA 116/7, Acte de vente, 2 Sept. 1875; For further details see Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘Les Hakkas à l’Ile Maurice’, op. cit., chapters 3 and 4.

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2.8. The back room in a rural shop, showing storage area and living quarters

have the last word in disciplinary matters, and would be busy negotiating with wholesalers. His word was crucial to guarantee credit from wholesalers when a former shop assistant attempted to set up on his own account, and begin the whole cycle anew. In the rural areas, the Chinese continued their practice of offering goods in miniscule quantities. They also provided estate labourers with extensive credit, thereby helping to ease the estate-owner through the inter-harvest lean periods and to retain the workforce on the plantation. In effect, because the planter could often only afford to pay the labourers after his sugar crop was sold, the shopkeeper became pivotal to the estate economy—his credit operations tided both the workers and their employer over until both could meet their obligations. At the same time, the indebtedness of the labourers could serve the interests of estate-owners, by forcing them to remain attached to the plantation—and to the shopkeeper—until their debts had been paid off. In these respects the shopkeeper was undoubtedly an important arm of the planter’s hierarchy of control. Increasingly, as estate owners came to view Chinese retailers as satisfactory proprietors of shops on their establishments, it became easier for the latter to obtain land tenancy agreements. Notwithstanding this,

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the sugar oligarchy kept a tight rein on the number of leases offered to Chinese traders, and by 1901 the Chinese population resident on sugar estates still only amounted to 173.53 They were distributed among the various districts as follows: 7 in Black River, 16 in Moka, 17 each in Savanne and Pamplemousses, 21 each in Flacq and Plaines Wilhems, 29 in Grand Port, and the largest number—45—in Riviere du Rempart. Despite these relatively low figures, the Chinese village shopkeeper soon became a stock feature of 19th century travel literature about Mauritius. Charles Boyle, the author of Sketches of Scenery and Society in Mauritius, published in 1867, asserted that the Chinese were to be found in, every out-of-the-way nook and corner of the island, wherever there are two or three houses, or an Indian camp, you are quite sure to come forthwith upon a Chinaman’s shop. The shops themselves are small, but very handily situated for traffic—a sine qua non, for instance where three or four roads meet.54

Moving on to the interior of the shops, he described them as “crowded with all sorts of things to eat, and still more amply stocked with drinkables. Then there are dangling tapes and ribbons, hung up over the door, threads, pins and needles, shoes, and straw hats”. An even more evocative description of the Chinese at work in the rudimentary village shop was provided by W.E. Montague, in his short account of Mauritius for Fraser’s Magazine, published in 1879: wherever two roads meet, there is John Chinaman behind his counter in a rickety hut built out of old packing-cases, busy selling ha’p’orths of charcoal, butter, ghee, rice, salt, sugar, or cigars, beer, cherry brandy, and white rum. His shop performs the part of the village public, and many are the scenes of drunkenness which take place in it.55

This cheerful allusion to the quantities of liquor consumed in the village shops was in fact a subject of some ambivalence in colonial Mauritius. By opening shops on or close to large sugar estates, the Chinese were securing a market niche, and taking on a role that was recognised as essential by the proprietors. The sale of alcohol on such premises was,

53

MA B1A Census, 1901. Boyle, Charles John, Far Away, or, Sketches of Scenery and Society in Mauritius, Chapman and Hall, London, 1867, pp. 22–24. 55 Montague, W.E., ‘Mauritius’, Fraser’s Magazine, March 1879, vol. 19, p. 499. 54

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however, both a source of revenue and one of concern for estate owners. Some proprietors feared the impact of rum sales on the productivity of their workforce, but others welcomed it as an increasingly important means of recycling the wages paid to labourers back into the plantation via the sale of an alcoholic by-product of the manufacturing process. Chinese Entrepreneurs and the Rum Industry The question of rum consumption was indeed a two edged sword for the sugar economy. Licensing laws were frequently amended in an attempt to equilibrate the dual ambition of the government—to increase the revenues while controlling the type of goods being offered to the working classes. For the Chinese shopkeeper the constant demand of its clientele for alcoholic beverages, was not only a stock issue, but necessitated keeping abreast of ever changing laws regulating its quality and supply. The plethora of legislation passed to control the sale of liquor could not have been easy for a recently arrived immigrant to understand and put into practice. Chinese storekeepers required an interpreter to explain each new law, and if they were late in making any required amendments to their sale practices, they were liable to prosecution. For example, the prohibition on liquor sales on a Sunday obligated shopkeepers, who could sell other articles in their stores on that day, to remove alcohol from their shelves each Saturday evening.56 In 1864 further confusion arose, when police inspectors verbally informed Chinese shopkeepers that the sale of spirits would be tolerated on Sundays, while continuing to take contraventions. Thus when Ahoun, a shopkeeper in Montagne Longue, was fined for selling liquor on a Sunday in 1868 he complained to the Governor “That petitioner having obtained the authorization of the inspector of licences, acted upon such authorization, as all other traders and was not in the least doing so, to contravene the laws concerning spirits.”57

56 MA RA 1529 Petition of 5 Chinese shopkeepers, 9 Feb. 1859; Petition of shop owners of Grand-Port, 20 February 1859. 57 MA RA 1967 Petition of Ahoun, 10 November 1868.

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2.9. The Central Rum Warehouse, Mauritius, c. 1910

The situation had evidently not been resolved by 1871, when a group of 21 Chinese shopkeepers in Port Louis complained of inconsistency in the attitude of the authorities towards Sunday liquor sales. 58 A number of fines were also imposed on Chinese retailers convicted of selling alcohol of a higher or lower alcohol content than was permitted. When Angaye, of Vallée Pitot, was fined £5 for this offence, he argued that the alcohol level had been affected by evaporation, and his fine was reduced.59 A further source of irritation for Chinese shopkeepers was the nonsalaried inspectorate appointed from 1840 who earned their living from the number of contraventions they brought. Ah Heem’s petition to the Governor in 1868 made the point that the officers had provoked him to break the law, when they induced him to sell rum in his Pamplemousses store. The fine was reduced and the Inspector of Police’s attention was drawn to the misbehaviour of his officers. There was also evidence that some police demanded extended credit and, when this was refused, took measures to set up contraventions.60 In fact such was the degree of harassment, and the incidence of fraudulently imposed fines, that in 1863, more than 200 Chinese shopkeepers in Port Louis signed a petition for the attention of the Governor in which their principal grievances were detailed, and which

58

MA RA 2094 Petition of Asseng & others, 29 May 1871. MA RA 2094 Petition of Angaye for mitigation of a fine, 30 May 1871. 60 MA RA 1967 Petition of Ah-Heem, shopkeeper of Pamplemousses, 24 September 1868. 59

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ended with the fervent hope “that your decision will contribute to annihilate a source of abuse of which the Unsalaried Inspectors now make a profit and which so disgusts the Chinese traders who are now so shamefully annoyed.”61 In this case, the colonial press supported the retailers, and under the combined impact of a well-organised boycott by Chinese shopkeepers of Sunday trading, and the help given to them by a concerted press campaign, the government finally abolished the inspectorate. Henceforth fines would not accrue either to the police or to inspectors, but would be deposited in government coffers. The Chinese had gained an early success in organising effectively to defend their interests.62 The Chinese Commercial Class: Contemporary Appraisals Witnessing the explosive expansion of the retail trade among Hakka and other Chinese men in the rural districts, a number of contemporary observers sought to analyse and explain their presence and rapid proliferation. Giving a lecture on Mauritius at the Royal Colonial Institute in 1881, Henry Jourdain was asked to describe the activities and position of the Chinese on the island. He first stressed their free status, in order to differentiate them from the bulk of—mostly Indian—indentured workers on Mauritius: “They are not in any way Government emigrants, nor are they coolie labourers in any form whatever. They all come as free passengers to the island, and come and go just as they please”. He enumerated the total population of the Chinese on Mauritius as 3558, and then sought to explain how they had managed to “get almost entirely into their own hands the small grocery trade”. His rather prosaic explanation was as follows: “the Chinaman gets a small hut, and purchases in town a cask of pork, cheese, and other articles, and retails them out in small driblets to the labourers on the estates.”63 Jerningham, another colonial official, offered a more thoughtful appraisal of Chinese retail strategies in an article written for the August 1892 edition of Blackwoods Magazine. He wrote, “their most noticeable characteristic is their industry, and, even under adverse circumstances,

61

MA RA 709 Collective petition of Chinese traders, 21 July 1863. Le Colonial, 4, 5 Aug. 1863, Le Progrès Colonial, 15 Feb. 1864. 63 Jourdain, Henry J., ‘Mauritius’ in Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, vol. 13, 1881–2, London, Sampson Low, 1882, p. 297. 62

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they cling to their means of livelihood”. Jerningham also commented on the number of Chinese shops dotted around the island: it matters not whether you are in the most isolated part of the island and far from the busy haunts of men, there you will find you have been preceded, and a boutique chinois will meet you at the most unexpected place. In towns and villages these retail shops are very numerous, and would seem at first sight to be injuring one another. But this apparently is not the case. All the different shops evidently have their special sets of customers, and if one is more favoured than another, why, John Chinaman is gifted with exemplary patience, he knows the advantage of a waiting policy, and if he will only ‘sit tight’, he is aware that his own turn will come. His more prosperous neighbour, having made his ‘pile’, will withdraw, leaving the field open to him, or fickle Fortune, having dallied long enough in one quarter, will throw all the weight in her power into the scale that lately kicked the beam. It takes a long time to impress John, even if his business is far from thriving, that he is not required in any one spot; but once convinced, there is no shilly-shallying, he strikes his tent forthwith, and hies him to more favourable regions.64

Jerningham had stumbled upon a problem which was indeed becoming an issue for the Chinese retailers—the increasing competition among themselves and with the growing middle class of free- coloureds, and ex-indentured labourers also seeking to become owners of small businesses.65 After the sugar industry boom years of the 1850s and early 1860s gave way to slump, the Chinese retailers weathered the storm by taking advantage of the sale of estate lands to small planters and the formation of village settlements, by moving into these newly developed residential clumps.66 However, by the closing years of the 19th century, few opportunities existed for new shops either in village or in town, and the Chinese community turned their attention to diversification in the search for new economic opportunities.

64 Jerningham, H.E.H., ‘Mauritius as it was before the Cyclone’, Blackwoods Magazine, August 1892, pp. 218–9. 65 Ex-indentured labourers were classed as ‘old immigrants’ and supplied with a photograph ‘ticket’ which affirmed their completion of industrial residence and gave them the right to move freely around the island, and take up whatever occupation they chose. See Carter, M., Servants, Sirdars and Settlers: Indians in Mauritius, 1834–1874, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1995 for more details. 66 Known in Mauritius as ‘morcellements’.

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2.10. The Chinese trader in 19th century Mauritius: “Face smooth, the tail reaching to the calf of the leg, with a straw hat and loose cotton frock and trousers”67

67

Davy, H., ‘Voyage of H.M.S. Thunderer’, op. cit., p. 174.

CHAPTER THREE

EXPANSION AND DIVERSIFICATION: SINOMAURITIANS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The economic role of the overseas Chinese in various colonial societies, including Mauritius, has been described by scholars as that of a middleman minority: “they function as traders and brokers. They acquire raw materials, add value through manufacturing or some other means of upgrading the commodity, then sell the finished goods to others.”1 In the Mauritian context, ethnic middlemen minorities have been seen as invaluable, helping the island move from monocultural dependence to an industrial knowledge-based economy. Chinese retailers, as we have seen, excelled at identifying diverse client bases, niche markets and new geographical opportunities. This chapter assesses how the small settler community weathered the vagaries of an economy vulnerable to boom and slump in world sugar prices and to devastating tropical epidemics, and met challenges created by global conflicts and trends. Diversification of the Chinese Business Sector in 19th Century Mauritius The increasing sophistication of Chinese commerce in Mauritius is evident from the fact that even before the middle of the 19th century some of the wealthier merchants had begun to charter ships to convey goods from Asian ports. In 1844 Ahine petitioned the Governor, Sir William Gomm, for the right to purchase a ship, the Emma, which was destined to travel between Mauritius and Singapore, bringing goods for sale on the island. Ahine, a native of Peking, could not be given permission to realise the project because, not being a British subject, he was not eligible to make the purchase. Ahine, however, claimed British nationality, and purchased the ship. The authorities soon noted

1

Srebrnik, H., ‘Ethnicity and the development of a “middleman” economy on Mauritius: The diaspora factor’ Round Table no. 350 1999; cf. also Oxfeld’s article on the Hakka Chinese minority in Calcutta: Oxfeld, E., Blood, Sweat and Mahjong, Family Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community, Cornell University Press, 1993.

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the discrepancy but Ahine was not prosecuted, and was instead allowed to become a naturalised British subject, de facto in 1846, and officially in 1847. He was the first Chinese in Mauritius to apply for and receive naturalisation. Shortly afterwards, he left in the Emma for a ‘trading voyage to Singapore, Penang & other Eastern ports.’ Ahine returned to the island after almost three years away, in July 1849. He brought a considerable amount of merchandise and 8 Chinese labourers from Singapore whom he wished to employ.2 The petition of Unquo, Atchim, Angoune & Acon dated 12 December 1850 reveals the complexity of chartering operations: your petitioners have lately chartered some vessels to different sea ports and have at times encountered some difficulties in their operations. Wherefore your petitioners Unquo, Atchim and Acon being about to leave this island per “Canada” on Saturday the fourteenth instant, for Aracan and Singapore . . . respectfully approach your Excellency to solicit they be furnished with a letter of introduction to the Police Magistrate at Aracan & Singapore in order that all necessary assistance be afforded to them in their mercantile operations there.3

The import business, of course, chiefly concerned those Chinese traders who had established themselves at the port and who increasingly went into the wholesale business, servicing the small scale commercial concerns of their compatriots, spread around the island in retail outlets on the plantations and in rural settlements. This market, as we have seen, chiefly concerned basic commodities, including alcohol. As a natural adjunct to their role as rum retailers, in the second half of the 19th century, Chinese businessmen moved into the operation of distilleries. There are earlier unverified accounts of ingenious and illegal Chinese-run rum-making operations, such as that of French visitor Maurice La Chesnais, who described them as situated along river banks in isolated locations, built underground with the entry well disguised,4 but by 1876 it is clear that at least one Chinese-owned legal distillery was in operation. This was located at Pamplemousses, under the name of the Canton distillery, and was owned by Athonne. In 1897, the distillery

2 MA RA 803/8583, Petition of Ahine, 26 November 1844; RA 837/306 Report of Customs Office, 10 January 1845; RA 837/4483 Petition of Ahine for naturalization, 23 May 1845; RA 1035 Petition of Ahine, 25 July 1849. 3 MA RA 1089 Petition of Unquo, Athim, Angoune & Acon, 12 December 1850. 4 La Chesnais, M., ‘Etudes sur l’Ile Maurice’, op. cit., 1862.

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was still running, the principal shareholders being Ah Mun Chan Pow, Athoy Chan Kaw, Attime Fockting and Affan Tank Wen.5 The ‘Pekin’ and ‘Ha Kin’ distilleries set up at Flacq and Black River, were principally owned by Hakka Chinese. The Pekin Distillery Company agreement, drawn up in 1880 may be considered one of the earliest recorded Hakka enterprises, and grouped no fewer than eleven Hakka traders as shareholders, including Isthone, Akin, San Sune, Fong Sam, and Lim Lion. The distillery was built on two arpents of rented land at Trou d’Eau Douce.6 In 1890, Lee Seepin & Co., having purchased a large plot of land in Black River, restored to working order an old distillery and aloe factory, named initially Wellington, and later Constance. Purchased with all the machinery, the transaction cost around Rs. 30,000, with another similar amount invested for its renovation. Now under Chinese ownership, the distillery was renamed ‘Ha Kin’. The largest share was owned by Lee Seepin, with major investments by Tang Quan of Black River and Chu Yuk Shai, a trader in Grand Port. Ah Kew of Savane and Lee Chong of Flacq also contributed, with eight other Chinese traders owning single shares. The Hakkas obtained their molasses necessary for the preparation of rum under a private agreement made with the owners of local sugar estates.7 The 1909 Mauritius Almanach listed Chan Kun as the owner of a distillery in Moka, and in 1913, Moysiam, as the proprietor of a Pamplemousses distillery. The opening of distilleries marked a new chapter in the history of Chinese commerce in Mauritius. Henceforth, they would embark on more grandiose enterprises while retaining their control over the retail sector, in fact, using their commercial base of shops to launch themselves into new economic enterprises in the 20th century. Another area that would become a veritable monopoly of the Chinese for some time was tobacco production. Tobacco was introduced to Mauritius in 1639 by a Dutch governor of the island, was cultivated by some planters during French rule in the 18th century, and resurfaced as a cash crop in Mauritius with the rise of the Indo-Mauritian

5

MA RA 2313 Report of Receiver General, 10 June 1876. MA NA 121/4 Acte de la distillerie ‘Pékin’. 7 MA NA 109/19 Acte de Vente à M Lee Seepin & cie; NA 125/17 Acte de Société, 7 juin 1890. 6

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3.1a–b. Mauritian newspaper notices re Chinese alcohol producers

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small planter class.8 The local availability of tobacco prompted Chinese businessmen to launch cigarette-making enterprises. Among the pioneers in this area were Affoo Brothers & Co., and Chousiom & Co.; the latter had been producing cigarettes—of an artisanal quality—in Mauritius since 1874.9 By the third quarter of the 19th century, when many of these developments in Chinese business strategy were taking place, the working class customer base [important consumers of both rum and tobacco] had been vastly increased through the immigration strategy practised during the sugar boom years of mid-century. The period of slump and depression which followed it accentuated problems of over-population and pauperization which were, in turn, magnified by a series of epidemics and natural disasters. An outbreak of a particularly virulent form of malaria decimated the population in the years 1867–9 and was followed by a series of other catastrophic events, culminating in the devastating cyclone of 1892 and an episode of plague at the turn of the century. Walter Besant, the British novelist resident on the island at this time, remembered “dreadful stories of suffering. The Chinese who had escaped the cholera were laid low with the fever . . . when the canes were cut, many dead bodies were found . . . the savings bank had $30,000 unclaimed—the investors with all their families having been wiped out.”10 As an example of the response of the Chinese to economic depression, when the government—no longer able to afford the luxury of purchasing expensive boots imported from Europe for the police and other public servants—offered contracts for the supply of footwear to local entrepreneurs, some of their number stepped forward to meet the challenge.11 Boots and shoes produced locally, for example by prisoners, had proved inadequate—lasting only a matter of weeks. Ng Cheng Hin’s firm was among those that took on the task of shoe-making, for in 1910, Alistair Macmillan was praising his skills in this department: “The manufacture of shoes has in him a very capable and enterprising

8

Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘La Naissance du Commerce Chinois’, pp. 138–9. See MA NA 110/276 and 110/292 for details of the Affoo brothers, and NA 95/257 for the ‘Acte de Société’ of Cousiom & Co. 10 Besant, W., Autobiography, op. cit., pp. 143–4. 11 MA C 1954 Committee Report, 5 May 1885. 9

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representative, and the footwear which his workmen produce is excellent in every respect, both as regards style and comfort.”12 Despite the important role undertaken by Chinese entrepreneurs in various sectors of the Mauritian economy, at the close of the 19th century they were still regarded as largely a foreign and transient population, a dynamic community that nevertheless saw in Mauritius merely an opportunity to make enough money to do well at home. The lecture on Mauritius given by Henry Jourdain to the Royal Colonial Institute provides a good example of the contemporary appraisal of the Chinese businessman in Mauritius: when they realise their money, away they go, and a fresh batch comes down, and there is hardly a steamer leaves for Singapore or China but what there is a lot of them coming and going.13

Of course such accounts reveal little more than that the average British merchant, and even many colonial officials, had only a very partial understanding of the functioning of Chinese networks. Elderly and established businessmen did choose to return to China, to be buried with their ancestors, while ties of kin and village were an important factor in commercial expansion plans, as already noted, in this and the previous chapter. This is also borne out from interviews conducted with Sino Mauritians. A.B., born in 1924, recalled that his father, having found it difficult to make a living as the third son working in a family dyeing business, came to Mauritius in 1916. This decision was related to the fact of his acquaintance with Sam Yen, the owner of a shop in Royal Road, Port Louis, who offered him work. Such arrangements were often, indeed, seen as only temporary expedients, with migrants planning to return to China once some capital had been raised. It would not be until the 20th century, that a series of factors would alter the dynamics and outlook of the community itself, and bring about a number of changes that would lead to the Chinese accepting and being accepted as permanent members of Mauritian society.

12 13

Macmillan, A., Mauritius Illustrated, City Press, London, 1910, p. 413. Jourdain, Henry J., ‘Mauritius’, op. cit., p. 297.

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Developments in the 20th Century Retail Sector Despite the diversification of the Chinese business community, in the late 19th century, the 1901 census demonstrated that the most important occupations of the Chinese remained those of shopkeeper and shop assistant (known in Mauritius at this time as commercial clerk or ‘commis’). Across the island 276 Chinese owned shops, and were assisted by 665 ‘clerks’. A few craftsmen remained, with 32 continuing to exercise the trade of carpenter or joiner, and a number of Chinese were described as cooks or domestic servants.14 The Chinese were so well entrenched in the retail trade that the Royal Commissioners who visited Mauritius in 1908 commented that they had ‘taken over’ and recommended an interdiction on further immigration.15 Of the vast majority engaged in commerce, a few hawkers remained, but most Chinese were now settled in their village and urban shops. The Chinese would continue to be predominantly retailers until the post World War Two period when expanding economic opportunities would bring many more out of the small shop and into the arena of big business and the professions. Port Louis’ Chinatown which had originally grown up around the shops of Fukienese and Cantonese immigrants, north of Royal Road, was further extended around the turn of the 20th century.16 Hakka traders had begun to open shops in the capital in the latter part of the 19th century, one of the first being Chin Ton who operated a store selling spices. In the 1910s and 1920s, a Hakka commercial enclave began to extend the limits of the old China Town, principally along the Royal Road. In 1910 the grandiose character of one Hakka enterprise, the store of Ng Cheng Hin at 19 Royal Road, was well summed up by Alistair Macmillan as demonstrative of the Chinese genius for securing goods of novelty and utility and selling them at prices that are a powerful inducement to purchase, although the need for such things may not always be the pressing requirement of the moment . . . Mr Ng Cheng Hin is an able exponent of the wise policy of quick sales and small profits and the augmentation of his stock by new goods.17

14 15 16 17

MA B1A 1901 Census. PP 1910 Report of Royal Commission. Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘La Naissance du Commerce Chinois’, op. cit., pp. 114–6. Macmillan, A., Mauritius Illustrated, op. cit., p. 413.

5

Rue Royale

8 3

Fukienese section Hakka section Cantonese section Hakka wholesalers

Rue la Paix

Rue J. Riviere

7

Rue Pasteur

6

Rue Corderie

Rue Bourbon

Rue la Reine

Rue Jummah Mosque

4

Rue Arsenal

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Rue E. Anquetil (Rue la Rampe)

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1

Vers le Nord 2 9

1. Store of Hahime 2. Law Kwan Chung Pagoda 3. Heen Foh society 4. Central Market 5. Shop of Chin Ton 6. Galeries Reunies 7. Store of Ng Cheng Hin 8. Store of Venpin 9. The Chan Cha

3.2. The China Town of Port Louis

Merchandise which could be purchased at the store included haberdashery, perfumes, lamps, china, domestic utensils and toys. Ng Cheng Hin had arrived in Mauritius around 1870, as an 18 year old. After serving his apprenticeship as a commis in Mahebourg, he opened his own shop in 1880 in Rue Bourbon, close to the central market in the capital. Eight years later he returned to China, leaving his premises with his brother, Mr Ng Chung Hin, who had arrived in 1884, in Mauritius, and who had been working in a shop in Mare d’Albert.18 The shop kept its original name, and prospered under Mr Ng Chung Hin, who obtained British citizenship in 22 June 1903. This gave him the right to purchase land, and in 1904 a new premises was acquired at 19 Royal Road. He offered a wide range of products for sale, from wine to shoes, Chinese porcelain and perfumes. The importation of goods from China and Europe was overseen by his assistant Adrien Konfortion, who was fluent in English and French, making it the first 18 Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘Biographie de M. Ng Chung Hin’, L’Aurore, no. 40, Jul.–Oct., 1993.

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3.3a. Mr Ng Cheng Hin and brother

3.3b. The family shop in 1910

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3.3c. The Ng Cheng Hin store today

Chinese shop where English and French speaking customers could use their languages. The shop of Ng Chung Hin also played an important role in the settlement of Chinese in Mauritius. He acted as an agent for the maritime firm of Adam & Co. Ltd., receiving a commission on every ticket sold to Chinese passengers for Mauritius. The arriving traders, many of whom stayed temporarily with him at his extensive commercial premises often sold their valuable merchandise, which they usually brought along with them and amongst which included silk & porcelain, to Mr Ng Chung Hin. Another notable Chinese store in the early 20th century was that of Ng Cheong, at no. 16 Royal Road. The business was established in 1898. In 1903 Mr Ng Cheong, who had just acquired British citizenship, was consequently able to purchase, in association with Ng Yeelim, a plot of land at the corner of Tourraine and Rampe streets. By 1910 his shop was employing 12 assistants and was described by the indefatigable Macmillan as one of the most notable of the island’s Chinese businesses and “very popular because of the many classes of goods obtained there at prices that please”.19

19

Macmillan, A., Mauritius Illustrated, op. cit., p. 414.

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3.4. Ng Cheong store, c. 1910

The acquisition underlines the gradual extension of Hakka commercial premises in Port Louis. Later further Hakka businesses would be situated on the south side of Royal Road and nearby streets as Ng Yeelim, Li Sing & Co., Lee Shim, Yip Tong, Li Wan Po and others consolidated Hakka involvement in the urban retail sector. Another naturalised Hakka immigrant, Acyokoo Venpin, had meanwhile also set up a business called Venpin & Co. in 1901.20 This firm, together with NG Cheng Hin and other large enterprises subsequently set up subsidiaries in the rising urban centre of Rose Hill. Outside Port Louis, Hakka and other ethnic Chinese families continued their expansion into the rural retail sector. To take the example of the Lee clan alone, in 1901, Li Sing opened a shop at the Bel Ombre & Ste Marie establishment in Savanne, while Li Yan San was operating at Britannia in the same district from 1911. Flacq saw a flurry of activity between 1902 and 1908 when five members of the Lee clan opened retail stores at Bel Air and Trou d’Eau Douce. John Chuan set up an establishment at Riviere du Rempart in 1906.21 20 21

Mauritius Almanach, 1889, 1905; MA NA 110/281 Acte de Société Venpin & Co. MA NA 118/10 Notarial Act, Lee Clan, 9 March 1897.

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As members of the Chinese community became naturalised British subjects, they and their Mauritian born offspring, were able to acquire land and property. The Mauritian notarial archives provide a wealth of information detailing Chinese land transactions in the first half of the 20th century. The Chinese were also more able to obtain bank loans as a result of having property to use as security. The Chinese traders were relatively prosperous during the First World War, but in the depression which followed, many small businesses were foreclosed. A government decree fixed the opening hours of shops and restricted the number of establishments licensed to serve alcohol. Only those who could afford the licences could open rum shops. If business was poor, the clientele was even worse off, and the shopkeeper honed his skill in preparing tiny packages of goods which was all that his customers could afford. A.C. remembers the work involved: “the shopkeeper would have to split everything up and place it in paper cornets, the quantity of work was unimaginable when you think that salt or sugar was sold by the ‘sou’ and even 5 sous of bread was sold in portions costing 1 sou each. Wine was purchased in barrels and had to be bottled by the shopkeeper.” By 1921 the Chinese community was spatially highly distributed. The network of village and estate shops was so extensive that small groups of Chinese were present in almost every hamlet on Mauritius. In that year, census records indicate that there were two Chinese at Solitude estate and four at Labourdonnais estate to give just two examples.22 As Figure 3.1 shows, the largest proportion of Chinese continued to be found in Port Louis (PL in figure), but increasing numbers of Chinese had taken up residence in the various districts during the years between 1901 and 1921. Principally Hakkas, the Chinese domination of the island-wide retail industry was concretised in this period. The shopkeeper’s role as both a source of much needed credit, and as the sole purveyor of the necessaries of life to the desperately poor labouring population of pre-independent Mauritius, was a double-edged one. He was both the last hope of the hungry and the impoverished, and the visible target of resentment and anger in the lean times. Not surprisingly, then, in the global depression of the 1930s, local misery was translated into ugly resentfulness against the Chinese, particularly

22

See Appendix 1 for further details.

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3.5a. Ng Yeelim store today

3.5b. Venpin store, now demolished

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3000

Population

2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0

PL

Pample

RR

Flacq

GP

Savanne

PW

Moka

BR

District

Figure 3.1. Chinese Population by District, 1901–1921

against those new immigrants who had come with a little capital, hoping to make money, and who were accused of living by meanness and thievery.23 A.D. recalled the rationing years of the 1940s when there was very little rice, and oil was difficult to get. His father’s shop belonged to the local sugar estate. The government issued coupons for food purchases, but when the sugar estate wanted certain items it was difficult for the shopkeeper to refuse. A.D. remembered that his father was obliged to use his own coupons to supply the estate, and to live on ‘bredes’ or local green vegetables himself. As an indication both of the scarcity of food at the time, and the significance of the Chinese in the retail sector, in March 1945 it was reported in the local press that the next cargo of salted fish to arrive on the island would be distributed to retailers in all districts, and traders were asked to call at the offices of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.24 Yeung Sik Yuen, who ran a grocery store in Curepipe, later recalled with pride, how, during the war, he sold 2 lbs of rice for 11 sous at a time when 1 lb of rice was selling at 6 sous.25

23

See chapter 6 for further details. ‘Poisson salé des Iles’, Le Mauricien, 10 March 1945. 25 Mootoosamy, C., ‘Yeung Sik Yuen: Le succès du supermarché Sik Yuen est l’oeuvre de toute ma famille’, L’Aurore, no. 6, December 1987. 24

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3.6a–c. Wartime newspaper advertisements

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After the Second World War, the retail trade underwent significant change. Despite more competitors emerging in the retail sector, the Chinese, with their long experience, were able to hold their own. Their longstanding clientele had confidence in them, while the large variety of the goods they stocked continued to attract good custom. The growth of trades unions, and the increasing number of married men working in Chinese owned shops, meant that the old practice of all the employees sleeping on the premises fell into disuse. Nowadays it is usually only the owner and his immediate family who continue to live in the village boutique, while most make a distinction between work premises and personal residence. The retail trade was not an easy sector in which to work. The Chinese village shopkeeper was not only required to supply all the needs of the community, but often to give generous credit terms to most of his customers. As A.E. recalled: Work was hard, very hard. One rose at dawn, and did not go to sleep until after 10 pm. The labourer who wanted to purchase goods before going off to work had to be satisfied. After closing the shop at 7 pm, the shopkeeper would tidy up before taking a light meal and preparing for bed. If, for example, a customer had run out of matches, the door would have to be opened to supply his wants. . . . The shop was generally very small in size, those who worked there also generally lived in the boutique, sleeping behind the shop, between the sacks of rice, or even on the shop counters. The job was 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and it was rare for a ‘commis’ to offer himself any kind of luxury, such as going down to Port Louis.

The image of the Chinese shopkeeper permanently behind his counter was no exaggeration. A.F., like many Sino-Mauritians, remembers helping his parents in the shop at evenings and weekends: “Sunday was a work day for the Chinese shopkeeper and his family.” A.F. believes that the work did him good—giving him an insight into the handling of figures. The day also began early: A.C. recollects the early morning ritual of getting up to receive the delivery of bread at 5 am. By the 1950s, the Chinese retailer was not only a symbolic figure in the village and in the commercial district of the capital, but represented a distinct tourist attraction for intrepid post-war travellers. Lawrence Green’s Secret Africa described the thrill of visiting the Mauritian China Town by night. He claimed that the establishment of Lai Tung Shong was “famous for the delicacies stored there” He recoils for his readers before the dried sea slug “fearful to contemplate; earth-encrusted

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eggs . . . loathsome fish in brine” but also enumerates more acceptable merchandise, and finally objects of unparalleled beauty: cases of tea; Shantung silk, lustrous to the touch; incredibly tiny slippers and sandals; Chinese crackers and candles; joss sticks and incense. For fifty rupees you can purchase a Mah Jong set of astonishing workmanship, with smooth pieces of dove-tailed ivory and sandalwood, brilliantly coloured, in a decorated chest. Or, if you are wealthy, Lai Tung Shong will bring out his jade, and the green glory of that diamond-hard stone will make your eyelids flicker. For three thousand years they have cut jade in China. The cleverest jewelers of the West despair when they see this Chinese symbol of eternity carved into delicate shapes. Green jade is valuable enough; but in Port Louis it is said that old Lai Tung Shong has a certain artistic trifle in kingfisher blue which he shows only to the sugar millionaires of the island.26

By now, visitors to the island, and the local elite were also venturing to Chinatown to eat in the restaurants there. Around 1950, two intrepid travellers described being driven “down some exceptionally dingy and sinister-looking streets in what was obviously Port Louis’ Chinatown” and then drawing up in front of a shabby shop called ‘Wee Chow’s l’Hotel de Soleil de l’Orient’. Despite the unprepossessing appearance, they report eating a wonderful meal there, before returning to their ship.27 In the countryside, it was rather the ramshackle character of the village ‘boutique’ which attracted the attention of travel writers. In 1952, for example, Ommanney’s published account of one northern district, Pamplemousses, informed readers that the Chinese stores were “shacks knocked together out of petrol tins or crazily built of wood . . . They huddle together under vast banyan trees, which dangle their wooden tassels over the leaky roofs”.28 Local British residents understood the nature of these humble stores and their clientele well: “At their little ‘boutiques’ you can buy one cent of a rupee’s worth of sugar, salt, tea, cheese, dried fish or grain, a few matches, a single slice of bread or a single sardine out of a tin”.29

26

Green, Lawrence, G., Secret Africa, London, Stanley Paul & Co., pp. 204–210. J.A.K., ‘Tourists in Mauritius’, Blackwoods Magazine, no. 269, Jan.–June 1951, p. 511. See also Ommanney’s description of the ‘Gros Petit’ restaurant in chapter 6. 28 Ommanney, F.D., The Shoals of Capricorn, 1952 Harcourt, Brace, New York, p. 46. 29 Ingrams, H., Arabia and the Isles, London, John Murray, 1966, p. 72. 27

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chapter three Diversification in Employment and Business in 20th Century Colonial Mauritius

During the 1920s, proposed duties on imported tobacco gave a further fillip to its cultivation in Mauritius and numbers of Chinese firms entered the arena of tobacco production. In 1927, Ng Chen Hin registered his “Lion” brand of cigarettes, and in 1928, “Pigeon”, “Soleil”, “Football” and “Ostrich” cigarettes were registered by Chinese traders. A. Venpin, Leung Pew, Chan Lai, Sim Yan, Ah Fat and Chan Tin were all involved in cigarette production in 1929, operating family enterprises that each employed around 20 people. This branch of manufacturing was in fact to remain a Chinese monopoly until 1931, with seven companies owned and managed by Sino-Mauritians.30 Some of these factories were already installing modern machinery. The era of the Chinese industrialist had begun. Leong Shin Chun’s cigarette factory, set up in 1923, was mechanised in 1931, when machinery was imported from Germany. The factory employed between 30 and 50 people. The cigarettes were packed in round tins. Makes included l’Euro, Observatoire, Football, Cercle Rouge, Fortress, Royal, Ti Gamin.31 From the 1930s, other competitors entered the cigarette market, but could not compete with the British American Tobacco company with its modern machinery for the production of cigarettes and the economies created by ownership of extensive tobacco fields. Many of the small Chinese cigarette firms eventually closed in the 1950s. During the same period, numbers of Chinese firms registered brands of wines and alcohols. Lai Wan Chut, born in China in 1901, became the first producer of a Mauritian-made wine from imported Cypriot and South African grapes. He opened the Fabrique Centrale de Vins in La Reine street, Port-Louis, in 1927 with a small group of friends. His wines, La Cloche and Good Luck, inspired many others to follow in his footsteps. Chan Kin produced alcohol drinks manufactured from fermentation of ripe bananas, while Lee Shim offered ‘Croix d’Or’ brandy

30

MA B2 Customs Department, Reports on Tobacco Factories, 1928–31. For details of Chinese Mauritian trade marks see Mauritius Almanach 1928/9, 1930/33. 31

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3.7. The cigarette label of Ng Cheng Hin

to a local clientele.32 By 1936 Ng Take Choi was producing ‘55’ wines and beers, and a number of beverages were also being manufactured by N.S. Seeyave.33 The distillery businesses which had been set up, chiefly to manufacture rum, in the late 19th century, were now being expanded to offer Mauritians a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. In 1930 Lee Shim won a gold medal in the “rum, wine & liqueurs” section of the Ideal Home Exhibition, demonstrating the expertise acquired by Chinese businessmen in this sector. Grouped around Queen Street, Chinese wholesalers stored comestibles and beverages which were distributed to Hakka retailers around the island. However, as the Chinese businesses competed for a small market, rivalry between wine makers led to violent clashes and a number of underhand methods were said to have been employed, such as buying the competitors’ wine and diluting it.34 In 1911, the firm Ah-Piang & Co. was set up to manufacture shoes and tobacco. In 1940, the government contract for the supply of policemen’s and soldiers’ boots and shoes went to the Hakka family firm of Guillaume Ng Thow Hing. Guillaume Ng had arrived in 1907 as a 4 year old. In 1940 he obtained a military contract to repair boots made in India, through the offices of Alfred d’Unienville. He went on to manufacture shirts and kit bags for the military and by 1942 was producing military footware. In 1945 the same firm was given a substantial contract to supply the British army with backpacks, footwear, 32 ‘A Chinese Centenarian: Lai Wan Chut’ Scope Magazine, 7 September 2001; ‘M. Lai Wan Chut: Fondateur de ‘La Fabrique Centrale des Vins’, L’Aurore No. 18, December 1989. 33 ‘Antoine Seeyave, l’homme qui avait foi en l’île’ L’Aurore no. 2, 24 June 1987. 34 Le Cernéen, 30 April 1930.

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and various items of clothing and in 1962 became the first representative of the Bata firm in Mauritius.35 The quality of Chinese manufactured goods was by now indisputable. Other industries which the Chinese took on to meet the shortages created by the two World Wars included iron casting [Ang See Sing], safety matches [Chan Pong], soft drinks, soap manufacturing and even macaroni production. In 1948 Lai Wan Chut ventured into biscuit and confectionery manufacture with the ‘Petit Beurre’ and ‘Cabine’ brands. Food processing, furniture and garment manufacture were among numerous businesses launched by Chinese entrepreneurs.36 During the postwar boom a number of Chinese shopkeepers expanded into the wholesale business in Port Louis. The increasing wealth of Chinese traders and their permanent settlement and creation of community infrastructure, chiefly in Port Louis, also helped to provide the capital and institutions necessary to create a new class of professionals among the Mauritian-born Chinese. In 1926 the Chinese community’s first laureate [or scholarship winner] was named, eventually taking up medicine.37 A few years later the Chinese community saw its first representative called to the bar. The increasing professionalization of the Chinese in Mauritius naturally led to a corresponding decline in the proportion of the community engaged in commerce. This is generally dated from the 1920s, as Figure 3.2 demonstrates. In 1901, trade constituted more than 80% of the employment of the Chinese, while by 1944 this had fallen to account for only one third of the occupations of this population group. As early as 1960, British economists Titmuss and Abel-Smith were reporting that the Chinese were “making an increasing contribution to the professions and administration” and by 1979 a number of Sino Mauritians had become professionals—occupying government posts as doctors, accountants and lawyers, which well outstripped their proportion in the total

35

MA NA 135/92 ‘Acte de Société Ah Piang & cie’. Chan Kin, P., ‘La contribution des Mauriciens d’origine chinoise à l’industrialisation de l’Ile Maurice’ L’Aurore, no. 2, 24 June 1987; ‘M. Lai Wan Chut: Fondateur de La Fabrique Centrale des Vins’, L’Aurore, No. 18, December 1989. 37 His memoirs, published in 1977, offer a fascinating glimpse of his entrée into colonial professional ranks, and his pioneering surgical techniques: Sun-Shin, M. Memoirs of a Government Medical Officer, 1937–1966, Mauritius, 1977. 36

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12000 Chinese Population No. of Traders

10000

Population

8000 6000 4000 2000 0

1901

1921

1931

1944

Year

Source: MA B1A Census Reports, 1901–1944.

Figure 3.2. Traders as a Proportion of the Chinese Population, 1901–1944

population.38 As Gaetan Raynal was later to remark: “little by little the Chinese immigrant emerged from his boutique, to engage in occupations from commercial photography to the wine trade.”39 The sugar industry was one source of employment for educated Sino-Mauritians who obtained posts as white collar supervisory and technical personnel on estates and in allied businesses. A.G. studied at the Mauritius College of Agriculture and obtained a diploma in 1961. He subsequently worked as a chemist at the Control Board and later as a technician in the Entymology department in Reduit, before moving to the private sector, and taking up a post at the Union St Aubin sugar estate.

38 Titmuss, R. and Abel-Smith, B., Social Policies & Population Growth in Mauritius, Port Louis, 1960. 39 Raynal, L.G., ‘Venpin, Francois Ayoo-Koo (1851–1948)’ Dictionnaire de Biographie Mauricienne 1081.

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3.8. The Chinese shopkeeper at the counter—a disappearing tradition

3.9. The store of an ‘ethnic entrepreneur’

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By 1952 the occupations of the Chinese community were diverse, as the census figures from that year indicate: Table 3.1. Principal Occupations of Chinese in Mauritius, 1952 Chinese Males Agriculture Bakery Manufacturing Wine Industries Footwear Manufacture Footwear Repairs Clothes Manufacturing Furniture Manufacturing Printing and Publishing Chemical Products Metal Product Manufacture Repair of Vehicles Construction Wholesale Trade Retail Trade Insurance Road Transport Water Transport Government Services Educational Services Medical and Health Services Business Services Recreation Services Domestic Service Restaurants and Taverns Barbers and Beauty Shops Photographic Studios

15 73 71 79 37 33 54 21 11 19 39 47 82 4,382 22 33 14 62 43 11 13 48 34 151 10 33

Chinese Females 8 4 6 5 17 68 1 6

2 137

6 42 16 1 37 3 1

Source: MA B1A 1952 Census.

As the community prospered, ethnic entrepreneurs developed profitable businesses, supplying Sino-Mauritians with specialist goods and services and the wider public with ethnic Chinese goods, such as foodstuffs. For example, the Students’ Book Club—started in 1959 as a small library operating from a garage—imported Chinese books with a view to “make China better known to the public at a time when the latter was following a new political orientation under Mao Tse Tung” as A.I., its founder, recalled. The club later diversified, importing stationery, sports goods and traditional medicines from China.

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When Mauritius was granted independence in 1968, it was still essentially a monocrop sugar economy, with a burgeoning population and ominous unemployment figures. The diversification of the economy began to be seen as the only guarantee for survival of the fragile nation, and the Mauritian Government first decided to embark on a program of diversification in the early 1950s, with the initial emphasis on tax exemptions, long-term loans at favorable rates, and protective import duties and quotas. But given the small size of the domestic market and the negative experiences of others with import substitution as a long-term strategy, the thrust soon switched to an outward-looking development policy.40 In 1962, the Meade Commission recommended the issue of Development Certificates, offering fiscal incentives to import substitution industries in an attempt to lower unemployment statistics, Chinese were among those to take up the advantages offered. Lam Po Tang went into metal furniture and utensil production, Ah Chuen developed a cold storage facility, Liu Man Hin a motorcycle assembly, and packaging and food canning plants were set up.41 For those Chinese who remained in the traditional retail sector, by the end of the 1960s controlled prices for foodstuffs, introduced by government legislation, made the profit margin on the basic food items which had been the staple of the village shop very low. By this stage, many Chinese were already opting to move into more lucrative and less demanding fields of employment. The Sino-Mauritians thereby experienced momentous economic change with the break up of many of the traditional small family-run Chinese businesses. As Kouvenhoven has explained: “Trading did not bring prosperity to everybody, and many Chinese left their shops. The difficulty of being a trader led many parents to value the education of their children to provide them with greater opportunities.” It was not unusual for several family members to contribute by working in their parents’ shop to finance the overseas educa-

40 Alter, R., ‘Lessons from the Export Processing Zone in Mauritius’, Finance & Development, vol. 28, no. 4, 1991. 41 Mootoosamy, C., ‘Honda la petite princesse’, L’Aurore, No. 3, Mai 1987; Mootoosamy, C., ‘ABC Motors’ L’Aurore, no. 4, 25 janvier 1987.

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tion of one child. “Consequently the Chinese community succeeded, in the short period of two generations, in producing a remarkable number of professionals.”42 In the large business sector, conversely, as children moved into the professions, or as partible inheritance fragmented large enterprises, single establishments such as the retail house of Ng Cheng Hin were converted into independent but linked businesses run by various members of the family. At this juncture an innovative scheme was introduced to the island, when, in 1970, Mauritius became one of the first developing countries to establish a duty-free, tax-free export processing zone (EPZ). The EPZ played its part in the so-called ‘Mauritian miracle’, which transformed the island from a poor ex-sugar colony, still dependent on cane exports, to a nation with an income distribution “on a par with the highly equitable newly industrializing East Asian countries”, with unemployment below 2% and healthy annual growth rates over the next four decades.43 A combination of fortunate circumstances and good decisions provided the basic framework within which Mauritius was able to implement liberal economic programs. A relatively inclusive democratic system was combined with social welfare legislation to put in place the basic prerequisites from which the adoption of the South East Asian model of industrialization could proceed. The island’s political stability and relatively low cost labour were supplemented by a literate population which was able to provide a competent managerial staff for EPZ business owners. The Lomé convention which gave Mauritius free access for exports to the EEC (while Hong Kong exports were subject to 17% duty) coupled with good fiscal incentives and infrastructure, made the package particularly attractive. Thus, as Mistry has noted, the Mauritian experience was “less a miracle than a combination of factors”, some fortuitous such as “the sheer good luck of providing a useable platform to Hong Kong’s garment knitters, whose costs were escalating, to relocate and penetrate the EU market under quota privileges at precisely the right time; and moderately good governance”.44

42

Kouvenhoven, A., ‘Kinship and Integration: the Chinese in Mauritius’ unpublished paper. [c. 1986] 43 Brautigam, D., ‘Institutions, Economic Reform, and Democratic Consolidation in Mauritius’, Comparative Politics, vol. 30, no. 1, 1997, pp. 48–9. 44 Mistry, P., ‘Mauritius-Quo Vadis?’, African Affairs, no. 393, 1999.

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However, the relocation of Hong Kong and Taiwanese industrialists to Mauritius, and the recognition that the latter island’s development of an EPZ, could prove mutually beneficial, was built on much more solid foundations than ‘sheer good luck’. The timely visits of Edouard Lim Fat, a Sino-Mauritian engineering professor and businessman, to Taiwan and Puerto Rico to study the working of EPZs there, and his report presented on those findings at the 1969 World Sugar Congress held in Mauritius, played a part in the Government’s decision to pass an EPZ Act in December 1970.45 Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore were significant investors in the Mauritian EPZ, contributing to the high growth rate of 30% plus during the early 1970s. The World Bank has pointed out that for East Asian entrepreneurs, the “added attraction has been the reassuring presence of a local Chinese community”.46 Hong Kong and Taiwanese investors were also able to benefit from the employment of capable Sino-Mauritians, who provided many of the managerial and technical staff needed. Following early rapid growth up to 1975, a slower period followed, but foreign investment again surged in the mid 1980s, helped by government promotion of the EPZ overseas. Within 15 years, the EPZ had outstripped sugar as the principal employer and exporter of Mauritius, revolutionizing the local economy. Local ownership in the EPZ was supported in the early 1980s, by the Mauritian Development Bank which offered unsecured small business loans to Mauritians wishing to establish EPZ firms. The number of EPZ companies surged from 115 in 1982 to nearly 600 in 1988. By the late 1980s, more than half of the equity in the EPZ was local, though not all Sino-Mauritian—by now Franco and Indo-Mauritians were also investing, and industries manufacturing boxes, thread, buttons, and packaging materials, mostly owned by Sino-Mauritians, were set up to support the EPZ producers. In 1989 expansion in the EPZ sector peaked with 586 companies involved, and nearly 91,000 jobs having been created in the textile sector.47 45 Bowman, L.W., Mauritius: Democracy and Development in the Indian Ocean, Westview Press, Colorado, 1991. See also Ly Tio Fane, H. & Edouard Lim Fat, E., From alien to citizen—The integration of the Chinese in Mauritius, Editions de l’océan Indien, Rose-Hill, 2008, pp. 223–315. 46 World Bank, ‘Mauritius—Expanding Horizons’, Washington, 1992. 47 Dimou. M., ‘The Insular and the Global: Understanding Industrial Dynamics in Mauritius’ in Aurifeille, J.M. et al. eds Globalization and Partnerships: Features of

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The EPZ also served to strengthen relations between Mauritius and the overseas Chinese heartland of South East Asia. Following on from Taiwanese investment in the EPZ, goods imported from Taiwan into Mauritius saw a steady growth from the 1980s as the table below indicates: Table 3.2. Principal Imports from Taiwan, 1985–1994 1985 1986 1987 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 Food & live animals 40 Manufactured goods 144 Machinery 51 Crude materials 1 Chemical products 2

5 333 68 1 7

13 540 114 1 5

9 592 142 6 15

10 909 129 9 15

67 893 129 8 24

4 775 283 14 28

5 4 738 989 169 221 2 3 34 46

Source: Vision, no. 23, 25–31 Jan. 1995.

Phelps & Romer contend that the Mauritius experience helps to demonstrate how foreign firms can play an important role in the process of technology transfer, pointing out that “until the foreign entrepreneurs arrived, no one in Mauritius knew enough about the garment business to begin production there”. They also stress that “this knowledge did not leak in from Hong Kong. It was brought in when entrepreneurs were presented with an economic environment that let them earn a profit on the knowledge that they possessed”.48 The weaknesses of the EPZ strategy, however, with a tendency for concentration of industries in the low-skill sector, and easily relocated, have been felt in Mauritius, which as a medium-wage economy, is vulnerable. Some factories have already moved to nearby Madagascar.49 Another lesson of the EPZ, as the influx of new immigrants from China, and latterly India has shown, is the remarkable similarity, and cyclical character of problems associated with new workers in host societies.50 Business Alliances and International Cooperation, Nova Science Publishers, New York, 2007, p. 242. 48 Phelps, E.S. & Romer, P.M., ‘The Growth of Nations. Comments and Discussion’, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1995. See also Yin, P., et al. ‘L’ile Maurice et sa Zone Franche’ 5 Plus, 1992. 49 Larmer, B., ‘From Rags to Riches’, Newsweek, 12 August 2002; Alter, R., ‘Lessons from the Export Processing Zone in Mauritius’, op. cit., 1991. 50 Problems with Indian and Chinese workers, from the 1990s on recall the exploitation of the 19th century indenture contracts. See Le Mauricien, 8, 17 March 2002; Raboud, J., ‘Les ouvriers étrangers dans la zone franche’, 5 Plus, 19 Jan. 2003.

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Thus, while the ‘miracle’ if any occurred, was, according to Mistry, that the sustained 15-year period of growth did result in “fairly significant trickle-down effects”, this did not include those immigrant workers who contributed to the profits of the EPZ, but remained part of its ‘low wage’ strategy.51 Interviewees, nevertheless, stressed the beneficial effects of the EPZ for Mauritians, as having “brought about an economic revolution, it has also stimulated profound social change and progress and accelerated the emancipation of women”, in the words of A.J. For Sino-Mauritians, the links with diaspora Chinese from South East Asia proved doubly beneficial. Not only did capital pour into the island, but the transfer of information from long-established Hong Kong entrepreneurs, was available to Mauritians starting up in exportoriented industry: most were ex-partners or employees of EPZ firms who over the years had acquired the necessary experience and know-how from the Hong Kong industrialists in such vital areas as international marketing, the latest technology and large scale industrial production and management, and felt confident enough to start their own EPZ enterprises.52

Initially, therefore, Sino-Mauritians preferred to set up with overseas partners: Suzy Toys, Floreal Knitwear, and the Textile Industries Ltd., now part of the Esquel Group all had ties to such companies. Other EPZ firms were later established by the Lai Fat Fur group, and the Lam Po Tang group. Thus, as a result of their early role in the setting up of the EPZ, and close ties with the Chinese diaspora firms which have invested in the sector, Sino-Mauritians inevitably have continued to play an important part in its management, and to hold controlling shares in a number of EPZ enterprises. They, of course, are also less likely to move on. The Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile Ltd. [CMT], for example, employing more than 3,000 people in several locations in Mauritius, is one of the largest producers of knitted garments in the region. Sino-Mauritian Jacques Li Miu Fong and his brother established City Knitwear

51

Mistry, P., ‘Mauritius-Quo Vadis?’, op. cit. Brautigam, D., “Close Encounters: Chinese Business Networks as Industrial Catalysts in Sub-Saharan Africa” African Affairs, vol. 102, issue 408, July 2003. 52

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factory in the mid 1980s. Initially employing 40, the factory had 1,400 employees by 1990.53 Other diaspora Chinese have followed their EPZ colleagues into Mauritius, as investors. In April 2002, Liao Wan Yin was interviewed by the Mauritian press. Yin owned several hotels with his business partner, of which one had been constructed in Mauritius. He spoke of plans to expand on the island, with a piece of land on the East coast where a hotel with a golf course would be built. The Company also owned a plot of land in the capital Port Louis, where it was planned to construct a business hotel. Liao Wan Yin told the Mauritian journalist why he was happy to settle on the island: “I am Taiwanese, and two years ago, I took Mauritian nationality . . . Twelve years ago we built the Sofitel Impérial in Mauritius. . . . . We feel comfortable here. The events of September 11th seem to have benefited Mauritius. Europeans, our principal clientele, are keen to come here. We are convinced that the island is a safe place for hotel investment”.54 More recently ambitious plans were announced to create a Chinese ‘hub’ or ‘city’ in Mauritius, a platform from which the People’s Republic could consolidate its investments on the African mainland. Indeed China’s interest in trade and investment offers a significant opportunity for Mauritius. Already in 2004, the island accounted for more than three quarters of the total flows of FDI from Africa to China.55 A recent United Nations economic report on Africa classified Mauritius as the most competitive economy in Africa in 1998 and it was ranked first in Africa in terms of ease of doing business by the World Bank in 2006. The United Nations report added: “In addition to good policies and democratic culture and practice since independence, with strong participatory institutions, Mauritius has benefited from its cultural diversity and geographic proximity to China.”56

53 Saminaden, S., ‘CMT et un groupe indien ouvrent une filature de Rs 1,2 milliard’ L’Express, 6 July 2002; Mootoosamy, C., ‘De la quincaillerie à la bonneterie’. L’Aurore no. 24, décembre 1990. 54 L’Express, 17 April 2002. 55 Broadman, H.G. et al., Africa’s Silk Road: China and India’s New Economic Frontier, 2007, World Bank, p. 100. 56 United Nations, Economic Commission for Africa, Capital Flows and Development Financing, 2007, p. 148.

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The striking scenario of the EPZ and subsequent diaspora Chinese and PRC investments in Mauritius, have prompted analysts to make use of these events as a case study of the linkages between socio-cultural ties and investment flows.57 The following chapters will investigate how these networks evolved and how they functioned in the Mauritian context.

57 Tolentino, P., Technological Innovation and Third World Multinationals, Routledge, London, 1993, p. 448; Dimou op. cit., p. 241.

CHAPTER FOUR

MANAGING IDENTITY: THE POLITICS OF COMMUNITY FORMATION AND NETWORKING For most Europeans living in or passing through Mauritius, the Chinese shop and its keeper was principally a source of quaint descriptions and unusual souvenirs to send home in letters and parcels to curious relatives. Lady Barker, wife of a 19th century British Governor, was one of many visitors to make reference to the ‘pidgin English’ displayed on the shop signs with which the retailers advertised their wares: “When by chance the owner of a shop breaks out into an English notification of his wares—and it is generally a Chinaman or Parsee who is fired by this noble ambition—the result is as difficult to decipher as if it were a cuneiform inscription.”1 The external appearance of the Chinese shopkeeper was a stock-intrade of Victorian writers, who remarked on their “long plaited tails of hair brought in circles round the forehead and confined with a small comb” and their neat, unpretentious dress of cotton jackets and broad, loose trousers. Charles Boyle observed that when walking on the roads, they wore European shoes and carried large umbrellas, and Alfred Erny spotted that the more wealthy of the Chinese merchants carried large leather bags, while their humbler compatriots hawked their wares in the capital’s surburbs carrying boxes suspended from either shoulder by a large wooden stick.2 When seeking a short hand, all-encompassing term for the Chinese community as a whole, travel accounts invariably used terms like ‘thrift’ and ‘industry’. Reverend Patrick Beaton called the 2,000 or so Chinese traders of Port Louis “a frugal, industrious, thrifty race”. Maurice La Chesnais found the most striking thing about them was their love of work, asserting “you never see them for one moment unoccupied” and

1

Barker, Lady, ‘Letters from Mauritius’ Good Words vol. 19 (1878): p. 634. Boyle, C., Far Away, op. cit., pp. 22–4; Erny, A., ‘Sejour à L’Ile de Maurice 1860– 1861’ in Le Tour du Monde, Librairie Hachette & Cie, 1862, p. 114. 2

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4.1. The diaspora Chinese trader, with coiled plait and umbrella

the politics of community formation and networking 109 claiming that on Sundays, the capital was deserted, except for the shops of the Chinese, in which every conceivable item could be found.3 Others claimed that the commercial instincts of the Chinese incorporated an element of dishonesty. Reverend Francis Flemying offered a plethora of adjectives to describe them, not all favourable, in his account of the island, published in 1862: “peculiar, exclusive, and inoffensive in their habits . . . . civil and obliging . . . . Proverbially dishonest, they are nevertheless prudent and economical in their domestic habits of life”.4 As for Sailor Charley, an American whaleman who visited the island on several occasions in the mid 19th century during stop-overs of his ship, the array of stereotypes his account of the Chinese manages to convey is hard to beat. He wrote: The Chinese are the most thrifty of the lower classes. They are seldom labourers, but keep the grocers’ shops and public houses in the town, and have a keen eye to all kinds of trade. Frugal, not too honest, and exceedingly clannish—they are all in comfortable circumstances. It is a common remark in the Mauritius that a Chinese beggar was never seen there. If a poor Chinaman comes to the colony, his countrymen give him employment, and place him above want.5

These accounts make it clear that already by the second half of the 19th century, an appraisal of the Chinese had been fixed in the minds of Mauritians and was constantly recycled to their visitors. There was a sense of the community as industrious, driven by gain and not too scrupulous in how they made a profit. The charge of dishonesty was one that the representatives of Chinese traders, as we have seen following the 1846 robbery, were at pains to combat and contradict whenever they entered the public arena via letters to the newspapers, or, more usually, in private petitions to the Governor. However, as Sailor Charley’s description betrays, the efforts that the Chinese also actively made to assist their compatriots had already been remarked upon, particularly the fact of their philanthropy being largely inward-looking. Maurice La Chesnais’ 1862 account took this appraisal to its logical conclusion when he asserted that the Chinese very rarely committed crimes against their own compatriots, and that they used their extraordinary ability

3 Beaton, P., Creoles and Coolies, op. cit., p. 49; La Chesnais, M., ‘Etudes sur l’Ile Maurice’, op. cit., p. 51. 4 Flemying, F.P., Mauritius; or, the Isle of France, London, SPCK, 1862, p. 215. 5 Sailor Charley, Life in a Whaler; or Perils and Adventures in the Tropical Seas, London, Ward & Lock, c. 1871, p. 377.

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to maintain good understanding between themselves as a successful business strategy.6 This chapter assesses the organizational structures developed by the Chinese on Mauritius and considers how these have been used to generate efficient commercial networks as well as to foster positive intra-community understandings. Preserving the Brand—Policing and Governance within the Chinese Community Whilst embryonic overseas Chinese trader communities, such as in Mauritius under Hahime in the early 19th century, could be grouped around a single Kapitan, as numbers grew, so the representation of interests was more widely contested.7 Following the successful efforts of the coterie around Hahime to assist the police in the arrest of the robbers of the Mauritius Commercial Bank, a disaffected group within the community placed a quantity of gunpowder under the home of Akaye, his close associate, which fortunately failed to explode. Towards the close of 1848, an attempt was made on the life of Hahime himself, who described how he had been “surrounded and threatened, in open day, in the very centre of the town, by a considerable mob of Chinamen, one of whom drew a knife”. Hahime was obliged to jump out of his carriage and to take refuge at a local police station.8 Three men, Akoun, Atching and Chuchan, were ordered to leave the island as a result.9 This prompted a further 40 Chinese traders to petition the governor, asserting that there were three different groups of Chinese on the island, each of which recognised its own leader. They alleged that the expulsions were an attempt by Hahime to challenge rival groups.10 In response, however, the legal and police authorities revealed that they were aware of the presence of various factions within the community,

6 “Pour monter ces boutiques, ils s’associent deux ou trois et la meilleure intelligence règne entre eux”. La Chesnais, M., ‘Etudes sur l’Ile Maurice’, op. cit., p. 51. 7 See the analogous situation described among Chinese in Indonesia, in Hamilton, A., A New Account of the East Indies [ed. Sir W. Foster], London, 1930, vol. II, 62. 8 MA RA 1097/7715 Hahime to Governor, 27 June 1850. 9 MA RA 1033 Petition of Akoun, Atching & Chuchan, 12 January 1849 and Report of Procureur General, 25 January 1849. 10 MA RA 1033 Collective petition of Chinamen against Hahime, 2 February 1849.

the politics of community formation and networking 111 but asserted that their enquiries had proven the criminal activities of the persons expelled. Those opposed to the authority of Hahime then brought forward further charges against him, which provide interesting insights into his method of leadership. In a petition dated 25 February 1850 and signed by 37 Chinese, it was asserted that he imposes to every member desirous of making part of his phalanx the obligation of wearing a silver ring of a very small value, and for which each new member pays one pound sterling to that Almighty Chief. . . . at different periods the malicious denunciations of Ahime have caused the banishment of Chinamen bound to this colony by chains of family and by their affairs, but daily those who refuse to incorporate themselves under his standard, are the object of scenes sometimes bloody, and always painful.11

In response, in a letter of 27 June 1850, Hahime explained that he had, with the knowledge of the police, decided to create a ‘brotherhood’, members of which wore a ring, and that it was exclusion from this group which had provoked hostility. Hahime also claimed that the counter-group had set up in secret “an extensive association” which had been “turned to most culpable objects” Finally he asserted that his rivals lived off the proceeds of robbery.12 Hahime pointed the finger at Hine, a former Chinese language interpreter employed by the local police, revealing that he had been behind the incidents that had occurred in the eastern suburb of the capital on the evening of 19 February 1850 when the shops of Aham and Angmong were looted by a band of 100 Chinese, armed with rocks and knives in what was described as a ‘7 hour riot’.13 On this occasion, the police claimed that only scratches had been sustained by the shopkeepers targeted, and only items of small value had been affected.14 Certainly, it was the case both that Hine had been one of the signatories to the petition which contested Hahime’s leadership, and that the interpreter aspired to be the porte-parole for his countrymen with the local government. In similar fashion, one Lyankee sent a petition to the Governor requesting to be named ‘Chinese Consul’ in place of

11 12 13 14

MA RA 1089 Collective petition of Chinamen to Governor, 25 February 1850. MA RA 1097/771 Hahime to Governor, 27 June 1850. MA RA 1089 Petition of inhabitants of Eastern suburbs, 21 February 1850. MA RA 1089 Police Report, 8th March 1850.

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4.2a. The portrait of Hahime, in the Kwan Tee Pagoda

Hahime, claiming that he would put an end to gambling and reunite those Chinese from different parts of the Empire. Ignoring such pleas, the authorities identified three further ringleaders of the plot against Hahime and ordered their expulsion.15 These events marked the success of the strategy adopted by Hahime and the wealthier Chinese traders of preserving and enhancing their reputation through the use of what were effectively auto-screening methods, to ensure that only individuals of known good character, preferably with existing family ties on the island, were admitted to Mauritius. Thus the size of the community, despite the continuing interest in immigration, did not exceed the 3,000 mark until the end of the 19th century. This stabilization of the population was all the more remarkable given that from the 1860s, state-imposed restrictions on immigration had been relaxed—Chinese notables were no longer required to act as guarantors, for example. The growth of the community, however, was

15 MA RA 1529/354 Petition of Lyankee to Governor W. Stevenson, 14 January 1859 and associated correspondence.

4.2b. The altar at Kwan Tee

the politics of community formation and networking 113

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4000 3500

Men Population

3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 1850

1861

1871

1881

1891

Year

Source: MA Census Reports, 1850–1891.

Figure 4.1. The Chinese Population 1850 to 1891

also affected by the economic depression of the last quarter of the 19th century. The sugar market slumped, and a succession of epidemics caused many fatalities. Scores of Chinese fell victim to malaria and to contagious diseases. The economic downturn from the late 1860s prompted further calls for an end to Chinese immigration articulated as a desire to end competition. In June 1886, for example, Georges Virgile Rohan presented a motion to the Legislative Council to “put a brake on Chinese immigration to Mauritius.” Again, in 1909, the President of the Union Democratique asserted that We do not wish to say anything against the Chinese themselves; they are economical and hard working; but the natives of this place have a superior claim on the opportunity for work and trade which this country possesses . . . we, the Mauritians, have got a right, in self-preservation, to keep away the large number of Chinese immigrants who come to Mauritius, take the bread out of the mouths of Mauritians and after a while go back to China with all the money which they have amassed in Mauritius, while their places are taken by other Chinese immigrants coming from China.16

16 PP Cd 5187 Mauritius Royal Commission, Robert A. Rohan, President of the Union Democratique, to the Commissioners, 26 June 1909, pp. 124–128.

the politics of community formation and networking 115 Rohan and his ilk were demonstrably aware of an increasingly evident tendency towards monopolisation by the Chinese of the rural retail trend. Once a business had been acquired it was not likely to be sold out of the community, and generally indeed would be passed to someone of the same clan. The following section provides further details about the development of organisations which facilitated the transfer of credit between Chinese and placed emphasis on clan membership. Credit and Clan Networks Even before the Chinese migrant had arrived in Mauritius, he was usually part of a network. The process of chain migration through which most arrived, ensured that a relative was already settled on the island. The later arrival, wishing to set up on his own, usually depended on better established relatives to give him a head start, possibly assisting him to purchase stock on credit from the Port Louis wholesalers. A ‘fi’ or money association might also be tapped by the would-be businessman. These usually grouped 10 or more Chinese who would contribute a fixed amount of money monthly, to be lent to the person offering the highest interest, or to each person in turn according to the order in which participants’ names had been drawn. Also known as a ‘cycle’, this form of credit organisation was resorted to particularly when individuals were at the beginning of their commercial careers and needed to find the capital to open a shop.17 Since most of the Chinese originated from villages in South China which were composed of a relatively small number of clans, it was comparatively easy for the immigrants to reconstruct clan networks in Mauritius. They functioned as a mutual aid society in the early days, as well as a social centre. Over time, clan groups established meeting places in the capital where members residing in the rural districts could leave their goods and stay overnight when acquiring stock for their shops. Prior to the establishment of clan-based centres, Chinese shops in Port Louis served to accommodate those Chinese retailers from the districts who needed to travel regularly to the capital to purchase goods. In those days, B.A. reports, “The shop owner would go to the capital every Monday to purchase stock, taking the railway where available. At Port Louis, he would have got together with a group of others—usually

17

Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘Les Hakkas à l’Ile Maurice’, pp. 92–93.

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4.3. A communal kitchen used by immigrants, Fok Tiak pagoda

other shopkeepers from the same vicinity in Mauritius—to hire a building, known as a ‘Kou-on’, a kind of lodging where he could keep his stock and spend the night before returning to his shop in the countryside. His stay might last 4 or 5 days. However, members of the same ‘siang’ meaning those who carried the same patronymic, would tend to occupy the same lodging, several even bought their ‘Kou-on’. Some of these ‘Kou-ons’ are still in existence. To transport their merchandise, they would get together to hire a railway wagon for the nearest station, and from there ox carts would be used to take their stock to the shops.” The creation of commercial organisations by Chinese retailers demonstrates the use of clan networks to ensure the maintenance of control over a number of shops in a given area, ensuring continuity of prices, and the concretisation of local monopolies. Thus three Hakka members of the Lee clan, acting under the company name Fock Sam, Ah Van & Co., ensured their control over the Black River retail trade by collectively managing and adding to the number of shops serving that district.18

18

MA NA 121/36 Société entre Fock Sam, Ah Van & Lee Moh, 18 Nov. 1884.

the politics of community formation and networking 117 A closer scrutiny of these commercial agreements reveals the level of commitment entailed. When John Sin Ching [Li] and Li Shung drew up a commercial association in 1897, the former brought to the deal his shop and merchandise, while his partner injected capital, in this case 800 rupees, neither stood to draw salaries, receiving only lodging and food, so that maximum profits could be ploughed back into the business.19 This was also a feature of the association registered between Lee Kate and Lum Toi, of Moka. Their agreement required them to give “all their time” to the business, and stipulated that no wages would be paid.20 Clan networks were, naturally, also useful when the Chinese took steps to diversify into other areas such as manufacturing. Thus, when in 1911, the firm Ah Piang & Co. was set up to produce shoes and cigarettes, it was comprised of four ‘Ng’ clan members: Ng Ah Piang, Ng Kam Sing, Ng Ha Sum, and Ng Ah Yee.21 Inter Community Links Whilst commercial agreements like those outlined above, tended to be made between equals, or in which each party brought equitable interests to the table, inter-community support networks also existed between unequals, in which the wealthier partner played a crucial role in facilitating the socio-economic mobility of the inferior party. Hahime and his cohorts, as we have seen, acted promptly to root out miscreants; but there are also many examples of ways in which respectable Chinese free immigrants supported those of a different class, such as the labourers recruited by planters and other colonists, even at the risk of incurring the wrath of the colonial authorities. In one case, a Chinese trader, Tincon Assam, resident in the capital Port Louis, since 1811, was arrested for having offered what he termed ‘hospitality’ to several Chinese labourers without being aware that they were classed as deserters.22 Indeed, such was the fear of Chinese traders harbouring deserters, that when one estate owner posted a notice in the local newspaper, listing Okey, John Assam, Appan, Tchiana Tchoe and Tchia Woan as 19 20 21 22

MA NA 118/210 ‘Acte de Société’, 9 March 1897. MA NA 109/33 ‘Acte de Société’, 29 August 1894. MA NA 135/92 ‘Acte de Société Ah Piang & cie’. MA RA 711 Petition of Ticon, 22 September 1842.

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the politics of community formation and networking 119 having deserted from the Vallon estate in Grand Bay, he added “the Chinese merchants of Port Louis are given notice not to employ or receive them”.23 Chinese traders made formal requests not only for their own relatives but also for men with the requisite skills to support them in their businesses. For example, a Chinese joiner, Achine sent the following petition to the authorities to employ Amine: your petitioner is a joiner by trade and works as such ever since he has been in the colony; That your petitioner’s countryman Amine formerly in the service of Mr. West and afterwards with Mr. De Chazal, and who is a joiner by trade (although he arrived here as a laborer) is willing to engage with your petitioner to assist him in his business, should Your Excellency be pleased to grant the prayer of his petitioner.24

The links between Chinese artisans and traders and the tendency of the former to disappear into the shops as assistants, led to stern warnings being issued to persons requesting permission from the authorities to introduce such workers. Edward Worthington, who petitioned to import 30 Chinese carpenters in July 1837, was told that “the governor will only give his consent to this on condition that the Chinese to be introduced be not allowed to employ themselves otherwise than at their trade and under no pretext are they to be allowed to be concerned in shops or other business of that nature. If it should occur they will be sent out of the colony at your expense.”25 When Attang and Wang-Young, two joiners, arrived from Calcutta, they stated that they had “been promised employment by their countryman Akaye.” Akaye had put his name forward in 1845 to act as a guarantor for Chinese requiring permits of residence. His qualifications, in his own words, were that “Your petitioner has been many years in the colony and has, by dint of industry and perseverance acquired some property.” John Finniss, the police chief on the island, evidently knew Akaye, whom he described as “an old inhabitant & respectable man.”26

23

Le Cernéen, 16 Nov. 1841. MA RA 798/976 Petition of Achine, 22 May 1845; See also MA RC 26 Petition of Athion, 11 Feb. 1839. This was approved by the governor. 25 MA RC 25 Petition of Edward Worthington, 23 July 1837. 26 MA RA 756 Petition of Attang & Wang-Young, 24 October 1843. 24

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Even Chinese convicts, like Panjoo, transported from Bombay, were assisted by their trader compatriots.27 Thus following the arrest of Panjoo, who had been found without papers, it was reported that he had been “temporarily transferred to the charge of the Chinese Ouitaye” to whom he was returned with the condition that Panjoo should not be allowed to leave Port Louis. In the same year, 1829, Ouitaye and 11 Chinese merchants petitioned the authorities for his release from convict status. Claiming to know Panjoo’s family in China, they attested to his character. The authorities acceded to their request, and liberated Panjoo.28 Chinese Networks Across the Indian Ocean and Remigration Strategies Commercial and support networks crossed geographical as well as class boundaries. Many of the early Chinese migrants to Mauritius were from port towns and coastal settlements outside mainland China—Indonesia, Singapore, Calcutta and so on; others made numerous mercantile journeys between China and Mauritius. Cris-crossing the Indian Ocean in search of new opportunities or business partners was not a daunting prospect for such individuals, one may assume.29 Agreements made between Chinese business firms on Mauritius with Chinese traders in Reunion, testify to the existence of such inter-island networks. For example, a link was set up between Achim & Co. in Mauritius with Ameng, a trader at St Denis, Reunion, to facilitate the export of tobacco by a third Chinese, in the manufacturing trade.30 In some cases, such networks involved the transplantation or re-directed migration of family members. Thus, in 1934, Wing Hin Ltd. was set up on Reunion, through the auspices of Michel Ha Sam, cousin of Ng Chung Hin of Mauritius.

27 Panjoo had reportedly been transported after having unknowingly sold stolen goods in his shop in Bombay. See IOL P/400/27 Petition of Ootae, Allac, Tayet, Achom, Apps, Avon, Ahon, Acum, Achoon, Finquorn, Ayon and Agnait—natives of China and merchants trading in Mauritius, 15 April 1829. 28 MA RA 403 Police Générale Rapport du 6 au 7 octobre 1829. See Anderson, C., Convicts in the Indian Ocean Transportation from South Asia to Mauritius, 1815–33, Macmillan, 2000 for further details. 29 Krivtsov, N., ‘The Chinese Community in Mauritius’, Far Eastern Affairs, no. 1, 1980, p. 72. 30 MA NA 127/48 Procuration of Achim to Ameng.

the politics of community formation and networking 121 Unsurprisingly, Chinese in Mauritius did not hesitate to re-migrate when conditions elsewhere seemed more attractive. In the 1870s, 75 Chinese, including many craftsmen, arrived at the Cape from Mauritius to take up jobs in the colonial engineer’s department. A decade or so later, between 1888 and 1898, after news of diamond and gold discoveries in South Africa reached Mauritius, Yap reports that, nearly 1,800 Chinese sailed from Port Louis, mostly bound for Port Elizabeth, with a few heading for Durban and Delagoa Bay.31 The increasing use of Mauritius as a transit point to other destinations and the settlement pattern of the Chinese in the Indian Ocean region, also had an ethnic dimension. Affan Tank Wen, the Cantonese Kapitan [following Hahime’s departure] played a role in redirecting his compatriots to Reunion, the Seychelles and Madagascar. The movement, which began around the 1880s, was to a certain extent a function of the increasingly dominant role of Hakkas in the Mauritian context. Indeed when some Hakka merchants made similar attempts to expand their commercial interests to other islands in the region, it is stated that intimidation was used to prevent this. Clan groups assisted the settlement of new immigrants at the various locations.32 Wong provides some illuminating case studies of the new Indian Ocean diasporas. She traces the fortunes of the Ah-Sing family, from the migration of Hou Tiansi who left Meixian for Mauritius in the late 19th century, and settled in neighbouring Reunion after making a stopover to visit relatives. After setting up a food shop and then expanding into the wholesale business, the family diversified, initially into wine bottling, and later the hospitality and garment manufacturing sectors. In another case study of ‘maximising remigration’, Akwon Lawson left Shunde in China in 1872 for Mauritius, settled in Reunion in 1891, and used his inter-island contacts to set up an import business. He diversified, like his Mauritian counterparts into cigarette manufacturing, and opened a rum distillery.33 Such inter-island movements, as we have seen, were based on evidence of increasing competition within Mauritius, and the closing down

31 Natal Mercury, 17 and 19 Aug 1875, cited in Yap, M. & Leong Man, D., Colour, Confusion and Concessions, op. cit., pp. 21–22. 32 For further details see Krivtsov, N., ‘The Chinese Community in Mauritius’, op. cit., p. 72 and Ly Tio Fane, Chinese Diaspora, pp. 24–5, 88–96. 33 Wong, E., La Diaspora Chinoise aux Mascareignes: le cas de la Réunion, Paris, l’Harmattan, 1996.

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of opportunities as clan-based networks secured monopolistic economic controls. This aspect of the ‘self-regulating’ character of Chinese settlement was not lost on contemporaries. Sir Charles Bruce, governor of Mauritius between 1897 and 1903 remarked: The Chinese perfectly understand that Mauritius affords a very limited area for their transactions, and that if they increased and multiplied, competition among themselves would reduce the small margin of profit with which they are satisfied . . . By arrangement among themselves—an arrangement with which the government has nothing to do—about ten percent repatriate themselves every year, and make room for others.34

The governor also pointed to the advantages for the local government of working with a sole individual—the kapitan or headman—to resolve any difficulties. In his memoirs Bruce noted that on the rare occasions that the police reported trouble within the community “I have always been able to arrest it by sending for the headman and saying: ‘Chinaman too much plenty bobbery make; you get topside that bobbery’.”35 The degree of appropriateness of the pidgin language he employed to communicate with the kapitan aside, the anecdote reveals that this nominated individual continued to act as sole political representative for the community with the colonial authorities into the early 20th century. Struggle for Representation: Political Institutions and the Chinese Community The second kapitan, Affan Tank Wen, played a part in the limited political reform movement of his day, and was nominated by the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, to the Reform Commission, along with a representative of the Indian community.36 This must have been uncomfortable, particularly if the racist allusions of contemporaries are to be believed. One British official wrote of the meetings of the committee:

34 Bruce, Sir Charles, The Broad Stone of Empire Problems of Crown Colony Administration with Records of Personal Experience, 2 vols., Macmillan, London, 1910, p. 369. 35 Bobbery is a now rarely used word, in Webster’s 1913 dictionary definition it is described as “a squabble; a tumult; a commotion; a noisy disturbance; as, to raise a bobbery”. 36 PP 1885 LIV C 4436 Despatch of Governor Hennessy 24 Dec. 1884 and enclosures.

the politics of community formation and networking 123 Figure the bewildered visage of Goolam Mamode Ajam, and the solemn face and twinkling eyes of Affan-Tink-Win, as they gazed on this turmoil of lawyers and doctors! It appears that they never spoke and there is, unfortunately, no pidgin-English protest attached to the minutes.37

At this time, even with the new constitutional reforms, there were only 4,061 registered voters at the time of the January 1886 elections, of whom 15 were Chinese.38 Pope Hennessy himself dismissed any political aspirations for the Chinese when he described them in a speech to the council as “too sensible to be politicians”. He confidently, if erroneously, predicted “you may rest assured that neither the Indian community, nor the Chinese for whom I have also a great regard, will ever trouble your political life . . . they are foreign to our style of politics . . . they are not in our political system.”39 The political influence of the Chinese in Hennessy’s day was, of course, necessarily limited. The kapitans, first Hahime and then Affan Tank Wen, managed the Chinese community as representatives of a trader class, which was still largely ‘alien’, as only a handful of Chinese obtained British citizenship during the 19th century.40 In 1890, the kapitan also served as President of the Chinese Traders Association. An address sent by this organisation on the occasion of the arrival of a new Governor, in that year, provides a useful insight into the selfperception of this group and their role in Mauritius at that time. Though the greater part of the Chinese Residents of this colony are not natives of Mauritius, yet through their frequent and friendly intercourse, both social and commercial, with the other classes of the Mauritian population, they form part of the Mauritian community, and take the same interest in the material prosperity, as well as the intellectual and political progress of the inhabitants of the colony.41

37 Fortescue, J.W., ‘Jamaica and Mauritius. A Lesson’ Littell’s Living Age, vol. 192, 1892, p. 500. 38 For further details, see Buckley, E.V., ‘Colonial Office Policy to Constitutional Change in Cyprus, Hong Kong, Mauritius and Ceylon, 1878–1890’, PhD, University of London, 1975, especially chapter 10. 39 PP 1886 XLVI C 4754 Despatch of Hennessy, 9 June 1885 enc 2; see also Pope Hennessy, J., Verandah, Some Episodes in the Crown Colonies 1867–1889, George Allen and Unwin 1964, p. 301. 40 The trickle of Chinese who were naturalized between the 1840s and the 1860s is given in NA CO 167/500 ‘Alphabetical list of Aliens naturalized by Ordinances passed’ and in successive annual Mauritius Almanachs for the later 19th century. 41 Address of Chinese Traders Association, Commercial & Merchants Gazette, 18 January 1890.

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The Chinese sought to emphasize their positive role within the wider Mauritian society, whilst recognizing that they were not full citizens. This was an important distinction, since to take overt political action tended to expose the community to the opprobrium of the wider population. For example, in a rare act of defiance in 1895 the Chinese challenged a law which forced rum sellers to purchase large quantities from a central store, by declaring a moratorium on further rum sales until the law had been amended. Their boycott lost the government a considerable amount of revenue, which helped to persuade the Government to amend the law. In winning their case, however, they alerted local politicians to their increasing strength. A member of the legislative council proclaimed himself ‘annoyed and pained’ to see the government capitulating to the Chinese, seeing it as an “unhappy proof that our finances are today at the mercy of this race”. Fortunately, others spoke out to defend the Chinese, pointing out that “the Chinese are a precious source of assistance for the poorer classes, selling them food in any quantity they require . . . they are a peaceful and industrious people”.42 Another reason for the limited political participation of Chinese at this time was the fact that they had their own conflicting loyalties to deal with. The first struggle was for political control of the community itself. When Affan Tank Wen died in 1900, the Hakkas saw an opportunity to challenge Cantonese hegemony. A violent feud ensued which lasted five years, and caused a number of deaths. Eventually it was arranged that management of institutions which concerned the Chinese should be shared between individuals of the various ethnicities represented within the community. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce, established in 1908 and also known as the Vasiong Kwong Sow Society, recognised the importance of both the Hakka and Cantonese communities, with a revolving presidency which alternated between the two groups, every 12 months. Effectively becoming the porte-parole of the Chinese community, visà-vis the government, the Chamber took over the economic functions of the 19th century Kapitans. Adrien Konfortion, who acted as the Permanent Secretary of the Chamber for a total of 29 years, became one

42 Coriolis, G., de Council of Government Speech on Chinese Immigration, 1886; Merven, T., L’Indien à Maurice. Sa cooperation dans l’industrie sucrière, le travail libre et ce qu’il produit, 1896.

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4.5. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce building, Port Louis

of the most important representatives of the community, particularly given his mastery of English, French and the Chinese vernacular which made him an ideal go-between with the authorities.43 A second set of conflicting loyalties concerned attachment to China. For the first generation of Chinese in Mauritius, loyalty to China and the idea of return was paramount, and the necessary renunciation of Chinese nationality in order to become a naturalised citizen of Mauritius prevented many immigrants from taking this drastic step. However, for those with families and substantial assets on the island, the option of permanent settlement and security which naturalisation offered, was attractive, and over the course of the 19th century, increasing numbers of Chinese applied to become British citizens. By 1867, when the law

43 Ly Tio Fane, H., ‘History of the Mauritian Chinese’ in Pan, L. ed. The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas, Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore, 1998.

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on naturalization, which had previously required a separate ordinance for each individual, was replaced by a general enactment, numbers of Chinese had already become naturalised British citizens. Affan Tank Wen became a British subject in 1873. Venpin took the oath of allegiance in 1886. By the early 20th century, the Hakkas were following suit—between 1898 and 1903 several members of the Ng clan became naturalised British citizens, and in 1905 a number of individuals from the Lee clan.44 During the first half of the 20th century, the nationalist government sent Chinese ‘patriots’ and intellectuals to Mauritius, to encourage their allegiance and loyalty to China, while many Sino-Mauritians maintained links with families and ancestral villages in China. Some family members remained behind when migrants resettled overseas, thus ensuring that kin networks were retained.45 The political instability of China in the 1940s aggravated divisions within the Chinese community on Mauritius which split into two factions, one of which favoured Peking, while the other was sympathetic to Taiwan.46 An organisation known as the Chinese Resistance Relief Fund had been set up in Mauritius to raise funds for China. However, it was beset by political factionalism, and a new Kuomintang Committee had been created. Fearing disturbances, as a result of the split, planned 10th October 1942 celebrations of the foundation of the Chinese Republic were cancelled.47 A British official commented, “It is a pity that in Mauritius the Chinese cannot group themselves under a well-educated leader, free from party feeling and able to work for the best interests of their community”.48 The Chinese community’s identification with Taiwan or conversely with mainland China was often the result of social and economic ties. The career of Sino-Mauritian Joseph Ah Chin is illustrative, in this

44

Dictionnaire de Biographie Mauricienne, p. 622, 1081; Mauritius Almanach, 1873–1905. B.B. still has relatives in China—the family of a sister who never came to Mauritius. 46 Krivtsov, N., ‘The Chinese Community in Mauritius’, op. cit., p. 75. He wrote “Social and financial status played no role in this; loyalties were divided even within families. The situation is very much the same today, yet these antithetical allegiances do not in any way affect relations within the community.” See also, Ibbotson, P., ‘Rival Chinese Factions in Mauritius’ in Kumria, K.D., The African & Colonial World and the Indian at Home & Overseas, vol. 7–8, 1959–60. 47 NA CO 167/920/15 Telegram from Sir D Mackenzie Kennedy, Governor of Mauritius, 27 Oct 1943. 48 NA FO 371/35796 Colonel W.S. Dickens, Commissioner of Police, 5 July 1943. 45

the politics of community formation and networking 127 regard. Having won the British scholarship in 1931, he qualified as an engineer, and later took a job in Hong Kong. When that colony was invaded by the Japanese he joined Chiang Kai Shek at Chung King where the provisional government was established. He was given the task by Chiang Kai Shek of restoring the electricity network in Taiwan, and in recompense for his services a street in Taipeh was named after him.49 One interviewee [B.C.] conversely, stated that she migrated to Mauritius in 1939 from mainland China, because of the Sino-Japanese war, as a 16 year old. As her family still live in China, she has returned frequently. In 1943 the British Government was considering the idea of appointing a Chinese consul to settle their disputes, when Su Wen Fu, a member of the Kuomintang party on the island was reported to have been murdered.50 These were troubled times for the Chinese in Mauritius, and in the immediate post World War Two climate, as the Communists appeared on the verge of taking power in China and elsewhere, the Mauritian police and security forces feared communist infiltration. The then Commissioner of Police, Mr Tottenham, considered that the Chinese community “may be a potential medium for the introduction of Communism”.51 In 1947, constitutional change on the island gave the Chinese community their first political representative. A literacy test became the sole qualification to vote, and in that year a wealthy Hakka trader, Jean Ah Chuen, was nominated to the Legislative Council. Faced with the anti-Communist paranoia of some sections of the British establishment, Sino-Mauritians took care to maintain the confidence of the local authorities. The community’s political representative, for example, set up a Chinese contingent Home Guard during World War II to help defend the colony.52 The importance of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce was also demonstrated by the selection of one of its Presidents to represent the community in the Legislative Assembly of the island in the run up to Independence. The Chamber worked with local police officers to repatriate 49 Ly Tio Fane, H., ‘Ah Chin—Joseph Koo Tat Chong’, L’Aurore no. 42, décembre 1993, p. 17. 50 A proposal to establish a Chinese consulate had been made in 1941, but not acted upon. 51 NA CO 537/2773 Review of Mauritius Police and Security Forces in Relation to Communist Infiltration, see note of J.C. Morgan, 27 October 1948. 52 ‘Sir Jean Ah Chuen fete ses 81 ans’ L’Aurore no. 22, August 1990.

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the politics of community formation and networking 129 destitute Chinese and to regulate the admission of new arrivals. Adrian Konfortion, its Secretary, was thus practically a consular official. After 1948, however, when the Chinese were given direct political representation, this aspect of the Chamber’s activities shifted elsewhere. Before 1949, and for several years after the communist takeover, the links with China determined many of the decisions of Sino-Mauritians. B.D., for example, studied economics because his family intended to go back to China after the Second World War, and he hoped to go into the foreign service. The takeover of Mao Tse Tung prompted his father to decide that his son should instead take up law. The overseas Chinese regularly sent capital and merchandise back home.53 Once Mao began expropriating the wealthy, and some overseas Chinese lost the properties they had established in China, Sino-Mauritians were disinclined to repatriate large amounts of capital.54 The politicization of the Chinese community in Mauritius at this moment in history, was well captured by a British observer, who wrote: In their quarter of Port Louis they live a compact, separate national life. Just now, at any rate, they are intensely nationalistic. . . . They have their own schools where the pupils wear a sort of national uniform, a cross between that of the Hitler Jugend and that of the Chinese soldier. It is, I suppose, evidence of the new national movement and the New China and all that, but it seems odd in a British colony. So also must be the highly coloured and impossibly romanticized pictures of General and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek which decorate the shops—or did so when I was there.55

After the Communist takeover, some relatives of Sino-Mauritians sought to leave China to join them, but with the onset of the Cold War immigration from the PRC gave rise to concern. In 1965, following an increase in the number of requests from Mauritius-based Chinese for residence permits to bring their elderly parents from China, it was decided that procedures establishing satisfactorily the sponsor’s close 53 Interview with B.D. who recounted how his grandfather sent goods such as pig fat to China, to raise funds to rebuild the family house. 54 Sino-Mauritians, nevertheless, continue to express a reverence for their ancestral homeland, and to make pilgrimages there. In an interview B.E. mentioned visiting his children in France and Canada, but said of Meixian [Moiyean], “I feel my roots are there. In fact my elder brother is still there with his four children. He does not want to come to Mauritius. He wants to spend the rest of his days there . . . Every time I return from a visit to Meixian, I feel rejuvenated, hale and hearty”. 55 Ommanney, F.D., The Shoals of Capricorn, 1952. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York.

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4.7a–b. Sino-Mauritian girls in uniforms of the local Chinese schools

the politics of community formation and networking 131 Table 4.1. Nationality of the Chinese, 1952

British by birth British by marriage British by naturalisation China

Males

Females

6501

6018 80 261 1060

861 3042

Source: MA Census Report, 1952.

relationship with the intending immigrant should be reconsidered. The lack of civil status records in China had produced a situation in which Chinese ‘People’s Societies’ provided applicants with certificates of identity and family relationship. British officials in China confirmed that no other documentation was available, and recommended that such attested information should be accepted. China was rapidly becoming closed off to the diaspora, which helped to complete the transformation from Chinese to Sino-Mauritians. As late as 1944, more than 42% of the Chinese had retained their nationality. Table 4.1 provides a snapshot of the status of the Chinese population in 1952, showing the proportion of British citizens, by birth and naturalisation. Despite their visible interest in the politics of China and Taiwan, visitors to the island continued to see the Chinese as politically disinterested. Describing the Mauritian population for readers of the Geographical Magazine in 1954, Ommanney wrote: The Indian is politically minded, the Chinese is not . . . The Chinese simply wishes to make money and not to take any part in politics or in the life of any of the other peoples he finds living around him. He prefers that others should make laws while he finds ways to avoid those which displease him or which interfere with his money-making activities. . . . The Chinese are content to remain merchants and small shopkeepers.56

However, the Sino-Mauritians were about to be confronted with a scenario which would spur them to take an active role in local politics—the end of British colonial rule on their adopted island. Thus, whilst in the 1948 election, no Chinese candidate was put forward, by 1960 when adult universal suffrage was introduced the protection of minorities

56 Ommanney, F.D., ‘Fading Lustre—Mauritius’ Geographical Magazine, vol. xxvi, no. 9, January 1954, pp. 498.

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had become an important issue.57 In 1961 the porte parole of the community was Jean Ah Chuen, the Chinese member of the Legislative Council.58 According to Simmons, at this time he saw his role as “to avoid becoming embroiled in party politics and at the same time to make sure that adequate safeguards for minorities were incorporated in any constitutional revision”.59 At a Constitutional Conference organised in that year, however, several groups claiming to represent the Chinese community forwarded representations. Those of the Union Sino Mauricienne and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce were virtually identical, both requesting that the current constitution be maintained for a further 10 years.60 A third representation, by Mr A.K. Ng Wong Hing called for separate communal voting lists, the abolition of nominated seats and 2 seats in the Legislative Council for Chinese representatives.61 The memorandum of Mr Ng Wong Hing was based on a text of resolutions passed at a meeting of Sino-Mauritians in Plaine Verte, Port Louis on 18 June 1961 and attended by about 600 people. The meeting voted to record an expression of loyalty to the Queen, followed by a note of “dissatisfaction and regret that our community has not been invited to the London talks” together with a request to the Secretary of State for the Colonies not to grant independence to this country at this stage of its political development because of the very serious implications which may result to us as a minority; to grant adequate safeguards to our community while 57 Simmons, A.S., Modern Mauritius: The Politics of Decolonization, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982, p. 107; for a similar opinion by a French woman married to a Mauritian see D’Unienville, A., Les Mascareignes: Vieille France en mer indienne, Editions Albin Michel, Paris, 1954. 58 ‘Les sino-Mauriciens et la politique’, L’Aurore, no. 2, 24 June 1987. 59 Simmons, A.S., Modern Mauritius, op. cit., p. 149. 60 The Union Sino-Mauricienne was formed prior to the 1959 general elections by Ah Chuen to counteract the influence of the Alliance Sino-Mauricienne. Ah Chuen was the party’s candidate at the 1959 general elections, but was not elected. He was then appointed a nominated member of the Legislative Council. After the 1959 elections the Union Sino-Mauricienne ceased to function as an active party, but it was revived when it was known that a constitutional conference would take place. 61 NA CO 1036/634 Constitutional Conference 1961 Memoranda submitted by the Union Sino-Mauricienne, The Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Mr K. Ng Wong Hing. The Governor explained that Mr M.K. Ng Wong Hing was the founder of the Alliance Sino-Mauricienne. “He stood as a candidate both in the general elections in 1959 and in the Port Louis municipal election in 1960, but was unsuccessful on both occasions”. Governor to Secretary of State for the Colonies, Confidential, 26 April 1961.

the politics of community formation and networking 133 framing the new constitution of Mauritius; that general elections be held prior to any change in the constitution.62

In defending their right to a political voice, the Sino-Mauritians contended that they operated a system “[ perhaps unique in the world] by which all varieties of goods are sold even in very small quantities and on credit terms without any security”. This, they stated, was a great help to workers who lived from hand to mouth, and especially those in seasonal employment. They also adverted to their public-spirited role during the war: Our traders gave proof of their spirit of co-operation during the last war by closely co-operating with the Govt and the public in the distribution of rationed food and other necessities of life and this, in spite of all the difficulties inherent in time of emergency.

The memorialists further stressed that they played an important part in the economic life of the country “as importers and wholesalers”, in the development of secondary industries “namely matches, tea, footwear, wax products, furniture, soap, beverages, biscuits and confectioneries”, as professionals, in the civil service, and “in the defence of freedom” when “a Sino-Mauritian contingent was organized, trained and transferred to the active forces”.63 On 24 March 1961, J. Tsang Mang Kin, in his position as Secretary and S. Wan Min Kee, President of the Union Sino-Mauricienne submitted for consideration to the Secretary of State for the Colonies a memorandum unanimously voted at a general meeting of the Union Sino-Mauricienne. The Memorandum declared that “any change to a more advanced system of Government at the present will only be premature”. The grounds given were economic instability, the scarcity of new foreign and local investment, the exodus of capital, and the local existence of communalism—“it is a blunt fact that the majority of the people here are racially minded. . . . separatist and racial tendencies, encouraged by cultural and traditional differences are deeply

62

NA CO 1036/634 Constitutional Conference 1961 Memorandum of Mr K. Ng Wong Hing. 63 Letter to Iain Macleod, MP, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 26 April 1961, in ibid.

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entrenched”. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce, in a separate submission, offered similar arguments.64 Finally, in 1963, Ah Chuen allied his community with the Parti Mauricien in an effort to block independence.65 Meantime, the applications of the Sino-Mauritians to bring their elderly parents from China into the country were meeting difficulties due to the lack of suitable civil status records in their country of origin.66 One way round this was for so called ‘People’s Societies’ in China to provide applicants with certificates of identity and family relationship. One such document from the Chong Sah Society of Moyuen [Moiyean/Meixian], certified that Yan Ah Kune’s mother was Chan Nyat Yin. The British were also concerned about the level of Communist China’s interest in the Sino-Mauritian community, believing that they “must be anxious to capture the sympathies of the sizeable overseas Chinese community and that “Mauritius must offer a tempting target for subversion and propaganda within the general context of Chinese policy on Afro-Asian questions”.67 Meantime, Mauritian independence was fast approaching. In the crucial elections of 1967, 8,218 Chinese registered to vote. In common with other minorities, the Chinese supported continuing ties with Britain in alliance with the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD). On polling day, 7 August 1967, at district 3 in the capital, Port Louis, a significant constitutency for the Chinese, communal riots broke out, but three Parti Mauricien candidates were returned.68 Overall, the proIndependence party won the election. Managing Minority Status—Sino-Mauritians in the Post-Independence Period Writing in 1982, Adele Smith Simmons noted that Sino-Mauritians constituted around 3% of the population, and added “Because of their small numbers, the Chinese cannot be a strong political force and must

64 The Union Sino-Mauricienne, March 1961 and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Joseph Riviere Street Port Louis to Ian Macleod, 7 April 1961, in ibid. 65 Simmons op. cit., p. 149. 66 NA CO 1036/1434 Chinese Immigration to Mauritius, 1965–6, Governor of Mauritius to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 21 June 1965 (311). 67 NA FO 371/181039 A.E., McDonald, Peking to Foreign Office, London, 30 Jan. 1965. 68 Simmons, A.S., Modern Mauritius, op. cit., p. 184.

the politics of community formation and networking 135 depend upon the good intentions of the government for their survival.”69 At around the same time, Krivtsov assessed the Sino-Mauritian attitude to politics. Pointing out that the Chinese held similar political views to other elite social groups on the island he remarked that nevertheless, unlike other ethnic groups, ‘they have no political party’, concluding: In general the Chinese community stays away from politics, believing that political involvement would damage its trade interests: very often political commitment entails hostility between ethnic groups. Despite this political passivity, one Cabinet post is traditionally reserved for a Chinese incumbent.70

The implication is that the Chinese can afford to be ‘politically passive’ because the Mauritian political system itself defends their interests. Certainly, as local political scientist Mathur observes, since independence, to ensure representation for minority communities, “the national parties normally field . . . one or two Chinese candidates in a Port Louis constituency, the only constituency in which the Chinese community represents an important ethnic group.”71 This does not mean, of course, that the Chinese voters do not participate fully in the political life of the island. In 1976, for example, a swing to the left-leaning Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM), was supported by numbers of Chinese. In general, Chinese have tended to take a conservative political stance, supporting the party most likely to bring stability, according to the statements of interviewees. Major political parties have continued to nominate one or two Chinese members to stand in an appropriate constituency, in what is an essentially ethnically-charged political system. The tradition of appointing a single Chinese Minister has been maintained in most subsequent governments, although not in every instance. Sino-Mauritians tend to group themselves around business organizations which not only represent their commercial interests, but also engage on their behalf with local politicians and regional powers. Alongside the longstanding Chinese Chamber of Commerce, a Chinese Business Chamber [CBC] was set up in 1998. Its intention, according to one interviewee and founder member “was not to divide the Mauritian

69

Ibid., p. 6. Krivtsov, N., ‘The Chinese Community in Mauritius’, op. cit. 71 Mathur, R., ‘Parliamentary Representation of Minority Communities: the Mauritian Experience’. Africa Today, vol. 44, 1997. 70

4.8. An anti-independence demonstration in Mauritius

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the politics of community formation and networking 137 Chinese community, but simply to create another forum for activities”. The CBC has initiated trade and investment missions to China, Namibia and Malaysia, has signed memoranda of understandings with 3 foreign chambers of commerce and has hosted foreign delegations from Malaysia, England, Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Thailand, China and Reunion. Sino-Mauritians and Regional Networking Regional networks are important to Sino-Mauritians, both to manage long-standing relationships with ancestral communities and new business partners in China, alongside diaspora confreres in South East Asia, and to foster more recent links with neighbouring states. Immediately after independence was proclaimed, in March 1968, Mauritius made a commitment to “recognise the People’s Republic of China as the only legal representative of China”, and in April 1972, during the visit of the then Prime Minister Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, formal diplomatic relations were established. In the 1970s and 1980s a concentration of Chinese embassies was apparent in the western Indian Ocean.72 Around the same time, the setting up of the Export Processing Zone [EPZ] in Mauritius in the 1970s, provided an interesting case study of the role of Chinese business and social networks in economic innovation. Srebrnik asserts that these events serve as “an example of the positive effect of ethnic networks”.73 The role of Edouard Lim Fat, who has been credited as “the initial proponent of the EPZ and the individual most responsible for getting it underway” can further be clarified when it is understood that members of his family had emigrated to Taiwan after 1949, while his extended family network included members resident in Singapore and Hong Kong.74 One of the first EPZ factories was subsequently established by Lim Fat’s family together with a German 72 Robinson, T.W. & Shambaugh, D.L., Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1994 p. 291, The authors note that forty to fifty Chinese diplomats were assigned to Mauritius alone, signalling the depth of Chinese interest in this ‘island gateway to Africa’. 73 Srebrnik, H., ‘Ethnicity and the development of a ‘middleman’ economy on Mauritius: The diaspora factor’ Round Table, no. 350, 1999. 74 Bowman, Mauritius: Democracy and Development, op. cit., p. 127 and see Lim Fat, E., ‘The Contribution of the Chinese in the Industrialisation of Mauritius’, in Ly Tio Fane, op. cit., 2008.

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partner. In fact, as Brautigam points out, “[his] contacts provided much of the initial foreign investment”.75 Other Sino-Mauritians with relatives in Asia, for example in Hong Kong, also found their own investments in the EPZ facilitated by these family business contacts. In the establishment of the EPZ, while lower-cost labor and exemption from US clothing import quotas provided important incentives for investors from South East Asia, aided by the passing of supportive legislation in Mauritius, analysts have concluded that the most important draw was “the existence of a small ethnic Chinese community”. As Weiping Wu has remarked, “the tendency of Hong Kong businesses to rely on kinship network and personal ties in overseas operations can be seen in . . . their investment in Mauritius”.76 In 2003 Brautigam speculated that in an ‘encouraging policy environment’ as in Mauritius, with the added incentive of its ‘sizeable overseas Chinese population’ it was likely that “as Asian business networks expand their global reach to sub-Saharan Africa, they can provide an important catalyst for local industrialization”.77 Certainly, the relationship with mainland China and Mauritius has also gone from strength to strength. Bilateral relations were set up in 1983 with the signing of an agreement on Economic, Technical and Trade Cooperation in Beijing on 23 May, when the Chinese government pledged assistance with the financing of Mauritian capital projects, provision of technical support staff and for the Commodity Credit agreement. As a result, China spent more than 500 million rupees over the following decade on Mauritian projects, and provided technical assistance in fields as diverse as agriculture, sports, education, airport development and the arts.78 In 1994 the Chinese Vice Prime Minister and the Mauritian head of state exchanged visits, as a result of which a Double Taxation treaty was implemented to facilitate commerce between the two states, and Mauritius was given landing rights 75 Brautigam, D., “The ‘Mauritius Miracle’: Democracy, Institutions and Economic Policy” in R. Joseph (ed.) State, Conflict and Democracy in Africa, Rienner, London & US, 1999, p. 148; Brautigam, D., ‘Institutions, Economic Reform, and Democratic Consolidation in Mauritius’, Comparative Politics, vol. 30, no. 1, 1997, p. 57. 76 Weiping Wu, ‘Proximity and Complementarity in Hong Kong-Shenzhen Industrialisation’ Asian Survey, vol. 37, no. 8, August 1997. 77 Brautigam, D., ‘Close Encounters: Chinese Business Networks as Industrial Catalysts in Sub-Saharan Africa’ African Affairs, vol. 102, issue 408, July 2003. 78 Whilst, in consequence, Mauritius does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the country is represented in Mauritius by a trade mission, and the value of imports from Taiwan equalled those from China itself in the 1990s.

the politics of community formation and networking 139 in Beijing and Shanghai. Currently there are plans in the pipeline for major investment in the island, which will serve as a launch pad for future Chinese operations in Africa. In recent years, Sino-Mauritians have forged new networks, beyond those of their kin groups: the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, passed in late 2000, was intended to act as an incentive for Asian investors, while joint ventures in Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, and Madagascar have been put forward. Such Chinese business networks work alongside official government delegations. Some Sino-Mauritian companies like Happy World and CMT already have business links on Reunion and Madagascar; for example in 2002 CMT employed 1,400 people in its Madagascar-based business and was planning to open a factory in Senegal.79 The Sino-Mauritians have benefited from the increasingly amicable relationship between the diaspora and the mainland to reaffirm cultural ties. A number of delegations and private groups from the island have returned to Meixian [ Moiyean], to consolidate ancestral ties with this Hakka village. Eriksen has noted that such “symbolic expressions of ethnicity are encouraged by Mauritian politicians, while communalism is overtly discouraged but widely practised”. He asserts that the strategy of Sino-Mauritians is to emphasise a national over an ethnic identity in the public arena, whilst they activate ethnic networks, in particular what he terms the ‘patriclan network’ in the pursuit of economic success. Eriksen concludes that “the Sino-Mauritians efficiently reproduce their organisation and cultural traits internally”.80 These comments will be assessed in the discussion of socio-cultural developments in the next chapter.

79 Saminaden, S., ‘CMT et un groupe indien ouvrent une filature de Rs 1,2 milliard’ L’Express, 6 July 2002. Happy World has expanded beyond Mauritius to set up stores on the neighbouring island of Reunion. 80 Eriksen, T.H., Common Denominators: Ethnicity, Nation-building and Compromise in Mauritius, op. cit., pp. 63–66, pp. 80–1.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE CONSTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY: FAMILY, KIN, SOCIAL NETWORKS Chinese migration patterns in the colonial period tended to be initially male-only, with significant female immigration and kin regroupment occurring only many years subsequently. This chapter looks at the functioning of early settler communities, in particular the creation of family, religious and social networks, and charts the modes of adaptation and reaffirmation of a Chinese identity over subsequent generations. Family Life of Chinese Settlers in Mauritius Descriptions of early Chinese settlers in Dutch Indonesia make frequent reference to their purchase of slave women, and subsequent enfranchisement and marriages with them.1 This was also true of the few known Chinese settlers in the 18th century Cape colony and at the French islands in the same period.2 The Mauritian Gazettes of the early 19th century provide a number of examples of Chinese traders, hawkers and artisans freeing Creole, Malay and Malagasy slave women for the purposes of marriage.3 The late arrival of women from mainland China in Mauritius, led to the taking of spouses, principally from the Creole population, by the pioneer male immigrants, and helps to explain the considerable Creole-Chinese population of the island today. 4 Some of the early

1 Purcell, V., The Chinese in Southeast Asia, OUP, London, 1965 pp. 400–403 asserts that the Chinese in Batavia took Balinese slave women as wives, while French Huguenot explorer, Francois Leguat, who visited Batavia in 1697, noted that the Chinese settlers tended to marry Javanese women. See Oliver, P., The Voyage of Francois Leguat, op. cit. 2 Yap, M. & Leong Man, D., Colour, Confusion and Concessions, op. cit., p. 8. For numerous examples of Chinese owning and manumitting female slaves see Leibbrandt, H.C.V., Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope, op. cit. 3 Helly, D., ‘Des Immigrants Chinois’, op. cit., p. 107. 4 For example, Tincon Assam, who arrived on the island in 1811 married a Malagasy woman in 1826.

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5.1. Tombstone of ‘Alice’ 1865, with Chinese inscription

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Chinese tombs in the cemeteries on the outskirts of the capital, Port Louis, carry the names of Creole spouses. Sons of such mixed marriages tended to be brought up following Chinese traditions—wearing a pigtail and oriental dress. Hahime’s son, Tianne Fate, by his first Creole partner, was given a Chinese servant, and sent to China. On each occasion when he returned to Mauritius to visit his parents, he was treated, not as a Mauritian, but as an ‘alien’ like all other Chinese, requiring a residence permit.5 The female offspring of Creoles and Chinese were conversely given Catholic first names and permitted to follow their mothers’ customs. These Creole-Chinese girls were often married at a young age to Chinese immigrants or to other young Sino-Mauritians. For example, in 1849 Athon petitioned for the right of his 14 year old daughter, Marie Amelie, his child by Elisa Cote Destre, to marry Angtioky.6 Some of the Creole Chinese therefore, through intermarriage with male Chinese, remained closely tied to the community. Visitors to Mauritius in the mid 19th century offered various opinions on what they understood to be the domestic arrangements of Chinese settlers. One account stated “Like most emigrants of their nation, they are unmarried, but nearly all have negresses as housekeepers”.7 Charles Boyle was more perspicacious in his assertion: “They often marry Creoles, become Roman Catholics, and being almost always wealthy after a few years’ residence in Mauritius, they are considered great catches by the young ladies of the class they marry into.”8 It is unclear when the first women immigrants arrived at Mauritius from China. Ly Tio Fane asserts that the very first Chinese woman arrived in 1860, and identifies her as a 22 year old named Bway, from Amoy.9 However, an article that appeared in Harpers Weekly in January 1858 describes en passant, a beautiful Chinese girl seen in Mauritius who had been brought there by her elderly husband “from one of the

5

MA NA 78/18/4074 Testament of Hahime Choisanne, 19 July 1837. MA RA 1035 Petition of Athon, 17 January 1849. 7 Anon, ‘A Visit to Mauritius’, New Monthly Magazine, vol. 146, 1864 pp. 488–499, The use of the term house keeper, was, of course, a euphemism for mistress or concubine. 8 Boyle, Charles John, Far Away, op. cit., p. 23. 9 Ly Tio Fane, H., Chinese Diaspora, op. cit., p. 287. The story seems somewhat romanticized. In order to migrate, she apparently disguised herself as a male trader, arriving with 40 others on the same ship. 6

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14000 Male Female

12000

Population

10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 1901

1911

1921

1931

1944

1952

1962

1972

Year

Source: MA B1A Census data, 1901–1972.

Figure 5.1. The Chinese Population, 1901–1972

northern provinces”.10 This would date the presence of at least one Chinese bride on Mauritius to the mid or late 1850s. The 1861 census reveals the presence of two Chinese women on the island, and a third had arrived by 1871. Although few in number their presence, or the reputation of it, was soon reflected in accounts of the island and its inhabitants. Walter Besant, teaching in Mauritius in the 1860s, boarded a ship in Port Louis harbour that had docked en route to Trinidad with “a cargo of Chinese coolies”. In the saloon of the clipper he was struck by the solitary figure of a “young Chinese lady . . . beautifully dressed in thick silk, gleaming with gold thread”.11 Sailor Charley’s book, published around 1871, asserted, of the Chinese settlers, on the basis of what surely must in practice have been a minority of cases, “They do not intermarry with the other races, but procure for themselves wives from China”.12 It was not until 1901, with the arrival of 58 women, from China, that significant female immigration can be dated. As Figure 5.1 shows, over succeeding decades, the proportion of women gradually increased, with

10

Anon, ‘Life in Hong Kong’, Harpers Weekly, 30 Jan. 1858, p. 68. Besant, Sir Walter, Autobiography, Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1902 pp. 122–3. 12 Sailor Charley, Life in a Whaler, op. cit., p. 377. 11

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5.2. Chinese Ladies in Mauritius, c. 1910

particularly significant inflows in the 1940s and 1950s. The sex ratio did not even out until the 1960s, by which time the Mauritianization of the Chinese population was well underway. The seemingly stealthy influx of Chinese women, was, predictably, exoticised by travel writers. In the 1930s, Lawrence Green recorded this account, presumably passed on to him by an acquaintance he met in Mauritius: There was a time when the Chinese exiles of Mauritius took the dark women of the place as wives; but word of this drifted back to China, and from some high, mysterious authority came the order that such unions must cease; came also an unexpected shipload of Chinese girls. Now Chinatown is pure Chinese.13

13

Green, Lawrence, G., Secret Africa, op. cit., 1936.

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Harold Ingrams, a British civil servant in Mauritius from 1927, was struck by the difference in appearance of Chinese men and women. While the former “always wore European dress”, Chinese ladies wore mostly “black wide trousers and a black collarless tunic, doing up their hair in a plain bun at the back of their heads and wearing no hats”.14 The arrival of a substantial number of female immigrants in the 20th century, evened out the gender ratio in the community and established patterns of endogamous marriage among the Chinese on the island. The older generation of Sino-Mauritians, however, can still remember when many Chinese men sought spouses from China. C.A. recalled that “in Mauritius, for a long time, there has been a deficit of Chinese women in proportion to the male population. This is why my father had to return to Honan in 1939 to choose a wife”. It was not uncommon for Chinese men to be married very young, and to migrate separately from their spouses, who would only join them later. C.B., born in Meixian, was only 4 years old when he was betrothed to his wife. After the ‘marriage’ they stayed with their respective families until the bride was 18 years of age. C.B., 74 years later, approved of his parents’ choice: I think my parents were right in choosing the bride . . . She was of great help to me from day one, assisting me with my work and later looking after my children. I must say that my wife has been through all my vicissitudes without ever complaining. . . . My parents have been very kind to me by finding such a person to be my wife. I must have done something good in some previous life to deserve her.

Once spouses were reunited in Mauritius, large families were not uncommon: C.C’s father had a large family—17 children in all. C.D., born in 1932, was one of 14 children, 2 of whom died in infancy. Figure 5.2 illustrates the average number of children born to Sino-Mauritian women, according to the 1952 census. Over the first half of the 20th century, the tendency towards urbanization of the Chinese community continued, with the rural districts retaining but rarely enlarging their relatively small populations of village retailers, while the towns of the central plateau (principally in Plaines Wilhems) and the capital, saw an increasing inflow of Chinese (see Table 5.1). During this period, Chinese immigration gradually dried up, and the migrants’ descendants became Sino-Mauritians. By 1955 almost half of 14

Ingrams, H., Arabia and the Isles, London, John Murray, 1966.

5.3. Certificate of Arrival of a Chinese woman in Mauritius, 1933

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400 350 300 No. of women

250 200 150 100 50 0

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

>1 0

No. of children

Source: MA B1A Census data, 1952.

Figure 5.2. Family Size of Chinese Women, 1952

the population was Mauritius-born. A number of Chinese from other parts of the diaspora were also represented in Mauritius, and some had retained links with kin and family from the second wave migration to neighbouring Indian Ocean states as Table 5.2 indicates. By the 1950s, the immigration of women had brought female spouses into the villages, to provide support to the male shop workers. The community continued to be represented in every village, whilst constituting a tiny fraction of each rural population. Thus to give some examples from the villages of Pamplemousses in the north of the island—in 1952 there were 7 male and 3 female Chinese residing at Bois Rouge, 14 at D’Epinay and 12 at Le Hochet.15 The Chinese community remained heavily urbanised, nonetheless. The heaviest concentration of Chinese with 4720 males and 3922 female Chinese, remained at Port Louis, according to the 1952 census. A spillover Chinese population resided in the suburbs of the capital, such as Roche Bois with 203 Chinese and Saint Croix with 85 Chinese inhabitants. Increasingly, the Chinese also gravitated to the plateau towns where the burgeoning middle classes were taking up residence, escaping the hot and malarious coastal areas. 15

MA B1A 1952 census.

0

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Table 5.1. Chinese Population in Mauritius, by district, 1921–1944 Districts

Males Females 1921

Port Louis 2294 Pamplemousses 303 Riviere du Rempart 227 Flacq 402 Moka 258 Plaines Wilhems 848 Grand Port 466 Savanne 272 Black River 163

854 62 39 60 64 254 96 44 20

Males Females 1931

Males Females 1944

2788 304 230 437 309 1233 477 279 191

3076 218 207 438 234 1651 448 337 141

1354 111 80 157 136 436 139 87 41

2301 112 85 174 141 875 147 150 56

Source: MA B1A Census data, 1921–1944.

Table 5.2. Birthplaces of the Chinese Population in Mauritius, 1944 Birthplace

Males

Females

China Mauritius Hong Kong Rodrigues Reunion South Africa Madagascar Singapore Thailand Vietnam

3240 3096 11 4 2 1 1 1

980 2893 1 4 4

1 1

Source: MA B1A Census data, 1944.

The shopkeepers were supported by their kin and clan networks. C.E. stressed the family nature of the retail business. His own family had grown up around their shops in Mauritian villages, which were managed by various cousins and siblings. Eventually he and three of his brothers set up a family business. C.F.’s father appointed his relative, brought from China, to manage his shop, while he himself went into the wholesale business in Port Louis, in which he remained until his retirement. C.G., sent back to China for his education, was living in poverty there after his father’s death in Mauritius, until a Sino-Mauritian relative sent for him. Returning at the age of 25, C.G. first worked in his relative’s business before setting up a shop in partnership with two

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5.4a–c. Chinese women and their children in Mauritius

of his cousins. Soon the trio had three shops and were able to go their separate ways, each taking charge of one store. It was at this point that C.G. felt able to send for his wife who had remained behind in China with their children. They had been separated for 9 years. In her study of the Sino-Mauritians, conducted in the mid 1980s, Dutch anthropologist Arlette Kouvenhoven observed the significance of family and kin relations for the Chinese. She noted how important the concept of ‘filial piety’ was for them: “out of love and in the second place respect, one serves one’s parents during their lifetime and shows one’s gratitude and obedience after their death”. Kouvenhoven believed that filial piety also played an important role in the choice of

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marriage partner by young Sino-Mauritians, and in particular helped to explain the continuation of a high level of endogamy.16 A traditional bar had operated on marriage between a man and a woman with the same patronym, and in the past there had also been opposition to Hakka-Cantonese marriages. However, the small size of the Chinese community in Mauritius has led to the virtual eradication of such ethnic distinctions in the modern era. Kouvenhoven noted that some ‘arranged marriages’ with a relative from China continued to take place, particularly when an individual was unable to find a suitable partner in Mauritius; on the other hand the large number of overseas students and the internationalisation of the young Sino-Mauritians had led to an increasing number of marriages with Europeans, Americans and Canadians. Kouvenhoven concluded, nonetheless, that strong kinship ties kept the level of intermarriage relatively low, and concentrated social life within the Chinese community: “kinship, whether we speak of family, clan or just fraternity among the members of the Chinese community, is still a strong binding factor, which does not really allow deep contact with other ethnic communities”.17 Since this study, the immigration of large numbers of Chinese women on short term contracts to work in the EPZ sector, has led to some marriages between these new immigrants and Sino-Mauritians. Su Chan is one such example. At the age of 20, and working in a Factory Shop which sold chemical products in the region of Ningbo, she learnt of an agency offering employment in Mauritius, at a higher salary than she was then earning. Keen to travel, she took the chance and following her arrival on the island was befriended by Mrs Chan Yin, who was then president of the Plaine-Wilhems Chinese Women’s Association. She often prepared meals for her newly arrived compatriots and helped to organise outings for them. It was through this means that Su Chan met her future husband. Mrs Yin’s nephew fell in love with Su Chan, and, after her return to China, the couple continued to correspond. They eventually married in China in 1995 and Su Chan returned to Mauritius to settle permanently on the island. At the time of the interview, the couple had a 6 year old daughter and a 17 month old son. Su Chan also reported that she personally knew at least 10 other Chinese girls who

16 17

Kouvenhoven, A., ‘Kinship and Integration: the Chinese in Mauritius’, op. cit. Ibid.

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had married Mauritians. They are forming the nucleus of a new wave of Chinese labour immigrants who are settling on the island.18 Interviews conducted in Mauritius in April 2002 suggest that the incidence of marriages between Sino-Mauritians and foreign nationals is now so frequent as to excite little comment, particularly among the younger generation who study and work abroad. However, intra-community marriages among Sino-Mauritians living on the island remain the norm. At the same time there are fewer objections raised to the possibility of inter-community relationships. An interesting example of an additional family created by a Chinese migrant to Mauritius was recounted by C.H. whose grandfather, having left his family behind in China, married an Indo-Mauritian. Their son, feared to be heading towards an unsuitable marriage (in class rather than ethnic terms) was sent to Hong Kong. The fact of carrying a Chinese patronym, according to C.DH., overrode any ethnic issue: “because he carried the family name, he could return to China and be integrated into the family. For a Chinese the most important thing was that the son would be able to look after his father’s tomb.” Religion in the Life of the Overseas Chinese Despite their small number, the Chinese are highly visible on Mauritius, not only because of the ubiquitous Chinese shop, but also thanks to the edifices constructed by immigrants to Mauritius. While an increasing number of Sino-Mauritians profess Christianity, their pagodas remain visible symbols of the sacred topography of their ancestors, and bear continuing witness to the importance Chinese migrants gave to the construction of places of worship and sites of burial. Burial grounds constitute one of the earliest and often longeststanding symbols of a Chinese presence in the western Indian Ocean. A late 17th century account of South Africa described Chinese tombs there as marked out with small rattans “fastened together with cotton thread, so as to form an arch or a vaulted roof”.19 As far as Mauritius

18

Interview with Su Chan, Le Mauricien, 22 March 2002. Yap, M. & Leong Man, D., Colour, Confusion and Concessions, op. cit., p. 8. The Chinese burial ground was located northwest of Cape Town. See also Worden, N., ‘VOC Cape Town: A Dutch-Asian City in Africa’ in Evers S.J.T. & Hookoomsing, V.Y. eds. Globalisation and the South West Indian Ocean, IIAS, Leiden, 2000. Accounts of 19

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is concerned, by 1819, a site for the burial of Chinese in Mauritius had already been allocated in the capital, while the first pagoda of the island was built at the instigation of Hahime on several contiguous plots of land purchased between 1835 and 1839 at Caudan, near the Port Louis harbour.20 One of the earliest accounts of the appearance of the Chinese tombs in Mauritius dates from the late 1830s, and describes the graves as of raised masonry, with stones about two feet high, and fifteen inches wide”. Each gravestone had “three perpendicular rows of characters engraved on them, and coloured with red paint”. On top of each stone were a few folds of blank paper, with marks cut into them. Some of the stones had engraved marble tablets, let into the basalt. The narrator, Backhouse, also noted the presence in the graveyard itself, fixed into the wall that encircled it, of ‘a sort of altar’ also with a marble tablet engraved in Chinese characters”. He saw indications of what he believed was a location for ceremonies to be performed in the cemetery itself: On the centre of the coping of the inner wall, a round flat stone, painted red, and about a foot across, is placed. Below it are portions of wax showing that candles have been burnt here, where it is said their priest is stationed when a corpse is brought for interment, while he performs some sort of burial service. Hard by, there is also another semicircular wall of smaller dimensions, which we were informed was used by the poorer people.21

A similar description of the Chinese cemetery in Port Louis was provided by the Reverend Patrick Beaton in his account of mid 19th century Mauritius.22 A British military officer, stationed on the island, also noted the Chinese custom of decorating tombs, with what he described as ‘votive offerings’: “it consisted in depositing on the grave, a number

the Chinese burial ground and temple in Batavia during the 18th century can also be found. See Purcell, V., The Chinese in Southeast Asia, op. cit., pp. 400–3. 20 MA BIC A3.3/42 ‘Plan montrant l’emplacement destiné à la sepulture des Chinois’ 1818. MA NA 76/14 ‘Vente aux enchères de 5 lots de terrain par James Blyth au lieu dit Caudan’, 27 October 1838; NA 75/37/234 Testament of Hahime Choisanne, 24 March 1851. 21 Backhouse, J., A narrative of a visit to the Mauritius and South Africa, London, Hamilton Adams & Co., 1844 p. 13. 22 Beaton, Creoles and Coolies, op. cit., p. 50.

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5.5a–b. Early Chinese tombs in Mauritius

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5.6. An altar at the first Chinese cemetery in Mauritius

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of the small books of gold leaf used by gilders, which were allowed to remain until they fell to pieces and were blown away.”23 American consul Nicholas Pike witnessed a Chinese funeral procession in 1860s Mauritius. The bier was carried by “stout Malagash bearers” in long black gowns, while the Chinese mourners followed in carioles [carriages]. The funeral cortege was preceded by a person “scattering pieces of paper about three inches square, often gilt or silvered, all along the road, to scare away evil spirits, and prevent their following the corpse to its last resting-place.”24 It was not uncommon for a Chinese immigrant to make provision for and to specify details of his funeral and tomb, as in the case of Angounne’s will, drawn up in 1838, which stipulated that a sum of 500 piastres should be spent on his funeral costs and on the construction of a tomb and the purchase of a lead coffin, into which he wished to be placed.25 The pagoda built by Hahime and his coterie was inaugurated on 29 January 1842, as the Coan-Tahi-Biou, or Kwan Tee.26 Following the incidents described in chapter 4, Hahime, the kapitan, or traditional leader of the whole community, retreated with his followers into a secret society grouped around the Kwan Tee pagoda. Naturally, the construction of a Chinese place of worship and the activities which took place around and within it, attracted the attention of British residents and visitors to Mauritius. Their accounts, catering to a readership with little knowledge and much curiosity about the peoples of Asia and Africa, provide our only glimpse into the socio-cultural life of the Chinese at this period, albeit one written largely from a standpoint of ignorance and chauvinism and with a desire to amuse and surprise rather than to educate. A number of 19th century military memoirs, for example, describe activities at the ‘joss house’27 as they called it [ie the Kwan Tee

23

‘Sketches of Mauritius during a three years’ Residence’ The United Service Journal, 1865, p. 5. 24 Pike, N., Sub-tropical rambles, op. cit., p. 107. 25 MA NA 78/21/2067 Testament d’Angounne, 13 avril 1838. 26 Mauritius Gazette, 29th January 1842. At this time the Emperor of China was Dao Guang, who had conferred the title of ‘Sage or Grand Master’ (Guan fuzi) on Kwan Tee [or Guandi]. Several temples had been constructed in honour of Guandi, in China, and given that he had been adopted by merchants because he represented wealth and faithfulness in business, he was a good choice for the Chinese settled in Mauritius. Wong, E., La Diaspora Chinoise, op. cit., p. 218. 27 The term ‘joss’ meaning ‘idol’ is derived from the Portuguese word for God or ‘Deos’ and was probably adopted by the British in the mistaken belief that it was

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pagoda] because there was always a detachment of men stationed at Fort William, at the mouth of the harbour, nearby. John Ewart was heading back to the fort one night early in 1842 when he saw that “the Joss House, was lit up, and that a festival of some sort was taking place”: In walking in, I found a great feast laid out on two long tables, in front of some huge hideous-looking gods; a band playing some discordant tunes in a verandah outside. Nobody was eating, and a Chinaman made signs to me that all the good things were provided for the gods, and that I must on no account touch them. Wishing to see what would happen, I stepped into the verandah, and asked if I might be permitted to join the band; this was at once assented to, and I was handed a large drum, which I beat to the best of my ability for a considerable time.28

Ewart was later invited to eat with the band, and supplied with chop sticks, which he naturally found difficult to use. The military memoirs reveal that the Chinese were happy to accommodate visitors and to permit them to take part in some of the events. C.S. Bishop, a corporal in the 5th Fusiliers, who were stationed on Mauritius between 1855 and 1866, noted “We drummers did our practice in front of the Chinese Joss House near the harbour, and on the occasion of a feast we were always invited to partake of it”.29 A British naval visitor, whose account was published in 1844, visited the pagoda as part of his ‘sightseeing tour’ and provided a glimpse of the interior: joss-sticks in hundreds, chinese writing on the walls, altar-piece, &c. and several transparencies with lamps; two pictures were over the door, on what subject may it be supposed? why mail coach scenes, one just starting from the Bull and Mouth, or the Golden Cross, I forget which; the other was going it in prime style. There was also a Marine painting.30

Charles Boyle commented on the feast being consumed on the premises by a group “collected round a large table” eating out of “numberless bowls”, of which one dish, he noted, was sea cucumber. The party were served by a man “stripped to his waist, with his pigtail twisted out of the way upon his temples” who ran back and forth between the table

originally a Chinese term, see Yule, H. & Burnell, A.C., Hobson-Jobson, Wordsworth, London, 1996 [first edn 1886], pp. 463–4. 28 Ewart, J.A., The Story of A Soldier’s Life, 2 vols., London 1881, pp. 69–70. 29 Bishop, C.S., ‘Eleven Years’ Service with the 1st Battalion Fifth Fusiliers from 1855 until 1866’ St George’s Gazette No 362, 28 Feb. 1913 p. 27. 30 Davy, H., ‘Voyage of H M S Thunderer’, op. cit., pp. 209–211.

5.7. The entrance to the FokTiak pagoda in Mauritius

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and a temporary kitchen with “fresh supplies, all hot from the seething, bubbling, spluttering contents of his pots and pans”.31 Nicholas Pike was aware that numerous feasts were held at various times of year by the Chinese, at which, he remarked, they liked to “roast five or six pigs, often, if not too large, whole”.32 The main festival [presumably Chinese New Year], he noted, entailed “a general gathering of all the Celestials in the city”, when numerous carriages would be requisitioned and everyone put on new clothes, and “the whitest of stockings and brightest of varnished leather shoes”. The road to the Salines swarms with merry groups, . . . Joss himself is regilt; inside and out all is furbished up, and scores of little tables are placed outside, which are loaded with provisions. Gongs and cymbals make a deafening din, and jollity reigns supreme . . . on a table before the Joss are large vases filled with artificial flowers. Candles highly ornamented are sold to the devout; and at the time I was present they were being offered to him with dishes of meat and rice, till he was the centre of an illumination . . . Early on the day of the feast a procession is formed, banners are borne aloft, gongs and cymbals clanged on all sides; and each Chinaman, bearing a bowl of rice, passes with slow and steady step before Joss, invoking his friendship.33

Pike was confused about the nature of the deity and his worshippers, it having been explained to him that the Chinese preferred to propitiate the devil, rather than to exalt God. In fact, the cult of Kwan Tee was associated with that of the god of wealth-Choisan. An ancestor cult paralleled this. Smaller altars inside the pagoda celebrated Ma chou, protector of sailors and Kwan Yin, giver of children. The oldest tablet in the pagoda was affixed there circa 1841, and was restored in 1890. There is also a bell in the pagoda which dates from 1871.34 Another tablet was offered in 1868 by the disciples of the Zhongyitang association, which is believed to have been a secret society, possibly that created by Hahime to be inducted into which members were given a silver ring. Around the year 1850, as discussed in earlier chapters, tensions within the Chinese community, and in particular contestations of the authority of Hahime and his inner circle, led to the setting up of separate places of worship, which also became the basis for later clan associations. The 31

Boyle, Far Away, op. cit., pp. 213–7. Pike, N., Sub-tropical rambles, op. cit., p. 67. 33 Ibid., pp. 171– 7. 34 Ly Tio Fane, H., ‘De la religion traditionnelle au christianisme’ L’Aurore No. 3, May 1987. See also Wong, La Diaspora Chinoise, op. cit., p. 218. 32

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5.8. Petition by a group of Chinese for a new place of worship, 1850

first such request was made by the Chinese traders, Hon Achong, Assen, and Manang, and in 1860, another solicitation was made by Athion, for the “Chinese from Macao, (who speak a different language and are of a different caste from the other Chinese).”35 It was common for Chinese immigrants to make a small donation to the pagoda which they frequented in Mauritius in their wills, and

35 NA CO 167/324 petition of Hon, Achoung, Ayew, Manang, Assein and Ayew, Chinese; MA RA 1089 Report of Advocate General, 28 September 1850; MA RA 1619 Petition of Emile Athion, 1 February 1861.

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5.9. The Heen Foh temple bell—a donation of the Lee clan in 1877

in 1858 Atchowan’s will stipulated that he wished to leave 400 piastres to a ‘chinese church’ in Versailles Street.36 Over the following decade, Hakka immigrants too, felt strong enough to spurn the authority of the Cantonese kapitan [Affan Tank Wen who replaced Hahime] acknowledging Athion, a merchant based in Port Louis, as their leader. Through Athion, land to purchase a temple was acquired. The Hakka association, the Heen Foh or ‘Humanity and Harmony’ at Salines, is dated from 1874. The temple constructed there, also dedicated to Guandi, was the seat of the association.37 The Loong See Tong Lee society, specifically created to assist members of the Lee clan, donated a bell to the Heen Foh temple, in 1877.

36 37

MA NA 94/21/2914–94 Testament du Chinois Atchowan, 6 avril 1858. Guandi is an alternative spelling for Kwan Tee. See note 25 for an explanation.

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5.10. The door of the Law Kwan Chung pagoda, Port Louis

In 1904, a second pagoda, in Joseph Rivière Street, Port Louis, was erected by Hakka merchants, and the headquarters of the Heen Foh was shifted to this new site. Cantonese temples also proliferated in this period: several clan groupings set up their pagodas including: the Chan Cha (1883), the Fok Diak (1885) and the Nam Soon Fooy Koon (1896). Other edifices were the Law Kwan Chung, and the Jehen Kong Sue, which later became the seat of the Kuo Min Tang. In 1903 a local newspaper, Le Radical, listed 6 pagodas, in Champ de Mars, Arsenal, Rampe, Rémy Ollier, David and Camp Streets.38

38 Wong, Diaspora Chinoise, op. cit., p. 219.—Little remains nowadays of the old Cantonese quarter which housed the Law Kwan Chung Society in Royal Road and the Chan Cha Society in Arsenal Street. The principal door of the Law Kwan Chung building was designed to resemble the entry gate of a Chinese town, and no doubt marked the centre of Port Louis’ Chinatown at this time.

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A few descriptions of these later pagodas can be found in contemporary published accounts. Travel writer Lawrence Green visited one in the capital Port Louis, “in china town” where he saw “an enormous joss of carved, gilted wood. A Confucius joss with a look of infinite wisdom in the wooden eyes”.39 Harold Ingrams, a British colonial official who served in Mauritius during the 1920s, visited two pagodas with the President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the location of which he described as follows: “one looked over the lovely Champ de Mars and the other across the harbour, whose waters lapped at its front veranda”. He found them “pleasant places within with their black wood carving and the peaceful faces of the gilt figures”. His visit to the Champ de Mars temple, ‘Namshun Foykoon’ was particularly detailed: there were wonderful carvings in relief illustrating the rewards and punishments of the next world. The principal personage among the calm artistic figures in the temple was the general and sage Kwan Tee. On the altar in front of him stood a bronze lion with the pleasant smoke of sandalwood coiling from its mouth. There was also a lamp burning and three cups of tea poured out for Kwan Tee. These are changed at a short ceremony every morning when the temple gongs are beaten and fresh incense sticks are lit.40

The pagoda functioned not only as a place of worship, but also as a centre of social and political activities. Travel accounts in the 19th century make frequent reference to adjuncts of the joss house in which gambling and opium smoking took place. After partaking of a supper at the Kwan Tee pagoda, John Ewart quietly opened a door to discover a group of men, whom he took to be the ‘priests’, “engaged playing cards, evidently, too, gambling to a great extent, the table being covered with money. . . . I was of course speedily ejected.”41 The magnificent feasts and lengthy festivities described in travel accounts survive also in the memories of the older Sino-Mauritians. C.H. recollected when it was usual to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the Heen Foh located at Caudan. In those days the festivities would last for the entire lunar month. The emphasis was not on cultural shows, as are held today, but rather on “heavy feasting and heavy gambling.” The depression of the 1920s put an end to the excesses of the celebrations 39 40 41

Green, Secret Africa, op. cit., 204–210. Ingrams, H., Arabia and the Isles, op. cit., p. 73. Ewart, J., The Story of A Soldier’s Life, op. cit., pp. 69–70.

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then held. It had also been common during the New Year festivities to give food to the poor, but the free meals had to be abandoned when the price of foodstuffs soared. Nowadays it is more usual to offer a sum of money to needy families. As a main meeting place, prior to the creation of separate clan association buildings, the pagoda was also an important political symbol. Its significance to the Chinese community can be demonstrated by the fact that the election campaign for the Kwan Tee presidency in 1903 marked the start of a feud. Eventually, the Supreme Court declared in 1906, that the presidency should be allotted to the rival groups in turn and that a management committee comprising Cantonese, Hakka and Fujianese members should be set up.42 The President of the pagoda was an influential and highly respected person. C.I. remembered how the pagoda functioned both as a welfare institution and as a kind of court of justice. Disputes between Chinese would be brought to the pagoda, where advice and a verdict would be proffered, which the guilty party did not dare to defy. It was considered shameful to be brought before the council of the Pagoda. After the 1920s, C.I. reported, the pagoda lost its influence in this respect. One of the reasons for the decline of the pagoda’s role as a political symbol for the Sino-Mauritians was, of course, due to the increasing numbers of people converting to Christianity. Indeed Ly Tio Fane attributes to schisms between leaders associated with the Kwan Tee pagoda, the fact that the attitude of many Chinese changed towards the traditional religion.43 Among the earliest converts to Catholicism were Chinese men who had married or lived with christian Creole women. As we have seen the daughters were usually brought up as Catholics. Sometimes boys might also be baptised, whilst continuing to follow the traditions of their Chinese fathers. For example, Emile Athion, son of Marie Lourdes, a Creole and of Athion, a Chinese trader, was brought up in the Anglican faith.44 Some Chinese converted to Catholicism in order to marry. Affan Tank Wen was one of the first when he married Elizabeth Athow on 12 June 1872. He was baptised the same day and took the name Louis.

42 Ly Tio Fane, H., ‘Mauritius. History of the Mauritian Chinese’ in Pan, L. ed. The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas, Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore, 1998. 43 Ly Tio Fane, H., ‘De la religion traditionnelle au christianisme’ L’Aurore op. cit. 44 The life of Emile Athion, and his significance to the Chinese settled in Mauritius is discussed in Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘La Naissance’, op. cit., pp. 85–90.

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The following year 2 priests were assigned by Mgr Scarisbrick to work among the Chinese.45 The conversion rates should not be over-emphasized. Ly Tio Fane points out that until the end of the 19th century, more than 92% of Chinese still followed the traditional religion. Certainly, the progress of conversion seemed very slow to British clergyman Patrick Beaton who, after deriding Chinese religious practices, which he declared to consist “mainly in eating pork, and drinking innumerable small cups of tea”, complained that they seemed “utterly destitute of all religious susceptibility, and satisfied with a hard, bare materialism”. As an example, he noted: I obtained a hundred copies of the Chinese Testament from Hong Kong, and endeavoured to dispose of them among the Chinamen. I did not find one who could not read, but the few who desired to have copies seemed to value them merely as articles of merchandise.46

A very different experience was recounted by Pastor Anderson, who described being pursued down the street by a Chinese man calling after him “Missie, Missie alieter, alieter, ca livre-la li bong, ca livre-la li bong”, and asking for another copy of a Chinese translation of the bible which the pastor had earlier given him.47 Beaton might have cynically inferred that the individual in question merely wanted to make another sale, but the story of a Chinese convert recounted by Buswell of the Church Missionary Society is of a different order. In this case it was stated that the man in question made many requests to be baptised, was given tuition and eventually admitted to the church, and remained a member despite being “boycotted by his compatriots”.48 Explaining the appeal of Christianity to the Chinese on Mauritius, Kouvenhoven has noted the following salient factors: that “becoming the co-religionist of a large proportion of one’s customers was good for business”. In the rural areas, whites from whom the Chinese leased their shop were Catholics, and sometimes became the godparents of their children. Local schools also introduced the Roman Catholic faith to the pupils. Furthermore, Catholic rituals—with saints which cor45

Ly Tio Fane, H., ‘De la religion traditionnelle au christianisme’, op. cit. Beaton, P., Creoles and Coolies, op. cit., p. 50. ,47 This is transcribed as Creole spoken with a Chinese accent, and translates as “Sir, Sir, stop, that book is good”; Anderson, J.F., ‘Esquisse de l’Histoire du Protestantisme a l’ile Maurice et aux Iles Mascareignes, 1505 a 1902’, p. 17. 48 Ibid., p. 30. 46

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respond to the demi gods of Chinese religion, candles, and incense, offered a sense of ‘familiarity’. Most importantly, the Catholic church “tolerated the continuance of ancestor worship, which is viewed not as a religious ritual but as a cultural practice.”49 Certainly, many of the Hakka village shopkeepers, living amongst Catholic communities, were converted by the neighbours and customers. C.J. reported that his parents became Catholics after a local Creole woman in the village where they kept a shop convinced them to do so. Similarly C.K. and his siblings were baptised as a result of their godparents—people with whom their parents came into contact through the family shop. Catholicism also provided a means for the Chinese to gain access to the Catholic secondary school. A Chinese woman friend of the parents of C.L. who had become a Catholic, helped to obtain a place for their daughter at the school. The social work of nuns such as Sister Barthèlemy, born Amélie Raynaud in 1840, and who became a nun in 1862, played a part in exposing the Chinese to the charitable values of Catholics. In October 1867 she took charge of a house in the then Camp de l’Est district of the capital, which was devoted to caring for the sick among the Chinese community. She also founded a hospital for Chinese at the Convent ‘de la Montagne’. After her death, in 1897, the Chinese community erected a monument to her memory at the Western Cemetery. In the last quarter of the 19th century scores of Chinese adults were baptised through the work of Chinese speaking Catholics such as M. Glau, in Pailles. Between 1893 and 1919, Father Lescure baptised more than 700 Chinese in Port Louis.50 In the early 20th century, the rate of conversion speeded up. It was believed at the time that the events of 1912 in China [the proclamation of the Republic] played a part in this, with the liberalization of religious faith and relaxation of prohibitions on migration, prompting both a rise in the number of women immigrants and conversions. Thus while of 3,609 Chinese on the island in 1911, 17% were Christians, by 1921 of 7,000 Chinese and Sino Mauritians in the country, 28% had embraced Christianity.51

49

Kouvenhoven, A., ‘Kinship and Integration: the Chinese in Mauritius’, op. cit. Nagapen, A., A l’aube de la mission catholique chinoise a l’ile Maurice 1873–1945, Port Louis, 1991, pp. 19–23. 51 Dumazel, D., ‘L’Entité Mauricienne’, L’Essor 15 Aout 1931 no. 142, pp. 145–7. 50

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In 1943 Father Jean Margeot gave an organisational structure to the Chinese Catholics in creating a ‘Legion Chinoise’. This was consolidated by the creation of the ‘Mission Chinoise’ with the arrival of Father Emile-Marie Vandewalle, in December 1950. Having spent 19 years in China, Father Vandewalle was well qualified to work with the Chinese settled in Mauritius. Soon after Vandewalle’s arrival, he began to tour the island, visiting all the Chinese shops in the rural districts, and most of those in Port Louis. He was assisted by Philippe Kwok, a young catechist from Hong Kong who spoke both Hakka and Cantonese. In 1951 some Catholic sisters who had also worked in China, and spoke either Hakka or Cantonese, were recruited to the mission. Together with André Lee who arrived from China in 1953, they established a Chinese evening school at the Ecole de la Salle.52 In May 1951 the first Chinese pilgrimage to Marie Reine de la Paix took place, and in September of the same year the first mass organised especially for Chinese, was held at the tomb of Père Laval.53 Youth organisations of Chinese catholics were active even before 1950, in Rose Hill and Port Louis. Other groups were set up in Curepipe and Quatre Bornes. Finally, in 1954, the first Chinese priests arrived—Jean Chang and Paul Wu. A third, Paul Yueh, arrived from Rome in 1955 and a fourth, Paul Chen, in January 1957.54 In 1958 C.M, born in Rose Belle, became the first Sino-Mauritian to be accepted into the priesthood. He took office at Notre Dame de Lourdes, Rose Hill. A second Sino Mauritian priest, ordained shortly afterwards, was sent abroad. A number of Chinese girls also became nuns, initially with the Congrégation des Filles de Marie. The difficulty of Chinese shopkeepers to attend daytime masses, led to a special dispensation from Rome for the holding of late afternoon and evening masses on Sundays in the several parishes. The impact of the Chinese mission can be seen in Table 5.3 which demonstrates the increasing proportion of Catholics in the Chinese community. Travellers to Mauritius, by this time, who continued to see in the shops of the Chinese, a flavour of the exotic east, were surprised to find that they now shared a religious belief. Visitors to Port Louis one 52

Vandewalle, E.M., Les Débuts de la Mission Chinoise, Mauritius, 1960. Père Laval was a French missionary who spent many years on Mauritius, working among the poor, and is today venerated as a saint. 54 Mission Catholique Chinoise, 10ème anniversaire, 1950–1960, Mauritius, 1960. 53

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5.11. A young Chinese girl’s first communion, Mauritius

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Table 5.3. Proportion of Catholics in the Chinese Population, 1901–1960 Year 1901 1911 1921 1931 1944 1952 1956 1960

Chinese Population 3,515 3,662 6,745 8,923 10,882 17,850 20,146 23,200

Chinese Catholics 213 520 2,035 2,120 2,691 7,974 11,702 13,000

Source: B1A Census data, 1901–1960.

5.12. The Tientan Pagoda, Port Louis, Mauritius

Sunday in 1951 found most of the Chinese shops there closed, and thereby discovered that their owners were Catholics.55 Despite the increasing numbers of Catholics among the SinoMauritians, Chinese religion has also experienced a resurgence. In 1951 the Tientan temple was built at the foot of the Pouce mountain,

55

J.A.K., ‘Tourists in Mauritius’, op. cit. p. 517.

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containing an altar for the worship of Yu huang, a Taoist divinity. Subsequently two small temples were attached to it, in honour of Guandi and Guanyin respectively. In 1974, the Shen Shan was constructed in Tank Wen Street. Construction of Buddhist temples in several districts of Port Louis has also taken place. The first of these, Poo chi was built in 1948 at the top of Volcy Pougnet street, another, Shen Chen was built in 1951 in Pope Hennessy street, and a third, the Fook Soo, was built in 1954 in Magon street.56 By the 1980s around 66% of the Chinese population in Mauritius was estimated to be Catholic. A small proportion of the Chinese Christians are Protestants, generally through having encountered the small community of Anglicans on the island. C.N. for example, chose to attend a Protestant church as a young man, although he was not officially baptised until the age of 40. He attends St Columba Church, Phoenix, and was the only one of his siblings to become a Protestant. Elements of the Chinese religion, such as ancestor worship, based on kinship, persist even amongst Christian Sino-Mauritian families. This continues a long tradition on the island of religious parallelism dating back to Affan Tank Wen’s conversion to Catholicism which did not prevent him from being one of the main promoters of a project to construct a Chinese temple; dedicated to Tianhou, the goddess widely worshipped by seamen, and inaugurated in 1896. The attitude of modern Sino-Mauritians to the traditional beliefs of their forbears is well summed up by C.P. Although himself a Christian, C.P. is also the descendant of one of the founders of a Chinese pagoda in Royal Street, Port Louis, and has spent more than one million rupees for its renovation. As he explains, I’ve done it out of devotion to my ancestors and because I am sentimentally attached to this temple. In the past, the pagoda was a place of prayer and accommodation for the island’s Chinese who came to stock up in Chinatown. I have myself known that time, but it stopped being like this twenty years ago.

Similarly although C.Q. and his family are Catholics, they still attend the pagoda if a family function is being held there. Kouvenhoven attended a death ceremony in a Chinese pagoda in the mid 1980s, and noted that the willingness of families to bear the high cost of such rituals demonstrates the continuing belief that supporting ancestors is important to 56

Wong, La Diaspora Chinoise, op. cit., p. 350.

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5.13a–c. Funeral of the owner of the Chat d’Or shop, Rose Hill, Mauritius, 1955

ensuring that families are kept from the illness or misfortune caused by a wandering soul.57 In the pictures above and overleaf, the coffin of a Sino-Mauritian man is placed outside his shop, as part of his funeral ceremony. The distinctive white mourning dress of the Sino-Mauritian ladies is one of the disappearing traditions of the community. The Catholic Church itself has recognised the dual aim of Chinese to conserve their distinctive traditions. Indeed, ancestor worship remains, for many, an important part of the daily routine, and the local Catholic Church has made efforts to introduce such celebrations, including food offerings within the framework of the Catholic mass—in the guise of a cultural practice. A mass for the Chinese community is still held on Sunday afternoons in Rose Hill, and each Chinese New Year a mass is conducted in the Cathedral. Priests from China have helped in this regard. In 2002, when Father Paul Wu returned to China after 48 years’ service to Mauritius, local newspapers paid tribute to his many activities, including his setting up of the Chinese Educational Help Fund, and

57

Kouvenhoven, A., ‘Kinship and Integration: the Chinese in Mauritius’, op. cit.

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the fortnightly Chinese Catholic Mission magazine, l’Aurore.58 Another Catholic priest serving on the island summed up his Sino-Mauritian congregation’s religious beliefs using the words of one young man who told him ‘I am 100% Mauritian, 100% Chinese and 100% Christian. Between the three there is no contradiction, there is integration’.59 Marie Therese Humbert, in her novel A l’autre bout du moi, comments perceptively on the Chinese ability to combine more than one set of beliefs. Describing the ‘fragile shack’ of Chinese shopkeeper Ah-Ling and his wife Suzanne which somehow remains standing after a severe cyclone, she wryly points out the multiplicity of deities which protect the family: “how could anything bad happen to the shop of Ah-Ling, protected as it was by a multiplicity of Gods?”60 Cultural Organizations and Leisure Activities In the 19th century the pagoda functioned as a means through which the Chinese could organise socio-cultural events, designed both to affirm their own sense of community, and to raise their prestige in Mauritius. In 1872, for example, the Kwan Tee pagoda was the setting for a dragon dance attended by the governor and other notables. The Chinese community also made it a point to transmit messages of congratulations or condolences on British royal occasions and their celebration of the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1888, was perhaps their most ambitious project thus far. A procession, headed by the son of Affan Tank Wen, richly costumed and riding a pony, set off from Place d’Armes in Port Louis on 19th January, with Chinese belonging to the different congregations—Nam Shun, Chin Cha, Sweet Hang and Fock Diack,—following. An orchestra played aboard a boat shaped float, a 40-man dragon cavorted, and Chinese notables presented a bouquet to the Acting Governor Francis Fleming. A second procession was organised the same evening. On the 20th January, Achim’s shop on the Place d’Armes was brilliantly illuminated and the Chin Cha pagoda in Arsenal

58 ‘L’abbé Paul Wu regagne la Chine après 48 ans de sacerdoce à Maurice’, Le Mauricien, 8 March 2002. 59 Giampietro, J., ‘Ile Maurice-Hong Kong Deux petites îles à côté de deux immenses territoires’ L’Aurore no. 9, 29 juin 1988, p. 12. 60 Humbert, M., A L’Autre Bout de Moi, Editions Stock, Paris, 1979, p. 16.

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Street was festooned with British flags. On the third day, a firework display was organised by the Yin Fo Fy Quan congregation.61 What most contemporaries noticed about the Chinese, however, were not such one-off or annual events, but the more constant evidence of leisure pursuits associated with the commnity—the gambling establishments and opium houses. An anonymous author of an account of Mauritius in the mid 19th century described the quay of Port Louis as a place where customs-house officials regularly pounced upon Chinese opium smugglers “From recondite hiding-places the hateful drug is torn; innocent bags of rice yield up their trust, tins of lard reveal wheel within wheel, in the form of balls of opium”.62 There were certainly contraventions of the law, as a number of cases in the Mauritius Archives detail.63 In general, those found with opium escaped prosecution, providing the drug was destroyed.64 Similar contraventions are recorded against Indian immigrants, guilty of importing ‘ganja’, a form of marijuana.65 In some cases, those accused simply stated that they were not aware that in Mauritius, the importation of opium was prohibited.66 This was not entirely unreasonable given that the British were at this time, introducing opium into China in vast quantities, against the wishes of the Chinese authorities!67 Nicholas Pike, visiting a pagoda in Port Louis’ china town noted the presence of an adjoining ‘opium den’: “Opening out of the jossroom, is a small apartment with several bunks in it, and seats, always filled with stupefied wretches almost insensible from the quantities of opium inhaled from the long-stemmed pipes lying at their sides”.68 Into the 20th century, little seems to have changed, for Lawrence Green’s account of a visit to China town in the 1920s also mentions an opium den adjacent to the pagoda: Next to the joss a door, half-screened by a bead curtain, revealed the room of the opium smokers, the dull glow of braziers, the long opium pipes with tiny bowls, the unmistakable odour, and the porcelain pillows, shaped like wooden Zulu pillows, on which the drugged men slumbered.

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68

Benoit, N., ‘Archives’ Le Mauricien, 3 Feb. 1992. Anon, ‘Mauritius’ North American Review 96, April 1863, p. 376. MA RA 1920 Petition of Attack, 24 Aug. 1867. MA RA 984 Police Report, 29 December 1848. MA B3B 1840. MA RA 747 Petition of Akit, Aving, Aline & Chion-Hen, 18 January 1843. Pan, L., Sons of the Yellow Emperor, op. cit., p. 43. Pike, N., Sub-tropical rambles, op. cit., p. 172.

5.14. A 19th century opium den

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He suggests that the practice of smoking opium was not confined to the Chinese, quoting a French Mauritian who described the experience: “It clears the brain, a leetle opium, so that you can see though a difficulty . . . but too much, it is not good”.69 The other characteristic occupation of the Chinese was gambling. Ommanney described the Chinese quarter of Port Louis thus “The rattle of mahjong pieces and the clatter of wooden-soled shoes bring the true flavour of the East to these few streets”.70 Contemporary travel accounts are replete with shocking stories of abrupt reversals of fortune involving wealthy Chinese traders and gambling excesses. Charles Boyle recorded, “I heard of one instance of a Chinaman staking his whole shop on a single throw, himself included, for a term, to serve in it, without wages”.71 Mauritian civil servant Hubert Jerningham, described the Chinese trader, gambling after his shop shutters were closed which “frequently ends with playing away his whole substance to his partner or his friend, on the chance of its recovery the following nights.”72 The usually reliable American consul Nicolas Pike described a rather luxurious-sounding gambling house in Port Louis: “paintings decorate its walls, and a number of very handsome Chinese lanterns are suspended from the ceiling. Long rows of small tables are on each side—a crowd round every one of them”. In front of every gambler was “a quantity of copper cash, or round coins with holes in them, a tea-cup, and two small pieces of wood like Josssticks.” After describing the board game, he counted the number of people in the room and estimated it to contain between six and eight hundred persons. Pike also gives his own account of a shopkeeper who lost all his property through gambling: A shop close to my house was owned by a very respectable Chinaman, a quiet fellow, who had his place well stocked with groceries, wines, &c., and owned one assistant, a boy of about twenty, as quiet and steady as his master. For a few days his shop was shut, much to the inconvenience of his neighbours; and on enquiry, I found it was the annual festival, and

69 Green, Lawrence, G., Secret Africa, op. cit., 204–210. Michael Malim also describes a visit to a Port Louis opium den in Island of the Swan Mauritius, 1953 Longmans, UK, pp. 161–2. 70 Ommanney, F.D., ‘Fading Lustre—Mauritius’, Geographical Magazine, vol. xxvi, no. 9, Jan. 1954 p. 498. 71 Boyle, C., Far Away, op cit., p. 24. 72 Jerningham, H.E.H., ‘Mauritius as it was before the Cyclone’, Blackwoods Magazine, August 1892, p. 219.

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5.15. A Chinese man, amongst other gamblers, watching a cock fight in 19th century Mauritius

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both master and man had attended it. At length Mr. Lung-Fo re-opened, but, to every one’s astonishment, he was sweeping out his shop, and weighing out charcoal and lard to the customers, while the youngster sat leisurely smoking and making up the day-books. It appeared they had been gambling from the time they left home. Lung-Fo had lost to his servant all his money, his whole stock and house; and then having nothing more, he wagered himself, and if he lost he was to be servant to the other—and he did lose.73

Pike asserted that “this was no uncommon case” but maintained that men reduced to such beggary would simply set to work again and “earn before the next festival the wherewithal to induce Fortune to turn her wheel once more in their favour”. Some decades later, Lawrence Green found the Chinese gambling houses, and their fan-tan players, to have “an air of sedateness and respectability which clings to no European gaming house”, while by the time of V.S. Naipaul’s visit, in 1972, the wealthy Chinese had moved from the gambling house to the hotel casino.74 Were these stories of fortunes won and lost merely apochryphal? An interviewee in Mauritius, in 2002 hinted that such events had happened in the past. He explained that in Port Louis, the main distraction for the shopkeeper would be gambling, either in the Kou-on or in the gaming houses. If a shopkeeper became bankrupt, it was often gambling which was blamed, because apart from the money regularly sent home to China, there were few reasons for extravagance. With the closure of the railways and the arrival of buses and lorries, the rural shopkeepers were able to make their purchases and to return the same day, so that the Kou-ons lost an important part of their raison d’être, except those purchased by the members of a ‘siang’ who continued to use the buildings for funerary purposes or as places for social gatherings. Adjoining the gambling room visited by Nicholas Pike in Port Louis, was another, set apart for Chinese operatic performances, an aspect of Chinese high culture which has regrettably disappeared from the capital’s china town today. Pike’s account of the performance he saw, suggests that local Chinese played an important part in the composition of the piece. He states that it was written by a doctor, Mr Ahong, and that the music was composed by “Mr. Ching-tang, a dealer in snook and cocoa-nut oil in Port Louis.” The orchestra consisted of “gongs,

73

Nicolas Pike, Sub-tropical rambles, op. cit., pp. 173–4. Green, L., Secret Africa, op. cit.; Naipaul, V.S., The Overcrowded Barracoon, Penguin, 1981, p. 278. 74

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5.16. A 19th Chinese theatre performance

two triangles, two Chinese fiddles, four cymbals, two guitars, and two kettle-drums”.75 Harold Ingrams saw a performance at the Chinese theatre in Port Louis, acted by an all male troupe from a Chinese travelling company “dressed in the beautiful costumes of old China”. This play was also accompanied by a live orchestra, chiefly using percussion instruments.76 Lawrence Green was so dazzled by a Chinese opera in Port Louis staged by highly paid performers from Peking, that he claimed “no Western stage has ever been bedecked with such artistry as that Chinese stage in that island Chinatown.” It was only hours later “such had been the spell of the performance” that Green took time to observe what he considered another astounding sight—the theatre building itself. His description provides us with a striking snapshot of China Town in 1920s Mauritius: Picture a street blocked at one end by a gorgeous stage, roofed over with sheets of tin. A street with double-storied houses at each side, people leaning over the balconies. Houses with large open windows, so that sleeping

75 76

Pike, N., Sub-Tropical Rambles, op. cit., pp. 173–4. Ingrams, H., Arabia and the Isles, London, John Murray, 1966 p. 73.

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figures beneath mosquito nets are visible. Canvas chairs right across the street from door to door. Pieces of red butchers meat hanging outside these doors, inside the theatre. A man cooking over a wood stove on the pavement. Men and women asleep amid heaps of discarded scenery. Fruit hawkers at little tables piled high with cut slabs of water melon, boxes of lichis; mangoes too and immense growths of the yellow island banana; purple sticks of sugar cane; bread fruit and strawberries.77

Green was more aware than his 19th century counterparts of the ancient culture he was privileged to glimpse, reminding his readers: “this is the China of forty centuries”; and pointing out that the Chinese were “staging such plays at a time when the people of England were engaged in the much simpler business of painting themselves blue”. As the Chinese community ordered itself into distinctive clan and group associations, cultural events and social gatherings were organised around them. These in turn have diversified into providers of welfare and promoters of cultural activities for the larger Sino-Mauritian community. An example of a clan association was that formed in 1952 for the Young family and to provide a fund to assist its members. The organization also aimed to ‘celebrate the festivals of the Chinese calendar according to Chinese tradition’. Another, called the Lip Sip Nee, aimed to “unite all Chinese of the ‘Lim Tribe’ residing in this colony and to establish and constitute a fund to help those of its members who may be destitute.” The Lin Kwak, Lai See, and Chan Cha Societies were set up in the 1950s to provide forms of social insurance for members, as well as to institute organised sporting and leisure activities.78 The Hua Lien cultural society, set up in 1991 by a group of Chinese businessmen set out to provide the community with a club house where all could meet, but some of the founder members also believe it has “a privileged role to play in keeping alive our ancestral culture and language”. The need for an “all out campaign for the study and use of Mandarin by all Chinese in Mauritius” is believed to be important “otherwise the next generation will be only ‘skin deep’ Chinese and our present generation will bear the full responsibility”.79 The concern of Sino-Mauritian business leaders for the welfare of the community has a long tradition on the island.80 Some support in this regard is provided

77

Green, L., Secret Africa, op. cit., pp. 204–210. MA NA List of Chinese Societies. 79 Information from interviews conducted with Hua Lien society members. 80 One of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce, Francois Venpin retired from business in 1911 to devote himself to social and cultural activities. He brought 78

5.17. The Hua Lien cultural society building

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by the Chinese government which has funded a Cultural Centre in Mauritius that since 1988 holds courses in mandarin, dance and martial arts. The Chinese government also offers a number of scholarships each year. In 2002 there were 30 Mauritians studying in China. Issues of ‘Loss’ and Strategies of Adaptation: Language and Education Debates Nowadays, the almost universal enrolment of young Sino-Mauritians in secular government and Catholic Church schools of the island, has prompted some members of the Chinese community to fear a decline in traditional cultural values. One interviewee remarked that the younger generation “are distancing themselves more and more from the pagoda, the language, music and traditional dance of the Chinese”. Certainly, the demands of a multi-lingual society in which Kreol is the main vehicle of social interaction, and English and French the languages of the workplace and the school, leave little room for acquisition of skills in the Chinese mother tongues. In the 19th century, the efforts of Chinese traders to grapple with the Kreol mother tongue of their Mauritian customers, was a source of some amusement to contemporary chroniclers. The author of an article that appeared in the Dublin Review of January 1880 reported that the Chinese chanted Kreol “in a curious high-pitched sing-song with frequent cadences” and would say “Quetien, for Chretien; lafoti, for lafortune; bapté for baptême”. The author recounted the following conversation with a Chinese shopkeeper as a further illustration, describing his failed attempt to understand what was being offered for sale: He begins gaily with foloma at a marvelously cheap rate. But you ask, what is foloma at any price? And then with curious eye and mouth contortions and zealous effort, he endeavours to tell you more distinctly; but foloma, sung high and sung low is all your strained ears can catch. You try to read it on his paper—but the paper is in cursive Chinese . . . your

cultural troupes from China at his own expense and was President of the Heen Foh society. He also collaborated in the setting up of a Chinese hospital in Poivre Street, Port Louis. Raynal, L.G. ‘Venpin, Francois Ayoo-Koo (1851–1948)’ Dictionnaire de Biographie Mauricienne 1081.

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chapter five servant is brought in to your aid, and you learn that foloma was his best attempt to say fromage.81

In some situations, the Chinese were able to make use of their distinctive linguistic and cultural traditions to outwit the local authorities, for example, a number of cases of fraud derived from the fact that a single name was used to identify the Chinese traders. Athion, an ex-labourer, for example, adopted the identity of Athion, a shopkeeper, to obtain a retailer’s licence.82 Whilst the Chinese were obliged to use the island’s link language, Kreol, to communicate with customers, and in some cases to familiarise themselves with the bhojpuri83 dialect spoken by the Indian sugar estate workforce, the widespread desire to return to China initially discouraged the community in Mauritius from sending their children to government schools where they would be educated in English and French. In 1901 not a single child of Chinese parents was enrolled in such a school. Only a minority of parents were therefore taking advantage of the facilities of western language learning. By 1911, there were still only 26 SinoMauritian boys and 7 girls receiving a state education.84 There were early pioneers promoting western education. Adrien Konfortion [the creole Chinese community leader] encouraged his compatriots to equip their children for admission to local state schools, and in the shop where he worked, sold books in European languages alongside foodstuffs. He also acted as a responsible party, signing the children’s school reports. By 1921, 328 Chinese boys were at primary school, among them was Ah Chin who won the Junior Scholarship at his school St Jean Baptiste de La Salle.85 Emphasis at this time nevertheless remained with the ‘ancestral’ languages. In 1912 the Xin Fa opened in Port Louis. This was a primary school, founded with the support of Koo Venpin, Lai Fat Fur and Ng Cheng Hin, well known figures in the Chinese community, who wanted to ensure that their Mauritian-born children continued to be educated 81 Anon, ‘Mauritius’ The Dublin Review Jan 1880 pp. 1–26. Chinese pronunciation is still part of the repertoire of the Creole comedian in Mauritius, and of the popular singer in Trinidad, where ‘Chinee Parang’ was a recent hit. 82 MA RA 984 Petition of Athion (no. 138), 28 November 1848. 83 Bhojpuri is a spoken variant of Hindi, deriving from the Bhojpur area in north India. 84 MA B6 Census Reports 1901, 1911. 85 Ly Tio Fane, H., ‘Ah Chin—Joseph Koo Tat Chong’, L’Aurore no. 42, December 1993, p. 17.

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in Chinese culture. The Xin Fa taught principally Chinese languages, although a small number of lessons were given in French and English. A teacher, Siow Yuk Ting, was brought from China, and a school with 20 students was set up at 26 Desforges Street. As the number of students increased, the Xin Fa was transferred to 41 Remy Ollier Street, to a piece of land belonging to the Heen Foh Society. Financed by the Namking company—a rum manufacturer—the Xin Fa became the largest Chinese school in the African and Western Indian Ocean region, with 1,019 students at its peak in 1947, declining to 250 by 1962.86 The outbreak of the Sino Japanese war in 1937 spread a sense of patriotism among the Chinese which helps to explain the marked increase in students between 1938 and 1942. The Xin Fa was subsequently a mouthpiece of the ideas of the Kuo Min Tang, and the notion of ‘a state within a state’ as defining the proper relationship of the overseas Chinese to the society of adoption was propagated. By 1944, The Xin Fa was absorbing 44.4% of the local schoolgoers of Chinese origin. Two more teachers had arrived from China who reportedly introduced strict discipline, with children in uniforms, and quasi military exercises. The children marched in Port Louis on the occasion of the Chinese national festival. C.R.’s parents felt it was important that their children should receive a Chinese education, in case the family returned home. His brother also learnt Chinese, attending a Chinese school for 1 year. C.S. remembers that prior to the Second World War, Chinese schooling stopped at Form 3. After that students generally went on to China, to graduate from a university there. The number of students attending the Chinese schools numbered several thousand at this time. C.T.’s father sent him back to China at the early age of 3 with his mother and brother for his education, while he struggled to manage two households, but his early death, after the family had been in China only two years, brought an end to the remittances on which they lived. C.T. managed to continue his education—attending the village school of Meixian, he paid for his tuition by working as a cook for his tutor in the evenings, until the age of 11 when his primary education ended. He had no option but to work, at that stage, but a relative then stepped in to enable him to complete his education. A brother in law, reports C.T., “was really concerned about my future. He admitted me to a college where I continued to study and specialise in the Chinese language.

86

Ng Foong Kwong, J., Les Hakkas, op. cit., pp. 186–195.

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5.18a–c. The original entrance gate of the Xin Fa and Children in Chinese school uniform

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I completed my Form IV level in the college”. C.T.’s Chinese education in Meixian stood him in good stead when he returned to Mauritius. He joined a local Chinese school as a teacher of Mandarin. The communist take-over in China changed the perceptions of the community. The number of students enrolled in Chinese school dropped sharply. The Chinese community in Mauritius was divided between nationalist supporters and communists, and the adherence of the Xin Fa to the communist cause led a significant number of parents to refrain from admitting their children to the Chinese school. C.U. attended a Chinese school for a couple of years, until the Communist take-over led her parents to look for admission for her to a local primary school. The census data reveal the steadily increasing percentage of Chinese in Mauritius who learned to read and write a European language. While in 1931, it was estimated that less than 4% of Chinese could read and write in English and French, by 1952, over 50% were literate in both languages. In 1952 only 1,154 men and 1,451 women of the community had had no state school education—presumably the older generation—while 1,153 Chinese had been educated up to Standard VI, 135 had already obtained a school certificate, 29, an HSC, 13 men and 5 women possessed a University degree, and 9 men and 1 woman had obtained a professional diploma.87 The integration of the community was facilitated by the setting up of a scholarship system from 1926, and the early success of the Chinese saw increasing numbers of Sino-Mauritian children entering the state school system.88 By the 1950s, the first generation of Chinese professionals was returning to Mauritius from studies in England and Ireland. Chinese students often had to stay with relatives settled in the towns in order to be able to follow classes. C.V. studied up to senior level [Form V] at New Eton College. He remembered staying at his father’s shop in Rose Hill in order to be able to attend his school. C.W. stayed with his grandmother in Port Louis in order to enrol at the Chinese school. He then attended state primary and secondary schools. It was considered more important for boys to have a western education: C.Y. and his brothers went to local Catholic schools, while his sisters were sent to Chinese school. C.V. won a junior scholarship

87

MA B1A Census Reports, 1931–1952. While never constituting more than 3% of the local population, the Sino-Mauritians have won more than 30% of the state scholarships since 1926. 88

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which entitled him to free education to Higher School Certificate level. He then attended the Royal College of Port Louis. The children of C.W. were working for a white Mauritian-owned sugar factory, which provided transport for the children of employees who obtained admission to secondary schools; they therefore all attended the Lycee Labourdonnais. They studied for the baccalaureat and all went on to French Universities. Prior to World War II, children were usually sent to China for higher studies. There was a switch to European higher education during and after the war. Thus to take one example, Professor Wu, although Mauritian born, studied in China, at a French Institute, and from there went to the Sorbonne. After completing his School Certificate in Mauritius, C.V. obtained a BSc in Economics at University College London. His father financed his studies and he travelled to Europe by boat, while the Second World War was still raging. The journey took 3 to 4 weeks. He went on to study law at the Inner Court, spending 9 years in the UK altogether. C.Y. went to Edinburgh for higher studies. Another Sino-Mauritian had settled there after qualifying as a dentist, and married a Scottish girl. C.Y. qualified as a physician in June 1958, and spent some time working as a house surgeon and house physician in Dundee. He returned to Mauritius in 1959, considering it his duty as the eldest son to do so. The pay had also been poor in the UK, and the Government of Mauritius was then tempting back overseas students with the offer of scholarships after 4 years’ of government employ. He joined a number of other Sino Mauritians who were already in government service as doctors. With China developing into a world power, it became fashionable once again to learn a Chinese language, although now Mandarin, rather than Hakka or Cantonese, was the preferred object of study. A new Chinese school, the Chung Fa, was founded. C.Z.’s parents, who came from China, believed that children should learn Chinese prior to going to the government school. D.A. attended Chinese school up to Form 3, before switching to the Ecole Notre Dame, Curepipe. A number of other Chinese schools opened to educate Chinese children who could not easily get to the capital. In May 1950, the Wan Chiu Hsiao Shuo was set up in Rose Hill, and in September another school was opened in Curepipe, to teach sewing to Chinese girls, and a range of subjects to boys. These were private schools where other skills such as basic accounting were also taught. Parents at that time did not

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consider it a handicap to go to the Chinese school first, because French and English were also taught at the Chinese schools. With western education firmly established, concerns were raised about the continued dissemination of Chinese culture. The Ming Tek was set up by Chinese Catholics in 1980, to provide lessons in Mandarin, and martial arts training to Sino-Mauritians of all denominations. Its name, from Confucius, means savoir faire. The local authorities had meanwhile implemented policies designed to encourage multi-culturalism and government schools also began to teach Mandarin.89 However, some elderly Sino-Mauritians consider that the commitment to the French and English-language led school system, has led to a decline in the community’s commitment to vernacular ‘ancestral’ languages.90 D.B. complained that young Sino-Mauritians “cannot find their own culture, because their generation has at the same time a shared culture, and no culture at all”. As education and modernization have enlarged the horizons of the Sino-Mauritians entire families have been caught up in the process of globalization. Limited opportunities and lower salaries have meant that a large proportion of overseas students have tended not to return to work in Mauritius. This has led to the internationalisation not only of the younger generation, but has sponsored out-migration or frequent displacement of other family members. Hong Kong, Canada, France, Australia and the UK are among the relocation sites of Sino-Mauritians. D.C.’s daughter married a Mauritian whom she met while studying in Birmingham, and subsequently settled in Luxembourg, while a daughter of D.D. is currently working in Paris, having married an American. The Chinese diaspora in the region has led to further outmigrations through marriage: D.E.’s sister married a Chinese from South Africa and settled there, while his elder sister’s children have settled in China, Hong Kong, South Africa and Australia. When the Wan family holds a reunion, members travel to Canada, from Mauritius, Singapore and the Philippines.91 It is remarkable that the older generation in Mauritius 89 De Chazal, A. and Piang Sang Sew Hee, K., ‘The Growth and Ascension of the Chinese Community in Mauritius’, Vision, no. 23, 25–31 Jan 1995, p. xvi. 90 Such debates are frequently aired in the Mauritian press. See for example the article by Li Ching Hum in l’Express of 27 January 1998, and letters to the editor in Le Mauricien of 11 June 1995. 91 Researchers have coined the term ‘astronaut families’ to denote such contemporary middle class dispersed nuclear families. The term is particularly applied to situations

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seems happy to accept the notion of such widely dispersed families. D.F. encapsulated the spirit of optimism about the future expressed by many interviewees when he concluded that while the Sino Mauritians of today, may be ‘global players’, they still ‘respect the old values.’ D.D. commented “we do not worry that our children may never return to Mauritius nor that they have married into other communities. On the contrary we believe that access to other cultures can enrich us.” The geographic mobility of the Sino-Mauritians and their predilection for European and north American states, is explained by D.F. in the following terms: “the Chinese like political stability, and install themselves in countries where conditions are propitious for the advancement of commerce”. What then of the linguistic and ethnic identities of these modern Sino-Mauritians? In recent censuses a large number of SinoMauritians stated that kreol was both their ancestral and currently spoken language. Since Indo-Mauritians conversely tend to overstate their use of ‘ancestral languages’ such as Telegu and Urdu, according to anthropologist T.H. Eriksen, he attributes the lack of identification with Mandarin, the ancestral language, on the part of the Chinese, as a conscious strategy to “under-communicate their ethnic identity in public”.92 It may be, however, that the largely professional Sino-Mauritian community is simply stating a fact, and articulating a reality borne of generations of interactions with a larger society which has shaped them as Mauritians. As Chan has pointed out, “a new type of Chinese identity is emerging—that of the Chinese cosmopolitan”. Today’s overseas Chinese are no longer faced with the choice of assimilation or “confinement to a cultural enclave”, but may articulate a multiplicity of identities.93 The next chapter looks at the role of the Chinese within the colonial and national entity.

in which one spouse is working or living in a different country from the rest of the nuclear family. 92 Eriksen, T.H., Common Denominators, op. cit., pp. 80–1. 93 Chan, K.B., ‘A Family Affair’, op. cit.

CHAPTER SIX

SINOMAURITIANS IN THE MAKING OF A MULTIETHNIC SOCIETY Immigrant communities can barely function without support in the receiving society, and both inter and intra-community networks are commonly forged in order to facilitate the successful implantation of new ethnic groups. As part of this process of settlement, migrants are exposed to belief systems that they may be required to adopt wholly or partially as the needs for acceptance and integration dictate. This chapter assesses the challenges for new immigrants to Mauritius in the 19th century, comparing the settlement experiences of the Chinese and Indian arrivals during this period, and discusses the means and methods by which the former moulded themselves into Sino-Mauritians, through a study of their interactions with the wider society. Inter-Community Networks and Economic Integration Clan associations are generally considered to be an important source of inter-community support for Chinese immigrants during the formative period of settlement. In the case of Mauritius, this entailed for example providing a place in the capital where Chinese village shopkeepers could store their goods, and, if necessary, stay overnight while visiting the capital to purchase supplies. The clan organizations also functioned to provide ‘social security’ payments to the less well-off of the group.1 Indian migrants, by contrast, are portrayed in many historical accounts as victims of a semi-forced displacement, and hence rarely shown as developing a community consciousness in their own right during the indenture period.2 In the case of Mauritius, a counterbalance to the traditional depiction of the Indian labour diaspora has been shown through analysis of documents which reveal the extent of chain migration

1

For Mauritius, this is detailed in Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘Les Hakkas’, op. cit. The classic reference to this genre of the historiography is Tinker, H., A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830–1920. London, Oxford University Press, 1974, which has spawned a host of imitators. 2

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and the myriad ways in which Indians sought to take control of both recruitment and settlement on and off the plantations.3 The community consciousness, for example, of the Telegus who petitioned not only for the right to bring their families to Mauritius, but to have agents from their own community managing the migration process is a striking example.4 The necessity for further comparative research on contemporaneous Chinese and Indian settlement is evident. Indeed, they frequently travelled together, with scores of Chinese arriving as paying passengers on the ships carrying Indian labourers to Mauritius from Calcutta and Bombay.5 To date, however, and despite the parallels between the Chinese and Indian experiences, the perceived distinction between the latter—seen as descendants of indentured labourers—and the former—as descendants of free traders—has tended to outweigh any actual similarities between the two migration streams. Unlike Indian immigrants, who were already British subjects in India, Chinese settlers were designated aliens on their arrival in Mauritius and, prior to the 1860s, were consequently restricted from purchasing property on the island. They therefore initially depended on other Mauritians to assist them in their careers and transactions. Chinese artisans, for example, adopted a number of measures to side-step the laws of the colony which restricted their settlement as self-employed traders. For example, Charles Eugène Bazire, a merchant in Port-Louis, helped a number of Chinese avoid deportation by putting himself forward as their ‘employer’.6 Hahime, the Chinese Kapitan worked closely with Alfred Lagesse in the management of his business, whilst the Chinese trader Jean Shoon set up a company with a Mr J. Ulysse.7 Even wealthy Chinese traders

3 Carter, M., Voices from Indenture: Experiences of Indian Migrants in the British Empire, Leicester University Press, 1996; Allen, R.B., Slaves, Freedmen, and Indentured Labourers, op. cit. 4 CO 167/377 Petition of the Telegu returnees, 1 March 1856, enclosed in Higginson to Labouchere, 16 August 1856; Higginson to Labouchere 16 August 1856; Protector of Immigrants’ Report, 28 April 1856 in ibid. 5 Yap, ‘Colour, Confusion’ op. cit., p. 36; this is verified in numerous entries in the ship passenger lists, held at MA Z2D series. 6 MA RA 676 Petition of Charles Eugène Bazire, 9 October 1841. See also RA 798 Petition of Atave & Aoury, 1 April 1845. 7 For further details of such cross-ethnic transactions see our paper: M. Carter & J. Ng Foong Kwong, ‘Creoles and Immigrants in 19th Century Mauritius: Competition and Cooperation’, in Carter, M. ed. Colouring the Rainbow: the Making of Mauritian Society, CRIOS, Mauritius, 1998.

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6.1. A diverse group of immigrants, Port Louis

like Ahine, owner of a chain of shops in the capital, and one of the early arrivals on the island along with Hahime, needed guarantors. In Ahine’s case, this support was provided over more than 20 years by M. Maingard, in his capacity as ‘Syndic du faubourg de l’Ouest’.8 The success of retailers, naturally enough, depended on maintaining cordial relations with their clientele, and adequately supplying their wants. Chinese shopkeepers were prepared to visit customers in their homes, while other evidence indicates that they took care to stock the luxury items required by British and French colonists. The commodities on sale at Hahime’s shop in Port Louis, for example, included fine wines, eau de cologne, and Chinese porcelain, suggesting that this merchandise was targeted towards members of the White community, and the Creole middle class.9 The retailers identified locales where their services were needed, and set up shop nearby, firstly in Port Louis and suburbs where both a middle class white and coloured community resided, and a poorer Afro-Creole and ex-apprentice population was concentrated.10 In those shops catering to the poorer members of Mauritian society Chinese retailers extended lines of credit to ex-apprentices and estate labourers, 8 Ng Foong Kwong, J., La Naissance du Commerce Chinois, op cit., pp. 43–44. M. Maingard held a position of responsibility in the municipal authority of the western suburb of Port Louis. 9 Le Cernéen, 25 April 1840. 10 See Ly Tio Fane, Chinese Diaspora, op. cit., p. 73 for a discussion of Chinese shops located in ex-apprentice agglomerations.

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6.2. A group of Indian planters

and even, occasionally to planters, cash strapped prior to the annual sale of sugars.11 In the second half of the 19th century major economic change occurred in Mauritian society, with both the massive immigration of Indian labourers to meet the expansion of the sugar estate sector, and the subsequent ‘grand morcellement’ which saw the parcelling out of marginal estate lands to groups of Indian purchasers. “By the late 1880s, Indians were spending more than 1.2 million rupees a year to purchase land” Richard Allen tells us. Between 1851 and 1881 the number of Indian landowners increased by 450%.12 The expansion of the sugar sector and the morcellement process, which led to the creation of Indian villages in the rural districts of Mauritius, coincided with the immigration of Hakka Chinese for whom opportunities in Port Louis were restricted. As Chinese commerce in the rural districts entered a new phase, it was therefore chiefly Hakkas

11 These retail strategies are described in detail in chapters 2 and 3. Ly Tio Fane, Chinese Diaspora, op. cit., pp. 74–5 discusses how the Chinese evolved a barter system with ex-apprentices and later a credit system with Indian workers. 12 Allen, R.B., ‘Indian Immigrants and the Legacy of Marronage’, Itinerario, vol. 21, no. 1, 1997, pp. 106–7.

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who took advantage of opportunities to set up shop on estates and in the new settlements that grew up around the lands acquired by Indian planters.13 Both the means of acquisition of these parcels of land by ex-indentured Indians and the settlement of the Hakka Chinese in the rural areas reveal the importance of inter-community support networks in Mauritius. As far as the Indian immigrants were concerned, for financing schemes such as land purchases, they were assisted by the small but wealthy and influential Gujarati and Tamil merchant communities of Mauritius.14 The traders used their capital to facilitate and supply credit to would-be land purchasers. Within the Indian labour immigrant group, sirdars [overseers or foremen] also played a significant role in facilitating land and property acquisitions in Mauritius. Sirdars acquired capital through diverse means—acting as moneylenders and organisers of gambling syndicates on estates, for example—and moving into the colonial elite as job contractors and landowners in their own right, ex-sirdars became in their turn employers of Indian labour.15 The Chinese who initially settled in the rural areas, prohibited from purchasing property, relied upon the acquisition of leases. 16 Many of these were arranged with white estate owners, such as that set up between Mme Louis Bourgault Ducoudray and Lee Chong and Choolong, on her estate of l’Union in the district of Flacq.17 The new Indian landowners also entered into lease agreements with Chinese traders seeking to establish shops in the vicinity of the Indian settlements growing up around plantations. An example of a lease drawn up between a Chinese trader and an ex-indentured Indian is that settled between Rausoo and Ah Hee on 22 October 1884 in the district of Savanne. The agreement concerned a plot of land leased to Ah Hee on which stood a three room wooden shop.18 The leases offered by Indian landowners tended to be on more flexible terms than those given by 13

See chapter two for details. Allen, R.B., Slaves, Freedmen, and Indentured Labourers in Colonial Mauritius, Cambridge University Press, 1999. 15 Carter, M., Servants, Sirdars and Settlers: Indians in Mauritius, 1834–1874, Oxford University Press, 1995, especially chapter 4. 16 Some early sales were made to Chinese with British nationality by ex-apprentices [former slaves] who had acquired land in the ‘petit morcellement’ of the 1840s. See for example, the sale to Ah Van by Minerve, in Black River detailed in Ng Foong Kwong, J., Les Hakkas, op. cit., pp. 60–1. 17 MA NA 107/105 Bail de Mme Vve Bourgault Ducoudray, 21 August 1874. 18 MA NA 112/48 Bail of Rausoo, no. 1475. 14

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estate owners, because they constituted an important source of revenue for Indian proprietors who were otherwise dependent on the variable returns of their harvested produce. Furthermore leases offered by Indians often contained a clause permitting subcontracting which enabled close friends and relatives to be given a head start in a particular area. It was by such means that the Hakka clan ‘Li’ or ‘Lee’ were able to take advantage of leasing arrangements to put in place a solid commercial structure in rural Mauritius by transferring their commercial interests to other clan members. Numerous leases were accordingly set up between Chinese traders, as for example when Seeyave transferred his lease to fellow Hakka immigrant Lee Hee Sing. Similarly two other members of the Hakka Lee clan, John Sin Shing and Li Ping King transferred a lease between them originally acquired from the Indian Noordali and his wife.19 Finally, it was usually also made a condition of lease agreements drawn up between Indian landowners and Chinese traders, that no other building was to be constructed which might be used as a shop, thus guaranteeing the Chinese trader no undue local competition. This meant that, with each trader seeking his own small monopoly, and with leases almost universally being ceded within the community, the Chinese quickly spread their operations to the four corners of the island. The role played by Indian immigrants in the expansion of the Hakka Chinese is therefore significant in understanding how the latter came to acquire such a strong position in this sector, and is an example of two sets of recent settlers giving each other a foothold to economic mobility. This is especially evident when a sample of 197 lease agreements between landowners of the various ethnic groups and estate owners [mostly white] and Chinese tenants is studied. This reveals that more than 50% were accorded by Indians.20 [see Table 6.1] As the Chinese diversified into new sectors in the late 19th and early 20th century they were similarly assisted by Indian immigrants. This is particularly evident in the tobacco industry, where Indian cultivators collaborated with Chinese cigarette manufacturers. Thus Sewgoolam, who had a tobacco plantation on the neighbouring island dependency of Rodrigues, agreed to ship his annual produce to Affoo Brothers &

19 Details of these transactions can be found in MA NA 118/210 29 August 1894 and NA 118/210 9 March 1897. 20 Ng Foong Kwong, J., Les Hakkas, op. cit., p. 56.

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Table 6.1. Status of Lessors to Chinese Retailers Lessors

Percentage

Indians General Population Chinese Estate Owners [white]

50.26 28.34 16.04 5.36

Co., in Mauritius, in return for credit supplied. Leong Shin Chun’s cigarette factory, set up in 1923, also used tobacco purchased from Indian farmers.21 Economic ties with white planters and merchants are evident in sales of distilleries and other factories to the Chinese and in the acquisition of manufacturing contracts.22 When Mr Yeung Sik Yuen dreamt of leaving his rural store in a village community in the southern Savanne district, to set up a large retail outlet in Curepipe, the principal white residential area in the centre of the island, it was a white Mauritian, France Rivalland, who facilitated the purchase of the land on which the store, which was one of the first supermarkets of the island, and is still in operation, was built.23 Social Integration: Immigrants and Creoles The initial migration streams of both Indian indentured labourers and free Chinese settlers to Mauritius were predominantly male. As a result, it was not uncommon for relationships to be forged with creole women. In the time of slavery, such relationships did not necessarily result in marriage, but their existence can be inferred from property transactions. Thus when Ashue, a Chinese man residing in Pamplemousses, expressed a wish to enfranchise his Malagasy slave Florine Lop Lop and her three and a half year old daughter, Laurestine, and undertook to provide food

21 See MA NA 110/276 and 110/292 for details of the Affoo brothers’ arrangements with the Indian planter, Sewgoolam; Mauritius Almanach, 1924–1930. 22 For example, in 1890, Lee Seepin & Co., restored to working order an old distillery and aloe factory, purchased from Messrs Mortimer, Maudave and Lebreux, MA NA 109/19 ‘Acte de Vente à M Lee Seepin & cie’. Guillaume Ng’s military contract to repair boots was obtained through the offices of Alfred d’Unienville. 23 Mootoosamy, C., ‘Yeung Sik Yuen: Le succès du supermarché Sik Yuen’ L’Aurore no. 6, December 1987.

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and shelter to Laurestine until she should reach adulthood, he may well have been freeing his partner, and providing for his daughter.24 Relationships with creole women might also be used by Chinese men to improve their position in the colony. Thus, when Assam applied to renew his residence permit, and to request a licence to run a business he took care to inform the authorities that he was married to his ex slave, Adelaide: “your petitioner is legally married to an ex-apprentice whose freedom he purchased many years back.” He evidently used his wife’s name to obtain an existing shop license, as she petitioned to renew her permit at around the same time.25 That the Creole wives of Chinese immigrants often played an active role in the management of shops and if literate provided invaluable assistance to their husbands in administrative matters, is also shown by the example of Elise Athion. The wife of one of the earliest Chinese immigrants to Mauritius, she held two licences, one for the sale of foodstuffs, and the other for soft drinks. She supported her husband in all his business interests and helped Athion move from modest beginnings to become one of the most influential Chinese families on the island in the mid 19th century.26 Hahime was also aided in his early business activities by his Creole partner, Eléonore Curaux, while Marie Françoise, the wife of Acome, was one of many Creole partners of Chinese men who negotiated with the colonial authorities to obtain shop licenses: your petitioner having the intention to open a shop in Corderie street most humbly solicit Your Excellency’s permission to grant her a license to sell wine, beer and sweet liquors in her own name; as your petitioner having learnt that her husband being a stranger in the colony was not allowed to carry on business in his own name.27

24 MA NA 91/7 ‘Obligation par Ashue Chinois en faveur de Laurestine Lop Lop son Affranchie’, 6 October 1828. Among the few Chinese women slaves, brought to Mauritius before the immigration of free Chinese men, similar relationships were forged with white owners, and in some cases resulted in marriage. Thus Pauline Palma, a Chinese woman from Canton, had a child with a white colonist, Jean Jacques Morel. Their daughter Francoise married a white man—Nicolas Chauveau, a French-born carpenter. ANOM EC Port Louis, 1775. 25 MA RA 711 Petition of Assam (no. 71), 22 December 1842; Petition of Adélaïde Assam, 28 December 1842. 26 Her story is told in Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘The Role of Creoles in Chinese Settlement’ in Carter, M. ed. Colouring the Rainbow: The Making of Mauritian Society, CRIOS, Mauritius, 1997. 27 MA RA 711 Petition of Marie Françoise, wife of Acome, 15 December 1842.

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Similarly, the successful integration of Indian immigrants was dependent on support provided by creole wives. The property transactions of Jugputh Gopaul and his Creole wife Clémence illustrate the then relatively common practice for the more successful Indian immigrants to seek marriage partners from among the class of propertied Creole women to cement their economic and social status in Mauritius.28 Like the Chinese settlers, the Indian indentured labourers also faced discriminatory clauses in Mauritian legislation. They were subject to penal laws which identified them as vagrants unless they held permits for self-employment or were engaged on a sugar estate. Once again, it was often Creole women who provided a mechanism by which they could circumvent restrictive legislation. To offer one example, an Indian, Cassy, sought to take employ in his Creole wife’s shop, in order to avoid the vagrancy charges which would devolve on him as an unemployed indentured labourer.29 Unlike the Chinese settlers, however, the skewed sex ratio in the Indian community was rapidly redressed. This was achieved through both official and unofficial channels. Firstly, bounties on female immigration were introduced to stimulate recruiters to ‘collect’ women migrants, while male migrants were encouraged to bring their female relatives—of whatever age—to the island, with the specific promise that the women would not be required to sign the onerous indenture contracts that tied their menfolk to the sugar estates. Arriving single women were frequently married from the immigration depot with would-be spouses who petitioned the immigration authorities requesting a wife.30 The influx of Indian women led to some marriages between them and Chinese settlers. By 1883 the authorities reported that 415 Chinese were living with women of creole or Indian origin.31 Such relationships tended to be legitimised when business affairs made it advisable. For

28 For further details of such relationships see M. Carter & J. Ng Foong Kwong, “Creoles and Immigrants in 19th Century Mauritius: Competition and Cooperation”, in Colouring the Rainbow, op. cit. 29 MA RA 1019 Report of Commissary of Police, 22 June 1849. 30 Numerous examples can be found in the immigration correspondence of the Mauritius Archives, for example PA 22 Petition of Kurmally 30 November 1874 who requested a wife “as I find (difficulty) in getting my breakfast cooked in the morning on account of the distance sometimes I have to work, and to take care of my orphan children”. 31 MA B6 Annual Report of the Civil Status Department, 1883.

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6.3a–b. Indian women immigrants in Mauritius

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example in 1847, Ahine decided to marry Victorine Pétulente, with whom he had two children, prior to leaving for Singapore, naming her together with two Chinese colleagues in charge of his eight shops.32 Chinese immigrants also provided for their Creole families in their wills. Hahime, who had a son by his first Creole partner, and then a long term relationship with another woman, Eléonore Julie, made several wills during his lifetime. The first will left property to his Mauritianborn son, Tianne Fate. The second also provided for his wife—leaving her a house at Moka.33 The wills demonstrate the joint attachment to China and to the country of adoption. Those with second families in the colony divided their property between relatives in the ancestral village and more recent dependants in Mauritius. For example Changuan left property in Mauritius to his three natural children and a shop together with its contents to his nephews and nieces in China.34 The Chinese men who entered into marriage alliances with Creole women in 19th century Mauritius quickly found ways of adapting to the cultural norms of their spouses, without abandoning their own traditions. While as already noted above, the sons were usually given Chinese first names, wore their hair in a pig tail, dressed in Chinese garments, and were sent to China to be educated, the daughters tended to follow the customs of their mothers—wearing European style clothes, and being given a Christian education.35 Westernized Creole-Chinese girls were considered suitable spouses for Chinese merchants or young Sino-Mauritian men, as the numerous marriages between them testify.36 Indeed, the important role of women of Catholic faith in the Chinese immigrant community undoubtedly played a role in the increasing numbers of Chinese who adopted Christianity. Between 1901 and 1911, for example, the number of Chinese Catholics more than doubled: from 203 to 520.37 This marks a distinct difference with the much larger community of Indian immigrants. Despite some evidence of adoption of Christian

32

MA RA 887/4674 Petition of Ahine, 8 June 1846. The second will was made in 1851. MA NA 75/37/234 Testament of Hahime Choisanne, 24 March 1851. 34 MA NA 94/1Testament of Changuan aka Chang Goine, 19 March 1852. 35 MA NA 78/18/4074 Testament d’Hahime Choisanne, 19 July 1837. 36 For example the projected marriage between Amélie Athon and Angtioky—MA RA 1035 Petition of Athon, 17 January 1849. 37 MA B1A Census Report, 1911. 33

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beliefs [generally to further economic aspirations] and the immigration of numbers of already Catholicized south Indians, the vast majority of Indian immigrants professed either the Hindu or Muslim religion, and remain wedded to those beliefs to the present day.38 For adherents to these faiths, the adoption of Christian rituals is incompatible with their own religious practices. By contrast, the Chinese felt able to take on a Catholic identity whilst continuing to embrace the traditional religious rituals of their ancestors and compatriots. Affan Tank Wen, who arrived in Mauritius on 31 August 1861, at the age of 19, provides a useful case study of a Chinese immigrant who became a Catholic while continuing to support Chinese divinities. Having amassed a large personal fortune in Mauritius, he became one of the leading members of the Chinese community. After his baptism in 1872, when he took the name of Louis, he effectively led a religious double life. As already detailed in chapter 5, he contributed to the funding of a Chinese pagoda whilst at the same time playing an active part in converting his fellow Chinese to Catholicism. Affan Tank Wen also contributed financially to the establishment of a Catholic convent and hospital on the island.39 The Fight against Stereotyping and the Search for Recognition As new immigrants in a rapidly evolving colonial society, both Chinese and Indians were victims of hostile stereotyping and very real fears centred on perceived competition and falling living standards on the part of the receiving society. While Indian and Chinese crossed trajectories in the sense that members of both communities served as labourers, artisans and traders, their roles in colonial society became fixed as those of plantation worker and retailer respectively, generating different reactions and expectations for each. The consequences of this typecasting are still evident today. The personal relationships of both Indian and Chinese men came under scrutiny. Since few Chinese women immigrated to Mauritius in the 19th century, the liaisons between Creole women and Chinese men were numerous. They were criticised as immoral and even as a form

38

See Carter M, & Govinden, V., ‘The Construction of Communities: Indian Immigrants in Mauritius’ in Colouring the Rainbow, op. cit. 39 Carter M. & Ng Foong Kwong, J., ‘Creoles and Immigrants’ in Colouring the Rainbow, op. cit.

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of prostitution. Mauritian society certainly was not ready to accept the notion of couples living together, but since many of these relationships were formalized, there was no doubt also more than a hint of xenophobia in the disapproval expressed.40 For those Creole women and Chinese men who set up home together, such attitudes could not fail to have an impact on their lives. The scarcity value of Indian women in the early years of indenture was a cause of considerable tension, particularly when married women succumbed to the advances of wealthier men, and deserted their husbands. When a number of cases of murder of such errant spouses occurred across the sugar colonies, the stereotype of the ‘coolie wife beater’ was born. Despite statistical evidence of the rapid stabilization of Indian family life in the Mauritian context, the appraisal of the ‘degraded coolie woman’ as taken up in later Indian nationalist discourse has proved difficult to shift.41 The colonial authorities paid lip service to the ‘moral’ welfare of the immigrants but were more concerned with the economic impact of cross-community relationships. For those Chinese and Indians brought into the colony as workers, whether on sugar plantations or as skilled craftsmen in infrastructure projects, were expected to serve Mauritius in those roles. The indenture contracts, for example, required Indian immigrants to be constantly under contract to an approved employer until such time as a stipulated period of ‘industrial residence’—usually ten years—was completed. After this time they were designated ‘old immigrants’ and provided with tickets to this effect. Until then, an immigrant not under contract was liable to be condemned as a vagrant and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour. It was to avoid this unenviable fate that the Indian Cassy endeavoured to declare himself an employee at his wife’s shop. The police report on his case complained “this is a subterfuge often resorted to for the purpose of getting the immigrant population into shops, and the Creoles are paid for lending themselves to this object.”42

40 For an example of the hostile tone adopted towards such relationships see De Rauvillle, H., L’Ile de France Contemporaine, La Nouvelle Librairie Nationale, Paris, 1908, p. 191. 41 For further details of this debate see Carter, M., Lakshmi’s Legacy: testimonies of Indian women in 19th century Mauritius, Editions Ocean Indien, Mauritius, 1994. 42 MA RA 1019 Report of Commissary of Police, 22 June 1849.

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In the case of the Chinese, marriages with creole women deemed to have been entered into purely for the benefit of obtaining a shop licence were similarly frowned upon. In 1845, Mrs Amine’s case was investigated: she stated that she was the wife of a Chinese of that name, and produced a document from which it appeared that she was little more than 14 years of age and had been married only on the 7th instant evidently with the intention to obtain a shop licence.43

When Amine’s wife later attempted to renew her licence, and to include her husband’s name, the authorities categorically refused. To curb the practice of using women as a cover, the local authorities decided that licences should only be given to individuals who actually intended to carry out the business themselves. Creole women who continued to hold licences, but whose husbands effectively did the work, were liable to be fined. By 1847, when the number of shops being opened by Chinese was becoming the subject of complaint on the part of other ethnic groups, the authorities clamped down further—refusing for example, the licence request of Christine Ahong in terms which demonstrated the fear of Chinese competition generally: “Christine Ahong is a Creole of the colony married to a Chinese. I cannot recommend any more shops to be kept by Chinese.”44 The local authorities’ increasing concern over the number of shop licences was the price of success of Chinese commerce. As early as 1832, complaints had been made about Chinese traders undercutting their local rivals. Mr Cavendish de Castell, writing to the Secretary of State, deprecated the “numbers of Chinese, whose natural habits preclude from contributing towards the expenses of the government, by which they are enabled to sell cheaper than him who pays his quota of taxes.”45 In 1843 a number of European merchants in Mauritius got together to express their concerns in a petition to the governor, in which they remarked That about half of the minor shops for the sale of “comestibles”, besides many of the larger ones, are kept by men of Chinese birth or Extraction, all foreigners to the Colony,—and who, even during the last war between England and China, obtained licences here with a degree of facility

43 44 45

MA RA 798 Petition of Amine, 14 May 1845. MA RA 938 Report of Commissary of Police, 17 November 1847. NA CO 167/167 Mr Cavendish de Castell to Goderich, 12 September 1832.

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not accorded to European foreigners. That your Memorialists do not fear fair and open competition . . . But, when it is notorious that these Chinese Shopkeepers (men of absolutely no capital) greatly undersell your Memorialists in nearly every article, and even sell many articles (if honestly come by) at a manifest loss, your Memorialists feel convinced that Your Excellency will deem it anything but impertinent on their part to call your attention to this fact, as suggesting at least the probability that the stocks of these Chinese shopkeepers flow in by other than the ordinary legal channels of import and purchase.46

The attempt to brand the Chinese traders as engaged in illegal practices, was not accepted by the authorities who called upon the Europeans to bring specific charges. Indeed, not only was the merchandise introduced by the Chinese subjected to the same custom duties, but the agents used were often whites and creoles. Thus, the reality of Chinese commerce in 19th century Mauritius was its dependence on, and increasing interconnectedness with European and Creole economic interests whilst continuing to be considered as the alien ‘other’ in colonial society. Following the bank robbery of 1846, an opportunity was taken to accuse the Chinese traders, in general, of dishonesty. It was claimed that their shops were often the receptacle of stolen goods, and that the bags of rice they sold “have been found occasionally short of the regular weight.”47 One of the Chinese traders, Assam, responded to such accusations, publishing a letter in the local press in which he reminded readers that generalisations were dangerous, while at the same time accusing Mauritians of being jealous of the work-ethic of the Chinese, and calling on them instead to imitate the lifestyle of the diligent shopkeepers. He claimed that the island would be rich if all its inhabitants dressed and worked like the Chinese.48 The hostility towards his community, as Assam realised, was not simply related to the criminal incidents which had occurred. Mauritians, affected by the financial crisis of 1847, were already deprecating commercial competition. It was in this context, that in June 1848, the debate was broadened to contest the right of the Indians as well as the Chinese to operate as traders. A memorial was presented by a group of shopkeepers, grocers and spirit dealers who claimed that “Chinese and Indians, ex-labourers, are also, and have for long been, forming a most deplorable competition:

46 47 48

MA RA 747 Collective petition of white merchants, 27 October 1843. Le Mauricien 28 Dec. 1846. Le Mauricien 30 Dec. 1846.

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the former, aliens, and both, by their number, have prevented many natives from becoming traders.”49 The petition, signed by a group of 37 coloured and white shopkeepers is worthy of analysis on several levels. Firstly because it articulated fears that ex-‘coolies’ were sufficiently mobile to challenge their economic hegemony. Was this really the case, or were the memorialists simply unaware of the class differences that existed within these two groups, ie that free immigrants with capital, co-existed alongside more subaltern groups introduced as indentured labour?50 It is also significant that, at this stage, the two groups—Indians and Chinese—were packaged together as a ‘foreigner’ versus a ‘native’ issue. It became a common rallying cry—asiatics versus creoles, recycled in the pages of the local press, and repeated even in the legislative council. The columns of Le Progrès Colonial lamented the fact that “in the present day situation of the colony it is impossible to make one’s fortune—the wholesale trade being in the hands of Asiatics from Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, and the retail trade in the hands of the children of the Celestial Empire”.51 For how many creoles and Europeans was the Honourable L.E. Antelme speaking when he informed the legislative council that the colony is inhabited by two distinct classes: the Asiatic population and the Creole population. The Asiatic population is composed of foreigners, and tends to take over everything, to win out over other classes of the population . . . The truth is that the colony has been invaded by Asiatics and that the creole population has been gradually prised away from all branches of commerce and industry. . . . the day is not far off when Indians will be the masters of political power . . . In what situation are the inhabitants of the colony? We are literally ruined, devoured by the Chinese, and our children have only one option: to exile themselves to Madagascar when that island becomes French, rather than die of famine here.52

49

PP 1849 (280) Memorial of Shopkeepers, Grocers, Spirit Dealers, 8 June 1848. This distinction is important, since the stereotypes engendered about immigrant groups, as we have seen, tend to become fixed, initially in colonial discourse, and secondarily, embedded as static realities in the historiography. This certainly occurred in the history of Mauritius, with the ‘shopkeeper’ emerging as the dominant ‘reality’ of the Chinese settlement experience, and the ‘indentured labourer’ that of the Indian. The dangers of ‘homogenizing’ immigrant groups in this way are self-evident. 51 Le Progrès Colonial, 14 January 1895. 52 Debates of Council, Vol. II, 1894, p. 1750. 50

6.4. The Camp Malabar, where Chinese and Indian hawkers co-existed

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What was the reality of this competition? Certainly it was the case that after 1860, small retailers seem to have been driven out of the market by Chinese competition. Ly Tio Fane asserts of the Chinese “invariably after a short period of practice in a new locality, they drove out of business the local shopkeepers that had preceded them”.53 In many cases, these retailers sold their businesses to the Chinese. Thus, on 27 July 1874, two locally based Chinese purchased the contents of a shop belonging to the Tamil trader Seeneevasaga Chetty on the estate of Riche en Eau in Grand Port.54 By the end of the 19th century, with the Chinese having effectively taken control of the retail sector across the island, they were seen as competition against which no other ethnic group could hope to win. Calling for the prohibition on future Chinese immigration, Robert A Rohan claimed “it has been proved that, economically speaking, no European or semi-European or even Indian, is a match for the Chinaman; the Chinaman is sure to displace and starve out all those against whom he comes into competition”.55 Such calls went largely unheeded in Mauritius. Elsewhere, the Australian authorities had been unable to pass legislation restricting immigration on the grounds that shutting off the Empire to the Chinese would lead to the closing of Chinese ports to the British. Support was later given to the restriction of Chinese immigration into Mauritius in the 1920s, through a tightening of the passport laws, the Colonial Office in London having decided that “legislation directed specifically against Chinese is politically undesirable, but a general tightening up of Passport legislation achieves the same end as well.” As one official minuted, “We must keep them out—for economic reasons—just now” adverting to the depressed condition of the colony.56 In the accusations heaped on immigrant traders lie the origins of enduring stereotypes. Searching for reasons behind the success of the Chinese retailer, Antelme claimed in the legislative council “they live on nothing”. An intervention by the Colonial Secretary protested against taking any measures against the Chinese on the grounds that they were “aimed at one particular class of the community”, and moreover one which contained many British citizens and naturalised subjects 53 54 55 56

Ly Tio Fane, Chinese Diaspora, op. cit., p. 86. MA NA 113/10 27 July 1874. PP 1909 Cd 5187 Mauritius Royal Commission, op. cit., pp. 124–128. CO/167/865/5 Immigration of Chinese and other aliens to Mauritius.

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and concluded “we cannot surely think that the Government will agree to the ruin of one class in order to protect another”.57 Outside the debating chamber, stories circulated about incomplete and adulterated products. Hubert Jerningham’s comments reflect many such accounts, here describing the contents of the rum sold in the store of ‘John Chinaman’: His bottles are all rightly corked, their seals are intact, but yet the liquor inside them is not of the quality they profess to contain. Of course not. It is not John’s fault if ordinary wits are not so sharp, or ordinary fingers so deft, as to discover the little bulb on the bottom of the flask, where an aperture has been made and cunningly refilled by a method known only to himself.58

How did the Chinese seek to counter such damaging imagery? Their attitudes and activities were characterised by attempts to constitute themselves as public-spirited, and as integrated members of a Mauritian socio-political entity, whilst conserving distinct traditions and intercommunity networks. They sought to offer their support, for example to wider causes of concern to the Mauritian populace. Thus in 1870 Achoun and Athion were among several Chinese to sign a petition demanding an improved drainage system for Port Louis.59 When the Reform Movement, encouraged by Governor Pope Hennessy, celebrated impending constitutional changes in 1884, with a huge banquet held in the courtyard of the Royal College, it was reported that several “rich Chinese” attended. During the 1892 cyclone which devastated the capital, the community spirit of the Chinese was remarked upon by Mark Twain, who visited Mauritius shortly afterwards. He wrote: “The cyclone of 1892 . . . annihilated houses, tore off roofs, destroyed trees and crops. . . . It is said the Chinese fed the sufferers for days on free rice.”60 Certainly the Mauritian government generally stepped in to defend the interests of the Chinese, when the repeated calls to ban further immigration reached the debating chamber. The usual defence of the community became the stereotypical counterpoint to the ‘cunning’ shopkeeper who adulterated and reduced his goods:

57

Debates of Council, Vol. II 1894, p. 1848, pp. 1864–5. Jerningham, H., ‘Mauritius before the Cyclone’ Blackwoods Magazine, 1892, pp. 218–9. 59 CO 167/527 the petition was enclosed in Smyth’s despatch no. 31 of July 1870. 60 Twain, Mark, ‘From India to South Africa. The Diary of A Voyage’ McClure’s Magazine, Vol. 10, November 1897, pp. 7–15. 58

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6.5. Houses destroyed in the 1892 cyclone We all know that at almost all the crossroads of the island are to be seen the well-built stone residences and shops of the Chinese that have sprung up within the last few years; and those Chinamen undoubtedly manage to sell the poorer classes of this community cheap and simple goods which the poor people wish to buy.61

The Chinese certainly succeeded in becoming an integral part of Mauritian life. No description of the bazaar of Port Louis was complete without them: At six o’clock the market presents a busy and interesting scene. Here come all the ladies and housekeepers; and the broad peaked straw hat, blue linen garments, and well-greased pigtail of John chinaman present a curious contrast to the fashionable dresses of the European ladies, which are scarcely less inharmoniously, although more picturesquely, mingled with the red-shirted Lascar and the blazing colours of the negro women.62

They also featured in depictions of the annual races, and other key events in the Mauritian colonial calendar, always, incidentally, seen at work. Thus, when Lady Barker returned from the race course she noticed,

61

Quoted in Pan, L., Sons of the Yellow Emperor, op. cit., p. 61 Anon, ‘The Gem of the Ocean’ All the Year Round, A Weekly Journal, Sept. 1 1894, p. 207. 62

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along the road, a number of decorated refreshment booths set up by Chinese traders, each surrounded by ‘hungry customers’ and with a fire ‘crackling pleasantly in the open air close by’. The next day she observed how all the booths “had been made really beautiful by palm branches and boughs, with bunches of gay flowers stuck between”.63 During the 1930s, a Mauritius newspaper report commented on the numbers of impoverished persons immigrating from China, and alleged also that they resorted to thievery when their small stock of funds was depleted. At the same time, it was alleged that the local Chinese manufacturers—such as those in the cigarette industry—only tended to give jobs to their compatriots.64 It was evident that, in times of economic depression, the Chinese would always be vulnerable to such attacks. As the Mauritian economy and society remained relatively impoverished until a new era of economic prosperity in the post-independence period, it is not surprising to see that travel accounts of the 1950s continued to replicate the negative stereotypes generated by the local society about their Chinese retailers, whose relative wealth and middle class aspect is encapsulated by Malim in his descriptive phrase of them as “the Island’s grocers, plump and unobtrusive and dapper in pale shades”. Malim’s description of a rural Chinese boutik—Kwan Yong’s “dark, higgledy-piggledy store which smelled pungently of salted fish”—in the southern village of Riambel offers up a crude but effective picture of the acquisitive shopkeeper profiting from the desperate poverty of his customers: Here one could watch the Creoles and the Indians buying with the pathetic economy of poverty, which is no economy, a pinch of salt or pepper, a ‘twist’ of grain, a morsel of salt fish, a couple of sardines from a fly-blown tin open on the counter, two or three little onions, a dozen matches at a time. One could gauge how much they paid for these trifles by the fact that they bought cigarettes in twos and threes at six sous each, exactly double the price of cigarettes bought by the tin of fifty. No wonder they were poor! No wonder, either, that Kwan Yong and his bright-eyed Creole daughters rode out on Sundays in a neat little saloon car and kept a tidy villa in Rose Hill!.65

The clue to the above account lies in the phrase which follows, where the author describes the secret of Chinese profiteering, stating “They

63 64 65

Barker, Lady, ‘Letters from Mauritius’ Good Words vol. 19 (1878): p. 818. Le Cernéen, 31 May 1930. Malim, M., Island of the Swan Mauritius, 1953 Longmans, UK, pp. 62–4, p. 134.

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would sit up, all night, Claude told us, making a dozen boxes of matches into sixteen by a judicious redistribution of the contents, and turning their wines into water, or water into wines, by the ‘nice conduct’ of a hypodermic syringe”. The mention of the name Claude renders it obvious that the stories being circulated in such published works are merely recycling the prejudices of fellow Mauritians, seeking an understanding for the success of the Chinese in the retail trade. In similar vein Ommanney’s widely-circulated article which appeared in the Geographical Magazine in January 1954 described the Chinese as being men of ‘remorseless industry’ whose power derived from a system of “endless credit. . . . No trouble is ever too great to earn a cent. No cent is ever too small to be worth earning.” He additionally portrayed them as an inward-looking community, whose lack of interest in “anybody else’s affairs enables them to establish their storeshops in remote villages, where, living lives of complete isolation, surrounded only by their numerous families” they devoted themselves tirelessly to the business of “getting the whole community of fishermen or labourers into their debt and under their thumb”. It is remarkable how this account recasts the story of the Hakka retailer’s struggle to carve a niche in the furthest corners of the island, and to make a living from serving the needs of the poorest in the society through long lines of credit and the sale of goods in miniscule quantities, in a wholly negative light.66 Ommanney illustrated his account with a photograph of a smiling, young Chinese man in his shop, which appears wholly at odds with its caption, also given below. In a book which Ommanney authored about the region at this time, he takes his depiction of the exploitative rural shopkeeper even further, describing “unpromising sites around the coast” inhabited only by “a few poor Creole fishermen” where the Chinese shopkeeper is “ready to sell them the rum that ruins them and to take their small earnings off them.” There is a light burning in the Chinaman’s store all night, he tells us. Inside He is busy taking one match out of each one of fifty boxes to make one more box of matches to sell for an extra ten cents. He is busy unsealing tins of condensed milk, a drop or two from each one, to make the hundred and forty-fifth tin in the gross. He will take as much trouble about

66 Ommanney, F.D., ‘Fading Lustre—Mauritius’ Geographical Magazine, vol. xxvi, no. 9, Jan. 1954, pp. 496–8.

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6.6. “the Chinese whose ‘remorseless industry and determination to make money, cent by cent, drives them to earn a fat living isolated in the most poverty-stricken fishing villages on the coast, where they establish shops and a credit-system that is inevitably the undoing of their less businesslike neighbours” [Caption and picture from Ommanney, 1954 op. cit.].

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chapter six selling you a tin of cigarettes as about arranging a loan you will never be able to repay as long as you live. Work never ceases and business is always business. In their dingy shops the whole family is constantly at work . . . I often used to wonder what joy these curious automatons could possibly have in life. They seem to deny themselves all human pleasures and all relaxations.67

Interestingly, even the china town of Port Louis, which, two decades earlier, Harold Ingrams, Lawrence Green and others had found culturally enriching, is evidence, to Ommanney, merely of “the extraordinary apartness of the Chinese” who “live a compact, separate national life”. This was, of course, a reference to the concerns of the community with the political situation of China, and their division into two factions, with support for Chiang Kai Shek intensely visible to outsiders.68 Even more surprising, however, is Ommanney’s appraisal of the theatre which is no longer a source of inspiration and admiration, but merely a place where “apparently endless, baffling performances take place to the beating of gongs. He hears them speaking what he describes as a “clanging Cantonese language”. With such precedents in his narrative, it is surprising to come across a most revealing vignette in Ommanney’s book and one in which the British, unusually, are portrayed as “another self-centred race, almost as apart as the Chinese” making a trip to China Town to “have real Chinese food, my dear”.69 The vignette centres around the Restaurant Gros Petit in Port Louis, which Ommanney notes is “almost a sort of club” much frequented by “the Chinese in the country districts”. The British visitors are taken to a special room, “passing self-consciously the Chinamen with their bowls and chop-sticks” and taking in, as they go, “a great open fire where men in singlets stand gleaming like metal figures over saucepans . . . The cooks nod to you and grin over the glare of the fire.” It is the contents of the room, however, described by Ommanney, that provide an unexpected insight into the changes taking place at the heart of this community, scarcely understood by the British visitors privileged to glimpse it. To return to the narrative: When you are seated in the special room, which contains a large iron bedstead, a bookshelf full of text-books, a map of the New China and a picture

67

Ommanney, F.D., The Shoals of Capricorn, 1952, New York, p. 89. See the discussion of this in Chapter 4. 69 This story reflects the increasing resort to Chinatown, by this time, for its restaurants. One of the most famous, Lai Min [pictured] also opened on Port Louis’ Royal Road in the mid 1940s. ‘Lai Min . . . Bientot 40 Ans’ L’Aurore no. 4, 25 janvier 1987. 68

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6.7. The Lai Min Restaurant in Port Louis of General Chiang Kai-Shek, a slim, intelligent, golden-faced youth comes in. ‘We Chinese’, he says in faultless English, ‘do this and we Chinese do that’. His are the notebooks and the text books on the book shelf. I took a peep at them and saw that the notebooks were headed, ‘Imperial College of Science and Technology, south Kensington. Chemistry, Part 1’, and ‘Physics, Part 1’ . . . This is culture; this is education—the ant-like accumulation of facts as of money . . . Enormous cockroaches ran about the floor and there was only one very dubious lavatory for both ladies and gentlemen. And that, we thought, was terribly Chinese.70

70

Ommanney, F.D., The Shoals of Capricorn, op. cit.

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The value of this narrative is, most probably, unrecognised by the author himself. Where he saw only a comic and ant-like attempt to accumulate knowledge, he was in fact witnessing one, no doubt arduous, stage in the process of metamorphosis of the Chinese restaurateur’s son towards becoming a multi-lingual, multi-cultural professional. V.S. Naipaul, the celebrated Indo-Trinidadian writer, who visited Mauritius shortly after independence, in 1972, clearly missed an opportunity to document further the transformations operating at the heart of the Chinese community. Instead, he lazily recycles what at least he recognises to be and tells us repeatedly, is a “Mauritian myth that the trickery was part of the art of the village retailer”. The ‘myth’ that he has been told has now become one where “the Chinese shopkeeper spends a part of every working day extracting one or two matches from every box in his stock” with the result that, “out of, say, twenty boxes of matches he makes twenty one and so picks up an extra quarter-penny of pure profit”.71 Naipaul also observes the Chinese in the casinos and finds it a “cause for awe that people can be so reckless with money which, in the Mauritian myth, they have made by such tedious treachery.” Mauritians have been self-evidently ill-served by outsiders who, simultaneously confronted by the complexities of their society and lulled by the self-deprecating wit of its denizens, are generally unable to proffer much more than accidental insights into the communities they seek to describe. Fortunately the literary endeavours of Mauritians themselves provide revealing and more fully-fleshed characterizations of their compatriots. Marie Humbert’s novel A l’autre bout de moi, for example, vividly conveys the central role of the Chinese shopkeeper and his family in Mauritian community life. Her description of the multiple delights of the village shop and the unceasing good humour and industriousness of the shopkeeper are seen through the eyes of a young girl growing up in 1950s Mauritius: “You could find everything there . . . and in this ante-chamber of paradise, the Chinese man was always smiling, just ask, ask and you would receive, what did he not have? . . . he served, and served, I was overcome with admiration and gratitude”. The Chinese store is seen as “a haven of cultural diversity”, where Mauritians of all ethnic groups would congregate, and as a “welcoming shelter”. Yet, the poverty of the store and the hard graft of the Chinese family who occupy it also figure in her vivid portrayal

71

V.S. Naipaul, The Overcrowded Barracoon, Penguin, 1981, p. 279.

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of the “miserable looking shack, topped with undulating corrugated iron sheets. The Ah Ling family were crowded into the back of the shop . . . Ah-Ling was forever behind his counter, most of the time with his wife at his side”.72 Conversely, the presence of a sole store in a small rural hamlet, or on a sugar estate, indicates a monopoly, and this element is stressed in Marcel Cabon’s novel Namasté. Longaille, the Chinese shopkeeper of his account, is a solid, reliable presence, always behind his counter, but serving his customers in his own time and way: “Longaille knew his world, he had been there a long time . . . and it would not be the last arrival who would be served first . . . Longaille knew he had no competition”.73 From the perspective of the Sino-Mauritians, their historical presence as a retail minority in a largely Indian or Creole rural community is seen as having provided an important lesson in ‘how to get along’ with other ethnic groups. E.A. described himself as a fervent believer in “cultural mixing”, and contended that the Sino-Mauritians have absorbed the lesson of integration, perhaps better than most. As an example of this he cited the number of Chinese who have learnt Bhojpuri, emphasizing that not only shopkeepers learnt the language, but also their children.74 How does this self-image square with the ways in which the overseas Chinese appear to outside analysts and observers? Anthropologist T.H. Eriksen generalizes that “Chinese diasporas appear to be ‘unmeltable ethnics’ wherever they go.”75 Krivtsov, conversely, but rather confusingly, describes the Mauritian Chinese as ‘becoming increasingly Europeanized” both in linguistic and religious terms, and contends that, with the possible exception of the Franco-Mauritians, “the Chinese community is the most integrated, compact and exclusive group. This is particularly evident in their relations with the other communities, and in their social standing.”76 This sounds paradoxical; Krivtsov explains that the Chinese ‘keep aloof from other ethnic groups’ and describes

72

Humbert, M.T., A l’autre bout de moi, Editions Stock, Paris, 1979. Cabon, M., Namasté, Le Cabestan, Port-Louis, 1965. 74 Bhojpuri is still spoken in Mauritius, but the language is dying out, see Eisenlohr, P. ‘Register levels of ethno-national purity: The ethnicization of language and community in Mauritius’ Language in Society, vol. 33, 2004, pp. 59–80. 75 Eriksen, T.H., Engaging Anthropology. The Case for a Public Presence, Berg, Oxford, 2006, p. 103. 76 Krivtsov, N., ‘The Chinese Community in Mauritius’, op. cit., p. 73. The term Franco-Mauritian denotes the small community on the island of persons deriving their ancestry from [white] Europeans. 73

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the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, not unreasonably, as “a unique, strictly ethnic organization”. How to square these apparently contradictory statements? Sino-Mauritian sociologist, J.C. Lau, asserts that his co-ethnics “have an intimate conviction that they form a group apart, with all that entails in terms of physical, psychological and cultural specificities: in short, a Chinese race”. However, this demonstrably does not prevent them from working together with other members of the society. He quotes one Sino-Mauritian as explaining this philosophy: “we can work together to create a better Mauritian society, and that does not prevent one from maintaining one’s identity”.77 In their own version of their role in the creation of modern Mauritius, Sino-Mauritians emphasise again and again the lives of unremitting labour of parents and grandparents. E.B., a highly successful industrialist, stressed that his grandfather came to Mauritius “with just a shirt and a pair of trousers”. Obliged to work for others, the grandfather managed to acquire first a retail, then a wholesale business. Following his bankruptcy, E.B.’s own father was also required to start from the bottom, working with other people. When you started, you would be placed at the back of the shop, working as an assistant cook. He worked very hard, and lived through the 2nd World War, and the turmoil in China. Every cent he earned he sent back to his family in China. It was a very hard life. At that time there was only one objective—to work hard, and earn money to remit back home to the clan members living in the communal house.

An Indo-Mauritian interviewee, from a wealthy family, remembered his father telling him, in the 1950s, “Mark my words, Mauritians of Chinese descent will one day control a big chunk of the Mauritian economy for the simple reason that they take calculated risks, are a hard-working lot and possess entrepreneurial skill”. The interviewee added that his own Chinese friends at primary school, “left an everlasting impression on me, when I learnt from some of them that they would help their parents in their ‘boutiques’ after school hours until 7.00 p.m, and then tackle their homework afterwards”. Another non-Chinese interviewee was struck by the spirit of ‘toleration’ and ‘openness’ among the Chinese, which he believed rendered them particularly important “in shaping the Mauritian identity”. He

77 Lau Thi Keng, J.C., Inter-ethnicité et Politique à l’Ile Maurice, l’Harmattan, Paris, 1991.

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also implied that their success in integrating into the broader society was one element of their success in economic terms: “they have been the most successful [group] to espouse ‘western’ traditions and culture dominating our society without losing the whole array of their culture of origin and traditions.” Finally, he remarked that he was impressed by how the Sino Mauritian community was “further characterised by their sense of self-reliance, respect and care for elderly members, their philanthropic endeavours towards all Mauritians and commitment to nation-building.” Discussion of the professional lives of Sino-Mauritians indicates the extent to which intra ethnic support and links remain an important aspect of their career development. E.C. forged links with many sections of the community—his hotel was a joint partnership with an Indo Mauritian and a White Mauritian, while later nightclub ventures were run in conjunction with well known Indian families. It is evident that from the earliest period of Chinese settlement to the present day, as interviews and archival documents have shown, the community was aware of the necessity of tempering the image of themselves as an alien group with alien customs by reaching out to the wider society. From 1841 when Hahime, the Chinese Kapitan, was happy to make a $5 contribution towards the building of a Protestant chapel in Port Louis78 to more recent times, when interviewees reminisced about their shopkeeper parents making contributions to local political parties and inviting VIPs like former Prime Minister Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam to partake in their ‘feasts’, the Sino-Mauritians have understood the importance of collaboration, communication and co-operation all the while that they have been cast as a ‘race apart’. Today, both internally and externally, Mauritius’ connections to the Chinese and Indian global diasporic communities are recognized to have “proved a positive factor in the development of the nation as an international trading force.”79 Similarly, cultural ties are being recognised and reinforced in both India and China. Whilst India has been, comparatively speaking, slower to recognise the advantages that may derive from its huge diaspora populations arising from the colonial plantation labour emigrations, the introduction of the concept of 78

Hahime’s contribution is recorded in documents concerning the church enclosed in NA CO 167/243. 79 The phrase is from Srebrnik, H. ‘Ethnicity and the development of a “middleman” economy on Mauritius: The diaspora factor’ Round Table no. 350, 1999.

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‘Persons of Indian Origin’ is designed to offer a place to those seeking to rediscover an Indian identity. In this respect, both the sending and receiving societies are seeking, finally, to cast aside the negative connotations of the ‘coolie’ exodus and to grasp the positive realities of transnational communities in the making. The historiography of the colonial migrations has a role to play in these transformations. Through a comparison of the settlement processes and adaptation of Chinese and Indian immigrants in 19th century Mauritius, this chapter has sought to make a contribution to the necessary reworking of terms and concepts surrounding the ‘myths’ and realities of Asian settlement and socio-economic mobility in the colonial Indian Ocean.

CONCLUSION China’s ambivalent attitude towards its migrants—forbidding overseas settlement from the mid 17th to the mid 19th centuries,—meant that Chinese diaspora communities inevitably established themselves as largely self regulating entities. With no sponsorship or protection from the Chinese state, female migration followed only long after the onset of male settlement overseas. Initially clandestine, the migration generally took place from regions on the periphery of the Chinese Empire, for example the southern coastal provinces, or through treaty ports and ceded territories. The success of the Chinese retail communities established in Mauritius and elsewhere, depended on a number of factors. Luck—or opportunity—was a part of the equation. The Chinese managed, generally to arrive in the right places at the right time, “as European capital stimulated the exploitation and export of primary products, and as the hinterlands were brought under European order, so there were more jobs for the Chinese commercial agent or middleman to do, more customers for the Chinese retailer to sell to, and more territory for the Chinese as a whole to range in”.1 Secondly, whether migrating as merchants or peasants, the Chinese brought with them “a multiplicity of associations, reliable networks and strong but flexible family structures and values which were the basis of family firms”.2 Setting up associations of linguistic and clan groupings gave the traders a network of contacts and sponsorship. In many cases, as we have seen from this case study of the Sino-Mauritians, wealthier compatriots reached out to those who had arrived as ‘coolies’, so that in seeking to move from the status of labourer to the better paid artisanal and shop-assistant jobs, Chinese immigrants were frequently assisted by Chinese traders already set up in commercial establishments in Port Louis. The financial benefits of the clan and other societies were manifold, notably the establishment of rotating credit systems, which enabled individuals to raise capital when needed. The carrying on of

1

Pan, L., Sons of the Yellow Emperor, op. cit., p. 137. Wang Gungwu, The Chinese Overseas from Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy, op. cit. 2

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business through such networks and the establishment of the long term reciprocal ties known as guanxi gave the Chinese trader a security which purely legal or contractual arrangements could not offer. The undertaking of concerted actions such as the mobilization against ill-defined liquor retail laws, required a spirit of co-operation which Chinese immigrants had already experienced in more modest ways, through their credit and clan organisations. Thus, coming into colonial societies like Mauritius, where many of the erstwhile competitors had the disadvantage of having been cut off from wider family ties through involuntary migrations such as slavery, or prevented from self-employment through long term bonded contracts as under the indenture system, the Chinese had many advantages. This study has shown how the Chinese circumvented restrictions that initially devolved upon them as aliens. Their implantation into the colonial society of Mauritius was facilitated by the fact that, inhabiting a country where no single group asserted ‘indigenous’ rights, once naturalised, or otherwise free from limitations on property ownership, they were not faced with extraordinary legislative restrictions on their socio-economic development as occurred elsewhere in the colonial world. The evolution and current commercial and professional status of the Chinese community in Mauritius depended to a great extent on these historic specificities as has been shown in the course of this book. Through an examination of the processes of settlement of Chinese and Indian immigrants in 19th century Mauritius, this work has shown that both communities were obliged to make use of inter- and intracommunity networks to achieve their objectives of socio-economic success. Whilst the literature on the Chinese and Indian diasporas tends to provide an impression of separate and very different migration streams, in the case of Mauritius, the traditional distinction between these diasporic groups in terms of status and prospects has been overstated, since both were subject to discriminatory legislation, and both made effective use of local inter-ethnic and transnational intra-ethnic networks to further their settlement projects. In seeking to penetrate the world of the 19th century migrant, this work has made use of numerous individual and collective petitions sent by Chinese and other ethnic groups on the island to the local authorities, and notarial documents, held in European, Indian and Mauritian archives. They offer an insight into the real issues facing the community over time, for example difficulties in the procurement of licences, and arrangements over property transactions while their

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focus on both individual and collective problems and ambitions, reveal a great deal about the dynamics of these groups in Mauritius. Through an analysis of these and other records and documents, this study has sought to contribute to the existing scholarly literature on the process of settlement of diaspora communities in the colonial world during the nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. There is no doubt that Chinese economic advancement could not have occurred in isolation from the other sectors of the local population. White wholesalers and estate proprietors developed mutually beneficial relationships with the Chinese, while Indian landowners offered them a niche in the nascent village economy of 19th century Mauritius. The leasing of land from rural property owners gave the Chinese an opportunity to set up in business whilst retaining their Chinese nationality. This was one reason why they chose the retail sector, and by the close of the century, there were around 2,858 Chinese traders operating throughout the island. This represented approximately 82% of the Chinese population, demonstrating how thoroughly the practice and principle of trade had been internalised by the community. The creole spouses and partners of Chinese men were crucial to the success of individual Chinese immigrants in the first phase of their settlement in Mauritius. The Chinese man gained a helpmate and companion, a partner in whose name a business premises could be rented and a licence obtained, while the women, through the capital of their Chinese partners, could realise an ambition to open a shop or set up in some branch of petty commerce. The bequests made to creole female partners demonstrate that while some Chinese men maintained another family in the land of their birth, they were ready to assume the responsibilities for the households they headed in Mauritius. Thus, while much as been made of Chinese family ties in explaining commercial success overseas, this study of the Sino-Mauritians reveals that new family and social relationships made in the overseas context, and not just with other Chinese, also played an important role. Such inter-ethnic marriages opened the way for the Chinese on Mauritius to embrace Catholicism, so that they were able effectively to take on a new identity—that of participating Catholics—whilst maintaining a Chinese identity centred round the kapitan, and later the pagoda, and the clan. Overseas Chinese commerce was placed on a secure and well organised footing through the effective leadership of early kapitans. In the Mauritian context, Hahime Choissane, assisted by a circle of Chinese

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notables, was the architect and initiator of a programme of supervised immigration which limited the numbers and controlled the character of the settlers. Thus the Chinese successfully transferred merchandise, capital and individuals to Mauritius to effect the emergence of a solid commercial class in the new setting. In achieving these aims, the notables of the community took care to act within the law and were hence protected by government from restrictions which other Mauritians tried to impose on their settlement. That their economic activities were not significantly curtailed in the formative period of the 19th century, was also due to the fact that the Chinese community was never considered large enough to pose any veritable threat to the economic power of elite Mauritians. In fact, Chinese dependence on Franco-Mauritian agents in the importation of their merchandise, led the latter to see them rather as complementary partners in the distribution of imported goods. Another instance of this co-dependence is in the retail, by Chinese, of rum produced in the largely white-owned sugar factories. Thus Chinese commerce was able to work in co-operation with other groups, and to facilitate its implantation into the Mauritian economy. The Chinese, for their part, facilitated this gradual development by avoiding overt competition with other ethnic groups, and contenting themselves with an intermediary role in local commerce. The economic integration of the Chinese was not unproblematic, however. There were numerous obstacles to be overcome, in the form of restrictive laws governing their immigration, acquisition of property, and sales which necessitated the employment of petition writers and lawyers to protect their interests and sometimes to defend them against legal summons. The possession of capital alone enabled the Chinese to make their complaints heard by the colonial administration. As their confidence grew, they were able to question and disapprove certain decisions and legal reforms of the authorities. This confrontation of trader vis-à-vis the state took place, generally, outside the mediation of the kapitan, demonstrating the limited character of the ‘leadership’ exercised at this juncture, but also the adaptability and entrepreneurship of traders. Their ability to take collective actions, such as the joint decision to refuse to open their shops on Sundays until flawed colonial legislation was reformed, is also an indicator of their consciousness as a commercial class. As elsewhere in the world, Chinese diaspora economic activities in Mauritius have been characterised by small businesses, receiving rela-

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tively little state support, and relying instead on trust-based community networks. These activities translated into the establishment of family firms with owners retaining significant levels of control. More recently, the growth of very large companies and conglomerates has occurred amongst the Chinese in Mauritius, but the family firm remains the predominant form of their business activities. While once it was believed that the ‘familism’ of Chinese capitalists would act as a hindrance to them in the management of much larger companies, this has not been borne out in practice. Instead, “traditional attributes survive and thrive, in new forms . . . while modern attributes in turn are adopted and adapted”.3 Ways have been found by Chinese capitalists to retain family control even in large companies, for example, directorships may be held by family members across a business group. There has been increasing involvement of female spouses and offspring in large enterprises, which has helped to offset the move towards smaller, nuclear families among the Chinese community. Larger Chinese firms, inevitably operating on a contractual level with banks and suppliers, also continue to use traditional trust-based networks to obtain advice and information. This can be especially crucial in the global marketplace with the increasing number of international contracts. As this study has shown, the ‘transnational’ Chinese is not a new phenomenon. The guanxi, or personal ties of Chinese businessmen, were always international—traders like Hahime in early 19th century Mauritius, had contacts across Asia,—and their trading voyages enabled the Chinese shopkeepers in Mauritius to benefit from a degree of autonomy which raised their business to a higher level. They possessed exclusivity over a range of goods and could fix the prices so as to be highly competitive at the local level. This inevitably brought attacks from the local press and the business community. Today, the Chinese have become even more of a networked diaspora. Recent studies have shown that while Chinese firms may have developed formal management structures, and recruit across ethnic groups, they have a distinctive set of principles of operation which continue to have roots in traditional practices. Chinese capitalism has a distinctive growth dynamic in that businesses tend to expand not by pursuit of an

3 Lever-Tracy, C., Ip, D. & Tracy, N., The Chinese Diaspora and Mainland China. An Emerging Economic Synergy, Macmillan, London, 1996.

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ever larger market share, but by diversification, as the Happy World business empire in Mauritius demonstrates. As overseas Chinese have diversified their activities, with numbers entering the professions, so those who remained in business extended guanxi to members of local non-Chinese populations, particularly to the cultivation of people in power.4 Chinese business networks in Mauritius, as elsewhere, have become more multi-cultural, and through business organizations such as the Chinese Business Chamber, links are maintained and new ties are forged with local and regional politicians, and fellow Indian Ocean rim business leaders and statesmen. It has been argued that Port Louis, along with Singapore, San Francisco and other centres of Chinese commercial activity form parts of a single Chinese ‘world city’ and therefore that Mauritius is “an entrepot, an enclave, its economy to a large extent part of two, perhaps even three, larger diasporic economies.”5 While the Sino-Mauritians may have successfully attracted South East Asian investors through guanxi ties, their demonstrable integration into the island’s economic life has served, not so much to reinforce their ‘Chineseness’ as to cement their place in the wider Mauritian economy and polity. The position of Sino-Mauritians as a very small group in a plural society where competition for scarce resources and suspicions of ethnic favouritism create a constant latent tension, has not been an easy one. In contemporary Mauritius, the Chinese comprise 10% of the population of the capital, and are a highly urbanised community. Brautigam has stated that “the Mauritius case can be seen as an extraAsian example of the global reach of Chinese business networks, and evidence of the growing transnationalism of domestic capital in the Third World.”6 What then has been the role of the Chinese in the post-independence Mauritian economy? Fabian socialism, a constitution which provided for the inclusion of minority groups, useful ties to the former colonial masters which have engineered favourable quotas, and support from international financial organizations which has in turn encouraged 4 See the discussion of this aspect of diaspora Chinese business dealings in Chan Kwok Bun ed. Chinese Business Networks: State Economy and Culture, Prentice Hall, NIAS, 2000. 5 Srebrnik, H., ‘Ethnicity and the development of a ‘middleman’ economy on Mauritius’, op. cit. 6 Brautigam, D., ‘Close Encounters: Chinese Business Networks as Industrial Catalysts in Sub-Saharan Africa’ African Affairs, 102, 408, July 2003.

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good governance have all been key to understanding the successes of post-independence Mauritius. Nonetheless the decision of the country to create an export-oriented economy and the relationships and linkages formed with newly industrializing Asian countries have been crucially influenced and supported by the Chinese community. The transformation of Mauritius from an over-populated, monocrop nation with few prospects and a great deal of ethnic tension on the eve of independence in 1968 to a nation, which 30 years later was considered one of the most dynamic of Africa and the talk of the world’s economic pundits, has in no small measure been assisted by the Sino-Mauritians. Mauritius today is no longer an ex-colonial outpost of departed Europeans but an integral piece of an Indian Ocean-centred diaspora of Chinese and Indian-origin communities. It is no coincidence that of the 19 or so countries with which Mauritius has signed tax treaties, most have active Chinese or Indian business communities. The island has been described as being part of ‘a network of networks, a new paradigm, and the organisational model for the 21st century’.7 Further, the question of whether overseas-born Chinese will increasingly come to realise the utility of a Chinese identity and language for business, and to reverse the current trend towards ancestral language loss, remains a moot point. While new global networks are re-uniting expatriate Chinese, and new opportunities to do business in China and with other diaspora capitalists are evident, the fact remains that SinoMauritians are increasingly less likely to speak an ‘ancestral’ language. Anthropological studies have contended that the Chinese on Mauritius no longer differentiate, for other than symbolic purposes, between the various ethnic or linguistic groups within the community, since, as ethnic categories become too small to reproduce endogamously, they are incorporated. Hence the descendants of Cantonese immigrants “are about to become totally assimilated into the Hakka-speaking majority of Sino Mauritians”.8 It is the multiplication of identities rather than the return to an ethnic Chinese identity which seems to be the pattern of the young diaspora Chinese. In 1980, the generational differences were articulated to one analyst in the following phrase: “the saying goes that, whilst their

7 MacLachlan, R., ‘Eastern Renaissance Could Eclipse West’, People Management 2, 1996. 8 Eriksen, T.H., Common Denominators, op. cit.

228

conclusion

grandfathers revered the family and their parents loved money, the young Chinese value education”.9 Interviews with Sino-Mauritians indicate that while the older members of the community express concern that the younger generation are ‘distancing themselves’ from ancestral religion and language, there is a belief that ‘old values’ will still be respected, and a sense of optimism about the regeneration of the community through the transnationalism of the youth. Thus the ‘cult of ancestors’ is today considered a simple affirmation of solidarity with the family unit. The Chinese New Year is still traditionally seen in with a salvo of firecrackers designed to chase out the last of the bad sprits. This work on Sino-Mauritians therefore offers a useful case study of the dynamics of identity formation in a multi-cultural post-colonial society, and suggests a model for researching the links between the immigrant community and the wider society from the outset, through a detailed analysis of key documents such as petitions, and notarial agreements that serve to pinpoint the problems, methods and solutions adopted by migrants to meet the day to day problems that arose. From an appraisal of the contemporaneous Indian immigration, the study has also sought to tease out the similarities and differences between the two, to further clarify the sometimes competing, often contrasting but essentially complementary roles of Indians and Chinese in the formative history of colonial Mauritius. Human history is one of continual interpenetration between ethnic groups, and this study has sought to show Sino-Mauritian interaction with the wider society from the time of their arrival onwards through the various phases of their settlement. The combination of strong family and kin networks, together with a pragmatic and flexible attitude towards the absorption of outward characteristics of host societies, have enabled overseas Chinese to integrate successfully in their countries of adoption. The Sino-Mauritian community is no exception, having become an economically prosperous group and one which has conserved a distinctive cultural identity whilst managing to remain abreast of the complex linguistic and social demands of this multi-ethnic post-colonial Indian Ocean island nation. The book has also sought to demonstrate how ethnic groups in general and Sino-Mauritians in particular can expand to incorporate internal differentiation and that constant reinterpretation and redefini-

9 Krivtsov, N., ‘The Chinese Community in Mauritius’, Far Eastern Affairs, no. 1, 1980.

conclusion

229

tion is possible. Thus, Sino-Mauritians have both followed the Mauritian norm in exhibiting continuing high levels of endogamy, insofar as marriages within Mauritius are concerned, but at the same time, find it relatively unproblematic to incorporate outsiders. Sino-Mauritian sociologist J.C. Lau, has stressed the continuities in Chinese social and political strategies: “Just as the old Chinese shopkeepers made the effort to speak bhojpuri in the rural areas, so the young Chinese conform to the milieu in which they find themselves today. The relationship with the wider society has not changed significantly in this respect.”10 This case study of Chinese settlement and economic consolidation on Mauritius provides an example of how a minority community, too small to carry political weight, has found ways of making a niche and creating new opportunities in the sphere of economic development. Mauritius may have built up its ‘miracle’ from its desire to emulate the economic success of the Asian ‘tigers’ but, at the crossroads of the Asian, African and Western worlds, the Mauritians are figuring out their own, unique brand of socio-economic development. Whatever the future holds for the millions of overseas Chinese with their trillions of dollars in liquid assets, in the globalized world, the Sino-Mauritians who practise ‘knowledge arbitrage’ across the Anglophone and Francophone worlds, and between Asia, Africa and Europe will surely continue to be a small but significant actor in a world where transnational links and east-west cohabitation and co-operation are increasingly of value.

10

Lau Thi Keng, J.C., Inter-ethnicité et Politique à l’Ile Maurice, op. cit.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX ONE

OCCUPATIONS OF THE POPULATION OF CHINESE ORIGIN, 1901

Occupation Professionals Accountant Pharmacist Clerk Interpreter Domestic Cook Domestic servant Commercial Cake Seller Clerk Hawker Hotel keeper Merchant Opium seller Confectioner/Victualler Shopkeeper Trader Vegetable Seller Watchman Agricultural Labourer Industrial Baker Barber/Hairdresser Butcher Carpenter/Joiner Shoemaker Tailor Tobacconist Source: MA B1A 1901 Census

Males

Females

1 1 5 1 28 66 13 665 25 7 10 3 10 276 24 2 5 6 7 14 3 32 3 5 28

1

1

APPENDIX TWO

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CHINESE POPULATION IN THE DISTRICTS OF MAURITIUS, 1921

District Pamplemousses Fond du Sac Plaine des Papayes Triolet Mon Choisy St Andre Morc. Plaine des Papayes Petit Coin Boutique Rouge Bois Rouge La Louisa Solitude Estate Calebasses Massilia Arsenal Roche Bois Riche Terre Terre Rouge Tombeau Bay Terre Rouge Le Hochet Notre Dame Long Mountain Valton Ilots Plaines Calebasses Creve Coeur Ruisseau Rose Industrie Estate Long Mountain Estate Pamplemousses Village Camp des Embrevades Jouvence d’Epinay Grande Rosalie Belle Source Ville Bague

Males 20 2 18 3 16 3 2 3 6 6 2 16 5 4 5 5 5 3 17 7 8 4 2 2 4 9 12 5 8 19 8 12 6 4 1

Females 1 1

2 2 2 2 2 2 14 1 1 1 3 1 11 3 3 3 3

1

appendix two

235

(cont.) District Piton (La Paix) Cailleux Morcellement The Mount estate Plaines des Papayes

Males 9 6 7 5

Riviere Du Rempart Shoenfeld Morcellement Le Ravin L’Amitie Morcellement Gookoola Belle Vue Morcellement Tyack Morcellement Union Delcourt Morcellement St Armoury Beau Sejour Estate Mon Songe La Lucie Estate Ile d’Ambre Estate Labourdonnais Estate Mapou Estate Reunion Maurel Estate Poudre d’Or Hermitage Pointe Lascars Roche Noire Esperance Mapou Station Goodlands Petit Raffray Union Daruty Cap Malheureux Grand Baie Grand Gaube Roche Terre

5 46 5 1 8 3 4 4 3 4 5 3 4 3 3 21 2 4 5 2 5 35 6 7 4 5 16 4

Flacq Belvedere Brisee Verdiere Bon Accueil Grande Retraite Bois d’Oiseaux Pont Praslin Flacq Poste de Flacq

13 4 7 3 2 7 1 2

Females

1

10 3

3 1

4 1 3 4 4 2

2 2

2 1

236

the distribution of the chinese population, 

(cont.) District Flacq Station Beau Bois Saint Julien Constance d’Arifat village Central Flacq Boulet Rouge Riche Mare Constance Manes Shop Bonne Mere Union Regnard Shop Bel Etang Coquimbourg Camp de Masque Riche Fund Providence MAre la Chaux Mare Dupin Quatre Cocos Trou d’Eau Douce Pont d’Epinay Camp Ythie Mme Coignard Mare Jacquot Hermitage Riviere Seche Queen Victoria Belle Rose Estate Montagne Blanche Sebastopol Trois Ilots Louis Renaud Olivia Mt Bambous Clavette La Commune Deep River Estate Riviere Seche Bel Air GRSE Beau Champ Estate Moka Montagne Ory Pailles

Males 4 9 15 5 45 6 7 4 4 4 9 9 19 4 7 7 4 4 19 4 3 3 7 5 8 13 4 12 18 14 3 14 3 5 4 4 15 11 12 7 8

Females 2 2 2 6 1 4 1

5 1 1 4 1 3 2

2 6 1

1 1

1 3

appendix two

237

(cont.) District Anse Courtois Bois Cheri Chantenay Petit Verger Saint Pierre Belle Rose Gentilly Bon Air Moka Hospital Dagotiere Valetta Morcellement Cote d’Or Moka Station Roselyn Cottage Circonstance Verdun L’Esperance Alma Riviere Baptiste Beau Bois Ripailles L’Avenir Providence Melrose Montagne Blanche Petit Paquet Sans Souci Estate Bois Clair Estate Belle Rive Plaines Wilhems Curepipe Quatre Bornes Rose Hill Beau Bassin Coromandel Asylum Barkly Asylum Mont Roches Stanley Solferino Bassin Road Palma Road

Males 3 19 3 16 31 4 3 4 1 7 4 6 2 2 4 1 5 34 13 4 2 3 6 7 37 2 8 1 3 207 100 187 91 2 5 2 4 19 8 6 13

Females 4 2 1 3 3

4 2 3 10 7

3 2 13 1

59 21 74 18 1 1 1 6 4 5 3

238

the distribution of the chinese population, 

(cont.) District

Males

Palma La Caverne Quinze Cantons Holyrood La Croisee Bassin Camp Roche Henrietta Ligne Bertrand Vacoas Village Tatamaka Chemin des Vergues Bernica Morcellement Reunion Allee Brillant Saint Paul Highlands Morcellement Phoenix Village Camp Fouquereaux Valentina Petit Camp Bagatelle Shop Belle Rose Mesnil Midlands

1 23 5 5 7 3 5 2 5 36 8 6 3 8 9 13 7 30 4 3 4 4 3 1 6

Grand Port Pont Colville Rose Belle Nouvelle France Union Park Midlands Mare Chicose L’Enfoncement St Hubert Riche en Eau Estate Riviere des Creoles Ste Philomene Le Vallon Vieux Grand Port Ferney Shop Ferney Estate Anse Jonchee

6 60 4 4 2 3 4 21 7 9 3 5 12 3 1 3

Females 2 7 2

1 11 6 2 6 2 2 3 6 5 3 3

1 2 20 2

1

3 2

appendix two

239

(cont.) District

Males

Grand Sable Ville Noire Grand Bel Air Le Jardin Riche en Eau Constantin Gebert/New Grove Mare d’Albert Bois d’Oiseaux Deux Bras estate Mahebourg Beau Vallon Carreau Manioc Pointe d’Esny Mme Daila Plaine Magnien Beau Vallon Estate Union Vale Estate Plaisance Estate Mon Desert Carie Estate Beau Fond Makaloff Camp La Hache New Grove La Sourdine Escalier Village La Baraque Estate

3 10 4 5 3 9 37 53 4 74 2 13 1 2 7 4 5 4 6 9 8 1 6 22 25 2

Savanne Riviere des Anguilles BahMarais Village Camp Diable Village Riche Bois Estate Rabaud Village La Flora Village Grand Bois Village Mexico/Canaka Camp Bertrand Britannia Shop Souillac Village Camp Baptiste Bain des Negresses Grand Bassin Village Chamouny

68 2 34 1 5 3 11 4 6 9 28 10 9 3 4

Females 3

1 8 20 24 1

2 1 1 1 2 2

11 3

1 1 7 3 3 1

240

the distribution of the chinese population, 

(cont.) District

Males

Females

Chemin Grenier Surinam Baie du Cap Village Saint Martin Village Bel Ombre Choisy Estate

39 15 9 5 4 3

6 6

Black River Trou Chenille La Gaulette Grande Case Noyale Petite Case Noyale Chamarel Riviere Noire village La Mivoie Yemen Tamarin Bay Barachois Keistoo Magenta Montagne du Rempart Bambou Palma Rocheville Petit Terrain Casela Clarens Estate Clarens Pierre Fonds Bambou Village Medine Palmyre St Antoine Camp Petite Riviere Road Petite Riviere Albion Camp Creole Petit Verger Road Petite Riviere village Richelieu and GRNO

3 3 5 2 3 5 3 4 3 1 3 1 25 6 3 6 9 5 3 3 3 5 8 1 3 4 2 2 5 4 4

2

2

1 2

4 1 2

4

APPENDIX THREE

THE URBANISATION OF THE POPULATION OF CHINESE ORIGIN IN MAURITIUS, 1952 Chinese residents in the District of Port Louis Male Bell Village Cassis GRNO Montagne des Signaux Pailles Roche Bois Sainte Croix Tranquebar Vallée Pitot Vallée du Pouce Town of Port Louis

8 20 17 6 1 110 47 37 14 2 4720

Female 2 8 8 7 0 93 38 26 4 2 3922

Chinese residents in Towns of the Central Plateau

Phoenix Vacoas Beau Bassin Rose Hill Quatre Bornes Curepipe

Male

Female

68 296 335 659 316 615

49 234 245 415 227 357

APPENDIX FOUR

TWO OF MANY: CASE STUDIES OF SINOMAURITIANS From Famine to Factory—the journey of F.A. F.A. came to Mauritius in 1912, fleeing from famine conditions in mainland China. He worked in a number of shops, and struggled, along with members of his clan—some of whom died from the malaria which was still prevalent on the island, to gain his living in Mauritius. Eventually he was able to set up a lodging house in the capital, which he later gave to a cousin to run. Having contracted tuberculosis as a young man, he died at a tragically early age, in 1942. From his early efforts, other relatives took over and developed the family business. A cigarette factory had been established in 1923, purchasing tobacco from local Indian farmers, and importing machinery from Réunion and Europe. However, as competitors entered the field in the 1930s, profits were squeezed, and when the manufacturing giant, British American Tobacco entered the fray, the days of the small producers were numbered. Another branch of the family developed a wine business, but this also encountered difficulties—in 1960, for example, the devastating cyclone Carol, damaged the factory. Competition became fierce—one man was killed as rivalry between wine makers developed, and cases of tampering with the products of competitors were reported. At the same time as struggling to make their fortune in Mauritius, the family were actively assisting in the fortunes of family members in China. Goods such as pig fat were exported to China to raise funds for rebuilding the family home. The young Mauritian-born youth of the family were sent home to complete their education in China, while some of the elder brothers retired to die there. However by the late 1950s, the expropriation of the wealthy by the communist regime in China deterred the diaspora members from returning home and remitting funds. The younger members of the family now began to be educated in Mauritius itself, but by the time they reached adulthood they had also begun to look for professional opportunities outside the small island of Mauritius, and a number of the educated third and fourth generation family members settled in Europe and Canada. F.A.’s

appendix four

243

monumental journey had opened the way to a new and increasingly global diaspora of his descendants. A ‘Citoyen d’Honneur’ F.B. was made an honorary citizen of the Mauritian capital, Port Louis, in September 2003. A diplomat and businessman, F.B. is a man of many parts, and illustrates the complex and integrated role of today’s SinoMauritians, in the life of their tiny but proud and successful nation. It is a status symbol among the affluent elite of this Indian Ocean nation to own one or more of the race horses which compete for the annual Maiden Cup at the capital’s Champ de Mars course. F.B. has a number of photographs depicting his racing triumphs in his Port Louis office. He is a friend of the island’s President, and, like many Sino-Mauritians, a staunch Catholic, has the distinction of having been received personally by the Pope. F.B. has struggled hard to achieve the position he holds today. He started work as a young boy in an ironmonger’s store, before opening a shop with family members in Port Louis. The racial violence of 1967 forced its closure, and he took a job with another firm, before finally setting up an import company of his own. The success brought threats from jealous rivals, but these were ignored, and other family members brought in to expand the firm, as electronic goods also came under its remit. Cars, music, fishing, real estate and travel are among numerous other business interests taken on by the adventurous F.B. who is now at the head of more than 20 companies. F.B. has already been honoured by his own country of birth—Mauritius—and his merits recognised by neighbouring states. F.B. attributes his success to a philosophy which emphasises patience and the maintenance of a good understanding with friends as well as potential enemies.

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INDEX Affan Tank Wen, 79, 121–124, 126, 162, 165, 171, 174, 202 Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), 139 Ah Chuen, Jean, 100, 127, 132, 132 n. 60, 134 Ah Fat, 94 Ahine, 59, 77–78, 193, 201 Ahong, 179, 204 Alliance Sino-Mauricienne, 132 Amoy, 32 n. 41, 37, 37 n. 51, 143, 251 Assam (Chinese trader), 49, 117, 141 n. 4, 198, 205 Athion, 44, 161–162, 165, 165 n. 44, 184, 198, 209 Barker, Lady, 107, 210, 247 Batavia, 20–21, 21 n. 4, 22–23, 23 n. 14, 24–25, 29, 141 n. 1, 154 n. 19 Beaton, Patrick, 55, 57, 60, 63, 107, 154, 166 Beijing, 3, 138–139 Convention, 66 Bencoulen/Benkulen, 23 Bernardin de St Pierre, 25, 247 Besant, Walter, 37, 81, 144, 247 bhojpuri, 184, 184 n. 83, 217, 217 n. 74, 229 Bourbon. See Reunion Boyle, Charles, 70, 107, 143, 158, 177, 247 Brautigam, Deborah, ix, 138, 226, 247 butcher, pork, 36, 57–58 Calcutta, 2, 17 n. 66, 22, 55, 65, 77 n. 1, 119–120, 192, 206, 249, 250 Canton/Cantonese, 6, 12, 20, 20 n. 2, 22–24, 27–28, 30, 32, 37, 49, 65–66, 78, 83–84, 121, 124, 152, 162–163, 163 n. 38, 165, 168, 188, 198 n. 24, 214, 227, 238 Cape of Good Hope, 20 n. 3, 21, 250, 252 Catholic/Catholicism, 143, 165–168, 170–171, 173–174, 183, 187, 189, 201–202, 223, 243, 251 Chiang Kai Shek, 127, 129, 214–215 Chin Ton, 66, 83–84

Chinese Business Chamber (CBC), ix, 135, 137, 226 Chinese Chamber of Commerce, 90, 124–125, 127, 132, 132 n. 61, 134, 134 n. 64, 135, 164, 218 Chinese Traders Association, 123, 123 n. 41 cholera, 65, 81 Chu’an Chin, 4 Cold War, 8, 129 Communism/communist, 8, 127, 127 n. 51, 129, 134, 187, 242 Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile Ltd (CMT), 104, 139 Corsair, 19 cyclone, 81, 174, 177 n. 72, 209, 210, 242, 250 D’Estaing, Comte, 22–23, 23 n. 12, 23 n. 14 Distillery, Canton, 78 Ha Kin, 79 Pekin, 79, 79 n. 6 Djakarta. See Batavia Dutch East India Company. See VOC Ellis, William, 43, 45, 249 emigration—legislation, 2–4, 66, 252 Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, 9–10, 139, 190, 217, 249 Export Processing Zone (EPZ), 14, 101, 137, 246 Farquhar, Sir R.T., 28–29, 51 Fock Sam, 68, 116 Fort Marlborough, 23, 23 n. 14 Fujian/Fukien, 6, 20 n. 2, 21 Fukienese, 20–21, 49–50, 65–66, 83 Gomm, Sir William, 77 Green, Lawrence, 145, 164, 175, 179, 180–181, 214 Guangdong, 4, 6, 66 guanxi, 222, 225–226 Guyana, 32, 39 Hahime Choisanne, 50, 59, 248 Happy World Group, 17

256

index

Heen Foh, 84, 162–164, 181 n. 80, 185 Hokien, 65 Hong Kong, 1 n. 1–3, 101–104, 127, 137–138, 149, 153, 166, 168, 189, 246, 248–249, 253 hurricane. See cyclone Indonesia, 19, 20–21, 120, 141 Ingrams, Harold, 146, 164, 180, 214, 250 Jamaica, 32, 249 Java, 20, 29, 252 Jerningham, Hubert, 73–74, 177, 209, 250 Joss house, 17, 157–158, 164. See also pagoda Jourdain, Henry, 73, 82 Kapitan, 24, 51, 63, 110, 121–124, 157, 162, 192, 219, 223–224 Konfortion, A., 84, 124, 129, 184 Kou-on, 116, 179 Kouvenhoven, A., 100, 151–152, 166, 171, 246 Kreol, 9 n. 32, 11, 190 Krivtsov, N., 217, 250 Kuomintang, 126–127 Kwan Tee. See pagoda Kwangtung. See Guangdong La Chesnais, Maurice, 78, 107, 109, 250 Lai Fat Fur, 104, 184 Lai Wan Chut, 94, 96 Lam Po Tang, 100, 104 Lau, J.C., 15, 218, 229, 250 Lee/Li, 66–68, 79, 87, 94, 95, 116–117, 126, 162, 168, 195–196, 250 Leguat, Francois, 20, 141 n. 1, 252 Leong, 94, 197, 253 Lim Fat, Edouard, 102, 137, 251 Liog Choi Sin. See Hahime Lomé Convention, 101 Loong See Tong Lee society, 162 Ly Tio Fane, H., 2 n. 8, 143, 143 n. 9, 165–166, 208, 250–251 Macao, 2–3, 20, 22, 24, 26–27, 36, 41, 161 Macmillan, A., 81, 83, 86, 246–247, 250–251, 253 Mahe de Labourdonnais, 22 mahjong, ix, 177, 252 Malacca, 20 malaria, 81, 114, 242

Malaya/Malaysia, 7, 102, 137, 247 Mandarin, 11, 181, 183, 187–190 Mauritius Commercial Bank, 62, 110 Meixian, 18, 20 n. 2, 66, 121, 129 n. 54, 134, 139, 146, 185, 187 Moiyean/Moyan. See Meixian Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM), 135 Naipaul, V.S., 179, 216, 251 Namoa, 32 Nanking, treaty of, 3 Ng Cheng Hin, 81, 83–87, 95, 101, 184 Ng Cheong, 86–87 Ng Wong Hing, 132, 132 n. 61 Ng Yeelim, 86–87, 89 Ningbo, 152 Ommanney, F.D., 93, 131, 177, 212, 214, 252 opium, 3, 17, 38, 51, 164, 175–177, 233 Den, 17, 175–176 War, 3, 51 Ouitaye, 49, 53, 120 pagodas in Mauritius Fok Tiak, 116 Kwan Tee/Coan-Tahi-Biou, 112–113, 157, 157 n. 26, 160, 164–165, 174 Law Kwan Chung, 84, 163, 163 n. 38 Nam Soon Fooy Koon, 163 Tientan, 170 Panjoo (Chinese convict), 30, 120 Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD), 134 Peking. See Beijing Penang, 2–3, 30, 32–33, 36, 41, 78 Pike, Nicholas, 60, 157, 160, 175, 177, 179, 252 Pingre, Abbé A., 23, 252 Poivre, Pierre, 22 Pope Hennessy, Sir John, 122–123, 171, 209 Porcelain, 49, 84, 86, 175, 193 Port Louis, 25, 25 n. 20, 26, 37, 41, 43–45, 49, 50, 52–54, 56, 57, 59–61, 72, 82–84, 87–88, 92–94, 96, 105, 107, 115, 117, 119–121, 125, 129, 132, 134–135, 143–144, 148–149, 154, 162–164, 167–168, 171, 174–175, 177, 179–180, 184–185, 187–188, 192–194, 198, 209–210, 214, 219, 221, 226, 241, 243

index Camp Malabar (suburb of ), 59, 207 China Town, 83–84, 92, 164, 175, 179, 180, 214 Royal Road, 52, 82–84, 86, 87, 163 n. 38, 214 n. 69 Prabhu, Anjali, 10, 252 Prince of Wales island. See Penang privateer, 22–24 Raffles, Sir Stamford, 29 Ramgoolam, Sir Seewoosagur, 137, 219 Reunion, 8, 40, 43, 120–121, 137, 139, 149, 189, 235, 238, 242 Rodrigues, 8, 149, 196 rum, v, 70–72, 78–79, 81, 88, 95, 121, 124, 185, 209, 212, 224 Sailor Charley, 109, 144, 252 Seeyave, 95, 196 Seychelles, 29, 121 Sik Yuen, 90, 197, 251 Singapore, 2, 3, 7, 30–33, 35, 46, 55, 65, 66, 77–78, 82, 102, 120, 137, 149, 189, 201, 226 Smith Simmons, A., 132, 134, 252 Srebrnik, H., 14, 137, 252 Straits Settlements, 32

257

Tai Ping rebellion, 3 Taiwan/Taiwanese, 1 n. 1, 102–103, 105, 126, 127, 131, 137, 138 n. 78 Telfair, Charles, 29, 30 n. 35 Tincon Assam, 49, 117, 141 n. 4 tobacco, 14, 79, 81, 94–95, 120, 196, 197, 242 Trinidad, 32, 37, 144, 184 n. 81 Tsang Mang Kin, J., 24 n. 16, 133, 253 Union Sino-Mauricienne, 132 n. 60, 132 n. 61, 133, 134 n. 64 Venpin, 84, 87, 89, 94, 126, 181 n. 80, 184 Vigoureux, Gratia, 20, 22, 25 Louis, 22, 25 VOC, 20, 153 n. 19 Whampoa, 32 wood, teak, 49 mahogany, 49 rosewood, 49 World War One/Two, 14, 83, 88, 92, 96, 127, 129, 185, 188, 218 Xin Fa, 184–187 Yip Tong, ix, 87

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