History of Chinese immigration to the United Kingdom
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Chinese immigrants to the United Kingdom currently has more than 400,000, around 0.7% of the United Kingdom population.
17th century
The first notable Chinese known to visit Britain was
18th century
The next known Chinese to immigrate to Britain, settling in Scotland, was William Macao who lived in Edinburgh from 1779. He married a British woman and had children. He worked for The Board of Excise in Scotland for over 40 years. He was involved in a significant court case in 1818 related to naturalization and, for a period, gained Scottish nationality. He is buried in St Cuthbert's Graveyard in Edinburgh.[2]
1800s to World War II
In the early 19th century, Chinese seamen began to establish small communities in the port cities of
In 1839, John Hochee became the first Chinese to be naturalised by Denization and inherited the property of John Elphinstone for whom he had worked. The first Chinese student to study and graduate in Britain was Huang Kuan who attended Edinburgh University Medical School from 1850 to 1855, but like other Chinese who studied in Britain returned to live in China.
Before 1900, only a few Chinese who came to Britain as seamen, servants, jugglers, etc. decided to stay, and some married British women. By the mid-1880s, following Liverpools earlier example,[7] a small Chinatown started to form in London, with grocery stores, eating houses and meeting places and, in the East End of London, Chinese street names. By 1890, there were two distinct, if small, Chinese communities living in east London. Chinese from Shanghai settled around Pennyfields, Amoy Place, and Ming Street and those from Guangzhou Canton and Northern and Southern China lived around Gill Street and Limehouse Causeway. Liverpool also saw the beginning of a Chinese community, although this remained small until later in the 20th century.
In 1877, Kuo Sung-tao, the first Chinese minister to Britain, opened the country's legation in London.
There was growing prejudice against the Chinese community, particularly among British seamen who misperceived the Chinese seamen as a threat to their jobs. This prejudice was fed by media misrepresentations of the Chinese in Limehouse and Liverpool as being heavily involved in gambling and opium use, and objections to Chinese marrying British women.
From the early 1900s, due to being blocked from any other employment, many Chinese established small laundries. As few Chinese women lived in Britain, a number married British women and the laundries were operated as family concerns with all the family assisting. A few opened restaurants in their communities and the first recorded Chinese restaurant opened in London's Soho area in 1907. A small number of others also opened there, although it was not until the 1970s that London Soho Chinatown began to grow.
There was resistance to Chinese settling in Britain. After World War I ended, the Aliens Restriction Act was extended in 1919 to include peacetime, bringing about a decline in the Chinese population in Britain. In spite of requests from some of the 100,000 Chinese brought from China to serve in the Chinese Labour Corp in France and Belgium during the war to live in Britain, not one was given permission to enter the country. By 1918, the number of Chinese living in Pennyfields, Poplar totalled less than 200; all were men and nine of them had English wives. Although the numbers of Chinese residing in Limehouse, Liverpool and other ports fluctuated, the number of settled Chinese immigrants before the 1950s remained relatively small.
In World War II as more men were required to crew British merchant ships, the Chinese Merchant Seamen's Pool of approximately 20,000 was established with its headquarters in Liverpool. However, at the end of the war few Chinese who had worked as merchant seamen were allowed to remain in Britain. The British Government and the shipping companies colluded to forcibly repatriate thousands of Chinese seamen.[8] The Home Office issued a policy for the "Compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen."[9] Many of the seamen left behind wives and mixed-race children that they would never see again.[8] More than 50 years later in 2006, a memorial plaque in remembrance for those Chinese seamen was erected on Liverpool's Pier Head.[10] A network has also been established for families of Chinese seamen who were repatriated after the Second World War.[11]
Post-World War II
The 1951 Census recorded a big increase in Britain's Chinese population, then standing at 12,523, of whom over 4,000 were from
The largest wave of Chinese immigration took place during the 1950s and 1960s and consisted predominantly of male agricultural labourers from Hong Kong, particularly from the rural villages of the New Territories. This also included immigration, through Hong Kong, from the Guangdong province of China. The majority of these Chinese men were employed in the then growing Chinese catering industry. By 2004 for comparison, according to official figures, just under half of Chinese men and 40% of Chinese women in employment worked in the distribution, hotel, and restaurant industry.[12]
Since the
In 1976, Britain's Chinese population included approximately 6,000 full-time students and 2,000 nurses. The 1981
In 1981, the Census recorded Britain's Chinese population as 154,363. Thirty-five Chinese-language newspapers and 362 periodicals were on sale from seven bookshops in
The most significant migration from
In 1987, Manchester's Chinatown Archway, the largest in Europe at the time, was completed, marking co-operation between the government of China, Manchester City Council and the local Chinese community. Currently, the largest Chinese arch in the UK is located in Chinatown, Liverpool. It was constructed in 2000 and is also the largest such archway in the world outside of China.[13]
As Hong Kong and China became wealthier during the 1990s, Hong Kong and Chinese parents increasingly sent their children to study in the UK and elsewhere. An estimated 80,000 Hong Kong and Chinese students attended UK universities in the academic year of 2004–05. Small numbers of unskilled migrants from China sought employment in the UK in the early 1990s. In recent years, there has been an increase in illegal
In April 2001, one of the largest demonstrations by the Chinese community, with around 1,000 people protesting, was held in London against media reports that
Communities
From the beginning of Chinese settlement in the ports of London and Liverpool, there were no Chinatowns but communities of mixed families. Because few Chinese women were able to come to Britain, Chinese seamen established homes with local women. Many did not actually marry because that meant the woman could lose her British citizenship and would become an alien, resulting in restrictions on travel and benefits. The children of such unions often faced discrimination when it came to finding jobs. Many followed the example of Yorkshire-born Harry Cheong who had an exemplary army record during the Second World War, including fighting in Burma for which he was mentioned in dispatches. But on leaving the army he had to change his surname to get a job interview and has since lived as Harry Dewar. Such name changes have meant much Chinese history in Britain is now difficult to trace. Notable people who had Chinese fathers and English mothers include footballer
Liverpool
The first presence of Chinese people in
London
This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2022) |
Britain began trading with China in the 17th century and a small community of Chinese sailors grew up around
By the late 1960s, the Chinese restaurants and shops around Gerrard Street, Lisle Street, and Little Newport Street had evolved into "Tong Yan Kai", otherwise known as Chinatown. The general public developed a taste for Chinese food during the postwar restaurant boom. In 1963, the Zhongshan Workers' Club opened in the
Today[
Sheffield
Sheffield has no official Chinatown although
Wales
The largest two communities of Chinese people in Wales are in Swansea (approx 2,000+),[20] and Cardiff (approx 1,750+). A number of the former seamen from the port of Liverpool have retired, with a resultant aged community in Gwynedd.[21] There are noted Chinatowns in both cities, as well as dedicated Chinese cemeteries.[22]
See also
References
- ISBN 9781445686646.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-230-28850-8.
- ^ https://www.visitliverpool.com/explore/liverpool-city-centre/chinatown/#:~:text=Liverpool%20Chinatown%20was%20the%20first,Shanghai%2C%20Hong%20Kong%20and%20Liverpool.
- ^ Benton, Gregor (2009). "The Chinese in Britain, 1800-Present: Economy, Transnationalism, Identity". Indiana University Press. 51 (2).
- ^ A South Asian History of Britain: Four Centuries of Peoples from the Indian Subcontinent, Michael Fisher, Shompa Lahiri and Shinder Thandi. London: Greenwood Press, May 2007.
- ^ The Gentleman’s Magazine, August 1805 - obituary of John Anthony
- ^ https://www.visitliverpool.com/explore/liverpool-city-centre/chinatown/#:~:text=Liverpool%20Chinatown%20was%20the%20first,Shanghai%2C%20Hong%20Kong%20and%20Liverpool.
- ^ a b Castle, Jody-Lan (24 August 2015). "Looking for my Shanghai father". BBC News. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ^ "Compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen". Home Office.
- ^ Wong, Maria Lin (1989). Chinese Liverpudlians: A history of the Chinese Community in Liverpool. Liver Press.
- ^ Foley, Yvonne. "Liverpool and it's Chinese Children". www.halfandhalf.org.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- ^ "National Statistics 2004" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-07-22. Retrieved 2012-05-31.
- ^ "Chinese Arch".
- ^ Chinese Britain BBC News Online
- ^ Chinese restaurant 'not disease source'
- ^ BBC - Radio 4 - Chinese in Britain
- ^ Liverpool and its Chinese Seaman
- ^ Robertson, Frank. Triangle of Death. The Inside Story of the Triads - the Chinese Mafia. Routledge 1977. p. 14.
- ^ January 2005 survey and maps of ethnic and religious diversity in London Guardian Online
- ^ "City's Chinese culture on show". 14 September 2004.
- ^ "County support for older Chinese". 6 June 2006.
- ^ "Chinese cemetery landmarks revamp". 4 April 2010.