Mauritians of Chinese origin

Like members of other communities on the island, some of the earliest Chinese in Mauritius arrived involuntarily, having been "shanghaied" from Sumatra in the 1740s to work in Mauritius in a scheme hatched by the French admiral Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing; however, they soon went on strike to protest their kidnapping. Luckily for them, their refusal to work was not met by deadly force, but merely deportation back to Sumatra.[7] In the 1780s, thousands of voluntary migrants set sail for Port Louis from Guangzhou on board British, French, and Danish ships; they found employment as blacksmiths, carpenters, cobblers, and tailors, and quickly formed a small Chinatown, the camp des Chinois, in Port Louis. Even after the British takeover of the island, migration continued unabated.[8] Between 1840 and 1843 alone, 3,000 Chinese contract workers arrived on the island; by mid-century, the total resident Chinese population reached five thousand.[9]

The earliest migrants were largely Cantonese-speaking; but, later, Hakka-speakers from Meixian, further east in Canton (modern day Guangdong), came to dominate numerically; as in other overseas Chinese communities, rivalry between Hakka and Cantonese became a common feature of the society. [10] By the 1860s, shops run by Sino-Mauritians could be found all over the island. Some members of the colonial government thought that further migration should be prohibited, but Governor John Pope Hennessy, recognising the role that Sino-Mauritians played in providing cheap goods to less well-off members of society, resisted the restrictionists' lobbying.[10] I

In the late 19th to early 20th century, Chinese men in Mauritius married Indian women due to both a lack of Chinese women and the higher numbers of Indian women on the island.[11][12] At first the prospect of relations with Indian women was unappealing to the original all male Chinese migrants yet they eventually had to establish sexual unions with Indian women since there were no Chinese women arriving in the country.[13] The 1921 census in Mauritius counted that Indian women there had a total of 148 children fathered by Chinese men.[14][15][16] These Chinese were mostly traders.[17]

During the 1880s, despite the continuous influx of immigrants, Mauritius' Chinese population declined; Chinese traders, legally unable to purchase land in Mauritius, instead brought their relatives from China over to Mauritius. After training them for a few years to give them a handle on the business and to introduce them to life in a Western-ruled colonial society, the traders sent those relatives on their way, with capital and letters of introduction, to establish businesses in neighbouring countries. For example, between 1888 and 1898, nearly 1,800 Chinese departed from Port Louis with ports on the African mainland—largely Port Elizabeth and Durban—as their destinations.[18] By 1901, the Sino-Mauritian population had shrunk to 3,515 individuals, among them 2,585 being business owners.[9] Until the 1930s, Chinese migrants continued to arrive in Port Louis, but with the strain on the local economy's ability to absorb them, many found that Mauritius would only be their first stop; they went on to the African mainland (especially South Africa), as well as to Madagascar, Réunion, and Seychelles.[4] After World War II, immigration from China largely came to an end.[19]

However, Sino-Mauritians continued to maintain the personal ethnic networks connecting them to relatives in greater China, which would play an important role in the 1980s, with the rise of the export-processing zones. Foreign investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the factories they built in the EPZs, helped Mauritius to become the third-largest exporter of woollen knitwear in the world.[20] Along with the investors came a new influx of Chinese migrant workers, who signed on for three-year stints in the garment factories.[21]

Today, most Sino-Mauritians are businesspeople, with a "virtual monopoly" on retail trade.[22] After the Franco-Mauritian population, they form the second-wealthiest group on the island.[23] They own restaurants, retail and wholesale shops, and import-and-export firms. Chinese restaurants have greatly influenced Mauritian culture, and Chinese food is consumed all over the island by people of all backgrounds. Fried noodles is one of the most popular dishes. Mauritians from all ethnic origin and background also enjoy the various vegetables and meat balls (Niouk Yen, Sow Mai, Van Yen, Fee Yen) which originate from the Hakka cuisine in Meixian.

In a 2001 Business Magazine survey, 10 of the 50 largest companies were Chinese owned.[24]

Most Sino-Mauritian youth are at least trilingual: they use Mauritian Creole and French orally, while English—the language of administration and education—remains primarily a written language.[3][25] In the 1990 census, roughly one-third of Sino-Mauritians stated Mauritian Creole as both their ancestral language and currently spoken language. The other two-thirds indicated some form of Chinese as their ancestral language[26] although only fewer than one-quarter of census respondents who identified Chinese as their ancestral language also indicated it as the language spoken in the home.[27] Few Sino-Mauritian youth speak Chinese; those who do use it primarily for communication with elderly relatives, especially those who did not attend school and thus had little exposure to English or French.[28] None use it to communicate with their siblings or cousins.[29] Among those members of the community who do continue to speak Hakka, wide divergence with Meixian Hakka has developed in terms of vocabulary and phonology.[30]

Two Chinese-medium middle schools were established in the first half of the 20th century. The Chinese Middle School (华文学校, later called 新华中学 and then 新华学校) was established on 10 November 1912 as a primary school; in 1941, they expanded to include a lower middle school. Their student population exceeded 1,000.[31] The Chung-Hwa Middle School (中华中学), established by Kuomintang cadres on 20 October 1941, grew to enroll 500 students, but by the end of the 1950s, that had shrunk to just 300; they stopped classes entirely in the 1960s, although their alumni association remains prominent in the Sino-Mauritian community.[32] The Chinese Middle School also faced the problem of falling student numbers, as more Sino-Mauritians sent their children to mainstream schools, and in the 1970s stopped their weekday classes, retaining only a weekend section. However, their student numbers began to experience some revival in the mid-1980s; in the 1990s, they established a weekday pre-school section. Most of their teachers are local Sino-Mauritians, though some are expatriates from mainland China.[31]

Four Chinese-language newspapers continued to be published in Mauritius as of 2014.[33] A monthly news magazine also began publication in 2005.[34] The newspapers are printed in Port Louis, but not widely distributed outside the city.[26]

Entertainment

• Patrick Kwok-Choon: film, television, and stage actor.

Politics

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

Government Officials

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

Corporate

• Gaétan Siew: Architect. Past Secretary General of African Union of Architects. Past President of International Union of Architects
• Lawrence Wong: CEO of LaTrobe. President of Mauritius Cycling Federation[43]

Sports

• Kevin Cheung: National swimmer
• Karen Foo Kune: National badminton player; Sportswoman of the Year, 2004 and 2009; Ranked number one badminton player in the African continent on several occasions
• Kate Foo Kune: African Badminton Champion 2018, 2017, ...
• Elodie Li Yuk Lo: National beach volleyball player
• Lim Kee Chong: International football referee
• Patrick Chan: Tennis champion.

• Mauritian of African origin
• Mauritian of French origin
• Mauritian of Indian origin
• Mauritian Creole