Chindian (; zh, c=中印人, p=Zhōngyìnrén, cy=Jūngyanyàn; ; ); is an informal term used to refer to a person of mixed
Chinese and
Indian ancestry; i.e. from any of the host of ethnic groups native to modern
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and modern
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. There are a considerable number of Chindians in
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
and
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
. In Maritime Southeast Asia, people of Chinese and Indian origins immigrated in large numbers during the 19th and 20th centuries.
There are also a sizeable number living in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
and smaller numbers in other countries with large
overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese people are Chinese people, people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. As of 2023, there were 10.5 milli ...
and
Indian diaspora
Overseas Indians (ISO 15919, ISO: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are people of Indian descent who reside or originate outside of India (Including those that were directly under the British Raj). Acc ...
, such as
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
,
Martinique
Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
,
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...
,
Suriname
Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...
and
Guyana
Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...
in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
, as well as
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
,
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
, the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
and also in
Mauritius
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...
.
Etymology
The term "Chindian" is a
portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. for both "
Chinese" and "
Indian" people.
Countries
China
Zhang Qian
Zhang Qian (; died c. 114 BC) was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and politician who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the late 2nd century BC during the Western Han dynasty. He was one of the first official diploma ...
(d. 113 BC) and
Sima Qian
Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...
(145–90 BC) make likely references to "
Shendu ("Sindhu" in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
), and during
Yunnan
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
's annexation by the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
in the first century an Indian "Shendu" community was living there. During
transmission of Buddhism from India to China from the first century onwards, many Indian scholars and monks travelled to China, such as
Batuo (
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
464–495 AD)—founder of the
Shaolin Monastery
Shaolin Monastery ( zh, labels=no, c=少林寺, p=shàolínsì), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin kung fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak o ...
—and
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese Lineage (Buddhism), patriarch. ...
—founder of
Chan/Zen Buddhism and there was also a large Indian trader community in
Quanzhou City and
Jinjiang district who built more than a dozen Hindu temples or shrines, including two grand big temples in Quanzhou city. During
colonial era Colonial period (a period in a country's history where it was subject to management by a colonial power) may refer to:
Continents
*European colonization of the Americas
* Colonisation of Africa
* Western imperialism in Asia
Countries
* Col ...
, Indians were among the crew of the Portuguese ships trading on the Chinese coast beginning in the sixteenth century and Indians from
Portuguese Indian Colonies (notably
Goa
Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...
) settled in
Macau
Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
in small numbers.
There are around 45,000–48,000 Indian nationals/expatriates living in mainland China as of 2015,
most of whom are students, traders and professionals employed with Indian IT companies and banks. There are three Indian community associations in the country.
Hong Kong
Indians have been living in Hong Kong long before the
partition of India
The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...
into the nations of
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
. They migrated to
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
as traders, police officers and army officers during
colonial rule
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an imperialist project, colonialism can also take ...
until it was
handed over to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
as a
special administrative region in 1997.
2,700 Indian troops in Hong Kong arrived with
British occupation on 26 January 1841, who later played an important role in setting up of the
University of Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...
(HKU) and the
Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). 25,000 of the
Muslims in Hong Kong trace their roots back to what is now Pakistan. Around half of them belong to 'local boy' families, Muslims of mixed Chinese (
Tanka
is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.
Etymology
Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...
) and Indian/Pakistani ancestry, descended from early Indian/Pakistani male immigrants who took local Chinese wives and brought their children up as Muslims and many remained there after the handover from Britain to China in 1997 as part of the
SAR. These "local Indians" were not completely accepted by either the Chinese or Indian communities.
India
There are
tiny communities of Chinese who migrated to India during the
British Raj
The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent,
*
* lasting from 1858 to 1947.
*
* It is also called Crown rule ...
and became naturalised citizens of India and there are 189,000 estimated total ethnic Chinese of Chindian or full Chinese ancestry.
The community living in
Kolkata
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
numbers around 4,000 and 400 families in
Mumbai
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
, where there are Chinatowns.
Chinese Indians also contributed to the development of fusion
Indian Chinese cuisine
Indian Chinese cuisine, Chinese Indian cuisine, Indo-Chinese cuisine, Sino-Indian cuisine, Chindian cuisine, Hakka Chinese or Desi-Chinese cuisine is a distinct style of Chinese cuisine adapted to Indian tastes and spices. Though Asian cuisi ...
(Chindian cuisine), which is now an integral part of the Indian culinary scene.
There are an estimated 5,000–7,000 Chinese expatriates living in India as of 2015, having doubled in number in recent years.
Most work on 2 to 3 year contracts for the growing number of Chinese brands and companies doing business in India.
[
]
British India
During the British Raj
The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent,
*
* lasting from 1858 to 1947.
*
* It is also called Crown rule ...
, some Chinese "convicts" deported from the Straits Settlements
The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...
were sent to be jailed in Madras
Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...
in India. The "Madras district gazetteers, Volume 1" reported an incident where the Chinese convicts escaped and killed the police sent to apprehend them: "Much of the building work was done by Chinese convicts sent to the Madras jails from the Straits Settlements (where there was no sufficient prison accommodation) and more than once these people escaped from the temporary buildings' in which they were confined at Lovedale. In 186^ seven of them got away and it was several days before they were apprehended by the Tahsildar, aided by Badagas sent out in all directions to search. On 28 July in the following year twelve others broke out during a very stormy night and parties of armed police were sent out to scour the hills for them. They were at last arrested in Malabar a fortnight later. Some police weapons were found in their possession and one of the parties of police had disappeared—an ominous coincidence. Search was made all over the country for the party and at length, on 15 September, their four bodies were found lying in the jungle at Walaghát, half way down the Sispára ghát path, neatly laid out in a row with their severed heads carefully placed on their shoulders. It turned out that the wily Chinamen, on being overtaken, had at first pretended to surrender and had then suddenly attacked the police and killed them with their own weapons." Other Chinese convicts in Madras who were released from jail then settled in the Nilgiri mountains near Naduvattam and married Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
People, culture and language
* Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka
** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
Paraiyan women, having mixed Chinese-Tamil children with them. They were documented by Edgar Thurston
Edgar Thurston (1855– 12 October 1935) was the British Superintendent at the Madras Government Museum from 1885 to 1908 who contributed to research studies in the fields of zoology, ethnology and botany of India, and later also published ...
. Paraiyan is also anglicised as "pariah".
Edgar Thurston described the colony of the Chinese men with their Tamil pariah wives and children: "Halting in the course of a recent anthropological expedition on the western side of the Nilgiri plateau, in the midst of the Government Cinchona plantations, I came across a small settlement of Chinese, who have squatted for some years on the slopes of the hills between Naduvatam and Gudalur and developed, as the result of ' marriage ' with Tamil pariah women, into a colony, earning an honest livelihood by growing vegetables, cultivating coffee on a small scale and adding to their income from these sources by the economic products of the cow. An ambassador was sent to this miniature Chinese Court with a suggestion that the men should, in return for monies, present themselves before me with a view to their measurements being recorded. The reply which came back was in its way racially characteristic as between Hindus and Chinese. In the case of the former, permission to make use of their bodies for the purposes of research depends essentially on a pecuniary transaction, on a scale varying from two to eight annas. The Chinese, on the other hand, though poor, sent a courteous message to the effect that they did not require payment in money, but would be perfectly happy if I would give them, as a memento, copies of their photographs." Thurston further describe a specific family: "The father was a typical Chinaman, whose only grievance was that, in the process of conversion to Christianity, he had been obliged to 'cut him tail off.' The mother was a typical Tamil Pariah of dusky hue. The colour of the children was more closely allied to the yellowish tint of the father than to the dark tint of the mother and the semimongol parentage was betrayed in the slant eyes, flat nose and (in one case) conspicuously prominent cheek-bones." Thurston's description of the Chinese-Tamil families were cited by others, one mentioned "an instance mating between a Chinese male with a Tamil Pariah female" A 1959 book described attempts made to find out what happened to the colony of mixed Chinese and Tamils.
According to Alabaster there were lard manufacturers and shoemakers in addition to carpenters. Running tanneries and working with leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...
was traditionally not considered a respectable profession among caste Hindus
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
and work was relegated to lower caste ''muchis'' and ''chamar
Chamar (or Jatav) is a community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's Reservation in India, system of affirmative action that originated from the group of trade persons who were involved in leather tanning and shoemaking. They a ...
s''. There was a high demand, however, for high quality leather goods in colonial India
Colonial India was the part of the Indian subcontinent that was occupied by European colonial powers during and after the Age of Discovery. European power was exerted both by conquest and trade, especially in spice trade, spices. The search for ...
, one that the Chinese were able to fulfill. Alabaster also mentions licensed opium dens run by native Chinese and a ''Cheena Bazaar'' where contraband was readily available. Opium, however, was not illegal until after India's Independence from Great Britain in 1947. Immigration continued unabated through the turn of the century and during World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
partly due to political upheavals in China such as the First and Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or ''Arrow'' War, was fought between the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major ...
s, First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...
and the Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...
. Around the time of the First World War, the first Chinese-owned tanneries sprang up.
In Assam
Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
, local Assamese women married Chinese migrants during British colonial times. It later became hard to physically differentiate Chinese in Assam from locals during the time of their internment during the 1962 war, as the majority of these Chinese in Assam were mixed.
Thailand
In Thailand, the majority of Chinese are considered "Thai Chinese" and have a long history of intermingling with ethnic as the Thai Chinese being a large and influential ethnic group, and Indians having a presence since the 1860s. There is a significant Indian community in Thailand, with an estimated 400,000 people of Indian origin residing there, many of whom are Thai-Indians with full or partial Indian ancestry who have intermixed and intermarried with the Thai population, forming a large indigenous community with the Chinese being the largest minority group and the Indian community having a noticeable presence in areas like the "Little India" district and in various businesses including the capital Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...
has a notable Indian community, with many having roots in modern India including China.
Singapore
In Singapore, the majority of interracial marriages occur between Chinese women and Indian men. The government of Singapore
The government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of Singapore, Constitution of the Republic of Singapore to consist of the President of Singapore, President and the Executive. Executive authority of Singapore is vested in the Presi ...
classifies them as their father's ethnicity. According to government statistics, 2.4% of Singapore's population are multiracial
The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more
races (human categorization), races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicity, ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used ...
, mostly Chindians. The highest number of interethnic marriages was in 2007, when 16.4% of the 20,000 marriages in Singapore were interethnic, again mostly between Chinese and Indians. Singapore only began to allow mixed-race persons to register two racial classifications on their identity cards in 2010. Parents may choose which of the two is listed first. More than two races may not be listed even if the person has several different ethnicities in their ancestry.
Malaysia
In Malaysia, the majority of interracial marriage
Interracial marriage is a marriage involving spouses who belong to different "Race (classification of human beings), races" or Ethnic group#Ethnicity and race, racialized ethnicities.
In the past, such marriages were outlawed in the United Sta ...
s occur between Chinese and Indians. The offspring of such marriages are informally known as "Chindian". The Malaysian government
The Government of Malaysia, officially the Federal Government of Malaysia (; Jawi: ), is based in the Federal Territory of Putrajaya, with the exception of the legislative branch, which is located in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is a federation comp ...
, however, considers them to be an unclassified ethnicity, using the father's ethnicity as the informal term. As the majority of these intermarriages usually involve an Indian male and Chinese female, the majority of Chindian offspring in Malaysia are usually classified as "Malaysian Indian
Indo-Malaysians are Malaysian of South Asian ancestry. Most are descendants of those who migrated from India to British Malaya from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Most Malaysian Indians are ethnic Tamils; smaller groups include the ...
" by the Malaysian government.
Guyana
In Guyana, Chinese men married Indian women due to the lack of Chinese women in the early days of settlement. Creole sexual relationships and marriages with Chinese and Indians were rare, however it has become more common for Indian women and Chinese men to establish sexual relations with each other and some Chinese men took their Indian wives back with them to China. Indian women and children were brought alongside Indian men as coolies
Coolie (also spelled koelie, kouli, khuli, khulie, kuli, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a pejorative term used for low-wage labourers, typically those of Indian or Chinese descent.
The word ''coolie'' was first used in the 16th century by Europ ...
while Chinese men made up 99% of Chinese coolies.
The contrast with the female to male ratio among Indian and Chinese immigrants has been compared by historians.
In Guyana, while marriages between Indian women and black African men is socially shameful to Indians, Chinese-Indian marriages are considered acceptable as reported by Joseph Nevadomsky in 1983. "Chiney-dougla" is the Indian Guyanese term for mixed Chinese-Indian children. Some Indian women in Guiana had multiple partners due to the greater number of men than women, an account of the era told by women in British Guiana is of a single Chinese man who was allowed to temporarily borrow a Hindu Indian woman by her Indian husband who was his friend, so the Chinese man could sire a child with her, after a son was born to her the Chinese man kept the boy while she was returned to her Indian husband, the boy was named William Adrian Lee. An Indian woman named Mary See married a Chinese man surnamed Wu in Goedverwagting and founded their own family after he learned how to process sugar cane.
In British Guiana, the Chinese did not maintain their distinctive physical features due to the high rate of Chinese men marrying people other ethnicities like Indian women. The severe imbalance with Indian men outnumbering Indian women led some women to take advantage of the situation to squeeze favors from men and leave their partners for other men, one infamous example was a pretty, light skinned, Christian Indian woman named Mary Ilandun with ancestral origins from Madras
Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...
, born in 1846, who had sex with Indian, black, and Chinese men as she married them in succession and ran off with their money to her next paramour, doing this from 1868 to 1884. Indian men used force to bring Indian women back in line from this kind of behavior. The most severe lack of women in all the peoples of British Guiana was with the Chinese and this led Europeans to believe that Chinese did not engage in wife murders while wife murders was something innate to Indian men, and unlike Indian coolie women, Chinese women were viewed as chaste. Chinese women were not indentured and since they did not need to work, they avoided prospective men seeking relationships, while the character of Indian women was disparaged as immoral and their alleged sexual looseness was blamed for their deaths in the "wife murders" by Indian men. The sex ratio of Indian men to Indian women was 100:63 while the sex ratio of Chinese men to Chinese women was 100:43 in British Guiana in 1891.
In British Guiana there was growth of coolie Indian women marriages with Chinese men and it was reported that "It is not an uncommon thing to find a cooly woman living with a Chinaman as his wife, and in one or two instances the woman has accompanied her reputed husband to China." by Dr. Comins in 1891 and an 1892 Immigration British Guiana authorities took note of marriages between Indian women and Chinese men that year.
Jamaica
When black and Indian women had children with Chinese men the children
A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...
were called chaina raial in Jamaican English. The Chinese community in Jamaica was able to consolidate because an openness to marrying Indian women was present in the Chinese since Chinese women were in short supply. Women sharing was less common among Indians in Jamaica according to Verene A. Shepherd. The small number of Indian women were fought over between Indian men and led to a rise in the amount of wife murders by Indian men. Indian women made up 11 percent of the annual amount of Indian indentured migrants from 1845 to 1847 in Jamaica.
Mauritius
In the late 19th to early 20th century, Chinese men in Mauritius married Indian women due to both a lack of Chinese women and higher numbers of Indian women on the island. 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 coming. The 1921 census in Mauritius counted that Indian women there had a total of 148 children sired by Chinese men. These Chinese were mostly traders. Colonialist stereotypes in the sugar colonies of Indians emerged such as "the degraded coolie woman" and the "coolie wife beater", due to Indian women being murdered by their husbands after they ran away to other richer men since the ratio of Indian women to men was low. It was much more common for Chinese and Indians to intermarry than within their own group. Intermarriage between people of different Chinese and Indian language groups is rare; it is so rare that the cases of intermarriage between Cantonese and Hakka can be individually named. Hakka Chinese, who came after Cantonese and Fujian chinese, were less likely to marry Indians.
Trinidad
The situation in Trinidad and British Guiana with Indian women being fewer than Indian men led to Indian women using the situation to their advantage by leaving their partners for other men, leading to a high incidence of "wife murders" by Indian men on their wives, and Indian women and culture were branded as "immoral" by European observers, an Indian Muslim man named Mohammad Orfy petitioned as a representative of "destitute Indian men of Trinidad", to the colonial authorities, complaining of Indian women's behavior and claiming that it was "a perforating plague...the high percentage of immoral lives led by the female section of our community...to satisfy the greed and lust of the male section of quite a different race to theirs... ndian womenare enticed, seduced and frightened into becoming concubines, and paramours... ndian womenhave absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the value of being in virginhood...most shameless and a perfect menace to the Indian gentry." with him naming specific peoples, claiming that Indian women were having sex with Chinese men, Americans, Africans, and Europeans, saying "Africans, Americans and Chinese in goodly numbers are enticing the females of India, who are more or less subtle to lustful traps augured through some fear of punishment being meted out if not readily submissive as requested."
The situation on Trinidad enabled unprecedented autonomy in the sexual activities of Hindu and Muslim Indian women and freedom. The 1916 "Peition of Indentured Labourers in Trinidad" complained that: "Is it permissible for a male member of the Christian faith to keep a Hindoo or Muslim female as his paramour or concubine? Is this not an act of sacrilege and a disgraceful scandal according to the Christian faith to entice and encourage Indian females to lead immoral lives?"
On plantations white European managers took advantage of and use indentured Indian woman for sex, in addition, English, Portuguese, and Chinese men were also in sexual relationships with Indian women as noted by Attorney General W.F. Haynes Smith, while Creole women were abhorred or ignored by Indian men. Approval of interracial marriage has increased in Trinidad and Tobago and one Chinese man reported that his Indian wife did not encounter any rejection from his parents when asked in a survey. In Trinidad Europeans and Chinese are seen as acceptable marriage partners for Indian women by Indian families while marrying black men would lead to rejection of their daughters by Indian families.
Martinique
As a result, some plantation owners imported workers from India and China after the abolishment of slavery in 1848 by the French national convention, with Chindians become citizens of France.
Notable people
* Juanita Ramayah, Malaysian radio announcer and TV Personality
* Jacintha Abisheganaden, Singaporean actress
* Ronald Arculli
Ronald Joseph Arculli (; born 2 January 1939 in Hong Kong) is former chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Non-official Members Convenor of the Executive Council of Hong Kong (Exco) and a senior partner at King & Wood Mallesons. He ...
, Chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX; ) operates a range of equity, commodity, fixed income and currency markets through its wholly owned subsidiaries The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (SEHK), Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limite ...
and Non-official Members Convenor of the Executive Council of Hong Kong
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(Exco).
* Vivian Balakrishnan
Vivian Balakrishnan (; born 25 January 1961) is a Singaporean politician, diplomat and former ophthalmologist who has been serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2015. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been th ...
, Singaporean politician
* Indranee Rajah
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, Singaporean politician
* Darryl David, Singaporean politician and former media personality
* Meiyang Chang
Meiyang Chang (born 6 October 1982) is an Indian actor, television host, singer and a dentist. He came to prominence as a contestant on the third season of the singing reality show '' Indian Idol'' in which he was among the five finalists. He ...
Actor, Singer, TV Host in India
* Bernard Chandran, Malaysian fashion designer
* Anya Ayoung-Chee
Anya Ayoung-Chee is a Trinidadian host, fashion designer, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She was Miss Universe Trinidad and Tobago 2008 and was a contestant in the Miss Universe 2008 pageant. She was the winner of '' Project Runway''s ...
, winner of Miss Trinidad and Tobago Universe 2008 and contestant in the Miss Universe 2008 pageant
* Chen Gexin, Chinese songwriter
* Che'Nelle
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Early life
Cheryline Er ...
(Cheryline Lim), Malaysian-born recording artist signed to Virgin Records America
* Karen David, British singer-songwriter born in Meghalaya, India
* Nicol David
Malay titles#Datuk, Datuk Nicol Ann David (born August 26, 1983) is a Malaysian retired professional squash (sport), squash player. She was the world number one for a record-breaking 108 consecutive months, ceding the ranking in September 2015 ...
, Malaysian athlete and former world number one female squash player
* Vanessa Fernandez, Singaporean singer and radio presenter
* Jonathan Foo, Guyanese cricketer
* Patricia Chin, Jamaican-American co-founder of VP Records
VP Records is an independent Caribbean-owned record label in Queens, New York. The label is known for releasing music by notable artists in reggae, dancehall and soca. VP Records has offices in New York City, Miami, London, Kingston, Tokyo, ...
* Hedy Fry
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, Trinidadian-Canadian politician
* Jonathan Putra, Malaysian TV Personality
* Jwala Gutta, Indian badminton player
* Sahil Khan, Indian actor
* Law Lan
Law Lan () MHAwarded in her original name Lo Yin-ying JP (born Lo Yin-ying (); 13 November 1934), is a veteran Hong Kong actress in both the film and TV industry.
Career
She started in the film industry in 1939, cast in antagonistic roles durin ...
, Hong Kong actress
* Mak Pak Shee
Mak Pak Shee ( zh, c=麦柏士, p=Mài Bǎishì) was a Singaporean politician.
Career
An African Chinese with Cantonese ancestry, Mak was the leader of the Singapore-based Labour Party. He left the party in August 1950. When he was in the Ca ...
, Singaporean politician
* Nicole Narain, American model
* Francissca Peter
Malay styles and titles, Dato' Luciana Francissca Lucian Gabriel Peter, Order of the Crown of Pahang, DIMP, also known as Fran, is a Malaysian actress and singer-songwriter.
Early life and background
Francissca was born into in Malaysia of Cey ...
, Malaysian singer
* Joseph Prince, Singaporean pastor and evangelist
* Michelle Saram, Hong Kong actress born in Singapore
* Astra Sharma, Australian tennis player
* Priscilla Shunmugam, Singaporean fashion designer
* Dipna Lim Prasad, Singaporean sprinter and hurdler
* Gurmit Singh, Singaporean television personality
* Prema Yin, Malaysian singer
* Nadine Ann Thomas, Miss Universe Malaysia 2010, actress, model and DJ.
* Vanessa Tevi Kumares, Miss Universe Malaysia 2015
* Joshua Simon, Singaporean radio and media personality, YouTube star
* Leong Hong Seng, former Malaysian professional footballer of MK LAND FC
* Liew Kit Kong, former Malaysian national capped footballer
* Ramesh Lai Ban Huat, Malaysian professional footballer
* Raj Joshua Thomas, Singapore Nominated Member of Parliament
A Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) is a non-partisan member of the Parliament of Singapore who is appointed by the president to contribute independent and diverse perspectives to parliamentary debates. They are not affiliated to any pol ...
* Kimmy Jayanti, Indonesian model and actress
* Mavin Khoo, Bharata Natyam
''Bharatanatyam'' is a Indian classical dance form that came from Tamil Nadu, India. It is a classical dance form recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas of Hinduism and Jainism. ...
dancer
* Bilahari Kausikan, Singaporean diplomat
* Keith Foo, Malaysian model and actor
* Aron Winter
Aron Mohammed Winter (born 1 March 1967) is a Dutch football manager and former player who most recently managed Suriname. A midfielder, he played for Ajax and Sparta Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and for Italian sides Lazio and Inter Milan. Born ...
, Dutch footballer
* Stuart Young, Trinidadian politician and current Prime Minister
See also
* Chindia
* Chinas
* Chinese people in India
* Indians in China
Indians in China are migrants from the Republic of India to the People's Republic of China and their descendants, the majority of whom are East Indians, mainly being from West Bengal and Bihar. There is also a significant proportion of North I ...
* China–India relations
China and India maintained peaceful relations for thousands of years, but their relationship has varied since the Chinese Communist Party's victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and the Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China. ...
* Chindian Cuisine
* Race in Singapore
References
External links
An illusion of purity
Double-tongued dictionary
{{Indians in Malaysia
Ethnic groups in Malaysia
Ethnic groups in Indonesia
Ethnic groups in Fiji
Indian diaspora in Singapore
Multiracial affairs