Mauritians of Chinese origin, also known as Sino-Mauritians or Chinese Mauritians, are
Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry 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 ...
.
Migration history
Chinese migration from Sumatra to Mauritius
Like members of other communities on the island, some of the earliest Chinese in Mauritius arrived involuntarily, having been "
shanghaied" from
Sumatra
Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...
in the 1740s to work in Mauritius in a scheme hatched by the French admiral
Charles Hector, Comte d'Estaing; however, they soon went on strike to protest their kidnapping. The authorities responded by deporting them back to Sumatra.
Chinese migration from China to Mauritius
Late 1700s and early 1800s
In the 1780s, thousands of voluntary Chinese migrants (estimated to be more than 3,000
) set sail for
Port Louis from
Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
on board British, French, and Danish ships; they found employment as blacksmiths, carpenters, cobblers, and tailors, and quickly formed a small
Chinatown, the ''camp des Chinois'', in Port Louis. Even after the British takeover of the island, migration continued unabated.
The first wave of migration from China to Mauritius occurred in the early 1800s, the Chinese migrants who came to Mauritius were mainly
Hokkien
Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...
from
Xiamen (Amoy) in
Southern Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...
province.
Most of these migrants from Fujian were merchants and therefore according to the law they were not allowed to bring their families with them, were not allowed to buy lands unless they abandoned their Chinese citizenship and adopted British citizenship; therefore, this led to many intermarriages with women of the Creole and Indian communities in order to build their own families or buy land under the name of their spouses.
In 1829, the British brought a group of Chinese migrants to work on sugar plantations; harsh working conditions the Chinese migrants to start a failed revolt.
Between 1840 and 1843 alone, 3,000 Chinese contract workers arrived on the island.
By 1846, it is estimated that an influx of 50 Chinese migrants came to Mauritius per year.
By mid-century, the total resident Chinese population reached five thousand.
Circa mid-1800s
A second wave of migration from China mainly came from the city of
Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
(Canton). In the mid-1800s, they mainly came from the district of
Shunde.
Some of them were
coolies who passed through
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 came to Mauritius to work through the British colonial network, while others were merchants and craftsmen.
These migrants were known as the Cantonese and Namshun (南顺) in Mauritius.
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, recognizing the role that Sino-Mauritians played in providing cheap goods to less well-off members of society, resisted the restrictionists' lobbying.
Late 1800s and mid-1900s
During the 1880s, despite the continuous influx of immigrants, Mauritius' Chinese population declined; Chinese traders, legally unable to purchase land in Mauritius, instead brought their relatives from China over to Mauritius. After training them for a few years to give them a handle on the business and to introduce them to life in a Western-ruled colonial society, the traders sent those relatives on their way, with capital and letters of introduction, to establish businesses in neighbouring countries. For example, between 1888 and 1898, nearly 1,800 Chinese departed from Port Louis with ports on the African mainland—largely
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...
and
Durban
Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Situated on the east coast of South ...
—as their destinations.
In the
late 19th to early 20th century, Chinese men in Mauritius married
Indian women due to both a lack of Chinese women and the higher numbers of Indian women on the island.
From the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, a third wave of Chinese migrants came to Mauritius. This time, most of them were Hakka Chinese from the region of
Meixian (梅县; commonly known as ''Moyen'' in Hakka).
There were numerous reasons for their arrival in Mauritius, including their desire to escape starvation or seek fortune. During that period of time, Chinese women were allowed to come in Mauritius and contributed to an increase growth of the Chinese community; moreover, the Hakka were reluctant to marry with other ethnic communities and started organizing marriage with Chinese women back home to maintain their community's blood purity, some women even became known as "marriage breakers" as they attempted to break mixed marriage of Chinese men to make them remarry a Chinese spouse.
The earliest migrants were largely
Cantonese
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
-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.
The Hakka-Cantonese tensions led to the resettlement of many Cantonese in
Reunion Island and
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
.
By the end of the 19th century, the Hakkas became the dominant group outnumbering the Cantonese and Fukienese together.
By 1901, the Sino-Mauritian population had shrunk to 3,515 individuals, among them 2,585 being business owners.
The 1921 census in Mauritius counted that Indian women there had a total of 148 children fathered by Chinese men.
These Chinese were mostly traders.
Until the 1930s, Chinese migrants continued to arrive in
Port Louis, but with the strain on the local economy's ability to absorb them, many found that Mauritius would only be their first stop; they went on to the African mainland (especially
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
), as well as to
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
,
Réunion
Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...
, and
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...
.
After World War II, immigration from China largely came to an end.
Mid-1900s to late 1900s
Between the 1950s and 1980s, there was a considerable reduction of contacts with China due to the establishment of the
People's Republic of China
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 ...
; nearly all Chinese migration from China was stopped.
During this period, Hakka women from
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
arrived in Mauritius to marry the local Hakka Chinese men in Mauritius.
Until 1997, investors and merchants from Hong Kong were encouraged to come to Mauritius to start their own trading business but only few people from Hong Kong permanently migrated to Mauritius.
Sino-Mauritians continued to maintain the personal ethnic networks connecting them to relatives in
greater China
In ethnogeography, "Greater China" is a loosely-defined term that refers to the region sharing cultural and economic ties with the Chinese people, often used by international enterprises or organisations in unofficial usage. The notion contains ...
, 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. Along with the investors came a new influx of Chinese
migrant workers, who signed on for three-year stints in the garment factories.
After the 1980s, China reopened up to the world and migration from China to Mauritius slowly restarted and therefore, the old marriage network of the Hakka was re-established, allowing Hakka women from Meixian to marry the local Hakka Sino-Mauritians.
Simultaneously, Chinese women migrant workers who came to work in textile factories came from all regions of China and some of them decided to remain in Mauritius instead of returning to China after the completion of their work contract; these Chinese women married Sino-Mauritian men and settled with their families in Mauritius.
However, the local Sino-Mauritian community in Mauritius declined in numbers as some decided to immigrate to Canada, the US, and Australia.
Demographics, distribution, and employment
Ethnic subgroups and cultural identity
Cantonese / Namshun
Sino-Mauritians who trace their Cantonese ancestors from the province of Guandong are known as the "Namshun" (南顺) or "Cantonese" in Mauritius.
Sino-Mauritian of Cantonese origins in Mauritius have their own separate associations, societies, and events; for example, the Nam Shun Society (Namshun Fooy Koon; 南顺会馆
) in Port Louis.
The Nam Shun society is an association for the Sino-Mauritians whose ancestors mainly originated from Nam Hoi (
Nanhai district) and Shun Tak (
Shunde).
Fokien / Fukien / Hokkien
Sino-Mauritians who trace their ancestors from province
Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...
in China, are known as 'Fokien', 'Fukien' or 'Hokkien' people in Mauritius; this is in reference of the ancestral province location.
Due to their intermarriage with other ethnic groups (mostly creole and Indian), people who are born with mixed ancestral are perceived as "Sino-creoles"; Sino-creoles, however, are often proud of their ancestors and perceived themselves as Chinese.
Hakka
Nowadays, most Sino-Mauritians living in Mauritius are
Hakka (客家) who can trace their ancestry back to
Meixian, Guangdong province.
Sino-creoles
The Sino-creoles are typically categorized as "''General population"'' in the Mauritian demographic census despite being a subgroup of the Sino-Mauritian community.
' The Sino-creoles community in Mauritius can include:
# Children born of a mixed marriage between a Sino-Mauritian and a non-Chinese person.
# Descendants of Chinese migrants who married with a member of a non-Chinese community in Mauritius, e.g. descendants of the Fukien male migrants who married women of a non-Chinese ethnic community.
# Children born of a Mauritian of non-Chinese origin who married a Chinese spouse from China
Employment
Historically, most Sino-Mauritians became businesspeople, with a once "virtual monopoly" on retail trade. In per capita terms, after the Franco-Mauritian population, they form the second-wealthiest group on the island. They own restaurants, retail and wholesale shops, and import-and-export firms.
Chinese restaurants have greatly influenced
Mauritian culture, and
Chinese food is consumed all over the island by people of all backgrounds. Fried noodles is one of the most popular dishes. Mauritians from all ethnic origin and background also enjoy the various vegetables and meat balls (Niouk Yen, Sow Mai, Van Yen, Fee Yen) which originate from the Hakka cuisine in Meixian.
In a 2001 Business Magazine survey, 10 of the 50 largest companies were Chinese owned.
Language
Most Sino-Mauritian youth are at least trilingual: they use
Mauritian Creole and French orally, while English—the language of administration and education—remains primarily a written language.
In the 1990 census, roughly one-third of Sino-Mauritians stated Mauritian Creole as both their ancestral and currently spoken language. The other two-thirds indicated
some form of Chinese as their ancestral language
although only fewer than one-quarter of census respondents who identified Chinese as their ancestral language also indicated it as the language spoken in the home. Few Sino-Mauritian youth speak Chinese; those who do use it primarily for communication with elderly relatives, especially those who did not attend school and thus had little exposure to English or French. None use it to communicate with their siblings or cousins. Among those members of the community who do continue to speak
Hakka, wide divergence with Meixian Hakka has developed in terms of vocabulary and phonology. Other of varieties of Chinese spoken in Mauritius aside Hakka are:
Hokkien
Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...
,
Cantonese
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
, and
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern Standard language, standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the Republic of ...
.
Chinese schools
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.
The Chung-Hwa Middle School (中华中学), established by
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...
cadres on 20 October 1941, grew to enroll 500 students, but by the end of the 1950s, that had shrunk to just 300; they stopped classes entirely in the 1960s, although their alumni association remains prominent in the Sino-Mauritian community. The Chinese Middle School also faced the problem of falling student numbers, as more Sino-Mauritians sent their children to mainstream schools, and in the 1970s stopped their weekday classes, retaining only a weekend section. However, their student numbers began to experience some revival in the mid-1980s; in the 1990s, they established a weekday pre-school section. Most of their teachers are local Sino-Mauritians, though some are expatriates from mainland China.
Media
Four Chinese-language newspapers continued to be published in Mauritius .
A monthly news magazine also began publication in 2005.
The newspapers are printed in Port Louis, but not widely distributed outside the city.
''Chinese Commercial Gazette''
The ''Chinese Commercial Gazette'' (华侨商报) was once the largest and most influential Chinese-language newspaper in Mauritius.
It stopped publishing in the 1960s, and merged with the ''China Times''.
''Chinese Daily News''
The ''Chinese Daily News'' (中华日报) is a pro-
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...
newspaper. It was founded in 1932. The rivalry between Beijing-friendly and Taipei-friendly newspapers reached its peak in the 1950s; then-editor-in-chief of the ''Chinese Daily News'', Too Wai Man (杜蔚文), even received death threats.
''China Times''
The ''China Times'' (formerly 中国时报; now 华侨时报) was founded in 1953.
The editor-in-chief, Long Siong Ah Keng (吴隆祥), was born in 1921 in Mauritius; at age 11, he followed his parents back to their ancestral village in
Meixian,
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
, where he graduated from high school and went on to
Guangxi University. After graduation, he signed on with the ''Chinese Commercial Gazette'' and returned to Mauritius. He left Mauritius again in 1952 to work for a Chinese paper in India, but a position at the ''China Times'' enticed him back.
Originally a four-page paper, the ''China Times'' later expanded to eight full-colour pages.
''The Mirror''
''The Mirror'' (镜报) was established in 1976.
It is published on a weekly basis every Saturday. At its peak, they had a staff of eight people. Their editor-in-chief, Mr. Ng Kee Siong (黄基松), began his career at the ''Chinese Commercial Paper'' in 1942 at the age of 25. After 18 years there, the paper was forced to shut down. He and a team of fellow journalists founded a paper to replace it, the ''New Chinese Commercial Paper''. It was while working there that he met Chu Vee Tow and William Lau, who would help him to establish ''The Mirror''.
Another editor and journalist, Mr. Poon Yune Lioung POON YOW TSE (冯云龙), who studied foreign languages at
Tsinghua University, was also solicited to lend a hand.
The paper is printed by Dawn Printing, which is currently run by Ng Kee Siong's son David.
Most of ''The Mirrors readers are in their forties or older; it has subscribers not just in Mauritius, but Réunion, Madagascar, Canada, China, Australia and Hong Kong as well.
The paper's local readership has been boosted slightly by guest workers from China, but the circulation barely exceeded 1,000 copies in 2001.
By 2006, that number had fallen to seven hundred.
In 2010, ''The Mirror'' stopped publication.
''SinoNews''
''Hua Sheng Bao'' (华声报), also referred to as ''Sinonews'', was founded in 2005. With regards to its editorial line, it is a supporter of
Chinese unification. It began as a daily newspaper solely in Chinese, but then changed to an eight-page format, including one page each of English and French news. It mostly prints
Xinhua
Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: ),J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English or New China News Agency, is the official State media, state news agency of the China, People's Republic ...
newswire reports, with the last page devoted to local news.
Culture of Mauritians of Chinese origins
Nowadays, the Sino-Mauritians is a minority community in Mauritius which is facing numerous challenges, including
deculturalization and the loss of ancestral values; with the young Sino-Mauritians losing their Chinese identity.
Chinese arts and literature
Chinese literature / legends / stories
Some Chinese legends and stories continue to persist and to be transmitted in the Sino-Mauritian community due to their associations with the major festivals in which they partake in.
Chinese legends and stories which continue to persist within the Sino-Mauritian community, include:
* The legend of
Houyi and Chang'e, associated with the Moon Festival (
Mid-Autumn Festival)
* The legend of
Nian, associated with Chinese New Year's firecracker tradition
* The Story of Dragon Boat Festival related to the consumption of ''
zong'' and the commemoration of
Qu Yuan, associated with the
Dragon Boat Festival
Dance and music
Sino-Mauritians continue to perform some traditional Chinese dances, like the dragon dance.
The lion dance and dragon dance holds an important place in the Sino-Mauritian culture.
Martial arts
Chinese martial arts are practiced within the Sino-Mauritian community and are no more exclusive to their community in Mauritius. Some of these martial arts are:
*
Kung fu
Chinese martial arts, commonly referred to with umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater Ch ...
*
Tai chi
*
Wing Chun
Chinese clans, Chinese associations and society, and name structure
During the colonial period, the Chinese migrants who came to Mauritius were known to be "clanish" in nature.
The 3 main Chinese subgroups (Fukien, Namshun, and Hakka) in Mauritius each had their own recognized leaders.
Recognized leaders during that period were:
Hahime Choisanne (Fukien),
Affan Tank Wen (Cantonese).
Most Chinese immigrants who came to Mauritius during the colonial period easily rebuilt their clan network in Mauritius; these clan networks came to function as
mutual aid societies and
social centres for the Chinese immigrants and their descendants.
Chinese Societies and clan associations continue to exist in present-day Mauritius.
Names of Sino-Mauritians
Sino-Mauritians may have a European name (usually a French name) as their first name.
= Surname structure of Sino-Mauritians
=
The surname of Sino-Mauritians are typically composed of 2 or 3 syllables-long instead of being one-syllable long as found in typical
Chinese surname
Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicization, Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, ...
; this is the result of surname alternation during the administrative process of the past Chinese immigration system to Mauritius, often happened through the stop over in Hong Kong during the Colonial period.
Most Sino-Mauritians use the full Chinese name, which includes the Chinese surname (姓; ''xing'') and Chinese first name (名字, ''mingzi''), of their (patrilineal), of their Chinese immigrant ancestor (i.e. the first generation Chinese immigrant who arrived to Mauritius) who had his full name turned into a last name during the immigration process.
Therefore, when a baby is born in Mauritius (second generation), he is registered with the surname of his father and therefore inherit a three-syllables surname;
this pattern of surname is later followed by the subsequent generations.
The variation in Sino-Mauritian surname spelling is mostly due to the pronunciation of Chinese names into Latin script.
Throughout the immigration process, some Chinese migrants had their first name turned into their surname while others had their Chinese nicknames (e.g. in the form of "''Ah-given name''") turned into their surname.
Sino-Mauritians who lacks their forefather's ''xing'' in their surname rely on oral transmission from generations to generations to be aware of their ancestral surname.
Clothing
In the 19th century, Chinese men living in Mauritius working as shopkeepers wore
shanku and braided their hair in a
queue. When they walked on streets however, they would wear European shoes and large umbrellas; the wealthy Chinese merchants would carry leather bags.
The picture of Ahime Choisanne stored in the Kwan Tee Pagoda in Les Salines shows him wearing formal official uniform of the Qing dynasty (Mandarin robe with ''
buzi'',
Qing guanmao,
chaozhu).
Nowadays, Sino-Mauritians mainly wear Western-style clothing in their daily lives.
Cuisine
Sino-Mauritian cuisine includes both
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine comprises cuisines originating from Greater China, China, as well as from Overseas Chinese, Chinese people from other parts of the world. Because of the Chinese diaspora and the historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine ...
and localization of Chinese cuisine. Sino-Mauritians also follow and/or have maintained some Chinese food traditions and customs. For example, the tradition of
Chinese red eggs which are shared with family members.
It is also customary for Sino-Mauritians to eat
fried noodles on birthday celebrations.
Despite being one of the smallest community in Mauritius, Sino-Mauritian cuisine is the most present in the restaurants throughout the island.
Chinese calendar and zodiac
Some Sino-Mauritian still refer to the
Tung Shing (Chinese almanac) to find auspicious dates and time for diverse events in their lives, including:
* Their wedding date;
* The time to light firecrackers on Chinese New Year
The
Chinese zodiac is still followed and holds an important place within the Sino-Mauritian community.
Festivals and holidays
Sino-Mauritian, like all Mauritians regardless of their origins, celebrates on the Gregorian calendar-based
New Year's Eve
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...
and
New Year (1 January).
They also follow some Traditional Chinese festival and holidays:
Dual religion systems and other religions
The majority of the
Sino-Mauritians are Catholics, a result of conversions during the colonial era. During the colonial era, some of the earliest converts to Catholicism were Chinese men who married with Christian Creole women.
In this form of interethnic marriage, boys born of Chinese men could be baptized but they would still follow the traditions of their fathers; however, daughters were usually raised as Catholics.
Therefore, some Chinese had to convert to Catholicism in order to marry.
However, until the end of the 19th century, more than 92% of the Chinese were still following their traditional Chinese religions.
Other reasons leading to the increase in Christianity of conversion were the social benefits of being Catholics; local schools also introduced Roman Catholic faith to their students; there were also many similarities in rites shared between Chinese religions and Catholicism which gave them a sense of familiarity; but the major reason is related to the tolerance of the Catholic church who allowed Chinese converts to continue their ancestor worship as it was considered a cultural practice instead of a religious practice.
Many Hakka converted due to social pressure and interactions with the Catholic communities; e.g. Catholic neighbours would convince them to convert.
Converting to Catholicism also allowed them to send their children to Catholic schools.
The rate of conversion speeded up in the early 20th century; it is estimated that 17% of the Chinese were Christians in 1911 and by 1921, 28% of the Chinese and Sino-Mauritians in the country had become Christians.
From the 1940s to 1960s, there were also many Catholic missionaries who worked on converting the Chinese and Sino-Mauritians to Catholicism, leading to a significant impact on the increase in the conversion speed.
From the 1950s and onwards, Chinese religions re-emerged leading to the construction of more pagodas.
By 1980s, 66% of the Sino-Mauritians were Catholic and a small amount converted to Protestantism.
Nowadays, a majority of Sino-Mauritians also identify as Catholic Christians.
Other Sino-Mauritians are Protestant. Despite their identifying as Catholics, there is however a long tradition of religious parallelism among the Sino-Mauritian families, and as such, elements of Chinese religions still continue to exist even among the Christian Sino-Mauritian families.
Nowadays, Sino-Mauritians (even Catholic Sino-Mauritian
) still follow some form of Chinese-related religions (which include
Taoist and
Chinese Folk religions); a minority of Sino-Mauritians follow
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
; they also follow
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...
.
Typically, some syncretism occurred, incorporating elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and traditional ancestor worship. Sino-Mauritian Christians, especially members of the older generations, sometimes retain certain traditions from Buddhism. Catholics Sino-Mauritians still frequent Chinese pagodas.
The Catholic Church of Mauritius also recognises the dual religion system practice by the Sino-Mauritians to preserve their distinct traditions, including ancestral worship which remains a significant aspect of their everyday life.
Traditional Chinese religion and Chinese pagodas
In the present day,
Guan Di (Kwan Tee; the god of wealth, also the god of war and the righteous and the benefactor) is an important deity for Sino-Mauritians, especially for those working in the business field.
In Chinese Pagodas, altars can also be found for
Guan Yin, the
Goddess Mazu (also known as Tin Hao; the goddess of the sea and the protector of sailors), the God
Choy Sun (the God of Good Fortune).
The goddess Mazu is usually prayed by Sino-Mauritians to seek for protection for their relatives who travel abroad and to wish for their safe and good return home.
For the one-month-old celebration of a Sino-Mauritian baby, the parents and the grandparents of the child make offerings to the
Yudi (god of Heaven) and to Guan Yin.
Pagodas also shelter ancestral cult altars and ancestral tablets. Following Chinese tradition, religious services are typically conducted one week after death at the Pagoda and the ancestral tablet of the deceased with his name written in
Chinese characters
Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...
will be deposited behind the altar.
On
Chinese New Year, descendants of the deceased can practice the ancestral rites before the Ancestral tablets as a sign of respect.
Burial site and practices
By 1819, there was already a burial site for the Chinese community in Mauritius in Port Louis.
The early Chinese graves in Mauritius (e.g. those dating from the late 1830s) were made of stones; each gravestone would 3 perpendicular rows of characters engraved on them and coloured in red.
Despite the majority of Sino-Mauritians identifying as Catholics, some Sino-Mauritian families still preserve traditional Chinese funeral rites and traditions.
Fengshui
Fengshui is important to the Sino-Mauritian community and their ancestors. The site location of the first pagoda in Mauritius, Kwan Tee Pagoda, was based on Fengshui.
Chinese medicine
Natural remedies (local or imported from China) are still used in the Sino-Mauritian community in Mauritius where
Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
has likely been valued, preserved, and transmitted from generation to generation.
Sino-Mauritians are also observed to have deep knowledge on the preparation and administration of herbal remedies.
Chinese numerology
Sino-Mauritians maintain certain beliefs related to
Chinese numerology which impact their daily lives. For example, the number 4 (四 si) continues to be associated with its homonym death (死 si), and therefore is considered an unlucky number to be avoided.
Significant cultural landmarks
Significant cultural landmarks of the Sino-Mauritian include: the
Chinatown of Mauritius in
Port Louis and the presence of
Chinese pagoda
A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhism, Buddhist, bu ...
throughout the island.
In 2013, there were 11 pagodas in Mauritius all found in Port Louis.
Port Louis also houses the
Kwan tee Pagoda at Les Salines, which is the oldest Chinese pagoda in Mauritius and in the Southern hemisphere.
Port Louis also houses one of the oldest Chinatowns in Africa.
Wedding and pre-wedding customs
Nowadays, many Sino-Mauritians have Catholic weddings and their wedding celebrations are almost similar to those of the Mauritian Creoles, but they also fuses some form of traditional Confucian or Buddhist traditions involving gift exchange between families and dowry, processions between each other's houses and performing prayers and rites at their family altars.
Traditionally, the parents of the bride throw a dinner party approximately one week before the wedding for her close relatives and friends.
On the day of the wedding, they offer offerings to their ancestors and the grooms eat 2 hard boiled eggs (symbol of fertility). Their bridal bed needs to be made by 2 women who are considered having a successful and fortunate marriage and who have a son and a daughter; this is followed by a young boy who performs a somersault.
The bride typically wears a white dress and her father helps place a headdress and a veil on her; the groom's mother gives a new set of gold jewelry to his new daughter-in-law as dowry when the groom's party goes to pick up the bride. The mother of the bride gives her a bouquet and they go to the church in separate cars; the church procession and services are the same as Catholic Mauritian creole wedding, but not all the Chinese guests attend as many older generations were not Christian and the latter would directly go to the reception hall and wait for the couple to arrive.
They also perform the tea ceremony.
Some couple consult the
Tung Shing (Chinese almanac) to find auspicious dates and time for their tea ceremony to take place while others decide to have the tea ceremony between the church ceremony and the reception hall ceremony which made the couple and bridal party to make a detour to their house to perform the tea ceremony before going to the reception hall.
When the couple arrive to the reception hall, string of red firecrackers are set. The couple and their bridesmaid walk round the hall and food is served. Speeches and toasts are not very common.
There is also a cake cutting moment and following this event, the guests start to disperse. Most Chinese wedding will also end with dances, and the
sega
is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
is becoming increasingly popular.
Significant contributions to Mauritius
Despite being a minority group in Mauritius, thee Sino-Mauritians and their ancestors have contributed to the social and economic development of the Mauritian community and have influenced the multicultural society of Mauritius. They are a small community which has distinguished themselves from the other communities in Mauritius by being pioneers and being an indispensable part of the economic entity.
Notable Mauritians of Chinese origin
;Entertainment
*
Patrick Kwok-Choon: film, television, and stage actor.
* Brendan Pang: Australian cook and restaurant-owner who competed in
MasterChef Australia
''MasterChef Australia'' is an Australian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British ''MasterChef (British TV series), MasterChef''. It is produced by Endemol Shine Australia and screens on Network 10.
Restaurateur and ch ...
.
;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
Dick Christophe Ng Sui WA: Barrister and politician. Chairman of ICT Regulatory Authority of Mauritius. Former Commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission. 2018-2019.
;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
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
;Sports
*
Kevin Cheung: National swimmer
*
Karen Foo Kune: National badminton player; Sportswoman of the Year, 2004 and 2009; Ranked number one badminton player in the African continent on several occasions, Member of Parliament (2024-)
*
Kate Foo Kune: African Badminton Champion 2018, 2017
*
Elodie Li Yuk Lo: National beach volleyball player
*
Lim Kee Chong: International football referee
*
Nathalie Lee Baw: swimmer
*
Christophe Lim Wen Ying: swimmer
*
Elodie Poo-cheong: swimmer
*
Nicki Chan-Lam: British-born badminton player
*
Alicia Kok Shun: swimmer
*
Shannon Wong: Tennis
See also
*
Mauritian of African origin
*
Mauritian of French origin
*
Mauritian of Indian origin
*
Mauritian Creole
*
List of Sino-Mauritian dishes
Notes
References
Sources
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{{#related:Mauritius
Asian diaspora in Mauritius
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 ...
China–Mauritius relations