Chinese immigration to Hawaii
Total population | |
---|---|
198,711 (2010) [1] | |
Languages | |
Cantonese, English, Hawaiian, Hakka | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholicism, Protestantism Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Hakka Americans, Cantonese people |
The Chinese in Hawaii constitute about 4.7% of the state's population, most of whom (75%) are Cantonese people with ancestors from Zhongshan in Guangdong. This number does not include people of mixed Chinese and Hawaiian descent. If all people with Chinese ancestry in Hawaii (including the Chinese-Hawaiians) are included, they form about 1/3 of Hawaii's entire population. As United States citizens, they are a group of Chinese Americans. A minority of this group have Hakka ancestry.
History
[edit]Historical records indicated that the earliest presence of Chinese in Hawaii dates back to the late 18th century: a few sailors in 1778 with Captain James Cook's journey, more in 1788 with John Meares, and some in 1789 with American trader Simon Metcalfe, who reached Maui from Macau.[2] Visiting the Sandwich Islands in 1794, Captain George Vancouver reported seeing one Chinese resident.[3]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Chinese_Family_in_Hawaii_1893.jpg/220px-Chinese_Family_in_Hawaii_1893.jpg)
Encouraged by King Kamehameha I, Hawaii exported sandalwood to China from 1792 to around 1843.[3] As a result, Chinese people dubbed the Hawaiian Islands "Tan Heung Shan" (Chinese: 檀香山), roughly "Fragrant Sandalwood Hills" in Cantonese.[4][5] Between 1852 and 1899, around 46,000 Chinese immigrated to Hawaii.[6] In 1900, the Chinese population in Hawaii was 25,767.[7] More of these migrants were from Fukien and spoke Fukienese rather than Cantonese. An American missionary observing Maui in 1856 found that the primarily Cantonese shopkeepers and Fukienese laborers communicated in the Hawaiian language.[8]
Although many came as laborers for sugar plantations in Hawaii, they concentrated on getting education for their children. When their contracts expired, many decided to remain in Hawaii and opened businesses in areas such as Chinatown. By 1950 most Chinese American men in Hawaii were educated and held good jobs. Today 95% of Chinese Americans in Hawaii live in Honolulu.
A significant minority of early Chinese immigrants to Hawaii, and even fewer to the Continental US, were Hakka, and much of the animosity between the Hakka and Punti Cantonese people carried over.[9] In the first half of the 1800s, around 30 percent of Chinese in Hawaii were of Hakka, while only about 3 percent in the West Coast were Hakka.[10] The largest surge of immigration in that century occurred after an 1876 treaty between the US and Kingdom of Hawaii led to an increased need for labor.
The majority of marriages between Chinese men and European women in Hawaii were between Cantonese men and Portuguese women.[11][12] Portuguese and other European women married Chinese men.[13][14] These unions between Cantonese men and Portuguese women resulted in children of mixed Cantonese-Portuguese parentage, called Cantonese-Portuguese. For two years to June 30, 1933, 38 of these children were born, they were classified as pure Chinese because their fathers were Chinese.[15] A large amount of mingling took place between Chinese and European, Chinese men married Portuguese, Spanish, Hawaiian, Caucasian-Hawaiian, etc.[16][17][18][19] Only one Chinese man was recorded marrying an American woman.[20][21] Chinese men in Hawaii also married Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek, and half-white women.[22][23] There was a communal ban on intermarriages between the two groups for the first generation of migrants.[24] In the middle of the 19th century, Hakka immigrants in America were excluded from membership in the Chinese organizations.[25]
Religion
[edit]Prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries in Hawaii, the early Chinese settlers were adherents of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Some even blended aspects of native Hawaiian beliefs into their own belief systems.
Today, due to the work of Christian missionaries in the late 19th century and the 20th century, many of the Chinese in Hawaii are adherents of Protestant and Roman Catholic Christianity. Still, about 100 Buddhist and ancestral temples remain. The minority who adhere to traditional Chinese religions pay pilgrimage to their ancestors annually. However, no accurate statistics of adherents within the Chinese community in Hawaiʻi are available.
List of notable Chinese people from Hawaiʻi
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Portrait_of_Chinese-Hawaiian_boy%2C_titled_%27The_Fisher_Boy%27_%28front_view%29_1909.jpg/220px-Portrait_of_Chinese-Hawaiian_boy%2C_titled_%27The_Fisher_Boy%27_%28front_view%29_1909.jpg)
- Chun Afong
- Daniel K. Akaka
- Joseph Apukai Akina
- Chang Apana
- Brian Ching
- Madison Chock
- Norm Chow
- William K.S. Chow
- Sam Choy
- Kam-Fong Chun
- Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon
- Auliʻi Cravalho
- Hiram L. Fong
- Clayton Hee
- Don Ho
- Hoku Ho
- Kelly Hu
- Jason Scott Lee
- Richard Loo
- Tai Sing Loo
- Agnes Lum
- Carissa Moore
- William S. Richardson
- Logan Tom
- Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu
- Khalil Fong
See also
[edit]- Filipinos in Hawaii
- Japanese in Hawaii
- Puerto Rican immigration to Hawaii
- Korean immigration to Hawaii
- Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico
References
[edit]- ^ U.S. Census Bureau: QT-P8: Race Reporting for the Asian Population by Selected Categories: 2010
- ^ Nordyke & Lee 1989, pp. 196–197.
- ^ a b Nordyke & Lee 1989, p. 197.
- ^ Takaki 1998, p. 31.
- ^ Glick 1980, p. 2.
- ^ Glick 1980, p. 18.
- ^ Takaki 1998, p. 38.
- ^ Glick 1980, p. 8.
- ^ McDermott, John F.; Tseng, Wen-Shing; Maretzki, Thomas W. (1980). People and Cultures of Hawaii: A Psychocultural Profile. ISBN 9780824807061.
- ^ Carney Smith, Jessie (1983). Ethnic Genealogy: A Research Guide. ISBN 9780313225932.
- ^ Romanzo Adams (2005). Interracial Marriage in Hawaii. Kessinger Publishing. p. 396. ISBN 978-1-4179-9268-3. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ Margaret M. Schwertfeger (1982). "Interethnic Marriage and Divorce in Hawaii A Panel Study of 1968 First Marriages". Marriage & Family Review. 5. Kessinger Publishing: 49–59. doi:10.1300/J002v05n01_05.
- ^ David Anthony Chiriboga, Linda S. Catron (1991). Divorce: crisis, challenge, or relief?. NYU Press. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-8147-1450-8. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ Gary A. Cretser, Joseph J. Leon (1982). Intermarriage in the United States, Volume 5. Psychology Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-917724-60-2. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ Romanzo Adams (2005). Interracial Marriage in Hawaii. Kessinger Publishing. p. 396. ISBN 978-1-4179-9268-3. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ United States Bureau of Education (1921). Bulletin, Issues 13-18. U.S. G.P.O. p. 27. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ United States. Office of Education (1920). Bulletin, Issue 16. U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. p. 27. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology (1920). American journal of physical anthropology, Volume 3. A. R. Liss. p. 492. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ Gary A. Cretser, Joseph J. Leon (1982). Intermarriage in the United States, Volume 5. Routledge. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-917724-60-2. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ American Genetic Association (1919). The Journal of heredity, Volume 10. American Genetic Association. p. 42. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
chinese marry portuguese.
- ^ American Genetic Association (1919). J hered, Volume 10. American Genetic Association. p. 42. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ Alfred Emanuel Smith (1905). New Outlook, Volume 81. Outlook Publishing Company, Inc. p. 988. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
Intermarriages also took place between Chinese men and Porto Rican, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek women.
- ^ The Outlook, Volume 81. Outlook Co. 1905. p. 988. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ Mixed Blood: Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity in Twentieth-century America, Paul R. Spickard
- ^ Kiang, Clyde. THE HAKKA ODYSSEY & THEIR TAIWAN HOMELAND.
Further reading
[edit]- Char, Tin-Yuke (1975). The Sandalwood Mountains: Readings and Stories of the Early Chinese in Hawaii. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. ISBN 978-0-8248-0305-6. OCLC 1091892.
- Char, Tin-Yuke (1980). Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families of Kauai. Honolulu: Hawaii Chinese History Center. OCLC 6831849.
- Char, Tin-Yuke; Char, Wai Jane (1983). Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families of the Island of Hawaii. Honolulu: Published for the Hawaii Chinese History Center by University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0863-1. OCLC 255259005.
- Char, Wai-Jane (1974). "Chinese Merchant-Adventurers and Sugar Masters in Hawaii: 1802–1852: General Background" (PDF). The Hawaiian Journal of History. 8. Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society: 3–10. hdl:10524/132. OCLC 60626541.
- Char, Wai J.; Char, Tin-Uke (1988). Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families of Rural Oahu. Honolulu: Hawaii Chinese History Center. ISBN 978-0-8248-1113-6. OCLC 17299656.
- Dye, Bob (1997). Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains: Afong and the Chinese in Hawaiʻi. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-1772-5.
- Glick, Clarence E. (1980). Sojourners and Settlers: Chinese Migrants in Hawaii. Honolulu: Hawaii Chinese History Center and University Press of Hawaii. doi:10.2307/2067711. hdl:10125/45047. ISBN 978-0-8248-0707-8. JSTOR 2067711. OCLC 6222806. S2CID 146280723.
- McKeown, Adam (2001). Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change: Peru, Chicago, and Hawaii 1900–1936. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-56024-3. OCLC 248159623.
- Nordyke, Eleanor C.; Lee, Richard K.C. (1989). "The Chinese in Hawai'i: A Historical and Demographic Perspective" (PDF). The Hawaiian Journal of History. 23: 196–216. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
- Takaki, Ronald (1998) [1989]. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (2nd ed.). New York: Back Bay Books. ISBN 978-0-316-83130-7. OCLC 1074009567.
- Young, Nancy Foon (1973). The Chinese in Hawaii: An Annotated Bibliography (PDF). Hawaii Series No. 4. Honolulu: Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawaii. hdl:10125/42156. ISBN 978-0-8248-0265-3. OCLC 858604.
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Chinese of Hawaii (1929 directory, 2 volumes, full text online)
- Chinese Societies in Hawaii (2008–2009, 86 society descriptions, full text online)
- First Chinese Church of Hawaii
- List of Chinese-Hawaiian surnames
- Miss Chinatown Hawaii