| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ~3,500 Sri Lankan Chinese (2001) (less than 0.20% of the population)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Majority:Colombo Minority:Negombo,Kandy,Kurunegala,Matugama,Galle andTrincomalee[2] | |
| Languages | |
| majoritySinhala, but historicallyHakka,Cantonese andother varieties of Chinese | |
| Religion | |
| almost allTheravada Buddhism[3] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Chinese people inIndia andSoutheast Asia andSinhalese people |
Chinese people in Sri Lanka orSri Lankan Chinese[4] (Sinhala:ශ්රී ලාංකික චීන;Tamil:இலங்கை சீனர்கள்), are Sri Lankan citizens of full or partialChinese descent born or raised inSri Lanka. Most trace their origins toHakka andCantonese migrants from the southern coastal regions of China and otherHan migrants fromHubei andShandong who migrated toSri Lanka in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.[5]
Intermarriage between Sri Lankans, mostlySinhalese women, and ethnic Chinese men is very common and they have adopted the culture, language and integrated into broader Sri Lankan society.[6][7][4] As a result, the vast majority of Sri Lankan Chinese have partial Sinhalese ancestry.[4] Approximately 80% of Sri Lankan Chinese live inColombo and are mainly involved in the dental trade, textile retail, hotel and restaurant industries.[8] In the past, some younger generations of Sri Lankan Chinese left the country due to political instability.[7] Additionally, a fair amount of Sri Lankan Chinese have at times migrated to other countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.[4]
Despite being small in size, Sri Lankan Chinese have played a notable role in contributing to the development ofSri Lankan cuisine and culinary identity.[9]
Sri Lanka's earliest known Chinese visitor wasFaxian, a 5th-centuryBuddhistpilgrim travelling overland from his home through present-dayNepal andIndia before coming toAbhayagiri Dagaba, where he stayed from 410 to 414.[10]Zheng He'sTreasure voyages visited Sri Lanka and fought in theMing–Kotte War. WhenCeylon was under Dutch rule in the 17th and 18th centuries, theDutch East India Company authorities atBatavia (present-dayJakarta,Indonesia) would occasionally deport unemployed orillegalChinese residents toCape of Good Hope, theBanda Islands, while only deported some to Sri Lanka, in order to provide manpower and limit the growth of the foreign population in Batavia.[5] In July 1740, a plan was drawn up for mass deportations of Chinese workers from Batavia to work incinnamon harvesting in Ceylon.[11]
After the British rule of Ceylon, theBritish colonial authorities brought Chinese Cantonese workers to the island and after theBritish Raj calamities to India. The British governorFrederick North, the colonialGovernor of Ceylon from 1798 to 1805, arranged for the import ofmigrant workers and soldiers of various ethnic groups, includingMalays, Malayalis, andAfricans; under North's direction, 47Malayan Chinese were recruited fromPenang to come to Ceylon for agricultural work nearGalle (hence the local place-nameChina Garden) andTrincomalee. Under his immediate successorThomas Maitland, another 100 Chinese workers were brought in from Penang for work on the ill-fated Hamilton Canal atNegombo Lagoon nearNegombo. Local people sometimes mistook these workers for Malays, since they were recruited fromBritish Malaya.[12][13] British explorerSamuel Baker's account of his time in Ceylon in the late 1840s and early 1850s mentions a few Chinese working along the coast in the vicinity ofTrincomalee, harvestingsea cucumbers andshark fins to export back to their home country for use inChinese cuisine.[14] The 1911 census found a few Chinese speakers remaining in Ceylon.[15]
Independent migrants of Chinese origin began arriving after the late 1920s.[7] They came down by sea or overland almost all the way viaBritish Raj India. Many settled atHultsdorf; from there, they spread out to other towns includingMaradana,Wellawatte andNegombo.[16] Many of these migrants had not really intended to settle on the island, but simply to make money and return home. However, with the outbreak and intensification of theWW2, and following it Communist victory, these migrants ended up staying in Ceylon far longer than they had intended, and made it their home.[17] The Sri Lankan Chinese community once numbered in the thousands; however, beginning from the 1960s, most began to migrate overseas to Europe as well asNorth America.[18] 1963 statistics from theRepublic of China onTaiwan'sOverseas Chinese Affairs Commission showed just 450 registeredoverseas Chinese remaining on the island.[19]
However, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the easing of immigration regulations, a new wave of Chinese migrants came to Sri Lanka to try their luck in small businesses, braving the intensity of theAnti-Tamil violence and thecivil war.[7][20] These new migrants established various community organisations, including a football team. No Chinese people are known to have been killed in the civil war violence, but there was a close call in the August 2006attack on Pakistani ambassador to Sri Lanka: the roadside bomb blew a hole in the wall of the Garden Hotel (花园饭店), a Chinese restaurant in the area.[20] After the end of thecivil war, Sri Lanka has also become a popular destination for richHong Kong people and mainland Chinese to purchasevacation homes, for example making up 70% of the purchasers at the Thona Bay resort project nearBatticaloa.[21][22]
The descendants of early migrants who remain in Sri Lanka number only around 3500 persons.[4] Figures from NationMaster also support this number.[23]
Sri Lankan Chinese largely speakSinhalese,Tamil orEnglish owing to their assimilation into broader Sri Lankan society.[4] Historicallyvarieties of Chinese were spoken by the community.
Like the majority ofSinhalese people, most Sri Lankan Chinese practiceTheravada Buddhism.
Early migrants from Hubei often found work asdental technicians ordental assistants, while those from Shandong entered the textile and hospitality industries.[16] The textile salesmen would godoor-to-door on foot or bicycle throughout cities and suburbs carrying bundles of silk.[12] The dental clinics, known as "Chinese Dental Mechanics", were often the only providers of dental services in many towns until the government began setting up dental clinics in later years, staffed by graduates ofPeradeniya University. There were also Chinese-owned sundry stores in most towns. One major chain, the Chinese Lucky Store, imported goods from Hong Kong; branches still remain in Maradana, Wellawatta, andTrincomalee.[24] There are also manyChinese restaurants in Sri Lanka, but they do not necessarily have Chinese owners or staff.[24] Some authentic Chinese restaurants which remain in Sri Lanka include Parkview and Lotus at Chatham Street in Colombo; many other early restaurants which were opened in the past have closed down. However, more recent Chinese migrants have also got involved in the restaurant trade, as well as opening other kinds of businesses such astraditional Chinese medicine shops and, less reputably,massage parlours. In the meantime, due to the rise of supermarkets and malls and other modernisation of Sri Lanka's retail and medical sectors, the descendants of early migrants have moved away from their families' traditional businesses into areas as varied asshrimp farming andaccountancy.[7]
Many descendants of early Chinese migrants werestateless. In January 2008, after lobbying led byUniversity of Peradeniya zoology graduate Chwing-Chi Chang, Prime Minister and Internal Administration MinisterRatnasiri Wickremanayake presented theParliament of Sri Lanka with a draft bill to grant Sri Lankan citizenship to stateless persons of Chinese origin who had been settled in the country for a long time.[16] It was passed into law without debate on 24 September 2008.[25] The new law, the "Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Chinese Origin" Act, applies to persons "belonging to the Chinese Race" who have been permanent residents of Sri Lanka since 15 November 1948 or who are the descendants of such a person and are themselves resident in Sri Lanka. It gives them the right to apply for the status of citizen of Sri Lanka by registration (otherwise than by descent).[26] In the following two years, a total of 80 people acquired Sri Lankan citizenship under the act. The provisions of the act expired in 2013.[27]
The Sri Lankan government has also long provided scholarships for Chinese students tostudy abroad in Sri Lanka. Initially these scholarships were handled through the Sri Lanka–China Friendship Association. When academic exchanges resumed after theCultural Revolution, they were handled directly at the governmental level.[28] The most recent group of Chinese students came after discussions during PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa's 2007 visit to China. The government provided scholarships for 16Sinhala language majors fromBeijing Foreign Studies University; they arrived in September 2008, and spent six months in the country.[29][30][31] The Chinese government also sends professors of Chinese language to teach at various universities in Sri Lanka, including theBuddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka.[32] The country's firstConfucius Institute for the teaching of Chinese as a second language was opened at theUniversity of Kelaniya in May 2007.[33]
In the early days after Sri Lanka's independence, the Chinese community, small and powerless, were seen as alien and unimportant, and were mostly ignored by the Sri Lankans.[34] Older children made insulting rhymes about Chinese door-to-door salesmen, while parents would scare their younger children by claiming that the salesmen would kidnap them if they misbehaved.[12] Chinese children also sometimes endured racial taunts from their local classmates.[17] However, on the whole, Sri Lankans were not actively hostile towards their Chinese minority, except during theSino-Indian War of 1962.[34] Later, the influx of Chinese workers drew concern from various sectors. The use of Chinese workers rather than local workers has provoked criticism from opposition politicians and area residents, and even threats of violence.[35][36] Some Sri Lankan media reports have accused China of usingconvict labour in Sri Lanka.[37][38] The influx of Chinese workers has also led to tensions inIndia – Sri Lanka relations, reportedly leading the Sri Lankan side to reassure the Indians that the workers would not settle in the country permanently, but would instead leave after they finished their work.[39]
The Sri Lankan Chinese Society was formed in 1993 in order to unite the Sri Lankan Chinese community.[8]
| Indigenous | |
|---|---|
| Traditional | |
| Multiracial | |
| Immigrants | |
