Page 176 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

diasporas 525

at the same time would have the benefit of com- placed on board Maria; each labourer had to pay
panionship and mutual help during the long voy- thirty-four dollars to the agent for his passage from
age.The fare was about thirty dollars, and one meal Hong Kong to Victoria, although the fare charged by
per day was provided on board. the ship was only twenty dollars. During the entire
The trip across the Pacific to Canada in those sixty-day journey across the Pacific, the labourers
days was quite hazardous. In December 1859, for were given tea only twice. One pound of rice per day
example, the brig Esna was attacked by pirates in was supposed to be shared by four people, but it
the South China Sea while it was en route to Victo- was in fact divided among ten. Many of the labour-
ria, and the crew was imprisoned. In the same ers were neither fed nor clothed properly, and they
month, Lady Inglis was lost on her voyage from suffered from malnutrition and starvation on their
China to Canada. In April 1860, after sixty-two days way to Canada. On one occasion, a local newspaper
at sea, the Norwegian ship Hebe brought the first reporter observed that “considerable distress is man-
shipload of 265 Chinese passengers from Hong ifesting itself among the recently arrived Chinese
Kong to Victoria, including one female. However, immigrants, some of whom are reported to be actu-
two months later, Lawson from China arrived at Vic- ally starving.” In spite of the hazardous voyage,
toria with only sixty-eight passengers, although its however, many Chinese men travelled across the
list called for 280; the missing passengers could not Pacific to Gim Shan to seek their fortunes.
be accounted for.The captain was later charged with Source: Lai, C. D. (1988). Chinatowns: Towns within cities in Canada (pp. 16-17).Van-
having no clearance papers and no medicine chest couver: University of British Columbia Press.
on the ship. In another case, 316 Chinese labourers
recruited by a Chinese employment agency were

from other ethnic groups formed through long-distance eventually. Most considered themselves sojourners in
migrations. foreign lands, even if their communities persisted for cen-
turies. After 1500, as European empire builders arrived
Trade Diasporas in Asia, they often encouraged the expansion of Chinese
At least since 2000 BCE, the desire for trade has encour- trading communities because Chinese merchants served
aged merchants to form communities abroad without as effective cultural and economic mediators between the
abandoning their loyalties or connections to their home- impossibly foreign-seeming Europeans and local popu-
lands and without abandoning their native cultures.The lations and institutions.
ancient Minoans scattered throughout the Aegean, and In the modern world, trade diasporas continued to
the Phoenicians spread throughout the eastern Mediter- form. Lebanese traders from Syria scattered around the
ranean. Greek merchants established colonies even more Mediterranean and to North and South America during
widely, especially in Sicily and western Asia. the nineteenth century. Many worked as peddlers before
In the years between 500 and 1500, Arab, Jewish, opening shops; in much of Latin America, Lebanese
Armenian, and Genoese and Venetian merchants formed merchants played an important role in the creation of
self-governing commercial enclaves in western Asia, modern industries as well. Rates of return to Lebanon
around the Black Sea, in caravan towns through Central have been high, though as many as two-fifths of all the
Asia, and along the coasts of Africa. people who consider themselves Lebanese today live
Similarly, Chinese merchants who lived in large num- outside Lebanon.Although rarely analyzed as diasporas,
bers in many parts of Southeast Asia and the Philippines the far-flung communities that U.S. multinational corpo-
showed few signs of abandoning their Chinese culture or rations create are self-consciously American and English-
identity, and generally they intended to return home speaking. They often maintain considerable social and