The
First Chinese in Hawaii
While constituting only about 6% of the total
population of Hawaii, many of those who identify themselves as Chinese can
trace their roots in Hawaii back to the mid-1800's. In
fact, after the original Hawaiians and the Caucasians from New England, the
Chinese were the next major group to find their way to Hawaii.
By most accounts, Hawaii's first contact with
China occurred in 1787. However, long before any Chinese ever came to Hawaii, a
Hawaiian chief visited China. It happened in 1787, that an English merchant
took a chief of Kauai, named Kaiana, to Canton, or
Guangzhou, on his fur trade route. The merchant was interested in trading
American furs for Chinese goods, and Hawaii was the necessary stopover on the
way, as it has been ever since. On his way back to America the next year, he
again stopped in Hawaii for a rest.
Traveling with him on that journey back home
were 50 Chinese carpenters. It is thought that some stayed in Hawaii, on the
Big Island of Hawaii, under the charge of Kamehameha
the Great. Again in 1789, an American trader, with a mostly Chinese crew,
stopped over in Hawaii, where a number of his crew decided to remain.
Historical references of George Vancouver, noted explorer of the Pacific
region, told of one Chinese man living on O’ahu at
the time, and another on the Big Island, with Kamehameha.
Early in the next century, European explorers
and businessmen discovered a beautiful tropical area of China named Guangdong,
the southernmost province. They found there pineapple and sugar cane growing in
fertile coastal areas similar to the windward areas of the Hawaiian Islands,
along with Chinese farmers, culturally adept at traveling and immigrating, and
of course willing to try their hand at the productive volcanic soil in Hawaii.
In 1802, Wong Tze Chun planted sugar cane on Lanai,
in the middle of the Hawaiian island chain. Sugar cane existed on the islands
already, but the knowledge of how to refine it and most importantly, how to
make money from it came with those first Chinese in Hawaii. Wong Tze Chun’s small sugar cane experiment, although carrying
the distinction as the source of the first sugar produced in Hawaii,
unfortunately was doomed to failure by the dry soil of Lanai.
In 1823, Hung Tai built his sugar mill in
Wailuku, Maui. However, his sugar production also failed. But the third time
was a charm, and in 1835, sugar production found its home on the garden island
of Kauai. The Chinese had finally brought sugar to Hawaii, and now sugar began
to bring the Chinese to Hawaii.
For many years thereafter, the Chinese were
the most numerous immigrants in Hawaii. They did not always find the
money-making farm businesses they had came for though. They found instead hard
work in the sugar plantations set up and run by the haoles
(Caucasian/Europeans). It was not long though before the Chinese settlers had
enough money to leave the employment of others and set up their own businesses;
trade stores, rice farms, and even coffee farms.
The Chinese men who settled took wives among
the local population, but it was not long before the first Chinese women also
came to Hawaii. The result was the first of many pure Chinese families in
Hawaii. However, of all the immigrants to the islands, the Chinese were unique
in their total immersion into the local populous through free intermarriage
with the Hawaiian families, merging their blood and even their names. Well, not
exactly taking on Hawaiian names, but actually merging their names to form
unique Chinese-Hawaiian family names like Apana and Auwae. To this day, there are no Japanese-Hawaiian or
English-Hawaiian names in Hawaii.
Unfortunately, this initial effort to refine
sugar failed. As reported in "The First Chinese in Hawaii",
"Sugar cane existed on the islands already, but the knowledge of how to
refine it and most importantly, how to make money from it came with those first
Chinese in Hawaii."
Sugar
is King
The sugar industry, however, did develop and
there are reports of other small one-man Chinese sugar plantations in the
islands. By all accounts the major era of Chinese immigration and early
settlement in Hawaii occurred between 1852 and 1898. It is reported that, in
1852,180 men and 20 houseboys arrived from the South China province of Kwantung aboard the Thetis.
During this period approximately
50,000 Chinese arrived as field hands to work on the sugar plantations.
In these early years of Chinese immigration,
most of the men who arrived from China came to earn money for their families at
home, and had no intention of remaining in Hawaii beyond the term of their
labor contracts. In fact, approximately one-half of the early immigrants did
return to China.
During this period, a small number of the
workers either returned to China to bring their wives to Hawaii or sent for
them. However, many of the Chinese men married Hawaiian women and settled in
Hawaii.
The
End of Plantation Life
As their plantation contracts ended, many of
the Chinese left the plantations, choosing to pursue other means of survival
including carpentry, taro farming, rice planting and retailing. They formed
clan societies, established temples, cemeteries, language schools, and Chinese
newspapers to retain their cultural identity.
For many Hawaii was no longer a temporary
stopping place, but a permanent home. They grew from 71 Chinese among 1,962
foreigners and 84,165 native Hawaiians (according to an 1851 census) to 20
percent of the population by 1893. Subsequently the importation of Chinese was
abruptly stopped in 1898 to avoid the establishment of an excessively large
Chinese population.
The
Birth of Chinatown
Around 1860 a number of the Chinese who had
left the plantations began to open small businesses in an area of Honolulu
known as Chinatown. These businesses were mostly small shops specializing in
specific trades such as grocers, jewelers, bakers and tailors, as well as the
restaurant trade.
Today, Chinatown is a triangle shaped area in
Honolulu bordered by Nuuanu Avenue on the east, N. Beretania Street on the north, and S. King Street forming
the diagonal. It is an area that has seen much history since the late 1800's.
Within a period of 4 years, two major fires
struck Chinatown. The first was in 1886 and the second in 1900. The 1900 fire
was deliberately set, officially, to burn out rats which had brought bubonic
plague to Honolulu. However, the fire got out of control and the entire
district was virtually destroyed. There are those who believe that, in fact,
the fire was intended to destroy the area and with it the economic threat of
the Chinese businesses.
The
Great Fires from James Michener's Hawaii
While fiction, James Michener's Hawaii gives us some insight into the
plague and the fires which swept through Chinatown:
"A cordon was thrown around Chinatown
and no one inside the area was allowed to move out. Churches and schools were suspended
and no groups assembled. Ships were asked to move to other harbors and life in
the city ground to a slow, painful halt. It was a terrible Christmas, that last
one of the nineteenth century, and there was no celebration when the new year and the new century dawned.
During Christmas week the fires started. Dr.
Whipple and his team showed the firemen where deaths had occurred, and after
precautions were taken, those houses were burned. Chinatown was divided roughly
into the business areas towards the ocean and the crowded living areas towards
the mountains, and although the plague had started in the former area, it now
seemed concentrated in the closely packed homes. Therefore, the doctors
recommended that an entire section be eliminated, and the government agreed,
for by burning this swath across the city, a barrier would be cut between the
two areas."
Michener goes on to explain that these
conservative attempts to control the epidemic did not work and that by January
of 1900 a decision was made that virtually the entire area known as Chinatown
would have to be burned. High winds extended the fire even further. Whether
solely to control the epidemic or for more sordid economic reasons is a subject that will long be debated. Michener's
characters discuss this very issue:
"They destroyed all of Chinatown, " America explained with anguish in his voice."
They burned our stores on purpose because we wouldn't work on their sugar
plantations."
"No," Nyuk
Tsin reasoned, "the wind came by accident".
"That isn't so, Wu Chow's Auntie!"
Europe cried, ugly with despair. "The merchants
wanted this done. Last week they threw all the food I had ordered from China
into the bay. They were determined to wipe us out."
Chinatown
Rebuilds
Despite the fires and what was clearly a
desire by many non-Chinese businessmen to see the Chinese move out, so that
they could take over this prime real estate on the edge of downtown Honolulu,
the Chinese stayed and Chinatown was rebuilt.
In the 1930's Chinatown was a popular
destination for many of the tourists who arrived on ships which docked a short
distance away at the foot of Nuuanu Street.
In the 1940's, when prostitution was legal on
the island, Chinatown was a popular spot where soldiers, who were being shipped
overseas, spent their last hours in the many pool halls, tattoo parlors or
honky-tonks which had sprung up as the number of troops arrived.
In recent years, Chinatown has been the
subject of urban renewal in an effort to make it more attractive to the
all-important tourist trade. Although still primarily Chinese, you will see
many shops and restaurants run by Vietnamese, Japanese, Filipinos, Laotians,
and Koreans. Chinatown remains a small area which can easily be explored on
foot which is really the only way to experience the sights, smells and sounds
of this historic district of Honolulu.
The
Chinese Exclusion Acts
The passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act by the U.S. Congress
in 1882 in response to anti-Chinese sentiment in California resulted in an
increase in migration of Chinese from the United States to the Kingdom of
Hawaii.
This increase in immigration from California
combined with the movement of former Chinese laborers from the plantations into
ownership of business was perceived by many of those in power in Hawaii as a
threat. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1886 was passed by the Hawaiian Cabinet
Council to severely limit the number of Chinese entering Hawaii.
When Hawaii became a territory of the United
States in 1900, the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act was extended to Hawaii, and
Chinese immigration was virtually stopped, except for those who could qualify
under specific exempt status. At the same time, many Chinese elected to return
to China. By 1910 there were fewer than 21,000 Chinese in Hawaii.
With the repeal of the exclusion laws in 1943
and the passage of congressional legislation allowing for expanded immigration,
Chinese immigration to Hawaii once again picked up. The 1980 census showed in
excess of 50,000 Chinese in Hawaii. New immigrants arrive every year from
Taiwan and the People's Republic of China including Hong Kong.
The
Chinese of Hawaii Today
World War II saw many Caucasians leave Hawaii
for the mainland. Filling many of the voids left in the professional world and
in business were members of the Hawaiian Chinese community.
Success in business brought economic
prosperity for many Chinese. Many were able to move into areas of Honolulu
traditionally inhabited by Caucasians. The Chinese also developed strong ties
to many in the native Hawaiian community. Marriages between those of Chinese
descent and those of Hawaiian descent have became
common.
This close tie between Chinese and Hawaiians
have helped many Chinese reach high levels of power in politics.
No one's story is more impressive than that
of Hiram L. Fong. A graduate of the University of Hawaii and the Harvard Law
School, Fong started his law firm, was elected a Representative of the Hawaii
Territorial Legislature for 14 years, serving as its Speaker for 6 years. From
1959 to 1977 he served as a U.S. Senator from Hawaii during which time he was
awarded 11 honorary degrees from American and foreign universities
The Chinese people of Hawaii today practice a
mixture of traditional Chinese and Western traditions. For example, child
rearing still shows strong ties to traditional Chinese Culture. The
extended families, which were once prevalent among the older generation of
Chinese, is now being replaced by a more Western
household consisting of working parents and their children.
Traditional Chinese values of good education,
hard work, establishing financial security and the importance of family remain
strong, even among the younger generation.
It is interesting to note, however, that
relatively few Chinese in Hawaii are able to speak the language of the
ancestors. Recently, however, Chinese language schools have begun to open
throughout the islands. As with Hawaiian Culture, there is a movement to
preserve and honor Chinese Culture.
Source: About.com.
http://gohawaii.about.com/library/weekly/aa011700a.htm