KONG AS AN IN-BETWEEN PLACE IN THE CHINESE DIASPORA, 1849–1939*

Elizabeth Sinn

Hong Kong is often mentioned in relation to Chinese migration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but its full role in the process is seldom seriously explored.1 This paper puts forward the concept of the “in-between place” to highlight ’s role as a transit point for migrants and, on another level, as a transit and intermediary place for migrants’ things—letters, goods, information, remittances, and their bones after death. A study of the different functions Hong Kong performed to meet the Chinese migrant’s special economic, social, and cultural needs offers a fuller picture of the migration process. More broadly, the concept of the “in-between place” is offered as a possible paradigm for the comparative study of migration movements across time and space.

Embarkation Port for Migrants

Outbound Traffic Though Chinese had migrated to foreign countries for centuries, Hong Kong, which officially became a British colony in 1843, began its career as an emigrant port with the California Gold Rush, when thousands of Chinese from the embarked for San Francisco after 1848. Being a shipping center in the region was partly why Hong Kong could react so quickly to the news of gold discovery. Busy shipping traffic was assured by the large opium trade centered

* I am grateful to Dirk Hoerder and Paul Cohen for their comments. 1 Adam McKeown makes insightful observations on Hong Kong’s role in “Concep- tualizing Chinese Diasporas, 1842–1949,” Journal of Asian Studies, 58.2 (May 1999), 306–337 and “Transnational Chinese Families and Chinese Exclusion, 1875–1943,” Journal of American Ethnic History 18.2 (Winter 1999), 73–110. See Elizabeth Sinn, “Moving Bones: Hong Kong’s Role as an ‘In-between Place’ in the Chinese Diaspora” in David Strand and Sherman Cochran, eds., Cities in Motion: Interior, Coast and Diaspora in Transnational China (Berkeley, 2008), 247–271. 226 elizabeth sinn there; in addition, some trading companies, including the powerful Jardine, Matheson & Co., were also ship owners or ships’ agents, with the result that many ships frequented the port for instructions, provi- sions, repairs, and change of crews. A fine harbor, a duty free port open to ships of all nations, easy access to information, the presence of insurance agencies, port facilities, provisioning services, simplicity of port procedures, and relatively little official interference, the rule of law and protection of contracts, not to mention taverns and brothels, combined to make the port attractive. Thus when the news of gold arrived in 1848, there was no lack of ships ready to cross the Pacific at short notice; even those that normally only carried freight were quickly refitted and provisioned for passenger cargoes. Situated near densely populated regions in China where migration offered welcome relief from population pressure Hong Kong soon developed into a bustling port of embarkation for the tens and thousands who sought opportunities abroad. As the flow of emigrants expanded, the destinations became more diverse. After concentrating initially on California, Chinese sailed from Hong Kong to all parts of the world. They crossed the Pacific to the west coast of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, all countries where gold was also discovered; to Peru and later, Panama and Mexico, and to Hawaiʻi, and in smaller numbers to French Tahiti, Nauru and Fiji. They migrated in large numbers into all parts of Southeast Asia, and some even went beyond, across the Indian Ocean to Mauritius and South Africa. For the Caribbean, ships took Chinese to the British West Indies—Guiana, Trinidad and Jamaica, Dutch Surinam, and Havana, Cuba. Voyages to Cuba in the 1850s, first wove their way through Southeast Asia, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope before crossing the Atlantic, taking some 200 days, often with tremendous loss of life. Between 1868 and 1939, over 6.3 million Chinese migrants left China through Hong Kong.2 Chinese migrants originated mostly from the coastal districts of Fujian Province and the Chaozhou-speaking

2 Unless otherwise stated, all Hong Kong emigrant figures used in this chapter are taken from Hong Kong “Harbor Master’s Report” of various years. For an overview of Hong Kong and , see Elizabeth Sinn, “Emigration from Hong Kong Before 1941: General Trends” in Ronald Skeldon, ed., Emigration From Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1995), 11–34; and “Emigration from Hong Kong Before 1941: Organization and Impact,” ibid., 35–50.