Saturday, Jan 12 – was “Chinese Arrival Day”. Even though it’s not a public holiday or anything like that it absolutely deserves recognition since Chinese are one of our “Six Peoples” – and the country should acknowledge that publicly! As usual, your Eyewitness comments on these “Days” AFTER they’ve passed because he wants to see “fair play” – as we say in the countryside! Meaning he wants to see how and by whom the “day” is commemorated by going through the dailies.
Well, there was a play on the event at the Theatre Guild, which is geared for the GT in-crowd. But as far as your Eyewitness can see, any other observations were so low-keyed they dropped off the media’s radar. Was there that event by the Chinese Association at Windsor Forest on the West Coast of Demerara?? If not, why not?? Windsor Forest wasn’t the first plantation that Chinese were dispatched to after they arrived in 1853. And it also produced Guyana’s first president, Arthur Chung. He had a long an distinguished Judicial career that epitomised the success of the Chinese as a group.
Like the Portuguese, the 13,000+ Chinese quickly quit the plantations after serving their indentureship and went into the retail trade in the villages and in the two towns – Georgetown and New Amsterdam. But they didn’t earn the wrath of the Creole Africans with whom they competed and might’ve helped displace. That’s quite intriguing since there were at least two anti-Portuguese riots for those reasons. Why?? One can’t know for sure but was it because they were generally Christians who’d been converted in China by missionaries?? Or was it that – unlike the Portuguese – they couldn’t be accused of getting easy credit giving them an unfair advantage. Could be… but for sure since there were very few women shipped in, they freely cohabited and married local African Guyanese women. Almost every Guyanese Chinese family from the colonial period had African relatives. For instance President Granger’s wife.
The Chinese didn’t only stand behind shop counters – they took to schooling pretty early and soon were quite prominent in the professions, the Civil Service and even politics. In the lexicon of the developed countries nowadays – in the age of immigrant angst – they were a “model minority”!! However, starting with the ethnic riots of the sixties – even though they weren’t directly involved – they concluded that the business climate was irretrievably ruined. And most of the migrated – a lot to Toronto – where you can now find the best “Guyanese Chinese” food!!
Of recent, there’s been an influx of “new” Chinese immigrants. They seem determined to copy their indentured predecessors in dominating the retail business!!
This time, will there be a backlash??
…in India
This weekend’s Overseas Indian event in India reminded your Eyewitness of Pressie’s presence at the 2022 version. He took every opportunity to make his links to India as explicit as possible. To the delight of his host on the English-medium platform – beamed to India’s elite – he regaled them with examples of his connections. His favorite Bollywood stars?? Kajol; Aishwaira Rai and Shahrukh Khan!! Singers? His relatives vie when getting down to prove whether the better singer is Mukesh or Rafi!! Not to mention that his grandmother would regularly take-in a “triple” – three 3hour Indian movies viewed in succession!! Now that’s movie binging when folks didn’t even know the word “Binge”!!
But he didn’t just talk about pop culture, he emphasised the importance of the retention of culture by the Indian Indentured Labourers. He revealed that Indian visitors and their diplomatic representatives are astounded at that retention – even when some of those customs have been lost in India!!
Evidently, his father roots were traced to his village in India.
…in PNC
Aubrey Norton continues to be under fire from opposition types for not being more confrontational with the PPP government. Sadly, these folks see the PNC as only a “one trick pony” who can only flex street muscles!!
