Chindian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about people of Chinese and Indian descent. For the geopolitical term, see Chindia.
Chindians
Regions with significant populations

Mainly: Singapore, Malaysia, India, China (Hong Kong)

Also: Philippines, Mauritius, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago
Languages
English, Mandarin, Tamil, Other languages of India, Other languages of China
Religion
Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam
Related ethnic groups
Indians in Singapore, Chinese Singaporean, Indian Malaysian, Chinese Malaysian, Indians in China, Chinese community in India

Chindian is an informal term used to refer to a person of both Chinese and Indian ancestry. There are a considerable number of Chindians in Malaysia and Singapore, where people of Chinese and Indian origin immigrated in large numbers during the 19th century.[1] There are also a sizable number living in Hong Kong and smaller numbers in other countries with overseas Chinese and Indian diaspora, such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana in the Caribbean, as well as in Thailand, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand.

Malaysia and Singapore

In Malaysia and Singapore, the majority of interracial marriages occur between Chinese and Indians. The offspring of such marriages are informally known as "Chindian". The Malaysian government, however, considers them to be an unclassified ethnicity, using the father's ethnicity as the informal term. The government of Singapore classifies them as their father's ethnicity. As the majority of these intermarriages usually involve an Indian male and Chinese female, the majority of Chindian offspring in Malaysia and Singpaore are usually classified as "Indian" by the Malaysian government.[2]

According to government statistics, 2.4% of Singapore's population are multiracial, mostly Chindians. The highest number of interethnic marriages was in 2007, when 16.4% of the 20,000 marriages in Singapore were interethnic, again mostly between Chinese and Indians.[1]

Singapore only began to allow mixed-race persons to register two racial classification on their identity cards in 2010. Parents may choose which of the two is listed first.[3] More than two races may not be listed even if the person has several different ethnicities in their ancestry.

Hong Kong

Indians have been living in Hong Kong long before the partition of India into the nations of India and Pakistan. They migrated to Hong Kong as traders, police officers and army officers during colonial rule. 25,000 of the Muslims in Hong Kong trace their roots back to what is now Pakistan. Around half of them belong to 'local boy' families, Muslims of mixed Chinese and Indian/Pakistani ancestry, descended from early Indian/Pakistani immigrants who took local Chinese spouse and brought their children up as Muslims.[4][5] These "local Indians" were not completely accepted by either the Chinese or Indian communities.[6]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheela Narayanan (October 17, 2008). "Go ahead, call me Chindian". AsiaOne. Retrieved 2009-10-08. 
  2. ↑ Daniels, Timothy P. (2005), Building Cultural Nationalism in Malaysia, Routledge, p. 189, ISBN 0-415-94971-8 
  3. ↑ Hoe, Yeen Nie (12 January 2010), "Singaporeans of mixed race allowed to "double barrel" race in IC", ChannelNewsAsia, retrieved 10 June 2010 
  4. ↑ Weiss, Anita M. (July 1991), "South Asian Muslims in Hong Kong: Creation of a 'Local Boy' Identity", Modern Asian Studies 25 (3): 417–53, doi:10.1017/S0026749X00013895. 
  5. ↑ Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Gelina Harlaftis, Iōanna Pepelasē Minoglou (2005), Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks: Four Centuries of History, Berg Publishers, p. 256, ISBN 1-85973-880-X 
  6. ↑ Carol R. Ember, Melvin Ember, Ian A. Skoggard (2004), Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, Springer, p. 511, ISBN 0-306-48321-1 

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1 An overseas department of France in the western Indian Ocean. See also: Hong Kong Diaspora
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