Chinese people in Portugal

Chinese people in Portugal
Total population
9,689 (2007)
0.09% of the Portuguese population[1]
Includes only legal residents with People's Republic of China nationality
Regions with significant populations
Lisbon[2]
Languages
Chinese (primarily Mandarin; some migrants from Mozambique and Macau speak Cantonese), Portuguese[3]
Related ethnic groups
Ethnic Chinese in Mozambique, other overseas Chinese groups[4]
Chinese people in Portugal
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 葡萄牙華人
Simplified Chinese 葡萄牙华人
Portuguese name
Portuguese Chineses em Portugal

Chinese people in Portugal form the country's largest Asian community, but only the twelfth-largest foreign community overall.[5]

Migration history

Early history

Some Chinese slaves in Spain ended up there after being brought to Lisbon in Portugal and sold when they were boys. Tristán de la China was a Chinese who was taken as a slave by the Portuguese,[6] while he was still a boy and in the 1520s was obtained by Cristobál de Haro in Lisbon, and taken to live in Seville and Valladolid. He was paid for his service as a translator on the 1525 Loaísa expedition,[7] during which he was still an adolescent.[8] The survivors, including Tristan, were shipwrecked for a decade until 1537 when they were brought back by a Portuguese ship to Lisbon.[9]

There are records of Chinese slaves in Lisbon in 1540.[10] A Chinese scholar, apparently enslaved by Portuguese raiders somewhere on the southern China coast, was brought to Portugal around 1549. Purchased by João de Barros, he worked with the Portuguese historian on translating Chinese texts into Portuguese.[11]

In sixteenth century southern Portugal, the number of Chinese slaves was described as "negligible", being outnumbered by East Indians, Mouriscos, and African slaves.[12] A testament from 23 October 1562 recorded a Chinese man named António who was enslaved and owned by a Portuguese woman, Dona Maria de Vilhena, a wealthy noblewoman in Évora.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] António was among the three most common male names given to male slaves in Evora.[27] D. Maria specifically selected and used him from among the slaves she owned to perform demanding tasks for her because he was Chinese.[28] D. Maria's owning a Chinese among her fifteen slaves reflected on her high social status, since Chinese, Mouriscos, and Indians were among the ethnicities of prized slaves and were very expensive compared to blacks.[29] When she died, D. Maria freed this Chinese man in her testament along with several other slaves, leaving him with 10,000 réis in money.[30] D. Maria de Vilhena was the daughter of the nobleman and explorer Sancho de Tovar, the capitão of Sofala, and she was married twice, the first marriage to the explorer Cristóvão de Mendonça, and her second marriage was to Simão da Silveira, capitão of Diu.[31][32][33]

A legal case was brought before the Spanish Council of the Indies in the 1570s, involving two Chinese men in Seville, one of them a freeman, Esteban Cabrera, and the other a slave, Diego Indio, against Juan de Morales, Diego's owner. Diego called on Esteban to give evidence as a witness on his behalf.[34] Diego recalled that he was taken as a slave by Francisco de Casteñeda from Mexico, to Nicaragua, then to Lima in Peru, then to Panama, and eventually to Spain via Lisbon, while he was still a boy.[35][36][37][38]

After the Portuguese first made contact with Japan in 1543, a large scale slave trade developed in which Portuguese purchased Japanese as slaves in Japan and sold them to various locations overseas, including Portugal itself, throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.[39][40] Many documents mention the large slave trade along with protests against the enslavement of Japanese. Japanese slaves are believed to be the first of their nation to end up in Europe, and the Portuguese purchased large amounts of Japanese slave girls to bring to Portugal for sexual purposes, as noted by the Church in 1555. King Sebastian feared that it was having a negative effect on Catholic proselytization since the slave trade in Japanese was growing to massive proportions, so he commanded that it be banned in 1571[41][42] Some Korean slaves were bought by the Portuguese and brought back to Portugal from Japan, where they had been among the tens of thousands of Korean prisoners of war transported to Japan during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98).[43][44] Historians pointed out that at the same time Hideyoshi expressed his indignation and outrage at the Portuguese trade in Japanese slaves, he himself was engaging in a mass slave trade of Korean prisoners of war in Japan.[45][46]

Chinese boys were kidnapped from Macau and sold as slaves in Lisbon while they were still children.[47][48] Fillippo Sassetti saw some Chinese and Japanese slaves in Lisbon among the large slave community in 1578, although most of the slaves were blacks.[49][50][51][52][53]

The Portuguese "highly regarded" Asian slaves like Chinese and Japanese, much more "than slaves from sub-Saharan Africa".[54][55] The Portuguese attributed qualities like intelligence and industriousness to Chinese and Japanese slaves which is why they favored them more.[56][57][58][59]

In 1595 a law was passed banning the selling and buying of Chinese and Japanese slaves.[60]

20th century to present day

Small communities of Chinese people formed in Portugal in the mid-20th century.[4] Some members of the Chinese community in Mozambique also moved to Portugal as the process of decolonisation in Mozambique began in the 1970s and its independence drew near.[61] However, mass Chinese migration to Portugal did not begin until the 1980s; the new migrants came primarily from Zhejiang, with some from Macau as well.[4] There were expectations that the 1999 transfer of sovereignty of Macau back to the People's Republic of China would result in as many as 100,000 Chinese migrants from Macau settling in Portugal.[4] Between 1985 and 1996, 5,853 Chinese acquired Portuguese nationality; however, most of these were residents of Macau and did not reside in Portugal or migrate there later.[62]

Demographic characteristics

According to surveys undertaken by Chinese associations, Chinese residents of Portugal have a very young average age, with 29.6% younger than 30, and 38.5% between 31 and 40 years old. Over three-quarters live in Lisbon, Porto, or Faro.[5]

Employment

82.6% of the Chinese workforce in Portugal are employees. However, the number of entrepreneurs has shown an upward trend, nearly doubling from 9.4% in 1990 to 17.4% in 2000.[3] Four-fifths of the self-employed are drawn from the population of recent migrants from Zhejiang; rates of entrepreneurship in the other groups are much lower.[61] Chinese migrants from Mozambique and the other ex-Portuguese colonies, due to their fluency in Portuguese and familiarity with local business practices, are able to enter the mainstream economy and find professional employment, especially as bank employees, engineers, and doctors.[3][63]

Most Chinese-owned firms are small family enterprises, in the services, retail, and import-export sectors.[64] Their suppliers are Chinese-owned firms in other parts of Europe; Portuguese firms are among their clients but rarely among their suppliers.[65] There is a tendency for Chinese business owners to seek out areas with few other Chinese, to avoid competition and find new markets.[2]

References

Notes

  1. ↑ INE 2007
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 de Oliveira 2003, p. 10
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Santos Neves & Rocha-Trindade 2008, p. 163
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 de Oliveira 2003, p. 9
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Santos Neves & Rocha-Trindade 2008, p. 162
  6. ↑ Dr Christina H Lee (2012). Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 13. ISBN 1409483681. Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  7. ↑ Dr Christina H Lee (2012). Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 1409483681. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  8. ↑ Dr Christina H Lee (2012). Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 1409483681. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  9. ↑ Dr Christina H Lee (2012). Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 1409483681. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  10. ↑ Boxer 1939, pp. 542–543
  11. ↑ Mungello 2009, p. 81
  12. ↑ Peter C. Mancall, ed. (2007). The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550–1624 (illustrated ed.). UNC Press Books. p. 228. ISBN 0-8078-3159-X. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  13. ↑ Fonseca 1997, p. 21: "e o chinês, também António, ainda há pouco referido e que era condutor das azémolas de D. Maria de Vilhena"
  14. ↑ Jorge Fonseca (1997). Os escravos em Évora no século XVI (in Portuguese). Volume 2 of Colecção "Novos estudos eborenses" Volume 2 of Novos Estudos e Eborenses. Câmara Municipal de Évora. p. 21. ISBN 972-96965-3-5. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  15. ↑ Alberto Da Costa E Silva (2002). A Manilha e o Libambo (in Portuguese). Editora Nova Fronteira. p. 849. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  16. ↑ Hugh Thomas (2013). The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440–1870 (illustrated ed.). Simon and Schuster. p. 119. ISBN 1-4767-3745-2. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  17. ↑ Maria do Rosário Pimentel (1995). Viagem ao fundo das consciências: a escravatura na época moderna (in Portuguese). Volume 3 of Colibri história. Edições Colibri. p. 49. ISBN 972-8047-75-4. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  18. ↑ Viagem ao fundo das consciências: a escravatura na época moderna (in Portuguese). Sociedade Histórica da Independência de Portugal (Lisbon, Portugal). Palácio da Independencia. 1966. p. 19. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  19. ↑ Fortunato de Almeida (1925). História de Portugal, Volume 3 (in Portuguese). F. de Almeida. p. 222. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  20. ↑ Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Lisbon, Portugal) (1999). Ana Maria Rodrigues, ed. Os Negros em Portugal: sécs. XV a XIX : Mosteiro dos Jerónimos 23 de Setembro de 1999 a 24 de Janeiro de 2000 (in Portuguese) (illustrated ed.). Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses. p. 77. ISBN 972-8325-99-1. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  21. ↑ Jorge Fonseca (1997). Os escravos em Évora no século XVI (in Portuguese). Volume 2 of Colecção "Novos estudos eborenses" Volume 2 of Novos Estudos e Eborenses. Câmara Municipal de Évora. p. 30. ISBN 972-96965-3-5. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  22. ↑ Jorge Fonseca (1997). Os escravos em Évora no século XVI (in Portuguese). Volume 2 of Colecção "Novos estudos eborenses" Volume 2 of Novos Estudos e Eborenses. Câmara Municipal de Évora. p. 31. ISBN 972-96965-3-5. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  23. ↑ Gabriel Pereira (1886). Estudos eborenses : historia, arte, archeologia (O Archivo Da Santa Casa de Misericordia d'Evora 2.a Parte)(O testamento de uma grande dama do seculo 16) (in Portuguese). Evora : Minerva Eborense. p. 5 (575). Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  24. ↑ O Testamento de uma Grande Dama do Século XVI (PDF) (in Portuguese). p. 27. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  25. ↑ Jack D. Forbes (1993). Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples (reprint ed.). University of Illinois Press. p. 40. ISBN 0-252-06321-X. Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  26. ↑ A. C. de C. M. Saunders (1982). A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal, 1441–1555 (illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 214. ISBN 0-521-23150-7. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  27. ↑ Jorge Fonseca (1997). Os escravos em Évora no século XVI (in Portuguese). Volume 2 of Colecção "Novos estudos eborenses" Volume 2 of Novos Estudos e Eborenses. Câmara Municipal de Évora. p. 24. ISBN 972-96965-3-5. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  28. ↑ Jorge Fonseca (1997). Os escravos em Évora no século XVI (in Portuguese). Volume 2 of Colecção "Novos estudos eborenses" Volume 2 of Novos Estudos e Eborenses. Câmara Municipal de Évora. p. 21. ISBN 972-96965-3-5. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  29. ↑ Jorge Fonseca (1997). Os escravos em Évora no século XVI (in Portuguese). Volume 2 of Colecção "Novos estudos eborenses" Volume 2 of Novos Estudos e Eborenses. Câmara Municipal de Évora. p. 21. ISBN 972-96965-3-5. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  30. ↑ Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Lisbon, Portugal) (1999). Ana Maria Rodrigues, ed. Os Negros em Portugal: sécs. XV a XIX : Mosteiro dos Jerónimos 23 de Setembro de 1999 a 24 de Janeiro de 2000 (in Portuguese) (illustrated ed.). Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses. p. 77. ISBN 972-8325-99-1. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  31. ↑ Cristovão Alão de Morais; Eugénio de Andrea da Cunha e Freitas (1699). Alexandre António Pereira de Miranda Vasconcellos; António Cruz, eds. Pedatura lusitana (nobiliário de famílias de Portugal) ... (in Portuguese). Volume 2 (Issue 1 of Pedatura lusitana). Livraria Fernando Machado. p. 276. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  32. ↑ Cristovão Alão de Morais; Eugénio de Andrea da Cunha e Freitas (1673). Alexandre António Pereira de Miranda Vasconcellos; António Cruz, eds. Pedatura lusitana (nobiliário de famílias de Portugal) ... (in Portuguese). Volume 4 (Issue 1 of Pedatura lusitana). Livraria Fernando Machado. p. 463. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  33. ↑ Sociedade Histórica da Independência de Portugal (Lisbon, Portugal) (2000). João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, ed. Descobridores do Brasil: exploradores do Atlântico e construtores do Estado da Índia (in Portuguese). Volume 8 of Memória lusíada. Sociedade Histórica da Independência de Portugal. p. 77. ISBN 9729326312. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  34. ↑ Dr Christina H Lee (2012). Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 14. ISBN 1409483681. Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  35. ↑ Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (1984). José Jesús Hernández Palomo, Bibiano Torres Ramírez, ed. Andalucia y America en el Siglo Xvi. Volume 292 of Publicaciones de la Escuela de estudios hispano-americanos de Sevilla (illustrated ed.). Editorial CSIC - CSIC Press. p. 553. ISBN 8400056647. ISSN 0210-5802. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  36. ↑ Fernando Iwasaki Cauti (2005). Extremo Oriente y el Perú en el siglo XVI. Volume 12 of Colección Orientalia (illustrated ed.). Fondo Editorial PUCP. p. 293. ISBN 9972426718. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  37. ↑ Dr Christina H Lee (2012). Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 1409483681. Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  38. ↑ Ignacio López-Calvo (2013). The Affinity of the Eye: Writing Nikkei in Peru. Fernando Iwasaki. University of Arizona Press. p. 134. ISBN 0816599874. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  39. ↑ HOFFMAN, MICHAEL (May 26, 2013). "The rarely, if ever, told story of Japanese sold as slaves by Portuguese traders". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
  40. ↑ "Europeans had Japanese slaves, in case you didn’t know…". Japan Probe. May 10, 2007. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
  41. ↑ Nelson, Thomas (Winter 2004). "Monumenta Nipponica (Slavery in Medieval Japan)". Vol. 59 (No. 4). Sophia University. p. 463. JSTOR 25066328. Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  42. ↑ Monumenta Nipponica: Studies on Japanese Culture, Past and Present, Volume 59, Issues 3-4. Jōchi Daigaku. Sophia University. 2004. p. 463. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  43. ↑ Robert Gellately, Ben Kiernan, ed. (2003). The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective (reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 277. ISBN 0521527503. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  44. ↑ Gavan McCormack (2001). Reflections on Modern Japanese History in the Context of the Concept of "genocide" (Issue 2001, Part 1 of Occasional papers in Japanese studies). Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. Harvard University, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. p. 18. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  45. ↑ Olof G. Lidin (2002). Tanegashima - The Arrival of Europe in Japan. Routledge. p. 170. ISBN 1135788715. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  46. ↑ Amy Stanley (2012). Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan. Volume 21 of Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes. Matthew H. Sommer. University of California Press. ISBN 0520952383. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  47. ↑ José Roberto Teixeira Leite (1999). A China No Brasil: Influencias, Marcas, Ecos E Sobrevivencias Chinesas Na Sociedade E Na Arte Brasileiras (in Portuguese). UNICAMP. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. p. 19. ISBN 85-268-0436-7. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  48. ↑ Teixeira Leite 1999, p. 20: "Já por aí se vê que devem ter sido numerosos os escravos chineses que tomaram o caminho de Lisboa — e por extensão o do Brasil ... Em 1744 era o imperador Qianlong quem ordenava que nenhum Chinês ou europeu de Macau vendesse filhos e filhas, prohibição reiterada em 1750 pelo vice-rei de Cantão."
  49. ↑ Jonathan D. Spence (1985). The memory palace of Matteo Ricci (illustrated, reprint ed.). Penguin Books. p. 208. ISBN 0-14-008098-8. Retrieved 2012-05-05. countryside.16 Slaves were everywhere in Lisbon, according to the Florentine merchant Filippo Sassetti, who was also living in the city during 1578. Black slaves were the most numerous, but there were also a scattering of Chinese
  50. ↑ José Roberto Teixeira Leite (1999). A China no Brasil: influências, marcas, ecos e sobrevivências chinesas na sociedade e na arte brasileiras (in Portuguese). UNICAMP. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. p. 19. ISBN 85-268-0436-7. Retrieved 2012-05-05. Idéias e costumes da China podem ter-nos chegado também através de escravos chineses, de uns poucos dos quais sabe-se da presença no Brasil de começos do Setecentos.17 Mas não deve ter sido através desses raros infelizes que a influência chinesa nos atingiu, mesmo porque escravos chineses (e também japoneses) já existiam aos montes em Lisboa por volta de 1578, quando Filippo Sassetti visitou a cidade,18 apenas suplantados em número pelos africanos. Parece aliás que aos últimos cabia o trabalho pesado, ficando reservadas aos chins tarefas e funções mais amenas, inclusive a de em certos casos secretariar autoridades civis, religiosas e militares.
  51. ↑ Jeanette Pinto (1992). Slavery in Portuguese India, 1510–1842. Himalaya Pub. House. p. 18. Retrieved 2012-05-05. ing Chinese as slaves, since they are found to be very loyal, intelligent and hard working' ... their culinary bent was also evidently appreciated. The Florentine traveller Fillippo Sassetti, recording his impressions of Lisbon's enormous slave population circa 1580, states that the majority of the Chinese there were employed as cooks.
  52. ↑ Charles Ralph Boxer (1968). Fidalgos in the Far East 1550–1770 (2, illustrated, reprint ed.). 2, illustrated, reprint. p. 225. Retrieved 2012-05-05. be very loyal, intelligent, and hard-working. Their culinary bent (not for nothing is Chinese cooking regarded as the Asiatic equivalent to French cooking in Europe) was evidently appreciated. The Florentine traveller Filipe Sassetti recording his impressions of Lisbon's enormous slave population circa 1580, states that the majority of the Chinese there were employed as cooks. Dr. John Fryer, who gives us an interesting ...
  53. ↑ José Roberto Teixeira Leite (1999). A China No Brasil: Influencias, Marcas, Ecos E Sobrevivencias Chinesas Na Sociedade E Na Arte Brasileiras (in Portuguese). UNICAMP. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. p. 19. ISBN 85-268-0436-7. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  54. ↑ Paul Finkelman (1998). Paul Finkelman, Joseph Calder Miller, ed. Macmillan encyclopedia of world slavery, Volume 2. Macmillan Reference USA, Simon & Schuster Macmillan. p. 737. ISBN 0-02-864781-5. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  55. ↑ Finkelman & Miller 1998, p. 737
  56. ↑ Duarte de Sande (2012). Derek Massarella, ed. Japanese Travellers in Sixteenth-century Europe: A Dialogue Concerning the Mission of the Japanese Ambassadors to the Roman Curia (1590). Volume 25 of 3: Works, Hakluyt Society Hakluyt Society (Issue 25 of Works issued by the Hakluyt Society). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 1-4094-7223-X. ISSN 0072-9396. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  57. ↑ A. C. de C. M. Saunders (1982). A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal, 1441–1555. Volume 25 of 3: Works, Hakluyt Society Hakluyt Society (illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 168. ISBN 0-521-23150-7. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  58. ↑ Jeanette Pinto (1992). Slavery in Portuguese India, 1510–1842. Himalaya Pub. House. p. 18. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  59. ↑ Charles Ralph Boxer (1968). Fidalgos in the Far East 1550–1770 (2, illustrated, reprint ed.). Oxford U.P. p. 225. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  60. ↑ Dias 2007, p. 71
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 Santos Neves & Rocha-Trindade 2008, p. 164
  62. ↑ de Oliveira 2003, p. 8
  63. ↑ de Oliveira 2003, p. 12
  64. ↑ Santos Neves & Rocha-Trindade 2008, p. 166
  65. ↑ Santos Neves & Rocha-Trindade 2008, p. 167

Sources

Further reading