British Chinese
British Chinese (or, alternatively, Chinese British,Chinese Briton, British Born Chinese known in slang amongst the community as BBCs) are overseas Chinese born or naturalised in the United Kingdom. Most of these Chinese are people from, or descended from people from, former British territories, such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
History
Trade between China and Britain existed as far back as Roman times, although the first permanent settlement of Chinese people dates from the early 19th century, in port towns such as London (particularly the Limehouse area) and Liverpool.
The biggest wave of Chinese immigration took place in the 1950s and 1960s, mainly of male agricultural workers from Hong Kong and the surrounding Guandong province, in response to the post-war labour shortage. The rise in popularity of Chinese cuisine (albeit in a westernised form) in the UK led to the growth of the Chinese catering industry mainly in restaurants and takeaways. This lead to the formation of "Chinatown" areas in several major British cities where restaurants became the focal points of the larger settled communities.
Since the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, restrictions have been placed on immigration from British colonies and ex-colonies, and these have been tightened by successive governments. Nevertheless, there was still significant Chinese migration to Britain, for relatives of settled Chinese, and those qualified for skilled jobs, until the end of the 1970s. Today, a significant proportion of British Chinese people are second- and third-generation descendants of these post-war immigrants.
The 1981 British Nationality Act deprived Hong Kong British passport holders of the right of abode in the UK, an issue that caused controversy in the years leading up to the territory's handover to China in 1997.
More recently, there has been an increase in "people smuggling" into the UK from mainland China, with economic migrants being smuggled and then exploited as cheap illegal labour (usually in agriculture) by criminal gangs. This has had highly public and tragic consequences; in June 2000, 58 Chinese immigrants were found suffocated to death in a lorry in Dover, and in February 2004, 23 Chinese cockle-pickers drowned in Morecambe Bay after being caught in a high tide.
Demographics
At the last UK census in 2001, there were 247,403 Chinese people living in the UK - 0.4% of the total population, or 5.3% of the minority ethnic population.
Unlike most ethnic minorities in the UK, the Chinese tend to be more widespread and decentralised. However, significant centres of British Chinese people can be found in:
- London – there is a Chinatown centred around Gerrard Street, Soho, which plays host to many Chinese restaurants; however many Chinese now live in the suburbs, especially in north London and Colindale in particular.
- Cambridge
- Manchester
- Milton Keynes
- Swansea
- In Northern Ireland, Chinese people make up the largest non-white minority, although the population there is quite small (roughly 10,000).
British Chinese people, like overseas Chinese in many other Western nations, are noted for academic and professional achievement. Chinese pupils gain higher marks at GCSE than any other ethnic group, and a British Chinese person is also more likely to possess a university degree, own a house, or hold a job in the top managerial/professional class, than the average Briton [1]. However, this success has not been reflected in 'high profile' jobs - unlike Britons of Afro-Caribbean or South Asian origin, there are exceedingly few, if any, well-known British Chinese politicians, actors or sportspersons. But Vanessa Mae is one example of a musician. See List of British Chinese people.