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Archiver > CARIBBEAN > 1999-07 > 0931017480


From: Richard Bond< >
Subject: Re: [CARIBBEAN-L] CHINESE KINGSTON, JAMAICA
Date: Sat, 3 Jul 1999 11:58:00 -0400 (EDT)


AN ASIDE : The Chinese in Jamica have been popularly associated with the
trade of grocery keeping. The location of the community with St Andrews.
Market gardeners and higglers going to the market in Kingston would pass
through St Andrews and hedge by selling off produce in over supply. On
the way back to the country if they had left overs the Chinese would buy
at discount. The Chinese grocers would also sometimes have gardens of
their own nearby their stores.

The number of Chinese men was larger than the number of women and the
men would often set up house with a black female. The number of part
Chinese is larger than that of full those full blooded. One of my
friends at New College '78 in Fla was fellow eccentric a lf CJ kow as
'Chinese Richard" a musician mathematician whose ambition was non
existant. I ran into him 17 years later in Berkeley,Cal. he had a
lectureship and an office at UnivCalB and a home in the park.Teaching
maths no job math is fun, mon. The Jamaican Chinese have adapted to the
island and one of the best known musical producers Byron Lee is Chinese
Jamaican.

Under the Manley regime of the 1970s more than half the Chinese
population left due to anti-business legislation which sometimes seemed
targeted directly at the Chinese storekeepers. The largest destination
was Canada. The Chinese Jamaican population is now disproprtionately
professional.

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