Singapore, Chinese migration late 19th century to present Jason Lim Sir Stamford Raffes established a trading station for the East India Company on the island of Singapore in 1819. Singapore became a free port and the British colonial authorities adopted a laissez-faire policy with regard to immigration. As a result large numbers of Chinese entered Singapore. By 1824, the Chinese comprised 31 percent of the island’s population. By 1840, half of the island’s popu- lation was Chinese, and the proportion of ethnic Chinese has remained in the majority until today. In 1867 the administration of the island was transferred to the Colonial Offce in London but the practice of allowing Chinese to enter Singapore continued. By 1871, the pro- portion of Chinese in the island’s population was 56.2 percent. Turmoil in 19th-century China From the mid-19th century, China was embroiled in wars, political turmoil, natural disasters, and economic malaise. The disasters included the Taiping Rebellion from 1853 to 1864, which led to the death of tens of millions, and constant wars with the British and the French up to the 1880s, before China was humiliated with a military defeat by Japan in 1895. The Boxer Rebellion resulted in the inva- sion of Beijing by the Western powers again. The Qing dynasty was unable to tackle these problems and by the early 20th century over- population and unemployment were added to the court’s woes. The political turmoil and eco- nomic problems were made worse by the pres- ence of bandits in the countryside who made life extremely diffcult for the peasants and vil- lagers. The situation had become so unbearable for the Chinese that, rather than stay in China and face these problems, some of them chose to migrate. Unfortunately, Western countries such as the United States, Australia, and New Zealand had closed the doors to Chinese migra- tion. On the other hand, the Chinese knew about Southeast Asia, or the “Nanyang” (South Seas). They divided the region into two halves, with Luzon the main trading center of eastern Nanyang and Singapore the port of call of western Nanyang. Many of the Chinese who left for Singapore came from the southern prov- inces of Fujian and Guangdong as the people from these provinces had traded with or had worked or lived in the Nanyang. Chinese migration to Singapore, 19th century Migration to Singapore, however, was by no means an easy journey. Leaving the Qing empire could be punishable by death; at the very least, the Chinese who wanted to return home would not be allowed to re-enter China. The journey to Singapore itself was a perilous one. A large number of unskilled Chinese left China from the 1850s, which marked the start of the coolie trade. The coolies were employed to do menial tasks; more often than not, they could not pay for their passage to Singapore and had to work to pay off their debt. The unsanitary and inhumane conditions of the voyage to Singapore resulted in deaths on the high seas. Those who landed in Singapore were sent off to work. There were cases of women in China who were kidnapped and sent to Singapore to work in the brothels. The inhu- mane treatment of the coolies and female cap- tives outraged the British colonial authorities. In 1877 the Chinese Protectorate was estab- lished in Singapore with William Pickering as the frst protector of Chinese. Pickering could read Chinese and spoke a number of The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Edited by Immanuel Ness. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm485