Chinese Peruvians
Total population |
(600.000 to 1.300.000) |
Regions with significant populations |
Lima, Huacho, Ica, Piura, Huancayo, Cusco, Moyobamba, Tarapoto, Iquitos. |
Languages |
Spanish, Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese, Hokkien, others |
Religion |
Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, Chinese folk religion
|
Related ethnic groups |
Asian Latin Americans, Asian Peruvians
|
Chinese Peruvians, also known as tusán (a loanword from Chinese 土生 pinyin: tǔ shēng, jyutping: tou2 saang1 "local born", but potentially from 台山 Cantonese: Toisan, pinyin: Táishān, jyutping: toi4 saan1, referring to the Cantonese town of Taishan in the Guangdong province of China, where much of the Chinese immigration to north and South America originated), are people of overseas Chinese ancestry born in Peru, or who have made Peru their adopted homeland.
Most Chinese Peruvians are multilingual. In addition to Spanish or Quechua, many of them speak one or more varieties of Chinese that may include Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, and Minnan (Hokkien). Since the first Chinese immigrants came from Macau, some of them also speak Portuguese.
In Peru, Asian Peruvians are estimated to be at least 5% of the population. One source places the number of citizens with some Chinese ancestry at 1.300.000, which equates to 4% of the country's total population.
Asian Coolies who were shipped from Spanish Philippines to Acapulco via the Manila-Acapulco galleons were all called Chino ("Chinese"), although in reality they were not only from China but other places including what are today the Philippines itself, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, and further afield such as India and Sri Lanka. Filipinos made up most of their population. The people in this community of diverse Asians in Mexico was called "los indios chinos" by the Spanish. Most of these workers were male and were obtained from Portuguese traders who obtained them from Portuguese colonial possessions and outposts of the Estado da India, which included parts of India, Bengal, Malacca, Indonesia, Nagasaki in Japan, and Macau.Spain received some of these coolies from Mexico,where owning a Chino coolie showed high status. Records of three Japanese coolies dating from the 16th century, named Gaspar Fernandes, Miguel and Ventura who ended up in Mexico showed that they were purchased by Portuguese slave traders in Japan, brought to Manila from where they were shipped to Mexico by their owner Perez. Some of these Asian slaves were also brought to Lima in Peru, where it was recorded that in 1613 there was a small community of Asians made out of Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Malays, Cambodians and others.
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Wikipedia