South African Chinese
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 300,000-400,000 (2015) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Durban · Johannesburg · Port Elizabeth. | |
| Languages | |
| English · Afrikaans · Cantonese · Mandarin · Taiwanese Hokkien | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Overseas Chinese |
Chinese South Africans (simplified Chinese: 华裔南非人; traditional Chinese: 華裔南非人) are overseas Chinese who reside in South Africa, including those whose ancestors came to South Africa in the early 20th century until Chinese immigration was banned under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1904, Taiwanese industrialists who arrived in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, and post-apartheid immigrants to South Africa (predominantly from mainland China), who now outnumber locally-born Chinese South Africans.
South Africa has the largest population of Chinese in Africa, and most of them live in Johannesburg, the "economic hub for all of southern Africa".
The first Chinese to settle in South Africa were prisoners, usually debtors, exiled from Batavia by the Dutch to their then newly founded colony at Cape Town in 1660. Originally the Dutch wanted to recruit Chinese settlers to settle in the colony as farmers, thereby helping establish the colony and create a tax base so the colony would be less of a drain on Dutch coffers. However the Dutch failed to find anyone in the Chinese community in Batavia who was prepared to volunteer to go to such a far off place. The first Chinese person recorded by the Dutch to arrive in the Cape was a convict by the name of Ytcho Wancho (almost certainly a Dutch version of his original Chinese name). There were also some free Chinese in the Dutch Cape Colony. They made a living through fishing and farming and traded their produce for other required goods. From 1660 until the late 19th century the number of Chinese people in the Cape Colony never exceeded 100.
Chinese people began arriving in large numbers in South Africa in the 1870s through to the early 20th century initially in hopes of making their fortune on the diamond and gold mines in Kimberley and the Witwatersrand respectively. Most were independent immigrants mostly coming from Guangdong Province then known as Canton. Due to anti-Chinese feeling and racial discrimination at the time they were prevented from obtaining mining contracts and so became entrepreneurs and small business owners instead.
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Wikipedia