This post can also be read in the FPA's Latin America Blog.
With Olympic fever set to bring the world to China, much interest on the future of China on the world stage is seen as having its debut today, crowned by the lucky number in Chinese culture, 08/08/08, set to being at 8pm. With external writers and leaders and internal government officials set to bring China into its new position of influence, the effect of Chinese foreign policy, timid by Western standards, has become an issue of global public discussion, highlighted by internal struggles from the recent earthquake, housing issues and of course Tibet.
Another external issue has yet to be discussed, that may prove to be the greatest influence on world commerce and culture coming out of China, the people themselves. For generations Chinese communities have crossed to other Asian countries, the West and even parts of the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. The Americas have been one of the greatest recipients of Chinese culture and communities, having not only come to the US, but with large communities in Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America as well.
In Canada's largest city alone, Toronto according to many experts has a community of between 200,000-300,000 alone. Many of these immigrants have come after the opening of Canadian immigration in the 1960s, which was closed to many non-white immigrants after the late 1800 to well into the second half of the 20th Century. More recently, ties with the Commonwealth and interest in Canada brought many from Hong Kong to Canada before the return of the small nation to China. Mainland Chinese, as well as Taiwanese and Chinese communities from Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore also have resided in Canada, many mainlanders living in central Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, know for its diversity and home to many from different parts of Asia.
Latin America and the Caribbean also have received large communities from China as well, albeit more historically than recently in large numbers. In Mexico, the early 20th Century brought more than 5,000 Chinese immigrants to northern Mexico, near Mexicali. This small community which survives today at one point outnumbered traditional Mexicans and formed many cultural organizations to bring in other Chinese people from the East, while developing their community in Mexico and as Mexicans over the last 100 years. Cuba also is known for its connections with China, seen in its prominent Chinatown in central Havana. While being very Cuban with a strong Chinese influence, many Chinese came to Cuba, a US protectorate for the late 19th to mid-20th Century, to work in labour and to build US infrastructure as in the US on the islands on Cuba and Puerto Rico. Jamaica, Nicaragua and Panama also obtained many of their Chinese migrants for similar reasons, making the Caribbean one of the notable destinations for Chinese and other immigrant groups from around the globe.
In South America, while many Japanese immigrated in large numbers to Brazil, Argentina to a lesser degree, many Chinese immigrants also moved to Peru with large numbers coming to Venezuela. Venezuela has one of the largest Chinese immigrant communities to historically settle in Latin America. Recently new immigration from Mainland China and Taiwan has come to Venezuela and Latin America as a whole. While this blog cannot go into great detail on every community, it is worth researching many of these communities worldwide and show how China's past might create strong ties to China's future in the world.
