Today overseas Chinese living in South Africa can drift freely through scenic sites, government institutions, hotels, and stores, enjoying the same conditions as the country's local inhabitants. Some of them have made significant achievements in their careers and sustain a cheerful way of life in South Africa. But do the people there, especially the African-Chinese, remember the insults and restrictions suffered by the "yellow" Chinese of 300 years ago? Ye Huifen, a third generation African-Chinese, spent nine years writing a book entitled Color, Confusion and Concession in an effort to reveal a bitter history of blood, sweat and tears to today's African-Chinese ancestors.
Ye Huifen, a soft-spoken woman of medium height, was born in the Kensington District of Johannesburg. After she graduated from Rhodes University, majoring in media, she worked as a reporter and editor for the Rand Daily and Sunday Times, two of South Africa's major newspapers. She also once worked as advertisement writer. As a third generation African-Chinese, Ye can only articulate a few sentences of Mandarin Chinese, such as "Meixian County, Hakka people" when asked about her native origin.
When she was young, Ye took an active part in the activities of local Chinese societies. In the 1970s, she acted as editor for Vinculum, a Chinese magazine popular in African-Chinese circles. Ye, now retired at home, occasionally writes articles for some newspapers. Books can be seen throughout her entire home, spread from the reading room to the sitting room.
The idea of writing a piece of Chinese history came to her while she was working as secretary for Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. She was often asked, "Where did you come from?" or "Why did Chinese people come here in the first place?" but she herself couldn't offer an authoritative answer to these questions. She then thought, "If we Chinese know nothing of our own history, how can we possibly unite to fight for our equality and wellbeing?"
The poor living conditions and low social status of the Chinese in South Africa have improved significantly since the mid-1980s, but the bitter history should never be forgotten.
Ye started to prepare the book by collecting materials long before she actually embarked on the nine years of writing. "To concentrate on writing, I gave up my job and lived on donations offered to me by Chinese," recalled Ye Huifen. "I had planned to take three years to finish the book at first, but the time flashed by and I still hadn't finished it. This created doubts among some of my supporters," said Ye with a shrug.
The Dutch East India Co. first exported slaves from Jakarta and Indonesia to South Africa in 1658, among them were the first batch of Chinese to land the Africa. Since the end of 18th century, the British have continually introduced Chinese laborers to South Africa. The poor living conditions in China at the end of Opium War and a gold rush in South Africa attracted lots of Cantonese to the country. During a relatively short period, from 1904 to 1907, a total of 63,695 Chinese were shipped to South Africa as contracted slaves. They were forced to work in gold mines near Johannesburg. Most of them returned to China after their contracts expired in February 1910. Those who stayed there became the ancestors to the present day African-Chinese. A second wave of Chinese immigration into South Africa occurred in the 1970s.
The book, Color, Confusion and Concession, focuses on the real experiences of the Chinese laborers and their descendants with pictures and quotes from local newspapers, magazines, and even some Chinese publications. One example of Chinese suffering was a 100 year old law, which was finally abolished in 1986, prohibiting any Chinese from settling in the Orange Free State. On the Cape Peninsula region governed by the British, a 36-article Restriction Law on Chinese was enacted requiring Chinese to apply for special ID for travel, trade and even living. The ID also called "dog tags" by the Chinese included a person's fingerprints and description of their birthmarks. The book also documented that one in every 20 Chinese labors died in the mines.
The Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Councilor Amos Masondo, addressed the founding ceremony for the first China Town in Johannesburg declaring that people should remember the African-Chinese, their blood, sweat and tears, and the lives they lost in the gold mines, all of which contributed to establishing Johannesburg as its known today.
(People's Daily, translated by James Liu for china.org.cn, October 11, 2002)
