The Chinese in Britain (United Kingdom), History timeline

1686: A young Jesuit convert from Nanking called Shen Fu Tsong arrives at the court of James II, becoming the first-recorded Chinese person to enter Britain. The King has Shen's portrait painted and hung in his bed chamber. Shen works to catalog the Chinese collection in the Bodleian Library.
1700s: The English East India Company which imports popular Chinese commodities such as tea, ceramics and silks brings some Chinese sailors ashore.
1805: A specific Act of Parliament allows a Chinese man known as John Anthony to become the first Chinese man to be naturalized as a British citizen.
1803-1815: British shipping companies employ Chinese sailors during the Napoleonic wars to replace the British sailors called up to serve in the British navy. They discover that the Chinese are cheaper, don’t get drunk and are easier to command.
1842: Britain defeats China. Under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking, Hong Kong becomes a British colony.
1855: Wong Fun from Edinburgh receives his MD and becomes the first Chinese student to graduate from a British university.
1857: The Second Opium War results in the unequal Treaties of Tianjin which includes a clause allowing Britain and France to recruit Chinese to the British Colonies, North and South America and Australia as cheap labor ("Coolies") following the cessation of the slave trade.
1860s: The launch of new steam ships create increased recruitment of Chinese seamen to work on trading routes from the Far East. Chinese seamen are treated shabbily, with less pay and rights than their British counterparts — a practice that will continue well into the 20th century.
1865: The first direct steamship service from Europe to China was established in Liverpool by Alfred and Philip Holt's Blue Funnel Line, using cheap Chinese crews.
1877: Kuo Sung-tao, the first Chinese Minister to Britain, opens a legation in London.
1881: Census reports 224 Chinese in Britain. (This figure errs on the conservative side—the Chinese living in Britain generally treated all agents of the British state with suspicion and often hid themselves from census officers.)
1882: Wu Tin Fang becomes the first Chinese student to be admitted to the bar in London.
mid-1880: Chinatowns start to grow in London and Liverpool, with grocery stores, eating houses, meeting places and Chinese street names in the East End.
1890: Two distinct, small, Chinese communities live in East London. Those from Shanghai settle around Pennyfields, Amoy Place and Ming Street (in Poplar) and those from Canton and Southern China around Gill Street and Limehouse Causeway. Prejudices arise against the East End Chinese communities due to exaggerated reports of gambling and opium dens.
1891: Census records show 582 Chinese-born residents in Britain.
1896: Census records show a decline in Chinese-born residents — 387, of which 80% are single males between 20 and 35, the majority being seamen.
Late 1800s: Chinese seamen settle in ports such as London and Liverpool. Liverpool, the hub of the Empire’s sea trade, sees the birth of a thriving Eurasiatown/Chinatown. Few Chinese women are able to come to Britain, and Chinese seamen begin setting up home with local women. Many of these mixed couples cannot marry because the woman would automatically lose her British citizenship as a result.
Late 1800s: Zhang Zhidong, an eminent Chinese politician during the late Qing Dynasty advocates educational reform, believing that western learning is needed to help China catch up with the West. A steady flow of students from China arrive to study at Cambridge or the LSE. Many Chinese graduates end up staying in Britain.
Late 1800s: For well into the 20th century, educated Chinese will be shunned from certain careers: the first Chinese doctors trained in Britain are unable to pursue preferred careers such as obstetrics and gynecology because of a lingering taboo against foreign doctors having intimate contact with European women.
Late 1800s to early 1900s: The violent, anti-Christian and anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion in China causes the Chinese in Britain to be viewed with suspicion.
Early 1900s: Hundred of Chinese laundries around Britain serve the needs of the British army, as well as homes and businesses.
Early 1900s: The Liverpool City Council becomes concerned over Chinese marrying English wives, gambling and opium consumption. Liverpool's Chief Constable, however, expresses the view that the resident Chinese are a "quiet, inoffensive and industrious people."
Early 1900s: The Trades Union Congress (TUC), concerned about the importation of Chinese labor into the South African gold mines, suggests that mine-owners and the Conservative government are "preventing South Africa becoming a white man's country."
Early 1900s: Acrobat Song Ling Whang, a remarkable Chinese woman makes an overland journey from China to Britain, on foot (or rather on her tiny claw-like feet that had previously been bound) — a journey of over 10,000 km.
Early 1900s: In response to the general increase in hostility against the Chinese, from 1900–1910, Chinese Mutual Aid (or Benevolent) associations are set up in London and Liverpool. In contrast to the semi-mythical Chinese (Masonic) secret societies, these associations look after the interests of their members, arrange burials and assist in cases of exploitation.
Early 1900s: A powerful set of “Chinatown” myths begin to develop:
- see 1913: Sax Romer below
- An exotic Chinatown netherworld is featured in countless novels, films and songs and firmly plants in the heart of western popular culture, the stereotype of the Chinese as inscrutable criminals.
1900s: The children of mixed unions face discrimination and many of them change their names, making it difficult to trace their Chinese-British heritage. One examples of a notable person in this category is:
- Leslie Charteris, who wrote The Saint series of books that were made into successful TV series.
1901: The first Chinese laundry opens in Poplar, and is immediately stoned by a hostile xenophobic crowd.
1907: Opening of the first Chinese restaurant in London.
1908: Crowds of angry British seamen, opposed to the cheap Chinese crews, prevent Chinese seamen from signing on ships; the Chinese return to their boarding houses under police escort.
1911: Census reports 1,319 Chinese-born residents in Britain and 4,595 seamen of Chinese origin serving in the British Merchant Navy. (This figure errs on the conservative side—the Chinese living in Britain generally treated all agents of the British state with suspicion and often hid themselves from census officers.)
1911: In a wave of anti-Chinese sentiment every single Chinese laundry in Cardiff is attacked during the Cardiff riots.
1913: The publication of Sax Rohmer's series of novels about the evil genius Dr Fu Manchu create a hysterical interest in London’s Limehouse, turning the few drab streets of shops and restaurants into an infamous patch of land in Britain which supposedly harboring cunning “Chinamen” who lure white women into their opium dens. This exotic netherworld is featured in countless novels, films and songs and puts the stereotype of the Chinese as inscrutable criminals firmly at the heart of western popular culture.
1916: The British Government abandons plans to introduce several hundred thousand Chinese laborers into Britain, when trade union leaders protest that such a project would have “calamitous effects on the standard of life.”
1917: A British ship carries 1,083 Chinese from Shandong bound for Le Havre, as part of the first group of a total of nearly 100,000 recruited to unload munitions and supplies in France for the Allied effort in WWI.
1918: Census records show the number of Chinese living in Pennyfields, Poplar at 182; all are men, 9 have English wives.
1919: WWI ends. The Aliens Restriction Act is extended over to peacetime, bringing about a decline in the Chinese population in Britain.
1919: The Zhong Shan Mutual Aid Workers Club is established, offering a meeting place free from ridicule and humiliation by the British; aiming to unite the overseas Chinese in Britain, improve their working conditions and to look after their welfare.
1919: The Cheung clansmen found a limited-liability company controlling a group of successful restaurants — the first step in a new trend.
1920s: Many houses occupied by Chinese are described as “very old and in many cases extremely dilapidated externally.” Internally, most are clean, uncrowded, vermin-free and less susceptible to infectious diseases than their English neighbors.
1921: Census reports 2,419 Chinese living in Britain, including 547 laundrymen, 455 seamen and 26 restaurant workers. (This figure errs on the conservative side—the Chinese living in Britain generally treated all agents of the British state with suspicion and often hid themselves from census officers.)
1925: The KMT (Kuomintang — Nationalist Party of China) sends a representative to London, establishing a close relationship with the Zhong Shan Workers Club.
1925: British police in Shanghai open fire on demonstrators, killing 12 and wounding many more. A few weeks later, Anglo-French military forces shoot and kill 52 protestors in Shanghai. Strikes in China and Hong Kong spread to Chinese based in Britain, who call for a boycott of British goods. The British government clamps down on Chinese immigration, and the Chinese population begins a decline for the next few years.
1930s: Chinatown (including Limehouse Causeway) consists of 5,000 Chinese residents, many of whom are sailors.
1931: Census shows a drop to 1,934 Chinese residents. There are more than 500 Chinese laundries established in Britain, and 2 Chinese restaurants in Soho catering to British clientele and West End theater crowds.
1935: The first Chinese school, Zhonghua Middle School, is established in Middlefields, Ealing with 30 students.
1937: Japan wages full-scale war, attacking Chinese cities. The China Campaign Committee is set up in London, Liverpool and Manchester.
1938: Two attempts to load a cargo of iron for Japanese munitions are defeated by dock workers in Teesside and London, led by Chinese seamen who refuse to sign on the Japanese ship, despite bribes.
1938: The Archbishop of York and other church leaders organize “China Week“ and “China Sunday” to raise funds for the International Peace Hospital in Yenan, China.
1930s-1940s: Chinese women, mostly the wives of Chinese diplomats and intellectuals, mingle with the upper stratum of British society.
1935: Hsiung Shih-I becomes the first Chinese to write and direct a West End play, an adaptation of the popular Chinese story Lady Precious Stream. It runs for 1000 nights in London to glowing reviews and becomes a staple of repertory and school productions.
1939: On the outbreak of WWII in Europe, the Chinese Merchant Seamen's Pool of approximately 20,000 Chinese seamen is established, with its headquarters in Liverpool. Chinese seamen man oil-tankers on dangerous Atlantic runs.
1940: The China Campaign Committee and Chinese students organize a petition of 1.5 million signatures to protest against the closure of the Burma Road by the British government.
1938-1944: Author Chiang Yee publishes his immensely popular Silent Traveller books in London, Oxford, Edinburgh and the Lakelands, through which he casts a humorous Chinese gaze on British life.
WWI & WWII: Hundreds of thousands of Chinese seamen are recruited to serve aboard British Navy and merchant ships. Hundreds are killed and injured. Despite such risks, Chinese seamen are treated far worse, with less pay and fewer rights than their British counterparts.
1942: A Chinese seaman called Poon Lim sets the world record for surviving 133 days alone in the South Atlantic on a raft after his ship is sunk by a German submarine.
WW2: Thousands of Chinese seamen serve in the British merchant Marine; 20,000 of them live in Liverpool. The Chinese Seamen’s Union leads strikes to demand and eventually win, a War Risk Bonus normally available to all other British sailors.
Post WW2: Chinese pay is immediately slashed. The British Government and British shipping companies (particularly the Blue Funnel Line) collude to expel thousands of Chinese seamen, permanently separating many from their wives and children.
Post WW2: Many in the British Chinese community relocate in Soho.
Early 1950s: Following the end of the Chinese Civil War and Mao's population relocations, famine sweeps through China and refugees stream into the British colony of Hong Kong. Many of these refugees eventually end up in Britain, working menial jobs in the growing Chinese catering industry or Chinese-run laundry businesses.
1951: Census records show a big increase in Britain's Chinese population — 12,523, of whom over 4,000 are from British Malaya, and 3,459 are single males from Hong Kong. Nearly 100 Chinese restaurants are operating in Britain, staffed by former embassy workers and ex-seamen. Remittances to Hong Kong reach an all time high of HK$ 2.5 million.
1950s - 1960s: The largest wave of Chinese immigration takes place, consisting predominantly of male agricultural laborers from the rural villages of the New Territories in Hong Kong, and Guangdong province in mainland China.
1958: Ingrid Bergman shoots The Inn of the Sixth Happiness in Snowdonia, Wales, using hundreds of British Chinese as extras. The story is about a Liverpool missionary who led a group of orphans across the mountains of north China to escape the invading Japanese army.
1960s: Electric washing lead to a decline of Chinese laundries, and many Chinese mom-n-pop operations change to the thriving Chinese-restaurant business.
1960s: Chinese settle in Northern Ireland.
1961: Census records Britain's Chinese population at 38,750, with a fivefold increase in Hong Kong-born residents in London. The Association of Chinese Restaurateurs is formed to maintain the good reputation of the Chinese catering business and to organize recruitment from the New Territories.
1962: Ninety-six wives from Hong Kong join their husbands in Britain.
1962: A new Commonwealth Immigrants Act places restrictions on immigration from current and former British colonies. This act will be tightened by successive governments. A small amount of relatives of the Chinese already settled in Britain, as well as skilled Chinese workers are allowed in the country. This policy continues until the end of the 1970s.
1962: Census records show 30,000 Chinese mostly from the New Territories (HK) resident in Britain, sending remittances to HK in the amount of HK$40,000,000.
1963: Soho's Chinatown takes over East End as the Chinese hub. The Zhongshan Workers' Club opens in the West End, showing films and running classes. The first Chinese New Year celebrations are held in Gerrard Street. The Overseas Chinese Service opens the first specialized agency to assist the Chinese in orientation to a new society, and offering translation and interpreting services.
1970s: Significant numbers of Chinese settle in Northern Ireland. It will be said for many years, that Mandarin Chinese is the second most widely spoken "first language" in Northern Ireland after English.
1971: Census records show Britain's Chinese population at 96,030. Nearly every small town and suburb in the UK has a Chinese restaurant. Of the 4,000 Chinese owned businesses, about 1,400 are restaurants; the takeaway trade is firmly established.
1976: Britain's Chinese population includes approximately 6,000 full-time students and 2,000 nurses. The Chinese Community Centre opens in Gerrard Street with Urban Aid funding to deal with the problems experienced by the Chinese community.
1980: Considered a media breakthrough, David Yip stars as the main character in the popular TV series, The Chinese Detective.
1981: Census figures show there are 154,363 Chinese living in the UK; 35 Chinese-language newspapers and 362 periodicals on sale in 7 bookshops in Soho; 30,000 Chinese children in British schools — of these, 75 percent were born in the UK.
1981: The British Nationality Act deprives Hong Kong British passport holders of the right of abode in the United Kingdom.
1982: The Merseyside Chinese Community Services opens the Pagoda of Hundred Harmony Advice Centre with the help of an Urban Aid grant.
1983: The Chinese Information and Advice Centre (CIAC), an amalgamation of the Chinese Workers Group (1975) and the Chinese Action Group (1980) receive Greater London Council (GLC) funding.
1983: There are 7,000 Chinese restaurants, takeaways and other Chinese owned businesses (indicating a slow-down in the rate of growth).
1984-1985: The British and Chinese governments sign a Draft Agreement on the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Mid-1980s: China relaxes emigration. Although most emigres leave for the US, Canada and Australia, a significant number settle in the UK.
1985: Construction begins on Manchester's Chinatown archway.
1985: The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee report recommended more language training, career advice, community centers, and interpretation and advice services for the Chinese community, to offset weaknesses: only 2% are white-collar professionals, such as doctors, solicitors, architects, bankers, stockbrokers, business executives, teachers and university lecturers.
1986: Ping Pong, the first film by and about the Chinese community in Britain, opens in London. Directed by the British-born director Po-Chi Leong, and starring Lucy Sheen, David Yip, Ric Young, Barbara Yu Ling and Robert Lee, the film is a lively tale set in London's Chinatown, dealing with the traditional Chinese themes of familial responsibility and duty.
1987: Manchester's Chinatown Archway, the largest in Europe, is completed, marking co-operation between the government of China, Manchester City Council and the local Chinese community.
1989-1990: After the Tiananmen Square protests, a British Nationality Selection Scheme is devised to enable some Hong Kong British passport holders to obtain British citizenship, in order to maintain confidence in the Hong Kong handover to China, and to counteract the effects of the emigration of many of its most talented residents. The UK makes provision for granting citizenship to 50,000 families, whose presence is regarded as important to the future of Hong Kong, under the British Nationality Act.
2001: In one of the largest demonstrations by the Chinese community, 1,000 people protest in London against media reports that Chinese restaurants had started the 2001 UK foot-and-mouth crisis by using diseased meat. Trade at restaurants and takeaways had plummeted because the unsubstantiated rumor and labeling of an entire community as "dirty." Following the march, Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown publicly denies that the rumors had begun in his department and described the controversy as a "racist attack" on the Chinese community.
2001: There are 12,000 Chinese takeaways and 3,000 Chinese restaurants in the UK.
2004-2005: An estimated 80,000 Chinese students attend UK universities.
2006: A memorial plaque in remembrance for Chinese seamen who served during WWII is erected on Liverpool's Pier Head. Most were forcibly repatriated after WWII, leaving behind wives and children they would never see again.
2009: A significant portion of British Chinese are the second or third generation descendants of post-WWII immigrants.