Hoa
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| Hoa ( Vietnamese Chinese ) |
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The Hoa are an overseas Chinese minority in Vietnam. They are also typically referred to as either Chinese Vietnamese, Vietnamese Chinese, Sino-Vietnamese, or ethnic Chinese in/from Vietnam. The Vietnamese government's classification of the Hoa excludes two other groups of Chinese-speaking peoples, the San Diu (mountain Chinese) and the Ngai. Along with ethnic Vietnamese, the Hoa are usually referred to as "Vietnamese" by Chinese from Mainland China and Taiwan.
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[edit] Languages
The Hoa are descended from early Mainland Chinese settlers from the Guangdong province who arrived in Vietnam from the 18th to 20th centuries. The final group of Mainland Chinese migrants came during the 1940s. A large proportion of Hoa speak the Vietnamese accent of Cantonese Chinese as their mother tongue. The second largest group of Hoa tend to speak Teochew Chinese (Chaozhou), but may also speak Cantonese as a lingua franca.
The Chinese who escaped from Qing dynasty to Vietnam declared themselves as the Minh-huong (明鄉 or Ming-Xiang in Chinese PinYin) which means the people of the Ming dynasty.
The Chinese Vietnamese have remained relatively distinct and isolated ethnic group from the native Vietnamese population. Due to the proximity of Vietnam to Guangdong province, Mainland China, and to Hong Kong, the Chinese Vietnamese have tended to retain the strongest ties and greater affinity to traditional Chinese culture, unlike many other overseas Chinese diasporas in Southeast Asia, especially in comparison to Chinese Filipinos, Thai Chinese, and the relatively westernized Chinese Singaporeans.
They are predominantly urban dwellers. A few Hoa live in small settlements in the northern highlands near the Chinese frontier, where they are also known as ngai. Traditionally, as elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the Chinese have retained a distinctive cultural identity, but in 1955 North Vietnam and China agreed that the Hoa should be integrated gradually into Vietnamese society and should have Vietnamese citizenship conferred on them.
[edit] Occupations
This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
Before 1975 the northern Hoa were mainly rice farmers, fishermen, and coal miners, except for those residing in cities and provincial towns. In the South they were dominant in commerce and manufacturing. According to an official source, at the end of 1974 the Hoa controlled more than 80 % of the food, textile, chemical, metallurgy, engineering, and electrical industries, 100 % of wholesale trade, more than 50 % of retail trade, and 90 % of export-import trade. Dominance over the economy enabled the Hoa to "manipulate prices" of rice and other scarce goods. This particular source further observed that the Hoa community constituted "a state within a state," inasmuch as they had built "a closed world based on blood relations, strict internal discipline, and a network of sects, each with its own chief, to avoid the indigenous administration's direct interference." It was noted by Hanoi in 1983 that as many as 60 % of "the former bourgeoisie" of the south were of Chinese origin.
[edit] Population and expulsion
In mid-1975, when North and South Vietnam were unified, the combined Hoa communities of the North and South numbered approximately 1.3 million, and all but 200,000 resided in the South, most of them in the Saigon metropolitan area, especially in the Cholon district (Chinatown). Beginning in 1975, the Hoa bore the brunt of socialist transformation in the South. The government attempted to require all ethnic Chinese adopt Vietnamese nationality, and those who refused faced heavy taxes, occupational discrimination, and had food rations reduced.<ref>Chang, Pao-Min, "The Sino-Vietnamese dispute over the Ethnic Chinese", The China Quarterly, No. 90 (June 1982), p. 200</ref><ref>Li Xiannian's Memorandom to Pham Van Dong dated 17 June 1977</ref> Further reforms in 1977 prohibited Chinese from entering civil service, working for public enterprises, engaging in retail trades or farming, or moving from one place to another. Distrusted Chinese nationals were required to fill out "voluntary repatriation" forms, which would lead the to confiscation of their property and exile from the country<ref>Beijing Review, 16 June 1978, p. 15</ref>, while ethnic Chinese with Vietnamese citizenship were denied the right to stand for elections and began to suffer occupational and political discrimination. <ref>Ching Pao (Jing Bao), July 1978, p. 8; Chung-Yueh chiao-o shih-mo (Zhongyue jiao'ou shimo), p.30</ref><ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 203</ref>
By April 1977, Vietnam began to expel both Chinese and non-Vietnamese minorities from the Sino-Vietnamese border areas into China.<ref>Beijing Review, 18 August 1977, p. 28</ref><ref>Far East Economic Review, 5 May 1978, p. 10</ref><ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 203</ref> As Vietnam prepared to escalate its border conflict with Kampuchea, surveillence, harassment, and expulsions of ethnic Chinese nationwide increased,<ref>Monitoring Digest, 31 May 1978, p. 10</ref><ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 204</ref> as they were increasingly distrusted and seen as a possible fifth column for China. Distrust deepened in 1978, as China announced reforms, as part of its Four Modernizations, to protect its citizens living abroad as well as reestablish relations with overseas Chinese to encourage foreign investment.<ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 204-205</ref>
In early 1978, Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City protested against discrimination, including confiscation of their properties, expulsions, and nullification of their nationality.<ref>Monitoring Digest, 1 June 1978, p. 1</ref><ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 205</ref> By early 1978 the communist government decided to abolish private trade. On March 23, 1978, 30,000 police cordoned off the Cholon district of Ho Chi Minh City. This force conducted searches and confiscation in every house and shop in the district, including confiscations of goods and valuables from about 50,000 retailers.<ref>Straits Times, 4 May 1978, p. 26</ref><ref>Far East Economic Review, 14 April 1978, p. 12</ref><ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 206</ref> This operation was simultaneously conducted nationwide in other parts of the country, often with specific target quotas set for each area, and continued for a month.<ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 206</ref><ref>Chung-Yueh chiao-o shih-mo (Zhongyue jiao'ou shimo), p. 16</ref> An announcement on March 24 outlawed all wholesale trade and large business activities, which forced around 30,000 businesses to close down overnight<ref>Far East Economic Review, 14 April 1978, p. 12</ref>, followed up by another that banned all private trade<ref>Far East Economic Review, 5 May 1978, p. 10-11</ref><ref>Asiaweek, 28 April 1978, p. 16-18</ref>. Further government policies forced former owners to become farmers in the countryside or join the arm forces and fight at the Vietnam-Kampuchea border, and confiscated all old and foreign currencies, as well as any Vietnamese currency in excess of the US value of $250 for urban households and $150 by rural households. <ref>Straits Times, 4 May 1978, p. 26</ref><ref>Straits Times, 5 May 1978, p. 1</ref><ref>Straits Times, 30 May 1978, p. 12</ref><ref>Straits Times, 27 June 1978, p. 1</ref><ref>Straits Times, 22 May 1978, p. 1</ref><ref>Asiaweek, 28 April 1978, p. 16-18</ref> While such measures were targeted at all bourgeois elements, such measures hurt ethnic Chinese the hardest and resulted in the takeover of Chinese properties in and around major cities.<ref>Straits Times, 10 June 1978, p. 1</ref><ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 207</ref> Chinese communities offered widespread resistance and clashes left the streets of Cholon "full of corpses".<ref>Straits Times, 4 May 1978, p. 26</ref><ref>Straits Times, 18 September 1978, p. 2</ref>
These measures, combined with external tensions stemming from Vietnam's dispute with Cambodia and China in 1978 and 1979 caused an exodus of as the majority of the Hoa, of whom more than 170,000 fled overland into the province of Guangxi, China, from the North and the remainder fled by boat from the South. They would make up a large portion (~85%) of the "boat people".<ref>Library of Congress Country Studies</ref> China received a daily influx of 4-5,000 refugees, while Southeast Asian countries saw a wave of 5,000 boat people arriving at their shores each month. China sent unarmed ships to help evacuate Chinese refugees, but encountered diplomatic problems as the Vietnamese government denied that Chinese suffered persecution and later refused to issue exit permits after as many as 250,000 Chinese had applied for repatriation.<ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 215-218</ref> In an attempt to stem the refugee flow, avert Vietnamese accusations that Beijing was coercing its citizens to emigrate, and encourage Vietnam to change its policies towards ethnic Chinese, China closed off its land border in 1955.<ref>Xinhua, New China News Agency, 11 June 1978</ref> This led to a jump in the number of boat people, with as many as 100,000 arriving in other countries by the end of 1978. However, the Vietnamese government by now not only encouraged the exodus, but took the opportunity to profit from it by imposing a price of five to ten taels of gold or an equivalent of uS $1,500 to $3,000 per person wishing to leave the country.<ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 222</ref><ref>Far Eastern Economic Review, 12 May 1978, p. 9</ref><ref>Far Eastern Economic Review, 22 December 1978, p. 9</ref><ref>Straits Times, 15 November 1978, p. 1</ref><ref>Straits Times, 20 November 1978, p. 2</ref> The Vietnamese military also forcibly drove the thousands of border refugees across the Sino-vietnamese land border, causing numerous border incidents and armed clashes, while blaming these movements on China by accusing them of using saboteurs to force Vietnamese citizens into China.<ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 223</ref><ref>British Broadcasting Corporation, Summary of World Broadcasts, Pt. III, The Far East, No. 5881 (3 August 1978), p. A3/6</ref><ref>British Broadcasting Corporation, Summary of World Broadcasts, Pt. III, The Far East, No. 5883 (5 August 1978), p. A3/3</ref><ref>British Broadcasting Corporation, Summary of World Broadcasts, Pt. III, The Far East, No. 5897 (22 August 1978), p. A3/2</ref><ref>British Broadcasting Corporation, Summary of World Broadcasts, Pt. III, The Far East, No. 5900 (25 August 1978), p. A3/3</ref><ref>British Broadcasting Corporation, Summary of World Broadcasts, Pt. III, The Far East, No. 6902 (29 August 1978), p. A3/1-2</ref> This new influx brought the number of refugees in China to around 200,000.<ref>Xinhua, New Chinhbkjbkbjkjbkjbkjbkjbkjbkjbkjbkjba News Agency, 5 January 1979</ref>
The expulsion and persecution of ethnic Chinese in Vietnam was one of the reasons, though not cited as a primary one, for China initiating the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979. However, this justification was played downplayed and never publicly stated for fear of both alienating other Southeast countries with Chinese minorities (who would feel threatened if mistreatment of their Chinese minorities could lead to war with China), and for fear of possible persehcution of other populations of overseas Chinese due to suspicions of ties with China.<ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 225</ref> However, the size of the exodus increased during and after the war. The monthly number of boat people arriving in Southeast Asia increased to 11,000 during the first quarter of 1979, 28,000 by April, and 55,000 in June, while more than 90,000 fled by boat to China. In addition, the Vietnamese military also began expelling ethnic Chinese from Vietnam-occupied Kampuchea, leading to over 43,000 refugees of mostly Chinese descent fleeing overland to Thailand<ref>Chang, Pao-min pg. 227</ref> By now, Vietnam was openly confiscating the properties and extorting money from fleeing refugees. In April 1979 alone, overseas Chinese outside of Vietnam had remitted a total of US $242 million (an amount equivalent to half the total value of Vietnam's 1978 exports) through Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City to help their friends or family pay their way out of Vietnam.<ref>New York Times, 13 June 1979</ref> By June, money from refugees had replaced the coal industry as Vietnam's largest source of foreign exchange and was expected to reach as much as 3 billion in US dollars.<ref>Straits Times, 8 June 1979, p. 36</ref> By 1980, the refugee population in China reached 260,000<ref>Straits Times, 10 July 1989</ref>, and the number of surviving boat people refugees in Southeast Asia reached 400,000.<ref>Based on UNHCR estimates. see Straits Times, 13, October 1978, p. 3</ref> (An estimated 50%<ref>Straits Times, 8 June 1979</ref><ref>Straits Times, 8 May 1980</ref> to 70%<ref>New York Times, 13 June 1979</ref> of boat people perished at sea.) By the end of 1980, the majority of the Hoa had fled or been expelled from Vietnam. In addition to Chinese, an estimated 30,000 ethnic Vietnamese refugees were accepted by China, where they they form one of the country's ethnic minorities.<ref>Straits Times, 10 July 1980, p. 2</ref>
[edit] Chinese Vietnamese in other countries
As an example of their resiliency to Chinese culture, upon their arrival in North America, some Chinese Vietnamese (Sino-Vietnamese) immigrants have re-asserted Chinese identity by changing their Vietnamized surnames - which was required under the autocratic regime of Ngô Đình Diệm of the former South Vietnam - back to Chinese-sounding equivalents; for example, Duong to Tang, Hoang to Wong (Cantonese) or Huang (Mandarin), Truong to Chang, and so on.
Today, there are many Chinese Vietnamese refugee communities in Australia, Canada, France, and the United States, where they have been instrumental in breathing new life into old existing Chinatowns. For example, the established Chinatowns of Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto, and Paris have a Vietnamese atmosphere due the large presence of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam. Some of these communities also have associations for transplanted Vietnamese Chinese refugees; for example, the America Vietnam Chinese Association in Los Angeles and Association des Résidents en France d'origine indochinoise in Paris.
The Chinese Vietnamese poulation in China now number about 300,000, and live mostly in 194 refugee settlements mostly in the provinces of Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian, Hainan, Jiangxi, and Guangxi. Most (85%+) have achieved economic independence, but the remainder still live below the poverty line in rural areas. While they have most of the same rights as Chinese nationals, including employment, education, housing, property ownership, and health care, they have not been granted citizenship and continued to be regarded by the government as refugees. Their refugee status allowed them to receive UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) assistance and aid until the early twenty-first century. <ref>U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, World Refugee Survey, [1]</ref>
There is also a sizable Chinese Vietnamese refugee population - many of whom speak Cantonese - in Hong Kong, but they have experienced discrimination in housing and employment.
In the United States, the Chinese Vietnamese have also started prominent Vietnamese communities called Little Saigon, including those in the states of California, Texas, and Washington. They own a large share of businesses especially catering to ethnic Vietnamese.
[edit] List of concentrations of Hoa by country
Vietnam
- Melbourne: Box Hill, Footscray
- Sydney: Cabramatta
- Montreal: Chinatown, Montreal, Brossard
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Toronto: Chinatown, Toronto, Mississauga, North York, Ontario, Kitchener, Ontario, Waterloo, Ontario
- Windsor, Ontario
- Paris: Quartier asiatique (13th arrondissement)
- Boston: Chinatown; and larger presence in Dorchester section
- Chicago - New Chinatown
- Detroit: Madison Heights, Michigan
- Honolulu: Chinatown
- Houston: Chinatown, Houston (Bellaire), Alief
- Los Angeles: Little Saigon/Orange County, Chinatown, Los Angeles, Lincoln Heights, San Gabriel Valley
- Philadelphia: Chinatown
- San Francisco: Little Saigon/San Francisco (Tenderloin district), San Jose, Fremont, Oakland, California
- Seattle: International District, Seattle, Washington
This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
[edit] Prominent Chinese Vietnamese
- Tsui Hark, Hong Kong film director
- Frank Jao, pioneer of the Vietnamese American enclave of Little Saigon in Orange County, California, USA
- Lui Leung-Wai, Hong Kong actor
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes and References
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| Ethnic groups in Vietnam (sorted by language family) | 
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