April 17, 2005|By Doreen Hemlock Business Writer
Warren Chung and his partners at Patty King bakery in Miami have heard the remark so many times it hardly fazes them: "You're Jamaican? You don't look it."
But the pale-skinned men of Chinese heritage are as Jamaican as they come -- the proud offspring of a Caribbean nation whose motto is "Out of Many, One People."
They're part of a small but dynamic Chinese-Jamaican community, whose Chinese forefathers arrived in Jamaica in 1854 as indentured labor for plantations. Today, the group is estimated to number hundreds of thousands worldwide and spans merchants, professionals, social activists and even a billionaire financier.
The community has skin tones from ivory to black. Some speak a Chinese dialectlanguage; many don't. And They're scattered widely, with clusters outside Jamaica in Toronto, New York and South Florida.
Yet as a group, they often exhibit common traits, thanks to ancestors who typically worked in Chinese-owned shops in Jamaica and even slept on store counters until they could save and start their own ventures. They tend to work hard, place priority on family and education, and revere their elders -- in keeping with Chinese tradition.
When China's vice president led a 125-member team for business talks in Jamaica in Februarythis February, his visit highlighted more than 150 years of shared history between the two distant and different nations. It also underscored how the Chinese-Jamaican community -- like other immigrant groups -- continues to evolve worldwide, straddling cultures and grappling with issues of identity.
In South Florida, the most visible signs of the community can be seen at supermarkets.
Chinese-Jamaicans are the force behind Leasa Industries, which makes bean sprouts and tofu; Ocho Rios-Miami Inc., which distributes jerk seasonings and Caribbean teas; and Patty King, makers of filled pastry crescents, among other specialty food companies.
They're also the organizers of a South Florida's large Chinese New Year celebration held at Miami-Dade College, and they're key contributors to both the Democratic and Republican parties.
As individuals, some in the Sunshine State accent their roots in China, some in Jamaica, some in the United StatesA -- and some a mix of all three.
Warren Chung and his partners at Patty King illustrate the diversity, even within the generation born in Jamaica and raised in South Florida.
Chung's father had come from China in his late teens and worked in his uncle's shop in Jamaica before marrying a Chinese-Jamaican and starting their own business. The family left the island in the turbulent 1970s, when Chung was 12. He grew up in Miami and earned a business degree at Florida International University but still visits Jamaica regularly. He's also traveled to Hong Kong.
At age 40, Chung describes himself as a unique cultural blend.
"I'm Jamaican-Chinese-American, absolutely," he said.
But Chung's partner, Colin Chang, 37, feels far removed from China, where he's never been. His direct links to Jamaica are dimming too, since he hardly returns to the island though he listens to lots of reggae music.
"We're like in the middle," said Chang, who left Jamaica at 9 and holds an urban-studies degree from New York University. "We're not Chinese. We're not Jamaican. If I had to pick, I'd say I'm American. Because that's where I'm going to live and that's where my children are going to live."
Preserving heritage
Those born, raised and living in Jamaica also struggle with identity and keeping their Chinese heritage alive.
Activities often revolve around the Chinese Benevolent Association in Kingston, founded in 1891. The group operates today from a community center topped by a traditional Chinese sloped roof and flanked by statues of guardian lions. The site is featured on a new Jamaica stamp.
Downstairs at the center, below the netball courts and the stage used for recitals of Chinese dance and martial arts, sits the year-old Jamaican-Chinese Historical Museum. It features Chinese musical instruments, lacquer vases, a Buddha prayer wheel and other artifacts, including Chinese newspapers published in Jamaica.
Former association President Vincent Chang, 51, doesn't speak Chinese languages and has never visited China, but he proudly relates the history of his unique heritage.
The Chinese came to Jamaica starting in the mid-1800s, first to work as indentured plantation labor on multiyear contracts, and later then, arriving ofn their own volition. Many entered retail, then considered off-limits to blacks. They sent for friends and relatives to join them, nearly all from China's itinerant Hakka minority from Guandong province.
"We've always been different, stubborn and counter to China's main Han culture," said Chang of his Hakka roots. "For example, our women were more independent. They did not bind their feet."
The Hakka set up shops mainly in downtown Kingston. "There, they got their BSC degrees -- Behind the Shop Counter degrees," he joked.
