THE TEOCHIU: ETHNICITY IN URBAN HONG KONG
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371,000 Teochiu in Hong Kong in that year (1971 Census). All "official" Teochiu estimates of the total Teochiu population suggest that the census figure is considerably too low. Various Teochiu associations have estimated that there are as many as one million Teochiu (Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce, 1971:105; Chiu Chow Cultural and Educational Association, 1974:125). If this is an accurate estimate, then between 20 to 25% of the total population is Teochiu. This figure is most probably, however, an overestimate and the true figure probably lies somewhere between the government figure and the Teochiu estimate. Whatever the actual number of Teochiu, they are the second largest ethnic group in Hong Kong, Cantonese being the largest.
It is difficult to outline the pre-World War II history of Teochiu in Hong Kong in that there are few written sources aside from brief statements in Teochiu publications. The major source of information is thus the recollections of older Teochiu who lived in Hong Kong prior to World War II. It is clear that the largest portion of Teochiu lived and worked in Nam Pak Hong (南沛行 at #5), a triangular area of several blocks in what is now Western District. This area was the location of the earliest import-export trading firms after the establishment of the Colony in 1842. Many of these firms were owned by Teochiu and although there appear to be no records indicating the extent of Teochiu control in the early entrepôt trade, Teochiu informants suggest that many of the firms in Nam Pak Hong were Teochiu.
The success of these early firms, some of which are still in existence, is in large part due to what must have been a very rapid development of commercial ties with Teochiu businessmen in Thailand, other areas in Southeast Asia and Swatow.1 It can be assumed that many of the Teochiu and perhaps a majority, who came to Hong Kong in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did so in order to participate in and to extend the regional Teochiu commercial networks. A Teochiu publication discusses the biography of an important Teochiu businessman who came to Hong Kong in 1842. This man had emigrated from his home district in
1 Swatow was the second largest town in Teochiu in the 1800s and not very important commercially, but quickly became the centre of commercial and industrial development after it was opened as a treaty port in 1858. It later became the administrative centre for Teochiu and is still the administrative centre today.