The desire of the Guianese planters and the imperatives of British foreign policy notwithstanding, it was ultimately conditions in China which determined the quantum and regularity of immigrants from China. The conflict with Britain and the other Western countries that were eager to force China to open her doors to trade, simply exacerbated the soci-economic conditions which were causing Chinese people to flee their country in search of a better life. Overpopulation in China and periodic famines had always acted as an incentive for emigration. However, by the middle of the 19th century, the financial and political problems facing the ailing and corrupt Ching dynasty were exacerbated by its defeat by Britain in two wars during the 1840s and 1850s.
The continuing hardships led to constant peasant revolts. The worst of these was the Taiping Massacre of 1859-61. The bulk of the immigrants who came to British Guiana under the Chinese experiment came during this period of deep social, economic and political crisis in China. In 1861, 3,365 Chinese immigrants arrived. It was the highest annual figure for the entire period of Chinese immigration. In fact, between 1859 and 1866 there was a continuous annual arrival of Chinese in the colony. It constituted 11,984 persons, 88.5 per cent of all the Chinese immigrants who came to British Guiana. According to records passed on to their descendants, as early as 1859 several Chinese came to the colony as non-indentured immigrants. They were sometimes professionals with their families. In addition to the normal indentured immigrants, there were refugees − members of the aristocracy fleeing the Taiping rebellion and rebels overthrown by the imperial army.
(Extracted from ‘British Guiana’s immigration dilemma…’ Part II by Cecilia McAlmont, first published in Stabroek News on February 20, 2003)
