Chindian

Source: Chindian from Wikipedia

Chindian is an informal term used to refer to a person of both Chinese and Indian ancestry. There are a considerable number of Chindians in Malaysia and Singapore, where people of Chinese and Indian origin immigrated in large numbers during the 19th century. There are also a sizable number living in Hong Kong and smaller numbers in other countries with overseas Chinese and Indian diaspora, such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana in the Caribbean, as well as in Thailand, the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

Malaysia and Singapore

In Malaysia and Singapore, the majority of interracial marriages occur between Chinese (specifically Han Chinese) and Indians (specifically Tamil Indians). The offspring of such marriages are informally known as “Chindian”. The Malaysian government, however, only classifies them by their fathers’ ethnicity. As the majority of these intermarriages usually involve an Indian groom and Chinese bride, the majority of Chindian offspring in Malaysia are usually classified as “Indian” by the Malaysian government.

According to government statistics, 2.4% of Singapore’s population were multiracial, mostly Chindians.
Also in 2007, 16.4% of all marriages in Singapore were inter-ethnic, again
mostly between Chinese and Indians.^[1]

Singapore only began to allow mixed-race persons to register two racial
classification on their identity cards in 2010. Parents may choose which
of the two is listed first.^[3] More than two races
may not be listed even if the person has several different ethnicities in their
family.

Hong Kong

Indians have been living in Hong Kong long before the partition of India into the nations of India and Pakistan. They migrated to Hong Kong as traders, police officers and army officers during colonial rule. 25,000 of the Muslims in Hong Kong trace their roots back to what is now Pakistan. Around half of them belong to ‘local boy’ families, Muslims of mixed Chinese and Indian/Pakistani ancestry, descended from early Indian/Pakistani immigrants who took local Chinese wives and brought their children up as Muslims.
These “local Indians” were not completely accepted by either the Chinese or
Indian communities.

Notable Chindians

• Jacintha Abisheganaden – Singaporean
  actress
• Vivian
  Balakrishnan– Singaporean politician
• Bernard
  Chandran– Malaysian fashion designer
• Anya
  Ayoung-Chee – winner of Miss Trinidad and Tobago Universe 2008 and was a
  contestant in the Miss Universe 2008 pageant
• Karen David – English
  singer-songwriter born in Meghalaya, India
• Nicol David – Malaysian
  athlete
• Vanessa
  Fernandez– Singaporean singer and radio presenter
• Jonathan Foo –
  Guyanese cricketer
• Jwala Gutta – Indian
  badminton player
• Indranee Rajah –
  deputy speaker of the Singaporean parliament
• Michelle Saram –
  Hong Kong actress born in Singapore
• Mark
  Subra– Singaporean hip-hop artist
• Edwin Thumboo –
  Singaporean poet
• Ke
  Yinhua – Son of Indian expatriate doctor in China, Dwarkanath Kotnis
• Joseph Prince –
  Singaporean evangelist
• Jade
  Nina Sarkhel – British ceroc dance champion

Related articles

• Being Chindian (pottedplot.com)

Tags: Anya Ayoung-Chee, Asia, Chindian, Han Chinese, Health, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore