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(Burma), (West) Malaysia, Indonesia, (East) Malaysia, Singapore, Phillippines, East Timor, Brunei, Christmas Islands, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

      And finally, there is South Asia: Afganistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

      If you want to look at skin tone, we can range this from light (East Asia) to dark (South Asia), but this doesn’t include the the indigenous peoples who reside in the different countries or settlers finding new places to reside in.

      Yes, it’s all rather confusing but world history is exactly that.

      My people, the Han Chinese, comprise the largest ethnic population in the world, making up 18% of the global population. That’s a crapload of people. Which means you’ll find light-skinned Asians in non-East Asian countries, like Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, USA, Canada, Britain and, of course, South Africa.

      In Taiwan, Han Chinese make up almost 98% of the country’s population, while the island’s indigenous people make up the remainder. The indigenous folk, also known as the Highland people (高山– Gāshān), have resided there for over five thousand years and the various tribes speak 26 Formosan languages. Many still live in the more mountainous regions, although, over time, many moved to the cities for the opportunities they promised. Taiwan’s history hasn’t been fair to the native people as the mass of Han Chinese who fought for the Republic of China, which includes my ancestors, settled in such large numbers after being defeated by the PRC, China’s communist party. The social unrest that came with ROC and PRC, and with Dutch colonisation, British rule and Japanese occupation, resulted in harsh policies of forced assimilation.

      Basically, it’s a mess – but it’s also why you’ll often hear Taiwanese people of non-indigenous descent speak of their culture and traditions as Chinese.9 Some identify strongly as Taiwanese, while others identify as Chinese.

      I was raised to be proudly Taiwanese, while practising the ancient Chinese traditions my parents passed down to me.

      My background, together with being a minority in Western society, has afforded me the opportunity to relate to those who may be described as displaced indigenous people. I am able to sympathise. While my ancestors settling in Taiwan wasn’t colonisation, I can see the similarities and the harmful effects of mass migration. The fact that the cultural norms of Taiwan don’t represent the culture of the indigenous people of Taiwan is not lost on me. I am fully aware that the primary spoken languages, Mandarin and Hokkien, are imports from ancient China. I know that the first time the official government (which is made up of Taiwanese people of Han Chinese descent) acknowledged the indigenous people and apologised for the centuries of mistreatment was as recently as 2016, when the Democratic Party’s leader, President Tsai Ing Wen, who has Paiwan roots on her paternal grandmother’s side, was voted into power.

      Apart from acknowledgement and apology for past injustices, reparations are also important – at the very least to attempt to equalise the playing field due to the unfair privileges given to certain groups. Similarities can be observed all around the world. In South Africa the indigenous black people were historically an oppressed group, along with all people of colour, and the legacy of the hateful laws that governed them is still evident in the way they are treated today.

      Yellow faces in South Africa

      South Africa’s history of the arrival of yellow folk isn’t well documented (compared to other colonised countries like the US, Canada and Australia) and is sometimes erased because of them being such a small percentage. The last census that recorded the stats of race was in 2010, with Asians making up 2,6% of South Africa’s population (and with this percentage being largely made up of Indians), East and Southeast Asians make up even less than half of that percentage. And this doesn’t include those of Malay descent, who fell under the ‘coloured’ category during apartheid. So, if Asians make up more than a quarter of the white population (9,2%)10, why exactly are we so invisibilised?

      Although they settled in various cities, it is unlikely that you will find yellow people residing in townships or rural areas. Taiwanese people in South Africa mostly emigrated between the late 70s and early 90s, invited to reside in the provinces and towns that were known for the manufacturing of textiles and plastics. The Free State was one of these provinces – Bloemfontein and also Ladybrand were the main destinations – as were the Eastern and Western Cape. The Taiwanese in South Africa are currently an approximate population of around 8 900. In the same breath, you’ll also find the Japanese (around 1 000), and less South Koreans, who came to the country from the late 80s.

      During apartheid, we were classified on paper as honourary whites. The Chinese, on the other hand, many of them are locals and have resided in South Africa for generations, were classified as ‘coloured’.

      You’ll find most Chinese people today live in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban. Their population’s ancestry is variously composed: of prisoners (exiled from Batavia, today’s Indonesia) in the late 1600s, free Chinese, who made a living from fishing and farming, independent migrants looking to strike it lucky when gold mining began, and then the exploited miners when the British imported Chinese labourers after the Anglo–Boer War in their attempts to rebuild the country.11 In addition to these Chinese folk, there are also the new immigrants who have settled here post apartheid due to the new relationship and investments in South Africa from the Chinese government – generally these are the first-generation Chinese people who populate the new ‘Chinatowns’. (I have not been able to access current official figures, but some sources state that there are at least 300 000 Chinese people in South Africa.)12

      ‘Yellow’ folk whose roots are Indonesian and Malaysian, and who are mostly seen in the Cape Malay population in South Africa, are not considered ‘Asian’ in South Africa. Their Asian side is not seen as part of their ethnicity but as part of their culture – another legacy of apartheid – and some, in coloured cultures, still get mocked or fetishised for looking yellow. Then there are South Africans of Filipino descent,13 many of whom lived in Bantustans – those spaces set aside for black people during segregation. Because white South Africans perceived them as ‘black’ for this reason, they were consequently classified ‘black’.

      The Burmese, from Myanmar, are a newer immigration group. Diplomatic relations were established between Myanmar and South Africa in the mid 90s14 and currently just under 100 Burmese folk live in South Africa, their younger generations being born here. Many of this group are doctors and their children followed in their parents’ footsteps and also entered the medical profession – providing services to their local communities.

      From the brief description I have given here, it should be obvious that even though we’re seen as ‘all the same’ and grouped into racial stereotypes, the yellowness in the South African population is layered and our histories are complex.

      3

      A letter to South Africans (both East Asians and ‘other’)

      The typical introductions occur when I meet someone new. They want to know where I’m from and I want to say Bloemfontein because that’s where I grew up but I don’t. I say Taiwan, because after years of practice I know that’s what they want to hear. And once I say Taiwan, I know what the follow-up remark will inevitably be.

      ‘But you speak such good English!’

      To the majority this might seem like a compliment or even a simple pleasantry, but as an Asian who grew up in South Africa and who only ever attended school in South Africa, I think to myself, well, I should speak ‘good English’. In fact, I also speak some Afrikaans and a little Sotho, which were school subjects, in addition to my home languages. And I’m by no means impressive or unique – there are many other multilingual South Africans, after all.

      Why can’t your first impression of me be as a South African, and not a foreigner? You don’t have to ask every Asian person you meet: ‘Where are you really from?’

      Now that we’ve cleared up why I

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