Letters | South Asians have a unique place in Hong Kong
Readers discuss early settlers in Hong Kong, small businesses in Venezuela, and Donald Trump’s ‘morality’
Hong Kong has long been an attractive hub for trade, tourism and transit. South Asians on Hong Kong soil are unique due to their early settlement during the expansion of the British empire. Many came here as soldiers, workers, traders and government clerks.
According to the 2021 population census, 619,568 people, or 8.4 per cent of the population, identify as non-Chinese. They include members of ethnic minority groups permanently settled in Hong Kong.
Many of the South Asians who started settling in Hong Kong in the 1840s had been recruited into the British army. Deployed to prevent illegal entry near the border, the Nepalese lived in barracks in Jordan, Shek Kong and Yuen Long, or in Wan Chai, and continued to be stationed in Hong Kong until 1997. In the 1990s, the British government offered a nationality package to these Gurkhas, but that’s another story.
The Sikhs were recruited into the Hong Kong Police Force, formed in 1844, to maintain law and order. In the early 20th century, the force was expanded to include nearly as many Indian constables as Chinese ones, at a ratio of four to five.