The Lignum Vitae tree — Jamaica’s national tree — shades the grave of Albert Hosang in the Chinese cemetery in Kingston, Jamaica. Photo: Lisa Biagiotti |
Lisa Biagiotti is currently reporting on HIV/AIDS, sexuality and young gay men in Jamaica. On Saturday, she visited her grandfather’s grave in the Chinese cemetery in Kingston. She shares a personal story of death and renewal of the Chinese community in Jamaica.
I never met my grandfather, Albert Hosang, but I knew he was buried in the Chinese cemetery in Kingston, Jamaica. The 11-acre cemetery serves as the buffer zone for three main gangs in one of Kingston’s most volatile neighborhoods.
Before the Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA) erected a wall around the cemetery, it was a blanket battleground. People slept in graves and pillaged marble tombstones, preventing many Chinese Jamaicans from visiting the final resting places of their relatives.
The cemetery is a reminder of the Chinese presence in Jamaica since 1854. After slavery was abolished in Jamaica, British landowners recruited the Chinese — specifically the peasant, nomadic Hakka Chinese from the Guandong province outside Hong Kong. They came as indentured laborers, but soon rose through the economic and social ranks of Jamaican society, settling in downtown Kingston and throughout the island as traders, shopkeepers and bakers.
From the beginning, the Chinese mixed with the local population and converted from Buddhism to Christianity. At one point, some estimate the Chinese population reached 20,000, but it’s difficult to calculate a precise count because many Chinese are a blend of other ethnic backgrounds like black Jamaican, white European, South Asian, Lebanese, Syrian and Jewish.
When independence from British rule came in 1962, the Chinese fully integrated into Jamaican society. The second and third generations identified more as Jamaican than Chinese. They didn’t speak the old Hakka dialect, but spoke Jamaican patois. The CBA in Jamaica is trying to revive haunts of Chinese culture with Mandarin language lessons, Chinese socials, badminton, Kung Fu and other traditional Chinese celebrations.
There is also a new wave of Chinese immigrants in Jamaica today. Like their Chinese ancestors 150 years ago, they are setting up shops in downtown Kingston. When I walked into Chun Lai’s shop on Princess Street, no one spoke patois (yet), and all the goods were made in China.
At 10:00 on Saturday morning, I sat at the foot of my grandfather’s grave in the 99-year-old Chinese cemetery while resident expert David Chang read the Chinese characters on the tombstone. (My grandfather died at age 46, but the Chinese characters read 49 — it’s common to have errors like these as the language slipped away from the Chinese Jamaicans.) David read from top to bottom, right to left: The town and province my grandfather’s family came from in China, the names of his parents, brothers and wife. Then he said, “And 10? Ten children?” and turned to me.
I nodded, “Yes, 10 children.” And I looked down at my right hand, at the worn, barely-beveled ring my Aunt Paula sent me in a plastic bag a few weeks ago. I sighed and thought of her as she waged her final battle with cancer. I patted her father’s grave and heard her slim gold band tap the white tile.
My aunt, Paula (Hosang) Sperrazza, died at 1:30 p.m. that very same day. I’m not sure if my visit was karmic or auspicious — maybe it just is. She was a courageous and brilliant woman who began her life 62 years ago in the Chinese Jamaican community in Kingston.
Rest in peace Paula Sperrazza and Albert Hosang.
– Lisa Biagiotti
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02/16/2010 :: 09:10:34 PM
Jackie Says:
2/16/2010: Lisa, great work. Always nice to hear someone investigating the Jamaican-Chinese or is it Chinese-Jamaican?.] Sorry I only found out about this right now. The last time I was at the Chinese cemetery, someone swiped a gold necklace off a Chinese woman; other fellows supposedly went to catch him with machetes in their hands. Meanwhile, a rich family had a whole large roast pig in their pagoda. Back then,the JBC burned real money for the spirits. We had no fake money in Ja. to burn. Only when we emigrated to US did we discover there was fake money to burn. There are two yearbook size books from the JBC in Toronto Canada chronicling the history of Chinese in Ja.; not sure if the CBA in Jamaica showed them to you. That’s pretty much the history. I have both books if you wish to peruse them. I live in NYC, but my brother and quite a few uncles/cousins still live in Kingston and I go back frequently. If you wish to learn more about the Jamaican Chinese, now is the time to act. Many of the grandparents are dying off. They are the ones with all the history. I even went to do my ancestral village trip in 2001. Just find the oldest person in family village in China and tell them your grandfather’s or great-grandfather’s name [unfortunately they don’t care to ask about your grandmother] and they will show you the horrible cement barrack where your grandfather was born. But those old folks in China are dying out too. And the villages have changed so much. As for the Facebook, I don’t think too many of the young ones care enough about the past–yet. My parents age group, 60 to 70, don’t use computers really. My generation moved to America so seems very little interest in a life they don’t remember; mostly they are Jamaican-Chinese-American. I remember too much of a GREAT life growing up in Jamaica. If you are interested, let me know. Got family in Germany, England, Canada, Miami, NYC, Maryland, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, China, Viet Nam, Taiwan, Hawaii, Trinidad. Hope you got to eat some really good Jamaican and Chinese-Jamaican food while you were there. If not, I can hook you up with some in NYC. Walk Good!