{{Short description|Ethnic group}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Chinese Peruvians | native_name = 秘魯華人（秘魯中國人）<br/>Tusán (土生) | native_name_lang = zh | image = Chinatown_Lima_Peru.jpg | image_caption = Chinatown of Lima | pop = '''14,307''' by self-reported ancestry according to the Peruvian National Census (2017).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.inei.gob.pe/media/MenuRecursivo/publicaciones_digitales/Est/Lib1539/libro.pdf|title=Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico |page = 214|website = Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática}}</ref> '''2.500.000''' have been estimated chinese ancestry (2017).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cadal.org/informes/pdf/El-poder-blando-de-China-en-Peru.pdf|title=El Poder Blando de China en Peru|page = 6|author= Juan Pablo Cardinal}}</ref> | popplace = Lima, Huacho, Ica, Piura, Huancayo, Cusco, Moyobamba, Tarapoto, Iquitos | langs = Peruvian Spanish, Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin, Hokkien | rels = Mostly Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Buddhism | related = Asian Latin Americans, Asian Peruvians | total_year = }} {{Infobox Chinese | s = 秘鲁华侨华人 | t = {{linktext|秘魯|華僑|華人}} | p = Bìlǔ Huáqiáo Huárén | j = bei<sup>3</sup>lou<sup>5</sup> waa<sup>4</sup>kiu<sup>4</sup> waa<sup>4</sup>jan<sup>4</sup> | altname = Tusán | c2 = {{linktext|lang=zh|土生}} | p2 = tǔ shēng | j2 = tou<sup>2</sup> saang<sup>1</sup> | l2 = Local-born }} '''Chinese Peruvians''', also known as '''''tusán''''' (a loanword from {{lang-zh|c=土生|p=tǔ shēng|j=tou2 saang1|cy=tóu sāng|l=local born}}), whose forebears immigrated from China and who form a distinct cultural community within Peru.

Due to acculturation, most third and fourth generation Chinese Peruvians do not speak the language of their ancestors. However, some second generation Chinese Peruvians can speak one or more varieties of Chinese that may include Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka and Minnan (Hokkien), in addition to Spanish.

Outside of the predominant Amerindian, mestizo, white, and black populations, Chinese are estimated to constitute less than 0.1% of the Peruvian population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/peru/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109085136/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/peru|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 9, 2021|title=The World Factbook: Peru: People and society|website=www.cia.gov|access-date=31 August 2017}}</ref> In the 2017 Census in Peru, only 14,307 people claimed '''''tusán''''' or Chinese ancestry.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.inei.gob.pe/media/MenuRecursivo/publicaciones_digitales/Est/Lib1539/libro.pdf|title=Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico|page = 214|website = Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática}}</ref> However, according to the embassy, it was estimated that 15% (or 4 million) of the 30 million Peruvians had Chinese roots and ancestry, tracing back to the 19th century arrival of 100,000 Chinese immigrants that migrated to Peru and entered relationships with many Peruvian women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Michael H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ewMoAn4cNqMC&pg=PA382 |title=Causes and Consequences of Human Migration: An Evolutionary Perspective |date=2012-11-08 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-01286-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite book|author=Robert Evan Ellis|date=2009|title=China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores Hardcover|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V_0MAQAAMAAJ&q=4.2+million|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|location=Boulder, Colorado|page=272|isbn=978-1588266507}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Figure 4. Difficulties Reported by Peruvians in Host Countries, 2006|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/717243165352|access-date=2022-01-01|doi=10.1787/717243165352 }}</ref>

Peru has a largest amount of people with Chinese descent in Latin America, with 3 million Peruvians of partial or full Chinese ancestry. Peru and the United States are the only American countries with a larger number of people of Chinese descent outside Asian countries <ref name="PeruCADAL2020">{{Cite web |year=2020 |title=El poder blando de China en Perú |url=https://www.cadal.org/informes/pdf/El-poder-blando-de-China-en-Peru.pdf |access-date=2026-05-10 |publisher=CADAL |page=8 |quote=Se estima que entre 2 y 3 millones de peruanos tienen ascendencia china}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |year=2018 |title=Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico. Informe Nacional |url=https://www.inei.gob.pe/media/MenuRecursivo/publicaciones_digitales/Est/Lib1539/libro.pdf |access-date=2026-05-10 |publisher=INEI |page=220}}</ref>

==History==

===Early history=== thumb|Chinese laborers in Peru - 1890 Workers who were shipped from the Spanish Philippines to Acapulco via the Manila-Acapulco galleons were all called ''Chino'' ("Chinese"), although in reality they were not only from China but also other places, including what are today the Philippines itself, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor and further afield such as India and Sri Lanka.<ref name="LaiTan2010">{{cite book|editor1=Walton Look Lai|editor2=Chee Beng Tan|title=The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xrGShVU6VrgC&pg=PA12|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2010|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-18213-4}}</ref>{{rp|12}}<ref name="Herrera-Sobek2012">{{cite book|editor=María Herrera-Sobek|title=Celebrating Latino Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Cultural Traditions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDIwZ8BieWcC&pg=PA59|access-date=8 January 2016|volume=1|year=2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34339-1|page=59}}</ref><ref name="Binder1993">{{cite book|editor=Wolfgang Binder|title=Slavery in the Americas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M25cDaIsFNYC&pg=PA100|access-date=8 January 2016|volume=4|year=1993|publisher=Königshausen & Neumann|isbn=978-3-88479-713-6|page=100}}</ref><ref name="Meagher2008">{{cite book|author=Arnold J. Meagher|title=The Coolie Trade: The Traffic in Chinese Laborers to Latin America 1847-1874|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H7dBmBsd-XgC&pg=PA194|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2008|publisher=Arnold J Meagher|isbn=978-1-4363-0943-1|page=194}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Filipinos made up most of their population.<ref name="Russell2009">{{cite book|author=James W. Russell|title=Class and Race Formation in North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZgR6ubuUXcC&pg=PA27|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2009|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-9678-4|page=27}}</ref> The people in this community of diverse Asians in Mexico were called "los indios chinos" by the Spanish.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://148.202.18.157/sitios/publicacionesite/pperiod/Lhistoricas/pdfs/vol1/4.pdf|title=El alcalde de los chinos en la provincia de Colima durante el siglo xvii: un sistema de representación en torno a un oficio|trans-title=The mayor of the Chinese in the province of Colima during the seventeenth century: a system of representation surrounding trade|language=es|journal=Letras Históricas|first=Claudia Paulina|last=Machuca Chávez|date=Autumn–Winter 2009|issue=1|publisher=Ciesas Occidente|pages=95–116|url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140407081131/http://148.202.18.157/sitios/publicacionesite/pperiod/Lhistoricas/pdfs/vol1/4.pdf|archive-date=7 April 2014|df=dmy}}</ref> Most of these workers were male and were obtained from Portuguese traders, who obtained them from Portuguese colonial possessions and outposts of the Estado da India, which included parts of India, Bengal, Malacca, Indonesia, Nagasaki in Japan and Macau.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Déborah|last=Oropeza Keresey|url=http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/600/60022589001.pdf|title=La Esclavitud Asiática en El Virreinato de La Nueva España, 1565-1673|trans-title=Asian Slavery in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, 1565-1673|language=es|journal=Historia Mexicana|volume=LXI|date=July{{ndash}}September 2011|access-date=31 August 2017|issue=1|publisher=El Colegio de México|issn=0185-0172|pages=20–21}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Déborah|last=Oropeza|url=http://www.mexicanistas.eu/uploads/Ideas%20centrales%20en%20torno%20a%20la%20esclavitud%20asiatica%20en%20la%20Nueva%20Espana,%20Deborah%20Oropeza.pdf|title=Ideas centrales en torno a la esclavitud asiática en la Nueva España|trans-title=Central ideas surrounding Asian slavery in New Spain|language=es|journal=Historia Mexicana|date=Fall{{ndash}}Winter 2009|issue=1|publisher=Encuentro de Mexicanistas 2010 (La esclavitud asiática en el virreinato de la Nueva España, 1565-1673)|page=2|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407092442/http://www.mexicanistas.eu/uploads/Ideas%20centrales%20en%20torno%20a%20la%20esclavitud%20asiatica%20en%20la%20Nueva%20Espana%2C%20Deborah%20Oropeza.pdf|archive-date=7 April 2014}}</ref> Spain received some of these coolies from Mexico, where owning a ''Chino'' coolie showed high status.<ref name="LaiTan2010"/>{{rp|13}} Records of three Japanese coolies dating from the 16th century, named Gaspar Fernandes, Miguel and Ventura who ended up in Mexico showed that they were purchased by Portuguese slave traders in Japan, brought to Manila from where they were shipped to Mexico by their owner Perez.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20130514-422430.html|title=Japanese slaves taken to Mexico in 16th century|work=Yomiuri Shimbun|via=Asiaone News|date=14 May 2013|access-date=8 January 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022120120/http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20130514-422430.html|archive-date=22 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Ida|last=Torres|url=http://japandailypress.com/records-show-japanese-slaves-crossed-the-pacific-to-mexico-in-16th-century-1428777/|title=Records show Japanese slaves crossed the Pacific to Mexico in 16th century|newspaper=Japan Daily Press|date=14 May 2013|access-date=8 January 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131111645/http://japandailypress.com/records-show-japanese-slaves-crossed-the-pacific-to-mexico-in-16th-century-1428777/|archive-date=31 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Preston Phro|title=To Mexico in Chains: The Tale of Three 16th Century Japanese Slaves|url=http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/05/15/to-mexico-in-chains-the-tale-of-three-16th-century-japanese-slaves/|newspaper=Rocket News 24|date=15 May 2013|access-date=8 January 2016}}</ref> Some of these Asian slaves were also brought to Lima in Peru, where it was recorded that in 1613 there was a small community of Asians, consisting of Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Malays, Cambodians and others.<ref name="Bethell1984">{{cite book|editor=Leslie Bethell|title=The Cambridge History of Latin America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhNfVshMw64C&pg=PA21|access-date=8 January 2016|series=Colonial Latin America|volume=II|year=1984|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24516-6|page=21}}</ref><ref name="López-Calvo2013">{{cite book|author=Ignacio López-Calvo|title=The Affinity of the Eye: Writing Nikkei in Peru|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mMY4-ffumwUC&pg=PA134|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2013|publisher=University of Arizona Press|isbn=978-0-8165-9987-5|page=134}}</ref><ref name="Hoerder2002">{{cite book|author=Dirk Hoerder|title=Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1PDVdU4YZWgC&pg=PA200|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2002|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-8407-8|page=200}}</ref><ref name="Cauti2005">{{cite book|author=Fernando Iwasaki Cauti|title=Extremo Oriente y el Perú en el siglo XVI|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwCeavlP9QC&pg=PA293|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2005|publisher=Fondo Editorial PUCP|isbn=978-9972-42-671-1|page=293}}</ref>

Chinese immigrants, who in the 19th century took a four-month trip from Macau (then a Portuguese territory), settled as contract laborers or coolies. Other Chinese coolies from Guangdong followed. 80,000<ref name=smithbodies>{{cite web |last1=Katz |first1=Brigit |title=Remains of 19th-Century Chinese Laborers Found at a Pyramid in Peru |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remains-19th-century-chinese-laborers-found-pyramid-peru-180964647/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111084210/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remains-19th-century-chinese-laborers-found-pyramid-peru-180964647/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-11-11 |website=Smithsonian.com}}</ref> to 100,000<ref name=brownsla>{{cite web |last1=Hwang |first1=Justina |title=Chinese in Peru in the 19th century |url=https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-6-the-andes/moments-in-andean-history/chinese-peru/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111084324/https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-6-the-andes/moments-in-andean-history/chinese-peru/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-11-11 |website=Brown University}}</ref><ref name=smithbodies/> Chinese contract laborers, 95% of which were Cantonese and almost all of which were male, were sent mostly to the sugar plantations from 1849 to 1874, during the termination of slavery. They were to provide continuous labor for the coastal guano mines and especially for the coastal plantations where they became a major labor force (contributing greatly to the Peruvian guano boom) until the end of the century. While the coolies were believed to be reduced to virtual slaves, they also represented a historical transition from slave to free labor. A third group of Chinese workers was contracted for the construction of the railway from Lima to La Oroya and Huancayo. Chinese migrants were barred from using cemeteries reserved for Roman Catholics and were instead buried at pre-Incan burial sites.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://phys.org/news/2017-08-peru-pre-incan-site-tomb-chinese.html |quote=The Chinese were discriminated against even in death, having to be buried in the pre-Incan sites after being barred from cemeteries reserved for Roman Catholics. |title=Peru discovers in pre-Incan site tomb of 16 Chinese migrants |date=August 24, 2017 |publisher=Phys.org}}</ref> Between 1849 and 1874 half<ref name=brownsla/><ref name=smithbodies/> the Chinese population of Peru perished due to abuse, exhaustion and suicide<ref name=brownsla/> caused by forced labor.<ref name=brownsla/><ref name=smithbodies/>

[[File:CDO Cienguilla.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Diez de Octubre School in Peru]] thumb|250px|left| Chinatown in Lima thumb|250px|left| Chinese Community in Peru - Dance of the Lion There were almost no women among the nearly entirely male Chinese coolie population that migrated to Peru and Cuba.<ref name="LaiTan2010"/>{{rp|143}}<ref name="McKeown2001">{{cite book|author=Adam McKeown|author-link=Adam McKeown|title=Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change: Peru, Chicago, and Hawaii 1900-1936|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vix_3doZkH0C&pg=PA47|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2001|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-56025-0|page=47}}</ref> Peruvian women were married to these Chinese male migrants.<ref>{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/orientalsasianam0000leer/page/75 75]|year=1999|access-date=May 17, 2014|publisher=Temple University Press|author=Robert G. Lee|title=Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/orientalsasianam0000leer|url-access=registration|quote=chinese peruvian women.|isbn=1439905711}}</ref><ref name="Tan2004">{{cite book|author=Chee-Beng Tan|title=Chinese Overseas: Comparative Cultural Issues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ca7UAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA47|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2004|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|isbn=978-962-209-661-5|page=47}}</ref><ref name="LeeLim">{{cite book|author1=Josephine D. Lee|author2=Imogene L. Lim|author3=Yuko Matsukawa|title=Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History|year=2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fjeAaEqo-CEC&pg=PA181|publisher=Temple University Press|isbn=978-1-4399-0120-5|pages=181–}}</ref><ref name="Lai1998">{{cite book|author=Walton Look Lai|title=The Chinese in the West Indies, 1806-1995: A Documentary History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMrit6tcO_AC&pg=PA8|access-date=8 January 2016|year=1998|publisher=University of the West Indies Press|isbn=978-976-640-021-7|page=8}}</ref><ref name="Gonzales2014">{{cite book|author=Michael J. Gonzales|title=Plantation Agriculture and Social Control in Northern Peru, 1875–1933|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oKt0BQAAQBAJ&pg=PT139|access-date=8 January 2016|year=2014|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-1-4773-0602-4|page=139}}</ref>

Interracial marriages between Cantonese-Chinese males and Peruvian females was quite large resulting in large number of mixed children and people with some Chinese ancestry in Peru. There is no prevailing racist attitude against intermarriage between the Chinese and non-Chinese in Peru, so the number of interracial marriages is quite large. According to one source, the number of mix raced children born was 180,000. Half of that number was in Lima alone, with the ratio between Chinese mestizo and the full-blooded Chinese at 90,000 to 15,000 (6:1).<ref>{{cite book|author=Hong Liu|date=2006|title=The Chinese Overseas: Routledge Library of Modern China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VV9khhBOrlUC&pg=PA242|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon|isbn=978-0415338585}}</ref> The recent census only estimates 14,307 Peruvians of Chinese descent (2017).<ref name=Census>{{cite web|url=https://www.inei.gob.pe/media/MenuRecursivo/publicaciones_digitales/Est/Lib1539/libro.pdf|title=Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico|page = 214|website = Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática}}</ref>

Many Peruvian women of different origins married to these Chinese male migrants. Most of the women that married Chinese were Amerindians (including Mestiza) and Black. Some lower class white women also married Chinese men but in a lower ratio.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert G. Lee|url=https://archive.org/details/orientalsasianam0000leer|title=Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture|publisher=Temple University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-1-4399-0571-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/orientalsasianam0000leer/page/75 75]|access-date=17 May 2014|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Chee-Beng Tan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ca7UAQAAQBAJ&q=chinese+peruvian+women&pg=PA47|title=Chinese Overseas: Comparative Cultural Issues|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-962-209-661-5|edition=illustrated|page=47|access-date=17 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Josephine D. Lee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fjeAaEqo-CEC&q=chinese+peruvian+women&pg=PA181|title=Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History|author2=Imogene L. Lim|author3=Yuko Matsukawa|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-1-4399-0120-5|page=181|access-date=17 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Walton Look Lai|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMrit6tcO_AC&q=walton+look+lai+caribbean+chinese+indian+women&pg=PA8|title=The Chinese in the West Indies, 1806–1995: A Documentary History|publisher=Press, University of the West Indies|others=Walton Look Lai|year=1998|isbn=978-976-640-021-7|edition=illustrated|page=8|access-date=17 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Michael J. Gonzales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oKt0BQAAQBAJ&q=Ofthe+hundreds+of+thousandsof+Chinese+who+emigrated+to+the+New+World,+onlyahandful+were+women.+Of+the+100,000+Chinese+who+came+toPeru,+for+example,+only+15+were+women,+and+in+Cuba,+the+census+of+1872lists+only+32+Chinese+women+...&pg=PT139|title=Plantation Agriculture and Social Control in Northern Peru, 1875–1933|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4773-0602-4|access-date=17 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Watt Stewart|date=2018|title=Chinese Bondage in Peru: A History of the Chinese Coolie in Peru, 1849-1874|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g1ekDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT301|publisher=Forgotten Books|isbn=978-1527808904}}</ref> Chinese had contact with Peruvian women in cities; there they formed relationships and sired mixed babies. These women originated from Andean and coastal areas and did not originally come from the cities; in the haciendas on the coast in rural areas, native young women of ''indígenas'' ("native") and ''serranas'' ("mountain") origin from the Andes mountains would come down to work. These Andean native women were favored over Africans as marital partners by Chinese men, with matchmakers arranging for communal marriages of Chinese men to young ''indígenas'' and ''serranas''.<ref>{{cite book|page=144|year=2010|access-date=May 17, 2014|publisher=BRILL|author=Isabelle Lausent-Herrera|editor1=Walton Look Lai|editor2=Chee Beng Tan|title=The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean|series=Brill ebook titles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xrGShVU6VrgC&pg=PA144|isbn=978-9004182134}}</ref> There was a racist reaction by Peruvians to the marriages of Peruvian women and Chinese men.<ref>{{cite book|page=145|year=2010|access-date=May 17, 2014|publisher=BRILL|author=Isabelle Lausent-Herrera|editor1=Walton Look Lai|editor2=Chee Beng Tan|title=The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean|series=Brill ebook titles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xrGShVU6VrgC&pg=PA145|isbn=978-9004182134}}</ref> When native Peruvian women (''cholas et natives'', ''Indias'', ''indígenas'') and Chinese men had mixed children, the children were called ''injerto''; once these ''injertos'' emerged, Chinese men sought out girls of ''injerta'' origin as marriage partners. Children born to black mothers were not called ''injertos''.<ref>{{cite book|page=146|year=2010|access-date=May 17, 2014|publisher=BRILL|author=Isabelle Lausent-Herrera|editor1=Walton Look Lai|editor2=Chee Beng Tan|title=The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean|series=Brill ebook titles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xrGShVU6VrgC&pg=PA146|isbn=978-9004182134}}</ref> Peruvians of low class established sexual unions or marriages with the Chinese men, and some black and Indian women "bred" with the Chinese according to Alfredo Sachettí, who claimed the mixing was causing the Chinese to suffer from "progressive degeneration". In Casa Grande, highland Indian women and Chinese men participated in communal "mass marriages" with each other, arranged when highland women were brought by a Chinese matchmaker after receiving a down payment.<ref>{{cite book|year=2014|access-date=May 17, 2014|publisher=University of Texas Press|author=Michael J. Gonzales|title=Plantation Agriculture and Social Control in Northern Peru, 1875–1933|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oKt0BQAAQBAJ&q=chinese+peru+women&pg=PT139|isbn=978-1477306024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|page=100|year=1985|access-date=May 17, 2014|publisher=University of Texas Press|issue=Issue 62 of Latin American Monographs, No 62, Issue 62 of Institute of Latin American Studies|volume=62 of Texas Pan American Series|author=Michael J. Gonzales|title=Plantation Agriculture and Social Control in Northern Peru, 1875-1933|series=Brill ebook titles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I6-zAAAAIAAJ&q=when+recruits+arrived+placed+room+grooms+lined+up+opposite+highland+women+faces+each+directly+opposite+woman+contractor+claps+hand+signal+turn+around+man+wife+permits|isbn=029276491X}}</ref>

In Peru and Cuba, some Indian (Native American), mulatto, black, and white women engaged in carnal relations or marriages with Chinese men, with marriages of mulatto, black, and white woman being reported by the Cuba Commission Report. In Peru, it was reported by ''The New York Times'' that Peruvian black and Indian (Native) women married Chinese men to their own advantage and to the disadvantage of the men since they dominated and "subjugated" the Chinese men despite the fact that the labor contract was annulled by the marriage, reversing the roles in marriage with the Peruvian woman holding marital power, ruling the family and making the Chinese men slavish, docile, "servile", "submissive" and "feminine" and commanding them around, reporting that "Now and then...he [the Chinese man] becomes enamored of the charms of some sombre-hued chola (Native Indian and mestiza woman) or samba (mixed black woman), and is converted and joins the Church, so that may enter the bonds of wedlock with the dusky señorita."<ref name="Young2014">{{cite book|author=Elliott Young|title=Alien Nation: Chinese Migration in the Americas from the Coolie Era Through World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ch8VBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA82|access-date=8 January 2016|series=David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History|volume=4: Wiley Blackwell Concise History of the Modern World|year=2014|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=978-1-4696-1296-6|page=82}}</ref> Chinese men were sought out as husbands and considered a "catch" by the "dusky damsels" (Peruvian women) because they were viewed as a "model husband, hard-working, affectionate, faithful and obedient" and "handy to have in the house", the Peruvian women became the "better half" instead of the "weaker vessel" and would command their Chinese husbands "around in fine style" instead of treating them equally, while the labor contract of the Chinese coolie would be nullified by the marriage, the Peruvian wife viewed the nullification merely as the previous "master" handing over authority over the Chinese man to her as she became his "mistress", keeping him in "servitude" to her, speedily ending any complaints and suppositions by the Chinese men that they would have any power in the marriage.<ref>{{cite web|format=PDF|title=The Coolie Trade: The slavery of the present - The traffic of Peru - Hiring of the Coolie - Horrors of the middle passage the Coolie's fate|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1873/07/19/archives/the-coolie-trade-the-slavery-of-the-present-the-traffic-of-peru.html|date=28 June 1873|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701053253/http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B0DE2D61539EF34BC4152DFB1668388669FDE|newspaper=New York Times|access-date=17 May 2014|archive-date=1 July 2015}}</ref> Although Chinese Peruvians were well-integrated into Peruvian society, it did not come with an easy beginning.

==Pogroms during the War of the Pacific== During the War of the Pacific, Chinese laborers led an uprising in support of Chile against Peru. Peruvians held the Chinese responsible for the Chilean invading army, leading to an outbreak of Sinophobic violence, the first of its kind in Latin America. It was not until the 1890s that the anti-Chinese pogroms stopped, with total deaths numbering 10,000 to 30,000 Chinese people in Arequipa, Lima, Cañete, Trujillo, Piura and Cerro Azul. Pogroms would continue from 1929 to 1960, with 40,000 Chinese deaths by fascists and half of the Peruvian Army and Peruvian Navy.<ref name="Taylor">Taylor, Lewis. Indigenous Peasant Rebellions in Peru during the 1880s</ref><ref name="bonilla">Bonilla, Heraclio. 1978. The National and Colonial Problem in Peru. ''Past and Present''</ref> In one 1881 pogrom in the Cañete Valley it is estimated that 500 to 1,500 Chinese people were killed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tinsman |first1=Heidi |title=Narrating Chinese Massacre in the South American War of the Pacific |journal=Journal of Asian American Studies |date=October 2019 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=277–313 |doi=10.1353/jaas.2019.0038 |s2cid=208688727 |url=https://www.academia.edu/44101455}}</ref> Chinese people were barred from immigrating to the country until the 1970s.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OP-EBAAAQBAJ&q=sinophobia+peru%2F&pg=PA87 Dragons in the Land of the Condor: Writing Tusán in Peru]</ref>

==Chinese in 1900==

Another group of Chinese settlers came after the founding of Sun Yat-sen's republic in 1912, and another after the establishment of Communist rule in 1949. At the time of the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese community in Peru identified with the Nationalist government in Taipei, although as time passed, they became adherent to the government in Beijing instead.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=La identidad política de los inmigrantes chinos en el Perú con su país de origen: a principios de la década 1970s |journal=Ibero-América Studies |url=https://iberiamerica.org/index.php/p/article/view/49 |last=Zhang |first=Xiaoxu |date=2022-09-19 |issue=2 |volume=4 |pages=30–38 |doi=10.55704/ias.v4i2.04|s2cid=252402046 |doi-access=free }} </ref>

In 1957, Cantonese speakers constituted 85 per cent of the total Chinese immigrant population, the rest of whom were Hakka speakers.<ref>{{cite book|title=Chʻiao|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XdocAQAAMAAJ|volume=3|year=1974|publisher=Basement Workshop, Incorporated|page=35|chapter=The Chinese in Peru|issue = 2|quote="...but in 1957 speakers of Cantonese constituted 85 per cent of the total, the rest of whom were Hakka speakers."}}</ref>

===Modern-day immigration=== {{Unreferenced section|date=May 2023}} Recent Chinese immigrants settled in Peru from Hong Kong and Macau in 1997 and 1999, owing to fear of those territories returning to Communist rule, while others have come from other places in mainland China, Taiwan, and southeast Asian Chinese communities, including those of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. Many Chinese Indonesians came to Peru after anti-Chinese riots and massacres in those countries in the 1960s, 1970s, and late 1990s. These recent Chinese immigrants make Peru currently the home of the largest ethnically Chinese community in Latin America.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.elperuano.com.pe/edicion/noticia-el-peru-y-los-paises-asiaticos-16024.aspx#.UzZmkqh5PXo|title=El Perú y los países asiáticos|access-date=29 March 2014|last=Aquino|first=Carlos|date=10 August 2014|website=El Peruano|language=es|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923235841/http://www.elperuano.com.pe/edicion/noticia-el-peru-y-los-paises-asiaticos-16024.aspx#.UzZmkqh5PXo|archive-date=23 September 2015}}</ref>

===Emigration=== Many Chinese Peruvians left Peru in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of them headed to the United States, where they were called Chinese Americans or Peruvian Americans of Chinese descent.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

===Role in the economy=== After their contracts ended, many of them adopted the last name of their patrons (one of the reasons that many Chinese Peruvians carry Spanish last names). Some freed coolies (and later immigrants) established many small businesses. These included ''chifas'' (Chinese-Peruvian restaurants - the word is derived from Chinese term, {{linktext|lang=zh-Hant|吃飯}} ({{lang-zh|j=hek<sup>3</sup>faan<sup>6</sup> |p=chīfàn}}) which means "to eat rice or to have a meal"). Calle Capón, Lima's Chinatown, also known as Barrio Chino de Lima, became one of the Western Hemisphere's earliest Chinatowns. The Chinese coolies married Peruvian women, and many Chinese Peruvians today are of mixed Chinese, Spanish, African or Native American descent. Chinese Peruvians also assisted in the building of railroad and development of the Amazon rainforest, where they tapped rubber trees, washed gold, cultivated rice, and traded with the natives. They even became the largest foreign colony in the Amazon capital of Iquitos by the end of the century.

In 1942, a Chinese-Peruvian, Erasmo Wong, started a small store in a residential district in Lima, which grew into a large supermarket chain in Peru known as Wong supermarkets. Wong supermarkets was later acquired by the Chilean multinational retail company Cencosud on December 16, 2007, helping it grow further.

==Notable people== The majority of Chinese descendants in Peru do not carry a Chinese surname, since their ancestors, when they arrived in Peru, were baptized or adopted the surnames of their patrons, Catholic saints or some very common Castilian surname.

=== Politics and business === {| | * Luis Chang Reyes <small> 陈路 (engineer, minister of state and ambassador) </small> * Ephraim Wong Lu <small> (businessman) </small> * Enrique Wong <small> (congressman) </small> * Erasmus Wong Lu <small> (businessman) </small> * Erick Chuy <small> (businessman, accountant, missionary) </small> * Eugenio Chang Cruz <small> (lawyer, professor and senator) </small> *Felipe Tam Fox <small> (administrator, official and former head of the SBS) </small> *Humberto Lay Sun <small> (congressman) </small> *Isabel Wong-Vargas <small> (businesswoman) </small> *Jesús Wu <small> (businessman) </small> | *José Antonio Chang <small> (industrial and political engineer) </small> *Juan Pablo Chang Navarro <small> (politician) </small> *Julio Chávez Chiong <small> (mayor) </small> * Julio Chú Mériz <small> (politician) </small> * Magdalena Chú <small> (Statistical expert and former head of the ONPE) </small> * Nelson Chui Mejía <small> (former president of the Lima Region) </small> *Rolando Martel Chang <small> (Superior Judge of Lima and professor) </small> * Rosario López Wong <small> (Superior Criminal Prosecutor of Lima) </small> *Rubén Chang Gamarra <small> (lawyer and politician) </small> |}

=== Entertainment === {| | * Aída Tam Fox <small> (poet and historian of Peruvian cuisine) </small> * Alberto Ku King <small> (journalist) </small> * Annie Yep <small> (TV host, journalist, and model) </small> * Anthony Choy <small> (lawyer and investigative journalist ufologist) </small> * Antonio Wong Rengifo <small> (film director) </small> * Sui Yun (Katty Wong) <small> (poet) </small> * Jonatan Relayze Chiang <small> (filmmaker) </small> * Julio Villanueva Chang <small> (journalist)</small> | * María Inés Ching <small> (journalist) </small> * Miguel Yi Carrillo <small> (journalist) </small> * Milly Ahon Olguín <small> (cultural historian) </small> *Mónica Chang <small> (journalist) </small> *Patty Wong <small> (model and TV presenter) </small> * Pedro Mo <small> (rapper) </small> *Raúl Chang Ruiz <small> (journalist, director of the Oriental Magazine) </small> |}

=== Athletics === {| | * Juan Chang<!-- full name: Juan Chang Zevallos --> <small> (footballer and journalist) </small> * Héctor Cruz<!-- full name: Héctor Cruz Cheng --> <small> (soccer player) </small> * Jorge Koochoi<!-- full name: Jorge Koochoi Sarmiento --> <small> (footballer, 8 times national champion) </small> * Patty Ku<!-- full name: Patty Ku Flores --> <small> (tennis player) </small> * Carmen Kuong <small> (footballer) </small> * Mariano Loo <!-- full name: Mariano Loo Granda --> <small> (footballer) </small> * Julio Lores<!-- full name: Julio Lores Colán --> <small> (footballer) </small> | * Iván Miranda<!-- full name: Iván Miranda Chang --> <small> (tennis player) </small> * Katherine Miranda <small> (tennis player) </small> * Luis Pau<!-- full name: Luis Pau León --> <small> (footballer) </small> * Edwin Vásquez <small> (Olympic champion in shooting, London 1948) </small> * Freddy Wong <small> (skateboarder) </small> * Augusto Yep <small> (footballer) </small> |}

=== Culture === {| | * Alejandro Chu <small> (archaeologist) </small> * Apu-Rimak <small> (plastic artist) </small> * Carolina Chang Tam <small> (keyboard player) </small> * Celia Wu Brading <small> (historian and translator) </small> * Emilio Choy Ma <small> (social scientist) </small> * Javier Wong <small> (chef) </small> * Julia Wong Kcomt <small>(writer) </small> | * Juan Wong Paredes <small> (musician) </small> * Juan Wong Popolizio <small> (musician) </small> * Julio Mau <small> (singer) </small> *Mao Wong López <small> (musician) </small> *Marcelo Wong <small> (plastic artist) </small> *Rosa Fung Pineda <small> (archaeologist) </small> *Lucero Medina Hu <small> (theatre director and playwright) </small> |}

=== Other === {| | *Alejandro Chung Hernández <small> (teacher) </small> * Alicia Garcia Yi <small> (teacher, CCPCH director) </small>) * Eugenio Chang-Rodríguez <small> (linguist and professor) </small> * Jorge Céliz Kuong <small> (general) </small> * José Gallardo Ku <small> (economist) </small> | *Olga Lock Sing <small> (chemical and scientific engineer) </small> * Óscar Tang Cruz <small> (physicist and professor) </small> *Pedro Zulen <small> (philosopher and librarian) </small> * Raúl Chau Quispe <small> (Auxiliary Bishop of Lima) </small> * Johnny Ching Paravecino <small> (Teacher-Researcher) </small> |}

==See also== {{Portal|Peru|China|Taiwan|Hong Kong|Singapore|Malaysia }} *Asian Latin Americans * China–Peru relations *Chinatown, Lima *Chinatowns in Latin America *History of Peru *Japanese Peruvians *Overseas Chinese

==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading== * Affigne, Tony, and Pei-te Lien. "Peoples of Asian descent in the Americas: Theoretical implications of race and politics." ''Amerasia Journal'' 28.2 (2002): 1-27. * Clayton, Lawrence A. "Chinese Indentured Labour in Peru." ''History Today'' (June 1980), Vol. 30 Issue 6, pp 19–23. * Hu-Dehart, Evelyn. "The Chinese of Peru, Cuba, and Mexico." in ''The Cambridge survey of world migration'' (1995): 220–222. * Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. "Coolies, Shopkeepers, Pioneers: The Chinese of Mexico and Peru (1849–1930)." ''Amerasia Journal'' 15.2 (1989): 91–116. *{{citation|last=De Trazegnies Granda|first=Fernando|title=En el país de las colinas de arena: reflexiones sobre la inmigración china en el Perú del S. XIX desde la perspectiva del derecho|location=Lima|publisher=Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú|year=1994|isbn=978-84-89309-82-1|oclc=31349975}} **Translated into Chinese as {{citation|author=竹碧 [Zhu Bi]|author2=腊梅 [La Mei] |language=zh-Hans |script-title=zh:沙国之梦：契约华工在秘鲁的命运 |publisher=世界知识出版社 [World Affairs Press]|year=1999|isbn=978-7-5012-1182-1|oclc=237047875}} *{{citation|last=López-Calvo|first=Ignacio|title=Dragons in the Land of the Condor: Writing Tusán in Peru (University of Arizona Press, 2014)}} *{{citation|last=López-Calvo|first=Ignacio|title=Sino-Peruvian identity and community as prison: Siu Kam Wen's rendering of self-exploitation and other survival strategies|editor-first=Evelyn|editor-last=Hu-deHart|editor2-first=Kathy|editor2-last=López|journal=Afro-Hispanic Review|volume=27|issue=1|date=Spring 2008|pages=73–90|url=http://ignaciolopezcalvo.blogspot.com/2008/11/sino-peruvian-identity-and-community-as.html}} *Lausent-Herrera, Isabelle. "The Chinese in Peru and the Changing Peruvian Chinese Community(ies)." In ''Journal of Chinese Overseas'', 7(2011), pp.&nbsp;69–113. Available [http://ilausent.free.fr/chinos/The%20Chinatown%20in%20Peru%20and%20the%20Changing%20Peruvian%20Chinese%20Communities.pdf online]. * Lee, Rachel. "Asian American cultural production in Asian-Pacific perspective." ''boundary 2'' 26.2 (1999): 231–254. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/303801 online] * Martin, Dorothea. "Chinese Indentured Labor to Peru in the Nineteenth Century." ''Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians'' (April 2010), Vol. 18, p34-45. * Melillo, Edward D. "The first green revolution: debt peonage and the making of the nitrogen fertilizer trade, 1840–1930." ''American Historical Review'' 117.4 (2012): 1028-1060 [https://www.academia.edu/download/31022850/1028.full.pdf online]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}. * Narváez, Benjamín N. "Becoming Sino-Peruvian: Post-Indenture Chinese in Nineteenth-Century Peru." ''Asian Journal of Latin American Studies'' 29.3 (2016): 1-27. [http://www.ajlas.org/v2006/paper/2016vol29no301.pdf online] * Rimner, Steffen. "Chinese abolitionism: the Chinese Educational Mission in Connecticut, Cuba, and Peru." ''Journal of Global History'' 11.3 (2016): 344–364.

==External links== *[http://www.apch.com.pe/ APCH.com], Asociación Peruano China (official website) *[https://www.newworlder.com/article/18014/origins-lomo-saltado/ Newworlder.com], Origins: Lomo Saltado

{{Peru topics}} {{Immigrant groups in Peru}} {{Overseas Chinese}}

Chinese Peru Peru Category:Coolie trade * Category:China–Peru relations