Then & Now | ‘We either fitted with the white or with the yellow’: how Eurasian identity vanished from Hong Kong and the rest of postcolonial Asia
- Spanish, French, British, Dutch and Portuguese intermarrying with local populations produced Eurasian communities with their own ways, food and creole tongues
- When colonial rule ended, those who could pass for white left; the rest, used to exerting racial arrogance, economic privilege and petty power, had to adjust
What remains intact, when long-established communities largely cease to exist, in any meaningful sense, in the places where they had become established over several generations?
Within the branches of a single family tree, initial European ancestors could encompass Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British, French or – as the centuries slowly passed, and rulers superseded one another – a melange of several distinctive backgrounds.
Asian heritage also varied widely among these communities; as extended families steadily intermarried, migrated to other colonial territories in search of better economic opportunities, and established themselves there permanently, new languages were acquired, dietary and other domestic customs modified to suit local conditions, and another variant group evolved.
With the passage of time, these Eurasian communities simply became part of the places where they were born, lived their entire lives, and then lay buried in cemeteries mostly populated by their own kith and kin.