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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: China South Africa Culture (TV)
HEADLINE: In Johannesburg, A Tale of Two Chinatowns
TEASER: From the 1800s to the modern day, a look at the evolution of the Chinese experience in South Africa.
PUBLISHED AT: 4/xx/2022 at
BYLINE: Kate Bartlett
WRITER: Kate Bartlett
VIDEOGRAPHER: Zaheer Cassim
PRODUCER: Zaheer Cassim
DATELINE: Johannesburg, South Africa
SCRIPT EDITORS: ELee, MAS, BN
PLATFORMS (mark with X): Web X Radio X TV X
TRT: 3:02
EDITOR NOTES: There are companion Web and Radio versions with this story ))
[[INTRO: The Chinese have been present in Africa since the 1600s, many carving out a living as laborers and business owners. The continent’s largest community of Chinese immigrants and their descendants are now in South Africa where families remember how they escaped poverty in their homeland and persevered in the face discrimination to become a key part of South Africa’s “rainbow nation.” Kate Bartlett reports from Johannesburg.]]
((NARRATOR)) ((video of port, map, map, Chinatown))
These days China is South Africa’s biggest trade partner. But ties between the two cultures began back in the 1600s with Chinese convicts arriving from a Dutch colony in what is now Indonesia. Then in the 1800s, the first Chinatown in South Africa was built here on Commissioner Street in inner-city Johannesburg.
Chinese migrants attracted by South Africa’s gold rush set up shop, in what is now a decrepit and dangerous site, establishing what would become the mining city’s first Chinatown.
((Melanie Yap, Historian and Author))
“When word started seeping out of gold mines and diamond mines becoming attractions and many people came out here in search of wealth, and so Johannesburg in Chinese, in fact, is called ‘gam saan’ - gold mountain.”
((NARRATOR))
But migrants encountered racism in South Africa, long before a white supremacist system of apartheid was ushered in back in 1948. The Chinese were banned from mining and faced other kinds of discrimination.
((Melanie Yap, Historian and Author))
“The Chinese, with everyone else here, being classified as part of a particular racial group there were only certain things that were open to you. So technically you could only go to school and live in the areas that were designated to you.”
((NARRATOR))
People of different races were even barred from marrying.
That didn’t stop third-generation Chinese-South African Yolande Dreyer and her husband Wynard, who risked being sent to jail.
((VIDEO-VOA: Shots of Yolande showing marriage certificate))
((Yolande Dreyer, Chinese-South African))
“Because we were breaking a law that’s on the statute, they could have definitely arrested us.”
((Wynard Dreyer, Husband))
“We get every now and again a comment from the next generation ‘thank goodness for guys like you, because you made things so much easier for us.’ Because we were kind of breaking the mold at the time, we were pushing against quite a lot of resistance.”
((NARRATOR))
Things have changed in South Africa since the advent of democracy in 1994. Now there are Chinese-South Africans in government, like Michael Sun, a Johannesburg city councillor who is with the opposition Democratic Alliance. But, he says, racism is still a problem.
((Michael Sun, Johannesburg City Councillor))
“I’ve been many times a victim in terms of racism, bigotry, racial slurs. // It happens in the United States too, I think this is where the StopAsianHate movement started. I think we really need to start something similar in South Africa.”
((NARRATOR))
((VIDEO-VOA: Shots of old shop in Chinatown))
South Africa’s old Chinatown was a hub for early arrivals, who were mostly Cantonese speakers from China’s south. Now, as more mandarin speakers move in,
((VIDEO-VOA: Shots of new Cyrildene Chinatown))
there is a new Chinatown, in Cyrildene, a safer suburb. Some 350,000 ethnic Chinese residents are now estimated to be living in South Africa, where they are part of the “rainbow nation” movement to celebrate the country’s fusion of diverse cultures and people.
((Kate Bartlett, for VOA News, Johannesburg))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Johannesburg
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
