The following is an excerpt from Canadian Jamaican Chinese 2000.

Who are we as a community? We are who we say we are. Let no one define us but ourselves. To those of us who attempt to do so, let us not only give praise but also lend a hand.

Defining ourselves can be done in many ways. The classic way is to write a history. But there are other ways, perhaps not as comprehensive, but they add to the definition and can be source materials for the historian. This collection of photographs of Jamaican Chinese families in Canada, comprising a community directory, is one important way of defining ourselves.

Where we are going as a community is a matter for dreams. We have a good fix on where we have come from. Most of us can journey right back to the village where our ancestors have lived for thirty or more generations. Very, very few communities in the world can do that. So while we wonder whether we are Chinese-Jamaican-Canadians or whether we are Jamaican Chinese Canadians or whatever combination of the foregoing, we could settle for being purely and simply Hakka.

The Hakka are a migratory people. We move outwards on the tides of history. Most of us have relatives in Surinam, Panama, the British West Indies, as well as Singapore, Malaysia and other parts of South-east Asia. After several more generations in Canada, will it still be significant that we sojourned for a few generations in Jamaica? For now and as far we can see, that is how we identify ourselves and that is also how we are perceived by the wider Canadian community. Maybe, in the global village, we will sustain or even strengthen our Jamaican roots. Jamaicans of all races are a remarkable people, and as a migratory people, distinguish themselves even more when they move to other countries.

In this generation we became part of a North American community, with significant concentration in Miami, New York, Toronto and other U.S. and Canadian cities and even London, England, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan. We are extremely cosmopolitan and extremely futuristic. We have excelled in every business and profession; we carry an enormous storehouse of knowledge and enterprise. We can make it anywhere! Who and what we can be is bounded only by our imagination!

Let us welcome every effort to define ourselves, especially when it can help to give some insight into our future.

Table of
Contents
pg. 5

Letter from the
Governor General
of Canada
pg. 9

Title Page of
Section 1:
The Present
pg. 17

Chinese
Surnames of
Jamaica
pg. 20