Liverpool Communities - Chinese

Pitt Street, the birthplace of Liverpool's Chinese community. November 20, 1937

 

Liverpool has the oldest established Chinese communities in Europe. It was the trade links between China and Britain via the ports of Shanghai and Liverpool that were instrumental in the establishment of a Chinese community within the city. The main trading goods were tea, silk and cotton wool from Shanghai and the first vessel arrived in Liverpool direct from China in 1834. With the revision of the East India Company's charter, the China trade was for the first time thrown open to private enterprise.
The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in 1866 with the establishment of the Blue Funnel Shipping Line, a branch of the Holt Ocean Steamship Company, which ran a line of steamers directly from Liverpool to China, the first commercial shipping line established to focus on Chinese trade. Chinese sailors who decided to stay in Liverpool and work from here settled in an area of the city that was close to the docks in Cleveland Square and boarding houses were first opened by the Holt Shipping Company to accommodate their workers. Some workers decided to settle around the areas of Cleveland Square, Pitt Street and Frederick Street - now known as Chinatown, and from the 1890s onwards, Chinese people began opening shops, cafes and boarding houses. When Liverpool City Council in 1906 commissioned a report to inquire into Chinese settlements it was found there there were forty-nine laundries, thirteen boarding houses and seven shops kept by members of the Chinese community.

At the start of World War One there were up to 6,000 Chinese seamen in the British Merchant Navy and around 1,500 of them were based in Liverpool. After World War One the settlement spread slowly inland into the side streets such as Cornwallis Street and Dickenson Street, Kent Street and Greetham Street. The demolition of the area known as Chinatown began as part of the 1930s council scheme to replace the old insanitary courts and warehouses with modern buildings. Understandably, this plan met with some resistance from members of the community. It was at this time, due to the general economic depression and immigration restrictions, that the Chinese community in Liverpool saw a reduction in its population size. The bombing of Liverpool in the 1940s was to destroy much of the Pitt Street and Cleveland Square area which hastened the demolition of old Chinatown. After years of arduous warfare and lost ships and crews, the British Merchant Navy started recruiting sailors from its allies across the world and Liverpool was turned into a reserve pool for Chinese Merchant sailors, with up to 20,000 registered sailors at one point coming from China's Shanghai, Ningbo, Shandong, Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Chinese seamen in Liverpool in 1942.

 

In 1942 there was a strike for rights and pay equal to that of White mariners that lasted for four months. For the duration of the War these men were labelled as 'troublemakers' by the shipowners and the British Government and when the war ended they were forbidden shore jobs, their pay was cut by two-thirds, and they were offered only one-way voyages back to China. This saw them working in worse conditions, and often living in temporary accommodation, eating, smoking, washing and cooking in lodging houses and makeshift clubs, waiting for their next ship to arrive. Sadly thousands of Chinese sailors had lost their lives in the Atlantic during attacks from German submarines and, as part of the British fleet, these Chinese sailors played an important role to Britain's victory in the war. However, following a Whitehall meeting in December 1945, and throughout 1946, the police and immigration inspectorate in Liverpool, working with the shipping companies, began the process of forcibly rounding up these men, putting them on boats and sending them back to China. It was alleged that because the seamen had caused a good deal of trouble to the police, it was an opportune time to get rid of them. With the war over and work scarce, many of the men would have been more than ready to go home, but for others, the story was very different. The hundreds of Chinese seamen who had met and married English women, had children and settled in Liverpool, were deported too, but their families were never told what was happening and never given a chance to object and never given a chance to say goodbye. Most of the Chinese seamen's British wives would go to their graves never knowing the truth, always believing their husbands had abandoned them.

Pitt Street, 1942 ( picture by Bert Hardy )

Members of the community were moved into the new tenements in Kent Street, Pitt Street and Upper Frederick Street. These times saw the community undergo great upheaval but the spirit of the people remained positive and the intervening years saw them establish many new projects such as the printing of the first edition of a Chinese newspaper, a China bank was opened in 1944, and a Chinese Gospel Mission was set up in 1956. With the Chinese community no longer restricting their business interests to Chinatown they spread throughout the Merseyside area and some shops and clubs reopened in Nelson Street and Great George Square. During the 1970s Nelson Street became the new hub of Chinatown and the business area extended into Berry Street, Duke Street and Upper Pitt Street. What is known as Chinatown is now located close to the city's Anglican Cathedral and has spread significantly since its first establishment, now taking up much of Berry Street. The streets of Liverpool's Chinatown are decorated with Chinese-style lanterns, waste bins and all the street signs are written in English and Chinese.

The Imperial Arch ( or 'paifang' ) located in China town is pretty big at 13.5 metres and 44ft tall and was actually gifted to Liverpool, from its twin city Shanghai and shipped over, piece by piece. Made of marble and wood, it was crafted by 20 specially selected craftsmen from Shanghai and arrived in 1999. The arch was assembled and unveiled in time for Liverpool's annual Chinese New Year celebrations around Nelson Street and is the largest Chinese Arch outside of China. It is thought that there are now around 10,000 Chinese residents living in Liverpool and its surrounding areas, including Chinese students from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other parts of Southeast Asia. One of the highlights in the city's cultural calendar remains the spectacular celebrations for Chinese New Year consisting of parades, firecracker displays, streets decorated with lanterns and pop-up food stalls plus the hugely popular dragon, unicorn and lion dancers.