Afro-Asians may seem like a foreign concept, nevertheless, it is a worthwhile notion to process. In present-day, the Black-Asian population is on the rise.
This is due to the growing concentration of Africans in provinces of China such as Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. Nigerians have emigrated to attend school or gain employment prospects.
Let us step back for a bit, though.
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The Qing Dynasty, which ruled in China from 1644 to 1912 included an array of individuals with unique cultures.
Manchu ladies…Author: John Thomson, 1869 / Credit: Wellcome Collection
Blacks also lived in Pei Niu Ting region of China’s Beidaihe District and Qinhuangdao –which is 200 miles east of the capital of China, Beijing.
A Family Eating A Meal…Author: John Thomson, 1869 / Credit: Wellcome Collection
Documentation obtained in 1869 in Peking, now known as Beijing, exhibits the existence of blacks. Some were assimilated in a comfortable capacity while others were relegated to servant roles.
Blacks also inhabited the Tonkin region – located on northern Vietnam bordered with the Yunnan province in China.
In the book Where China Meets India, black southern barbarians were referred to as Wu Man.
A Hospital Room In Foochow…Author: American Red Cross, 1919 [Credit: Library of Congress]
(1902) Men who took part in the Boxer Rebellion. They were called “Dark skinned and vicious” by author, James Ricalton.
Photographer James Ricalton recalled in his 1902 book, The Boxer Uprising, “This is truly a dusky and unattractive brood. One would scarcely expect to find natives of Borneo or the Fiji Islands more barbarous in appearance; and it is well known that a great proportion of the Boxer organization is of this sort; indeed, How dark-skinned, how ill-clad, how lacking in intelligence, how dull, morose, miserable and vicious they appear!” [sic]
Chowing Down In Tianjin…Author: James Ricalton, 1902
The ancestors of those that lived in the aforementioned provinces eventually spanned out and now also reside on the islands of the South Pacific.
To read more about the influence of Africans all over the world, read about the Afro-Iranians, Afro-Turks and Afro-Peruvians.
