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Total population | |
---|---|
1,019 (4.9% of the population, 2000) [2] | |
Languages | |
Chinese, [3] Palauan, English | |
Religion | |
Christianity, Chinese folk religion [3] | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Palauans, Overseas Chinese |
Chinese have been settling in Palau in small numbers since the 19th century. The early settlers consisted of traders and labourers, and often intermarried with Palauan women. Their offspring quickly assimilated with the local populace and generally identify themselves as Palauan. In recent years, Palau has seen a growing expatriate business community from Taiwan, after Palau established formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1999. [3]
Chinese sojourners were known to have sailed by the Palau islands back to the 18th century. A Chinese junk reportedly sailed anchored at Palau for several days in 1782, and marooned a Malay-Indonesian man. [4] The following August, the British East India Company (EIC) ship Antelope, under the command of Henry Wilson, with sixteen Chinese sailors, wrecked at Ulong Island. The King of Palau sent his second son, Prince Lee Boo, to London, during which he landed on Macau and reportedly encountered curious sights from the townspeople. [5] In 1791, an English lieutenant of the EIC John McCluer established a fort and agricultural colony at Malakal Island and stayed there for several years with some Chinese labourers. [6] After the departure of McCluer and other lieutenants from Palau after 1798, the Chinese labourers settled in Palau. [7]
One Russian explorer, August von Kotzebue reported that Chinese Filipino traders from Manila sailed to Palau and Yap during the early to mid 19th century to sell dragon jars to the islanders. [8] A few Chinese traders settled down and married women from aristocratic families. [9] English businessmen established commercial agriculture enterprises from the 1840s onwards, and often imported Chinese labourers from Southern China to tend to the plantations. [10] Chinese labourers were shipped into Palau from 1909 after phosphate deposits were discovered at Angaur some three years earlier. A few Chinese labourers occasionally led strikes against their German employers for the incessant flogging that they experienced and the poor-working conditions which they reportedly received. [11] The number of Chinese labourers arriving in Palau declined sharply in 1914, after the Chinese government banned Chinese men to seek employment overseas. The ban came just as Japan annexed Palau from Germany, and Chinese labourers were quickly replaced by Japanese and Micronesian labourers. [12]
A few Chinese labourers continued to arrive in Palau in the 1920s. Many of them were deported during the early days of the Japanese military administration, and only accounted for fifteen individuals in a 1923 census [13] They generally received higher wages than the Palauans and immigrant Chamorro labourers, albeit only two-thirds the amount received by their Japanese counterparts. [14] Offspring of Chinese men and Palauan women assimilated into the local community, and were generally identified as Palauans during the Japanese colonial era and in the years when Palau was under American administration. [15]
A few Taiwanese businessmen began to reside in Palau over a long-term basis after Palau established formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1999. Tourists from Taiwan accounted for 10% of all tourist arrivals in Palau, and many Taiwanese businessmen purchased land in the urban areas. Taiwanese businessmen dominate the tourist and corporate sectors of Palau's economy, and have invested in the country's hotels. [16] As reports of Taiwanese dominance in Palau's business sector surfaced, there was occasional talk of resentment among Palauan politicians from 2005 onwards. [17] In 2009, six [18] ethnic Uighurs from the Guantanamo Bay prison were permitted to resettle in Palau, after the United States managed to secure an agreement with Palau to resettle the former prisoners. [19]
Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific. The republic consists of approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caroline Islands with parts of the Federated States of Micronesia. It has a total area of 466 square kilometers (180 sq mi), making it one of the smallest countries in the world. The most populous island is Koror, home to the country's most populous city of the same name. The capital Ngerulmud is located on the largest island of Babeldaob, in Melekeok State. Palau shares maritime boundaries with international waters to the north, the Federated States of Micronesia to the east, Indonesia to the south, and the Philippines to the northwest.
Palau was initially settled around 1000 BC.
Koror is the state comprising the main commercial centre of the Republic of Palau. It consists of several islands, the most prominent being Koror Island. It is Palau’s most populous state.
Angaur, or Ngeaur in Palauan, is an island and state in the island nation of Palau.
The Micronesians or Micronesian peoples are various closely related ethnic groups native to Micronesia, a region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They are a part of the Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, which has an Urheimat in Taiwan.
Roman Tmetuchl was a Palauan political leader and businessman. He grew up in Japanese-controlled Palau and joined the Kempeitai, the Japanese secret police, during World War II. After the war, he became the leader of Palau's Liberal Party. He worked in the Congress of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from 1964 to 1978 and advocated for Palau gaining a separate status from the rest of Micronesia. He became governor of Airai and engaged in three unsuccessful Palauan presidential campaigns. As a businessman, Tmetuchl led several construction projects for his business holdings and for the Palauan community, including the Palau International Airport and a Seventh-Day Adventist clinic.
The Belau National Museum (BNM), previously Palau Museum, is a museum in Koror, Palau. It is the oldest continuously run museum in Micronesia.
Belau Air, Inc. is a Palauan airline with its headquarters in Koror City. Belau Air is the only air carrier operating solely throughout the island nation of Palau, having its hub at Roman Tmetuchl International Airport in the state of Airai nearby the country's main city and former capital Koror. Belau Air currently owns only one small plane, a Cessna 150, which can hold one passenger. The service makes daily flights to the Palauan states of Peleliu and Angaur, both of which are small island communities southwest of the State of Koror. The plane is also used for tourism and offers tours throughout Palau's Rock Islands. The airline does not travel internationally, and other airlines are used to travel into and out of Palau. Shuttle service is provided to transport passengers from the Roman Tmetuchl International Airport in Airai to Koror.
Ngerulmud is the seat of government of the Republic of Palau, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean. It replaced Koror City as a capital in 2006. The settlement is located in the state of Melekeok on Babeldaob, the country's largest island, located 20 kilometers northeast of Koror City and 2 km northwest of Melekeok City. It is the least-populous capital city of a sovereign nation in the world.
There is a small Japanese community in the Pacific Island country of Palau, which mainly consists of Japanese expatriates residing in Palau over a long-term basis. A few Japanese expatriates started to reside in Palau after it gained independence in 1994, and established long-term businesses in the country. Japanese settlement in Palau dates back to the early 19th century, although large scale Japanese migration to Palau did not occur until the 1920s, when Palau came under Japanese rule and administered as part of the South Seas Mandate. Japanese settlers took on leading administrative roles in the Japanese colonial government, and developed Palau's economy. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, virtually all of the Japanese population was repatriated back to Japan, although people of mixed Japanese-Palauan descent were allowed to remain behind. People of Japanese-Palauan descent constitute a large minority of Palau's population as a result of substantial intermarriage between the Japanese settlers and Palauans. They generally identify with, conforming to cultural norms and daily lives with the Palauans.
Japanese Micronesians, also Nikkei Micronesians or Micronesians of Japanese descent, refers to citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) who are of Japanese descent and are members of the Japanese global diaspora known as the Nikkei (日系).
Large-scale Japanese settlement in Micronesia occurred in the first half of the 20th century when Imperial Japan colonised much of Micronesia.
Japanese settlement in the Marshall Islands was spurred on by Japanese trade in the Pacific region. The first Japanese explorers arrived in the Marshall Islands in the late 19th century, although permanent settlements were not established until the 1920s. As compared to other Micronesian islands in the South Seas Mandate, there were fewer Japanese who settled in the islands. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Japanese populace were repatriated to Japan, although people of mixed Japanese–Marshallese heritage remained behind. They form a sizeable minority in the Marshall Islands' populace, and are well represented in the corporate, public and political sectors in the country.
The sport of baseball is widely played in Palau, having been introduced by the Japanese during their occupation of the island nation. The highest level of league play in Palau in represented by Palau Major League (PML), which is overseen by the Belau Baseball Federation. The country is represented in international play by the Palau national baseball team.
Diplomatic relations are maintained between Japan and Palau, a small island country in the western Pacific Ocean that was once a Japanese colony. There is a Japanese embassy on the Palauan island of Koror and a Palauan embassy in Tokyo.
Koror City is the largest city and the commercial center in Palau, home to about half of the country's population, located on Oreor Island. During the interwar period it served as the capital of the South Seas Mandate, a group of islands that made up the League of Nations mandated territory held by the Empire of Japan. It was subsequently the capital of Palau until it was replaced by Ngerulmud in 2006.
Yutaka Miller Gibbons was the Ibedul of Koror and the Chairman of the Council of Chiefs. He was also an anti–nuclear weapons activist and political candidate.
Faustina K. Rehuher-Marugg is a Palauan curator and politician who served as the State Minister of Palau from 2017 to 2021. She was Director of Belau National Museum from 1979 to 2009.
John Obeldabl Ngiraked was a Palauan politician.