page_title: Penangite Chinese
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Penangite Chinese / History
caption_attribution_description: Malaysia: Chinese merchants and carriages outside their club house on Penang Island. Photograph by J. Taylor, 1881. Iconographic Collections Keywords: John Edmund Taylor
context_page_description: Penangite Chinese are ethnic Chinese Malaysians of full or partial Chinese ancestry who either hail from or live within the State of Penang. As of 2017, nearly 42% of Penang's population belonged to the Chinese ethnic group, making ethnic Chinese the largest ethnic community within the state.
  Most Chinese Penangites are the descendants of Chinese colonists, traders, accountants, merchants, labourers and immigrants from southern China who moved to the Penang between the 18th and 20th centuries. By the mid-19th century, George Town, the capital city of Penang, was home to a significant Peranakan community, also known as the King's Chinese due to their loyalty to the British crown. Under British colonial rule, Penang continued to experience increasing Chinese immigration throughout the 19th century. As the largest group of Penangite Chinese are ethnic Hokkiens who came from southern Fujian Province, home to the Hokkien dialect, Penang Hokkien was gradually developed and is now widely used by Penangites for daily communication.
  Penang's Chinese have been well-represented within Malaysia and also internationally in various professional, political, economic and other fields.
context_section_description: Chinese sailors had explored the seas off Penang Island as early as the 15th century. During the Ming Dynasty, Chinese seafarers led by Admiral Zheng He sailed the length of the Malacca Straits; Penang Island may have appeared in the Nautical Charts of Zheng He.
  However, it was only sometime in the 18th century when the Chinese began to arrive on Penang Island. It was recorded that the fishing village of Tanjung Tokong on the northern coast of the island was founded by Zhang Li, a sailor whose arrival on Penang Island preceded that of Captain Francis Light by at least a few decades.
  After the British East India Company under Captain Francis Light founded George Town in 1786, ethnic Chinese began to move to Penang in increasing numbers. In particular, the Peranakans, who already had established themselves along the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, shifted to Penang. This, coupled with the greater number of newer immigrants from China throughout the 19th century, effectively made the Chinese the largest ethnic group in Penang by the 1850s.
  As Penang grew into a major entrepôt towards the end of the 19th century, the influx of various cultures and religions would create a melting pot where the multi-ethnic and multi-religious society could exist in harmony. Similarly, over time, the newer Chinese arrivals became acculturated to the existing local culture and customs due to intermarriages between the Peranakans and the "Sinkeh". At the turn of the century, the Chinese nationalist Sun Yat-sen's campaigns to liberate China from imperial Manchu rule attracted considerable financial support from Penang's Chinese population.
  During World War II, ethnic Chinese in Penang suffered brutal and often violent treatment in the hands of the occupying Imperial Japanese Army. The Japanese implemented a policy known as Sook Ching, a systematic purge of perceived hostile elements, including the Chinese. Hundreds of ethnic Chinese as well as 3,500 other non-Chinese POWs were massacred and buried in unmarked mass graves throughout Penang during the Japanese occupation period.
caption: Chinese merchants and carriages outside their club house on Penang Island, 1881.
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