Re: Chinese in Jamaica

[Taiwan]

How many of us are doing business in Shanghai? How many of us are buying products made in China?
If you are buying products made in China, then send me an email and we can talk about Chinese culture, Chinese people, Chinese education, Chinese and infidelity.

Does anyone out there know the history of Chinese people in Jamaica? I have an interest in learning more about that topic.

What about other Jamaican living in Shanghai?

Diana Jamaican living in Shanghai

[blugiant]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

diss iss ann intarestin topic. yu shood doo sum research pon da role jamaican chinese played inn developing reggae

[Tigrrr]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Diana,

Out Of Many Cultures The People Who Came
The Arrival Of The Chinese

By Dr. Rebecca Tortello

THE BEGINNINGS

The story of the Chinese in Jamaica is linked to Panama and railways. In the mid-19th century, many Chinese looked west: to California, answering the call of the gold rush, and to Panama, where labourers were required for the building of a railroad from Panama City to Colon. Both options promised improvement in their lives and those of their children and led many Chinese to break the law and leave China prior to 1891, the year the Chinese Government officially allowed emigration. The first large group of 267 Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong on July 30, 1854, just months before those from Panama, on a ship called Epsom. They were destined for indentureship. Later that year, 205 Chinese workers demanded to leave Panama fearing yellow fever. They arrived in Jamaica on November 1 and 18, on ships called the Vampire (195 people) and the Theresa Jane (10 people) respectively. Panamanian authorities sent them to nearby Jamaica solely due to its proximity and in exchange for Jamaican labourers. Many were already ill on arrival and were sent to hospital in Kingston where they eventually died. Less than 50 immigrants survived. Of these, one, Robert Jackson Chin (Chin Pa-kung), opened a wholesale house on downtown Kingston's Pechon Street (where the Desnoes and Geddes building now stands). In doing so he unknowingly paved the way for many of his countrymen. Two others, Chang Si-Pah and Lyn Sam opened grocery stores nearby. All three men provided guidance to successive batches of immigrants.

[Tropicana]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

This is the Gleaner's profile about the history of Jamaican's of Chinese descent:

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0055.htm

[Tropicana]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica


Try these sites:

http://www.chinesejamaican.com

http://www.jamaicanchinese.com

[Tropicana]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Chinese Jamaicans and Jamaicans with Chinese ancestors:

Important Jamaican early ska record producers include Chinese-Jamaicans Vincent "Randy" Chin and Leslie Kong.

Leslie Kong, a Chinese-Jamaican who owned a restaurant called Beverley's, which proved inspirational to young singer Jimmy Cliff.

"Jimmy wrote a song called "Dearest Beverley," remembered Morgan, "and he went to see Kong to get it recorded. They told him to look for me and said that if he found me, he could record his song. So he came to my house. His song was a slow ballad, and I told him no-one would like it, because we were all doing ska music. So we wrote "Hurricane Hattie" and "King Of Kings" and we went to meet Leslie Kong."

Although inexperienced, Kong was eager to enter the record business, and asked if Morgan, by then already well-known, would record a side for him, "so I recorded "Be Still." And he took on Jimmy Cliff, who was still Jimmy Chambers then - Beverley's changed his name. And I started recording for Beverley's."

If memory serves me correctly, Kong played the part of a reggae producer in the movie The Harder They Come.

Byron Lee



You can see a young Byron Lee performing briefly in the James Bond thriller "Dr. No" which was shot in Jamaica. It's the scene in the club near the beginning of the movie. Byron Lee is the person singing "Jump up".

More about Byron Lee

Byron Lee CDs



Michael Lee-Chin



If photo doesn't show up, see it here:

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040206/business/Images/MichaelLeeChin20020521.JPG

WOW!! Of course I had heard of him but I had NO idea he was so HOT!! Behave yourself Tropicana.

Anyway back to business. Don't want to get nabbed for thread hijacking.

His personal net worth is C$1.7 billion and he has achieved the Jamaican dream of going abroad and doing well (all right, exceptionally well). His ability to turn ten cents into a dollar was born of necessity. In 1969 he was faced with a C$2,500 tuition bill for McMaster University in Canada.

In media reports he acknowledged that he only had C$600 in his pocket earned from jobs on cruise ships and working at an aluminium plant. Calling home to Jamaica for money wasn't even an option, as his parents had seven younger children (future supermarket titans) to cope with on a grocery clerk's salary.

More About Michael Lee-Chin

[Tropicana]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Somebody post a photo of the band Messenjah that used to perform in Toronto. (I got to run or I would do it myself.) Once that's done, I want you to guess which of the band members has a Chinese grandfather. BTW, his wife is blonde and they live in Toronto.

[Tigrrr]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Originally posted by Tropicana:
[qb] Michael Lee-Chin



[/qb]

Hubba Hubba

Diana, how did you end up in Shanghai? I'm curious about the infidelity question you threw in there - what prompted that type of question?

[Tropicana]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Hmmm does anyone know if Bunny "Striker" Lee, another Jamaican reggae producer, was Chinese. I have never seen his photo. Johnnie Clarke one of my faves used to record with him.

Johnnie Clarke is also a mean performer. Whenever he takes the stage, it is plenty singing and little talking. This ‘Dreader Dread’ is one of our most celebrated vocalists and along with Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Brown, ruled the local scene in the mid-70s and early 80s.

His work with producer Bunny Lee produced the infectious “flying cymbal” style which brought a bright new sound to dancehall singing. With it came classics like Don’t Go, Move Out Of Babylon,


None Shall Escape The Judgement, YES!!!!!!

I believe Bunny lee was producer for this blockbuster hit one of my FAVES

Listen to None Shall Escape the Judgement (WMF)
Listen to None Shall Escape the Judgement

Everyday Wondering, I’m The Toughest, Left With A Broken Heart, Hold On, Every Knee Shall Bow, True Believer In Love, Enter into his Gates With Praise, It’s True, King In The Arena and Roots Natty Congo.

Much traveled and still in demand overseas, Johnnie is as good today as he ever was and there will be a lot of singing, dancing and waving when he lets loose his floor-length locks, superb voice and big, bag of hits on his first Startime appearance in two years.

http://www.startime.com.jm/mediacent...artime8man.htm

I believe it was Bunny Lee who referred to Johnnie Clarke as a "studio idla" because he used to hang around the studio a lot waiting for a chance to record. If I am incorrect, I am sure someone will come in and correct me. Anyway, I digress.

Artist: Bunny Lee

Styles: Roots Reggae, World/Reggae

One of the most influential and prolific producers in reggae history, Bunny "Striker" Lee pioneered the art of the dub -- expanding the parameters of studio technology like no Jamaican producer before him, he and his engineeer, the equally-legendary King Tubby, maximized the creative possibilities of each and every rhythm to generate a seemingly endless series of mixes spread across literally thousands of recordings. Edward O'Sullivan Lee was born in Jamaica on August 23, 1941; he entered the music industry in 1962 via his brother-in-law, the great reggae singer Derrick Morgan, landing a job as a record plugger for Duke Reid's famed Treasure Isle label. By the mid-1960s, Lee was working with Ken Lack's Caltone imprint, producing his first record, Lloyd Jackson and the Groovers' "Listen to the Beat," in 1967. His first significiant hit, Roy Shirley's "Music Field," followed later that year on WIRL, and upon founding his own Lee's label, he reeled off a series of well-received sides including Morgan's "Hold You Jack," Slim Smith's "My Conversation" and Pat Kelly's "Little Boy Blue."

As the decade drew to its close, Lee was among the most successful producers in reggae, and by 1971 he was working side-by-side with engineer King Tubby, who almost singlehandedly invented dub by taking existing master tapes and -- after cutting out vocals, bringing up the bass lines and adding and subtracting other instruments -- creating new rhythm tracks for sound system DJs to voice over. Later adding delays, fades and phasing to his sonic arsenal, Tubby was already renowned throughout the Jamaican music industry by the time he began collaborating with Lee, but together, the duo produced the finest music of their respective careers -- unlike most of his producer peers, Lee recorded his celebrated studio band the Aggrovators with Tubby's remixing skills firmly in mind, crafting deep, dense rhythms strong enough to survive even the most strenuous studio reworking, and together they unleashed some of the most enduring dub versions ever cut.


YES!!!

Among Lee's most influential projects was a 1974 collaboration with singer Johnny Clarke which yielded a series of roots-reggae classics including "None Shall Escape the Judgement" and "Move Out of Babylon"; that same year, he also helmed Owen Grey's smash "Bongo Natty," while the 1975 Cornell Campbell hit "The Gorgon" launched a number of like-minded "Gorgon rock" records. At one time or another, Lee also worked with everyone from Jackie Edwards to Alton Ellis to Ken Boothe, and for all of his experimental instincts, he also possessed a commercial flair equal to any of his contemporaries. By the early 1980s, however, Tubby was running his own studio and producing his own records, and although they continued to collaborate on occasion, both the quality and quantity of Lee's recordings began to slide; he later purchased producer Joe Gibbs' former Kingston-area studio, making a few half-hearted attempts at working with digital technology but otherwise easing into retirement as the years passed, his place in reggae history assured. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

http://www.mp3.com/bunny-lee/artists...biography.html

Bunny "Striker" Lee hits with sound bites:

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4022228

EDITED TO ADD:

If Bunny "Striker" Lee is not Chinese Jamaican or of Chinese descent...

NEVAH MIND!!! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[Tigrrr]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Diana, what has your experience been like in Shanghai?

[Tigrrr]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Tell me about this book, "Corporate Handbag:The Adaptable and Companionable Corporate Mate". The blurb you wrote about the book didn't seem to match the title, so I was wondering what the book is about and who your target audience is. Also, you mentioned the Chinese taught you manners. Do you mean the manners of their culture or do you mean you didn't have manners when you got there? How old were you when you went to China?

[queenb]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Originally posted by Tropicana:
[qb] Somebody post a photo of the band Messenjah that used to perform in Toronto. (I got to run or I would do it myself.) Once that's done, I want you to guess which of the band members has a Chinese grandfather. BTW, his wife is blonde and they live in Toronto. [/qb]

[Hush Darlin]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

so where did Diana go

[Tigrrr]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

Originally posted by queenb:
[qb] [/qb]

Queenb, these are some fine gentlemen. Is the one in the middle of Chinese ancestry?

[neochin]

Re: Re: Chinese in Jamaica

There's a lot that the modern world doesn't understand about Jamaica, maybe even jamaicans don't understand about jamaica. Like, what is the place of a Chinese man in Jamaica? When you tell people your father is chinese, they immediately assume that your history is not the history of the Jamaican people, that you are merely an immigrant to the Jamaican culture, seperate from what americans like to think of as the "real jamaicans," meaning the black ones with dreadlocks like they like to see in their doll-house picture of the world. But they would be suprised as to how integral the Chinese have been to Jamaican culture, (pre-black chiney for all you pickney). Speaking on the history of the sound system, the birthplace of jamaican music, the history of reggae music states:

"As the only survivor of that early period, Clement 'Coxone' Dodd is often said to have invented the sound system concept. But according to the late Count Matchukie, the first real dancehall sound system was Tom 'the Great' Sebastien, the 'nom de record' of the Chinese hardware merchant Thomas Wong: 'There were other sets playing about the place, but Tom was the first sound with an amplifier properly balanced for the dancehall.'

Tom 'the Great' Sebastien started getting competition from Sir Coxone Downbeat, Duke Reid 'the Trojan', and Lloyd 'the Matador' Daley. Tom was turned off by the violent rivaly among systems downtown and opened the Silver Slipper Club at Cross Roads."

The first sound system of many that later began to create Jamaican music. But even of greater influence was his influence on the birth of Deejaying ...

Count Matchukie was the first recognised deejay star. It was he that invented chatting over a record in the dancehall to lively-up the crowd. How did he get his deejay start? In his words:

"Tom was the first sound with an amplifier properly balanced for the dancehall. I switched from dancing to selecting when Tom asked me one night at Forrester's Hall while he went off to purchase some more liquor for the dance. ... Things developed from there. 'Tom moved uptown and opened a club, so I joined up with Coxone, who said eh wanted a new selector...Later on I told Coxone I would make some wisecracks, so it wouldn't seem like is a jukebox we playing" And the rest is history. So a chinese man was influential in helping to start both the Jamaican entertainment scene and in beginning the career of the first real deejay. Yet, he wasn't the only one.

When ska music begun to spring up in downtown, the far-sighted edward seaga, then minister of culture, set about to create a truly jamaican music for both halves of jamaican society. For this, he turned to Byron Lee to help promote ska, in a watered down version, to the uptown and country crowd. The success of ska as a national sound and record sales of ska in Jamaica can be partially attributed to him and his dragonaires.

Let's not forget Leslie Kong, one of the big early producers who produced alongside studio one. Although under-rated, he was influential in finding such artists as Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley. He produced Jimmy Cliff's first record: "Dearest Beverly." He also produced Bob's first two records: 'Judge Not' and 'One more Cup of Coffee'. He produced many of the ska great' Derrick Morgan's tunes when Derrick left Prince Buster's studio in 62. "By the end of 1962 and early 1963 Derrick held the top seven places in the Jamaican charts, a feat which has been neither bettered nor equalled." The move from Buster to Kong and a lyric dispute caused Buster to write the song "Blackhead Chinie" to which Derrick wrote the first Jamaican counteraction (produced by Kong) "Blazing Fire." The fued continued on record and badman supporters got so violent in arguing who was #1" that the government had to come in and stop" the counteractions. According to Derrick, "We had to go in the [Daily Gleaner] paper and hug up and say that we were the best of friends and so on and stop the dispute." (And they say the tupac-biggie fued was a first of its kind) Kong also produced the first million-selling international hit 'Poor Me Isrealite' by Desmond Dekker.

And even until today where we see such major jamaican music distribution companies like VP owned by the Chins and IRIE FM owned by Karl Young. Displaced, half-chinese like Black Chiney revolutionizing the Jamaican-American dancehall scene. Mix-up Chinese Sean Paul helps to popularise the new generation of dancehall and paves the way for dancehall and reggaeton airplay in america. In jamaica there are up and rising "chiney" dancehall artists like Tammy Chin...The list goes on and on and will probably continue.


(Info taken from the book: history of reggae)