444ĈčĆĕęĊė 14
“Are These Persons British or
Chinese Subjects?”^1 —Legal Principles
and Ambiguities Regarding the Status
of the Straits Chinese as Revealed in
the Lee Shun Fah Affair in Amoy, 1847
Introduction
An early Chinese settlement had existed in Malacca on the west coast of
the Malay Peninsula since the βifteenth century. Together with Penang,
founded in 1786, and Singapore, founded in 1819, the British established
the Straits Settlements, composed of the three colonies, in 1826. There
was a large amount of trade between the Straits Settlements and China.
By the 1850s, the most important branch of the trade of Amoy (Xiamen)
was with the Straits Settlements.^2
This commercial development created new business and job
opportunities in the Straits Settlements and attracted massive numbers
of Chinese migrants, the majority from the Amoy region in Fujian,
βlocking to these British colonies as traders or laborers. Compared to the
earlier generations of migrants, the more recent arrivals retained very
close connections with their ancestral country. This advantage enabled
them to become the pioneering groups of active agents in the trade with
China among the local-born people of Chinese descent. Not surprisingly,
while they were in Amoy, they would seize the opportunity to go to the
interior to visit their families or native clansmen. The other group of
local Chinese was made up of the descendants of earlier migrants from
- Consul Layton in Amoy was puzzled by the question of his consular jurisdiction.
See Great Britain, Foreign Ofβice, FO 663/54, T.H. Layton to Samuel George
Bonham, July 19, 1848. - FO 663/10: Amoy, April 15, 1853.
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