Over the years, many friends may have heard of Australian Christmas Island, because in many reports, it is said that it is one of the few Chinese-dominated areas in the world other than China and Singapore. Indeed, Christmas Island currently has more than half of the Chinese population, and a significant percentage still speak Chinese. So how did this demographic composition of Christmas Island come about? What's so different about its history?
Christmas Island
According to Peachblossom Miscellaneous, the demographic makeup of Christmas Island is surprising, in part because of misunderstandings caused by incomplete information. Although Christmas Island is currently considered Australian territory, it is 1550 kilometers from the Australian mainland. Here, we make a comparison, the straight-line distance from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province on the mainland, to Beijing is about 1515 kilometers, so Christmas Island is actually quite far from the Australian mainland.
Christmas Island is only 350 kilometers from the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. So in fact, geographically speaking, Christmas Island is a Southeast Asian island, and everyone also knows that there are many Chinese in Southeast Asia, considering this background, it is more normal for Christmas Island to have a high proportion of Chinese.
Location of Christmas Island
Of course, Christmas Island still has a much higher proportion of Chinese than most Southeast Asian countries. And that's what its unique history has created. Although Christmas Island is actually a Southeast Asian island, it does seem to be unsettled in the early days because it is also somewhat distant from other islands.
Europeans only landed on the island in 1688 AD, and accidentally landed on the island when ships were yaw by storm. So the island was actually of little value at the time, so much so that the Europeans, who were frantically colonizing the world at that time, did not immediately become interested in it and did not immediately declare the island their territory.
The Edgeria, which played an important role in the British occupation of Christmas Island
It wasn't until 1887 that the British really became interested in Christmas Island. At that time, the British warship Egeria had anchored on Christmas Island for about 10 days, during which the British naturalist Lister on board collected a large number of biological and mineral specimens on the island, some of which were later found to contain the extremely pure mineral calcium pyrophosphate, which made the British aware of the economic and strategic value of the island, so it was a year later that Britain declared the island a British crown territory and officially annexed it.
The British then established settlements at Flying Fish Bay at the northern end of Christmas Island, profiting from timber harvesting and phosphate extraction. Because the island is in Southeast Asia, the timber loggers and miners recruited by the British at that time were mainly from Singapore and Malaya, and these two areas had a large number of Chinese immigrants at that time, so from the time Christmas Island was settled, the main residents of the area were Chinese.
Many of the Chinese on Christmas Island come from the Singapore and Malaysia area
After the outbreak of the Pacific War in World War II, the Japanese also quickly took a fancy to the phosphate mines on Christmas Island. On March 31, 1942, the Japanese Marines sent 850 men to capture Christmas Island. However, during the Japanese occupation, mining workers on the island were still dominated by Nanyang Chinese and native Southeast Asians.
After the end of World War II, the British reoccupied Christmas Island in October 1945. During British rule, Christmas Island was administered by the Straits Settlements and then the Singapore Settlements. But after the end of World War II, the British Empire embarked on the road of no return. Beginning in 1955, ethnic groups such as the Chinese Singaporean fought several times against British colonial rule, eventually forcing the British to agree to Singapore's autonomy in 1957.
This means that Singapore is about to officially leave the UK. Against this background, Britain also quickly moved its brains and sang a double reed with Australia, which was nominally independent at the time but still had close ties to Britain. Australia soon asked Britain to transfer sovereignty over Christmas Island to itself, and the Queen granted this request on 14 May 1958, after which the British government confirmed the sovereignty of Christmas Island to Australia by Privy Seal.
Chinese temple on Christmas Island
Singapore, which still had no sovereignty at the time, could not effectively prevent the private concession between Britain and Australia, and finally after Australia gave Singapore some symbolic monetary compensation, Christmas Island belonged to Australia. As for the amount of this compensation, there are currently two versions of it, one says £2.9 million and the other says $20 million.
So Christmas Island was actually part of Singapore for a long time in history, and its population ratio is closer to Singapore's.
In addition, Peach Blossom Stone Miscellaneous Talk believes that there is another reason for the high proportion of Chinese on Christmas Island: it is that many reports only say the proportion but not the number of people caused by the cognitive difference.
Christmas Island's main residential area, Flying Fish Bay
Although Christmas Island is not too small, with 135 square kilometers and an area close to 1.5 Hong Kong Islands, as of 2021, the total population of Christmas Island is only about 1,700 people, so in fact, if you just take such a small population as a sample, there are still some communities with a similar proportion of Chinese in some other countries, and Christmas Island is not particularly special.
The main source of income for modern Christmas Island is still phosphate mining, and tourism and other industries have been developed, but they are still limited in scale. In addition, Christmas Island has also been used by Australia as a refugee and illegal immigration center in recent years, coupled with its long distance from the Australian mainland, so most of the immigrants on Christmas Island are actually descendants of early Christmas Island Chinese workers and Southeast Asian workers, and its high proportion of Chinese is very normal.
Specifically, 63 per cent of the population on Christmas Island is Chinese, 16 per cent Malay, 4 per cent Indonesian, and the rest are of mostly Australian and British descent. Of course, because some of the island's inhabitants have two or more ancestry, there will be some differences in the proportion of different ethnic groups of different statistical calibers.
A supermarket on Christmas Island with Chinese names
Although most of the residents of Christmas Island are of Chinese descent, it has been ruled by Australia in recent decades, so 29% of Christmas Island residents currently speak English at home and another 18% speak Malay at home, but the proportion of Chinese Mandarin at home is still 14%, and another 4% and 2% speak Cantonese and Hokkien at home. The rest of the Christmas Island residents are multilingual.
In general, although Christmas Island is ruled by Australia, its territory is located in Southeast Asia, and it has historically been closely related to Singapore, which is inhabited by Chinese, so it is very normal that its population is relatively high. (Image from the Internet)