User:10000BL/H1-How it started
http://www.madfeed.co/2015/artist-olafur-eliasson-on-the-importance-of-cooking-and-the-kitchen/
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschiedenis_van_de_Chinezen_in_Nederland
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/770926.Empire_of_Signs
https://monoskop.org/File:Barthes_roland_Empire_of_Signs_1983.pdf
https://rosswolfe.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/roland-barthes-empire-of-signs1.pdf
http://timerime.com/nl/gebeurtenis/829756/Kabinet-Den+Uyl+stelt+wervingsstop+en+generaal+pardon+in/
In 1967 my grandfather decided to come to the Netherlands to open a Chinese restaurant. My grandfather settled in Dordrecht and opened in 1969 restaurant Kwai Lok. In 1972 my mother, who was the second oldest child out of 9, and her older sister joined their father in The Netherlands. Restaurant Kwai Lok was disbanded in 1984 and in 1985 my grandfather opened restaurant Hong Kong.
My father at the time was working as a chef in an eatery in Fuengirola, Spain. He and my mother got to know each other in 1983. They married In 1985 and had me in the same year. In the meantime they worked in the restaurant of my grandfather. In 1989 they took over Chinese-Indisch restaurant 'Choi Sing' in the Hague and became restaurant holders themselves. They sold Choi Sing In 1997 and became owner of snackbar 'De Neushoorn' in Dordrecht.
When you think of Chinese people the first thing that crosses your mind is their cuisine. Chinese is food is well known and embedded in Dutch society. What is less known is that the Chinese community is the oldest ethnic minority in The Netherlands and the oldest Chinese community on the mainland of Europe. In 1911 the first group of Chinese arrived per ship in Katendrecht. Their arrival had nothing to do with business related to food, in fact they came here to work for shipping companies, like Lloyd and De Maatschappij as a 'stoker' or 'kolentremmer'. Initially the Chinese, of whom all were men, went to the Untied Kingdom to work. The Chinese were already working for the English for decades that resulted after the peace treaty between the United Kingdom and China at the end of the Opium War (1839-1842). China suffered great losses and in return for peace China had to open up their borders, change their trade policy and allowing Chinese people to migrate and work in foreign countries. Part of the treaty was also to hand over the Island of Hong Kong and the New Territories to the United Kingdom which they returned to China in 1997. Many poor Chinese took this opportunity to work abroad. It was easy for them to find work as the United Kingdom needed many workers for their industries domestically and in their colonies. However due to conjuncture of the market there was not always enough work. As a consequence Chinese seek their way into the Netherlands.
When the first Chinese men landed in 1911 there was something happening. At that time Dutch shipping and harbour workers were on strike. When there us a strike, vacancies are quickly filled by foreigners, who are reffered to as 'onderkruipers' (negative for job taker). Normally when a strike ends Dutch workers got their jobs back, in 1911 this didn't happen. The reason was that the Chinese people that were hired accepted lower wage and were not complaining about the working conditions. This is the start of a permanent stay of Chinese people in the Netherlands.
The Chinese people that went abroad to work never planned to settle in the foreign countries they went. Their wish was to work for a few years, save money and go back to their village in China. As a consequence Chinese workers were not interested to integrate in Dutch society nor did they sympathise with Dutch workers and were they unaware ofthe social disturbance their presence caused in society. Dutch workers started to grow hate towards their Chinese colleagues, or 'Koelies' as they were often called, which means uneducated worker from Asia.
The Chinese workers were very disciplined and lived according a hierarchical structure. On top of the pyramide you have the shipping master. He is in contact with shipping companies and decides who gets work. The shipping master choose a number One, who is assigned to be the leader of a group of workers. To favour the shipping master the Number One had to pay the shipping master 5000 guilders. you had better chance in becoming a number One if you were family of the shipping master. The shipping master also choose the people for the other jobs which usually include the job of 'stokers' and 'kolentremmers'. These jobs are physically demanding. 'Stokers' and 'kolentremmers' pay once a monthy wage to the shipping master to thank him for being selected for the job. When workers are not selected for the job, Chinese workers are obliged to stay in a boardinghouse. This boarding house is led by a boardinghouse-master and sometimes this is the same person as the shipping master. The Chinese workers living in the boarding houses live under pitiable circumstances. They live in tiny rooms with bunkbeds and washing lines to dry their clothes. The boardinghouses became quickly their hideout to sleep, eat and gamble. The first article published in a national newspaper referring to the existence of boardinghouses in the Netherlands dates back to 1916. The article it states that Chinese en Dutch people live along peacefully in the area of the Buiten Bantammerstraat. The Chinese man is neat, cause no problems and takes care of his own business. Their exotic food, as they serve inside the boardinghouses, attracts anyone that has a taste for anything that is Chinese.The introduction of this kind of food in general can add to the Dutch taste.
The Chinese were always in disadvantage compared to the Dutch. Because of the Chinese nationality they couldn't claim for social benefits from the Dutch government. When unemployed Chinese workers couldn't fall back on social benefits, like Dutch workers could. To maintain in their needs Chinese had to rely on themselves. In China lineage is very important and this is embedded in how families hierarchically are structured and function. This means for example that you take care of your family even if that person is distant to you. Most Chinese that live in the Netherlands are originated from two areas in China, namely Kanton and Zhejiang, so there was always a relative to fall back on. The only Chinese men that actually could apply for benefits from the dutch government were Chinese men that married Dutch women. The Dutch women that fell for the charms of the Chinese men were more used to foreign cultures and were living in areas where Chinese men also worked and lived. These Dutch women were from the lower classes of society and to marry a Chinese man was for them a way out of poverty. The Chinese man was, according to them, sophisticated and mannered.
The crisis in the 1930s causes a shortage of work. At the same time the shipping industry modernized, resulting in the replacing of charcoal for the more efficient fuel. As a result the jobs that were usually done by the Chinese workers, stopped to exist. Boardinghouses were bulging and the Chinese community had to reinvent themselves again. Unemployed Ng Kwai came to the idea to sell 'pindakoekjes' (peanut cookies) in 1931. Soon almost 200 Chinese men were selling these cookies, 5 cent per piece in cities and villages throughout the country. Peanut cookies started as a great success, but became early 1933 also out of fashion due to the crisis. Meanwhile the Dutch government, advised by police commissioner Einthoven from Rotterdam, started to arrest and deport Chinese people in 1939. Nearly 2000 Chinese men, mainly from Katendrecht were deported to China. At the start of Second World War only 200 Chinese men were left in Katendrecht. From then on Amsterdam inhabited the largest Chinese community in the Netherlands. For the Chinese people that escaped deportation the food industry was about to become their rescue.
The Second World War changed the position of the Chinese. When the Netherlands were under German command Chinese people were, for the first time since 1911, not picked. The Germans were reluctant to chase Chinese people because they couldn't distinguish them from their Japanese allies. As a consequence the Chinese had the opportunity to come out of their shell with a new self-awareness and confidence. They took the jobs that were abandoned by people that were imprisoned and deported by the Germans. During the war Chinese restaurants where able to stay open, there was enough food. The Second World War is for the Chinese people in the Netherlands a new beginning and the start of the popularisation of Chinese food.
The year 1950 is the birth of the People's Republic of China with Mao as its leader. China became a communist country. As a consequence everything that had anything to do with capitalistic values became an enemy of China. This also counted for the many Chinese that went abroad to escape poverty, to work and earn money for their families. In the new China showing of with money is not accepted and many people who owned personal property were forced to hand it to the communist party. Chinese abroad couldn't go back anymore. and the many separated families slowly drifted away from each other. This new situation of China in a way didn't had a negative effect on the development of the Chinese in the Netherlands. In fact because of the rising popularity of Chinese food Chinese people had a new market to develop. In 1947 this became even more prevalent because of the return of Dutch expats and associates, of whom 5000 Peranakan-Chinese, from Indonesia. These people were used to the Asian kitchen and the Chinese could provide in that. Soon the Chinese integrated dishes from the Indonesians, like Nasi Rames, Saté and Babi Pangang. Chinese restaurant also changed the menu more to the taste of Dutch people. The spring roll for example is an equivalent to the 'kroket' and soup, a dessert in China, is here listed as a starter. Soon the outing Chinese restaurant on boardings and banners was replaced by Chinese-Indich restaurant.
Chinese restaurants were initially a huge success. From the first restaurant (name) in Rotterdam in .... (in Amsterdam it was ... in ...) to 250 restaurants in 1960 throughout the country. By 1970, Zuid-Holland inhabited already 440 restaurants. The food was relatively cheap compared to other cuisines and came in big quantities. As a result Chinese food became popular amongst all layers of society. Chinese people themselves slowly disappeared out of the restaurants, the taste was, according to them, not Chinese anymore. The market for Chinese restaurants changed a lot in the 1970s. There were to many Chinese restaurants this competition led to the introduction of illegal workers. The reputation of Chinese restaurants was already on stack and with rumours about bad hygiene and tax fraud Chinese restaurants became less popular. Slowly Chinese restaurants didn't attract as many customers as before. Partially because of the menu, that didn't evolved during its introduction, secondly because of the rising competitions with other restaurants. To balance Chinese restaurants added new dishes, like Crab with Black Bean sauce, Peking Duck and Dim Sum or took a more specialized kitchen that served food from a specific region in China, like Sichuan or Beijing.
Chinese restaurants never reached that popularity from the early days. The decline in number of restaurants that started in the 1970s never stopped. As of today, many Chinese restaurants are disbanded and Chinese people changed their business to snackbars. Their was a little revival with the All-You-Can-Eat restaurants, but it looks like these big food halls are also disappearing. Sushi is the new Chinese, but only time can tell how long this will hold. The traditional Chinese-Indonesian restaurant combination is slowly disappearing from the streets.
To conclusion
Knowing more now of the history of the Chinese people in the Netherlands it is personally interesting to know that my grandfather and his family were part of a second generation wave. Most of the Chinese people before him came here to work in the harbour or for one of the many shipping companies. There wish was to work here for a few years and to go back to China. They never intended to be part of Dutch society and to take the Dutch nationality. My grandfather came to The Netherlands to open his restaurant. From 1973 till 1977 the government of the Netherlands was led by prime-minister den Uyl. His government decided that illegal workers or guest workers could claim for Dutch citizenship when they could prove that they were in the Netherlands before 1974. The recruiting of workers was ended, yet the expansion of immigrants continued because of reunion of families. This applied for my grandfather, so his wife and 9 children were able to come over and gain the Dutch nationality. My father who initially was working in Spain in a restaurant got his Dutch citizenship because he married my mother.
The Chinese people that came here, came with the idea to work for a few years, earn money and go back to China. The first Chinese arrived in the Netherlands on 17 juni 1911 in Katendrecht in Rotterdam. In Amsterdam they arrived at the Prins Hendrikkade. Initially the Chinese community in Rotterdam was the biggest, because the harbour was bigger and their were more shipping companies. From the 30s the community of Amsterdam became bigger and is that still today. The Chinese community in Holland are the oldest Chinese community on the mainland of Europe. The early Chinese community was a very closed community. They didn't had much contact with Dutch people, mainly because they lived in closed communities in warehouses and boarding houses. In 1916 a journalist from Algemeen Handelsblad noticed in the Bantammerstraat (Also known as Tong Yan Kai - street of the Chinese) a lively community of Chinese people taking care of each other and living along side Dutch people from there. He went to eat in boardinghouse (name) and discovered the richness of the Chinese food. In the follow up article in the Algemeen Handelsblad he noted that the adding of Chinese flavours to enrich the Dutch cuisine.