Chinese in the Bangka Belitung Islands
Regions with significant populations
 Indonesia
Bangka Belitung Islands99,624 (2010 census)[1]
Languages
Hakka, Bangka Malay, Belitung Malay, Hokkien, Indonesian, Cantonese
Religion
Chinese traditional religion, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam
Related ethnic groups
Benteng Chinese, Peranakan and other Chinese Indonesians

Chinese Indonesians have lived in Bangka Belitung Islands, Indonesia for centuries.[2][3] Bangka Belitung is one of the regions with the largest Chinese population in Indonesia besides Java, Riau, Eastern Sumatra and West Borneo.[4]

Chinese immigrants came to the Bangka Belitung Islands in several waves during the 1700–the 1800s. Many Hakkas from various parts of Guangdong came to the islands to work as tin miners.

Bangka Island Chinese is quite different from Belitung Island Chinese because the first Chinese generation who were entirely male and arrived in Bangka Island, left China without women, they took local women as wives, so many Chinese in Bangka had mixed blood (Indonesian: "Peranakan"), especially those who lived in the Eastern part of the island. Bangka Island Chinese language is a creole language mixed Malay and Hakka words. Belitung Chinese is considered purer (Indonesian: "totok") because they were the first generation who arrived on the island, and they did so with Chinese wives after the 1800s. Although some town in Bangka Island, purer degree of Hakka can be heard as well, the Hakka-Malay mixture language is uniquely of Bangka Island Chinese. In Belitung, Chinese people adapted well with local culture. They changed their clothes and would like to wear Malay baju kurung with kebaya, pants with sarong.[2] Hakka is spoken among the majority of Chinese speakers on the islands with a minority Hokkien-speaking population.

Notable Chinese from Bangka Belitung

References

  1. ↑ (in Indonesian)Population by province and ethnic groups. Table L26 p.50, sp2010.bps.go.id 18-10-2016.
  2. 1 2 (in Indonesian)Peranakan Tionghoa di Bangka-Belitung, historia.id. 18-10-2016
  3. ↑ (in Indonesian)Melayu-Tionghoa Bersaudara Tanpa Sekat, edukasi.kompas.com. 18-10-2016
  4. ↑ (in English)Reid, Anthony (1996). Sojourners and Settlers: Histories of Southeast China and the Chinese. University of Hawaii Press.
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