Impressions of Chinese Businessmen On Reunion Island

I n July 160 years ago, some small boats carrying oversixty yellow-skinned and black-haired men struggled to moveahead against the wind andwaves on the Indian Ocean nearsouthern Africa. When the Re-union Island covered with red-dish volcanic stones came intosight, the men who had alreadyforgotten how many days theyhad drifted on the sea burst outshouting and jumped for joy.They were the first batch of Chi-nese sugarcane farmers recruitedfrom faraway Singapore. In 1846, the second batch…