Imported as a low-wage labor force from China, Chinese settled in three main locations: Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana (now Guyana), initially working on the sugar plantations.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese were brought in from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan during the following decades to replace and / or work alongside African slaves.

[7] Next to those in the United States, on the one hand, and in Cuba and Peru, on the other, they formed the third largest regional grouping of Chinese arrivals to the Western Hemisphere in the mid-century.

[7] Although the patterns of their entry into these new societies represented a microcosmic version of the story of the Chinese diaspora in the nineteenth century, there were a number of note-worthy distinctive traits attached to this regional experience.

In the 1850s, the demand for Chinese workers and the fees paid to the crimps increased so dramatically[7] that the system quickly became notorious for its association with abuse and coercion, including kidnapping.

[9] West Indian planters were not, however, prepared to cover the additional cost that this would incur, especially in light of the fact that India was proving more than sufficient as a source of coolie.

More often than not, the Caribbean Chinese people are presented as peripheral figures in stereotypical roles, as inscrutable or clever or linguistically deficient rural shopkeepers, preoccupied with money and profit.