At the Periphery of Nanyang: The Hakka Community of Timor-Leste

Abstract

I recorded this story in 2013 among the Makalero people, who live in the remote Iliomar subdistrict on the south-eastern coast of Timor-Leste. Clan origin stories are of great ritual significance for the Makalero, and the fact that a Chinese captain is featured in this narrative illustrates the degree to which the ethnic Chinese are an established part of the East Timorese scene. They started to settle on the island during the Portuguese colonial period, and by 1975 a vibrant community existed. Today, the majority of Chinese-Timorese live abroad, having fled East Timor during the Indonesian occupation between 1975 and 1999.1 Despite its long history, the Chinese community of Timor-Leste has largely been neglected in the broader literature on Chinese-descended communities worldwide. The scholarship on Chinese communities in Southeast Asia routinely discusses communities in Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei,