Chinese began migrating to Hawaii nearly 230 years ago due to civil unrest,famine,wars and colonial imperlism occurring in China during that time.They arrived first as traders, then to begin small sugar plantations. laters they were imported to teach the sugar industry how to cultivate cane and mill it into sugar, before becoming a source of labor. While the early bulk of single labors came to Hawaii for the sugar industry, some came to work the rice fields.
Eventually, many sugar laborers and rice farmerss went into trades and started small businesses, then brought wives from China until the Chinese Exclusion Act banned all immigration of Chinese to American(and its territories).
It is from these few Chinese families that our large Chinese population in hawaii has sprung. Ensuing generations have made hawaii their homes and have become successful businessmen, tradesmen, doctors, lawyers and educators who live the American dream while retaining their Chinese ancestral values and heritage.
