Saina

English: ‘China’.

Saina can be taken to cover most people of East Asian origin.

In German New Guinea, seeing the rapid decline of the indigenous population in many newly contacted areas, Governor Hahl had a vision of re-populating the country with free settlers from China and East Asia (Firth 1983: Chapter 6).

The earliest recruitment of Asian labourers had taken place in 1890 when 125 Javanese labourers arrived for plantation work in Madang, along with 85 Chinese and Malays recruited in Singapore (Firth 1983:30). Unfortunately, the recruits brought smallpox with them and thousands of villagers along the north coast died as a result (Ann. Rep. Ger. New Guinea 1901-02).

However, German New Guinea never became a favoured destination for Chinese emigrants and the Dutch blocked further recruitment of Indonesians from 1900.

See original Mihalic entry.

Proper noun forms

  1. Geography: China
    Ah Tam i bin kam long Saina stret Ah Tam came from China itself

  1. Ethnic identifier: Chinese
    wanpela Saina i kam i go the person who came and went was Chinese
    ol Saina the Chinese
    stoa bilong ol Saina the Chinese-owned stores

© Revising the Mihalic Project, 26 Jan 2005 [Home]