Sainataun

Tok Pisin: Saina + taun.

Many towns in Papua New Guinea have a section called ‘Chinatown’. The first, Chinatown in Rabaul, was founded when Ah Tam, a trader who had lived in the Rabaul area since the 1880s, was given a land lease by Governor Hahl sometime after 1904 in return for arranging the settlement of skilled Chinese migrants and their wives (Firth 1983: 117).

While all Chinatowns originally had Chinese-owned stores, in plenty of cases the name persists after the Chinese families have moved on. For example, Chinatown in Wau refers to the main street and its stores, but there are now no Chinese store owners. In Hagen, Chinatown refers to the section of the business district along the old airstrip (now the main road passing through the town), but few if any Chinese families remain.

In villages, various derivations of sainataun can be found; for example, ‘Sinatong’, a haus boi and residential hamlet at Londolovit, Lihir, New Ireland Province.

See original Mihalic entry.

Saina Town, Wau, Morobe Province, 2000.

Proper noun forms

  1. Ethnic identifier: Chinatown ® Saina

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