In Hong Kong, Caucasian men are known as gweilo (鬼佬 gwaai2 lou2) literally ‘ghost man’. Caucasians women are called gweimui (鬼妹 gwaai2 mui1)or gweipo (鬼婆 gwaai2 po2) ‘ghost woman’, the former name is used for younger women. Today, these colloquial terms are generally not considered as derogatory, and the terms are used among the white …
The Portuguese gained rights to settle and trade in Macau in 1557. The Dutch, a constant rivalry of the Portuguese, attempted to invade Macau in 1622. The 3-day attack ended in victory of the Portuguese. The Dutch occupied southern Taiwan (formerly called Formosa) in 1624 as a base to trade with China and Japan, while …
The image shows a cover celebrating the 150th anniversary (1789-1939) of Hawaiʻi and Chinese interaction. For the past 200 years, Chinese has become an important part in the history of Hawaiʻi. Chinese people call Honolulu 檀香山 (pronounced taan4 hoeng1 saan1 in Cantonese) meaning ‘sandalwood mountains’. Around 1790, American merchants began trade in sandalwood (‘iliahi) between …
Hawaiʻi is made up of a group of islands located in the central Pacific Ocean. The state capital and the largest city, Honolulu, is situated on O‘ahu. It is believed that the earliest inhabitants were Polynesian settlers from the Marquesas Islands. In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook landed at Kauaʻi and named the archipelago …
This postcard was sent from Honolulu, Hawai‘i to Hong Kong in 1888. The writer, Phillips, told the recipient that he had safely arrived in Honolulu. The recipient was addressed as “Ship Chandlers”. A ship chandler is a dealer who provides supplies and equipment for ships. The name “Kalakaua” was shown at the top of the …
When the idea of writing message on a card without an envelope was first proposed, people were quite suspicious of this kind of communication. There were concerns for privacy as messages could be read by others. People were also not used to pre-paying the postage printed on postcards. The first postcards called Correspondenz-Karte were officially …