Capitan China

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “is this modelled on Capitan Pasha? or from Spanish?”)

Noun

Capitan China (plural Capitans China)

1. (historical) A Chinese official, boss, or headman, who had authority over Chinese workers in a foreign nation.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 352:

     The "Capitan China" is a personage always met and very much looked up to, on the tin mines all over the Malayan Peninsula.

   • 1970, Nicholas Tarling, Studies in the Social History of China and South-east Asia, page 367:

     Choa Mah Soo was made Capitan-China in Klias and Mempakul, Pope-Hennessy later claiming that he had "induced the Sultan to restore the old system of "Capitans China" and to treat the Chinese well."

See also

• Capitan Pasha