Eurasian

DEFINITION

An ethnic group of persons and their descendants who are of mixed European and Asian lineage. Also known in Mandarin as “欧亚族”.

ETYMOLOGY

• The Mandarin term “欧亚裔” is a paraphrase of the English term “Eurasian”.
• In the early 19th century, the Marquess of Hastings, who was also Governor of India, coined this term to refer to people who had European ancestry on their father's side and Asian ancestry on their mother's side. They are the offspring of the Portuguese, Dutch, and English colonial men who had intermarried and had children with Asian women between the 16th and 18th centuries.
• As the definition of Eurasian is quite broad, the term can currently be used to refer to all people of Eurasian descent.
• The term “Eurasian” was first officially used in Singapore in the 1849 population census. Before Singapore’s independence, there were approximately 25,000 Eurasians in Singapore. After that, many of them emigrated to Australia and the United Kingdom between 1960 and 1980. At present, the Eurasian population in Singapore is about 15,500, accounting for 0.4% of the total population.
• In addition to British, Dutch, and Portuguese ancestry, Eurasians in Singapore may have also descended from Chinese, Malays and Indians. This is significantly different from Eurasian lineage in other parts of Asia.

SAMPLE SENTENCE

As the Mandarin name suggests, Eurasians are “descendants of both Europeans and Asians.” Their ancestors mainly came from Portugal, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom during the colonial period between the 16th and 18th centuries. (Lianhe Zaobao, 25/8/2019)

RELATED INFORMATION

• The Portuguese-Eurasians are an ethnic group with its own mother tongue called Kristang, which is a creole language of Portuguese and Malay. At present, the language is spoken fluently by about 50 people in the world, and is on the verge of extinction. In 2015, the local community in Singapore established a group known as “Kodrah Kristang” (meaning “to revitalize the Kristang language”) to save and promote the language.