Crossing the Caribbean

Luo Minjun's "e;Journey to the Caribbean"e; takes place in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, China's most tragic years, when the Qing government, under pressure from foreign powers, was forced to open up its sea bans in the post-Nanjing Treaty era of 1840. From 1845 onwards, first the ports of Xiamen in Fujian Province and Guangzhou and Shantou in Guangdong Province began the "e;trade"e; of exporting laborers to the Americas, and after 1852, the foreign banks in Hong Kong and Macao also took part in the "e;trade"e; of laborers, transporting Chinese laborers to the South Seas and South America. The Chinese laborers mainly came from the people of Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Luo Minjun's grandfather, Luo Dingzhao, was one of the Chinese laborers who went to the Americas from 1906 to 1910.Translated with DeepL.com (free version)