Chifa

The first night we arrived in Cusco, I noticed a Chifa restaurant. Chifa is a fusion of Chinese and Peruvian elements. Throughout our time in Cusco, I noticed more and more Chifa restaurants on the streets. I wondered why there were so many in Peru. It seemed like out of all the foreign food restaurants, Chifa restaurants were the most common in Peru. I decided to look into the history of Peru’s immigration.

The Chinese immigrants were called coolies. Between 1849 and 1874, more than 100,000 coolies arrived in Peru as indentured servants. This was around the same time of the emancipation of slaves in Peru in 1854 and the need for more laborers.

In the 1800s, there was a lack of racial identification of the coolies. There was lots of mixing in between different races and the coolies since the coolies that migrated were mostly male. Unfortunately, no racial identity was created for people who mixed with the coolies. Many historians believed this meant there was a lack of place in society for those of Chinese descent. However, when I was filling out health forms in Peru for my covid test, I noticed there was a checkbox for Asiatico Descendiente. 

It is estimated that around 5% of the Peruvian population today is of Chinese descent. However, only around 14,000 Peruivans self-report themselves as tusán (of Chinese descent). This may be due in part to the fact that the Peruvian government did not create a racial identity for those who were a mix of coolian.