Chinese communities have been an integral part of Caribbean history for generations, shaping the region's economic, social, and cultural development. Yet their histories and contributions remain underrepresented in broader narratives of the Caribbean past. In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Nikolai Attai, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Binghamton University, to explore the history of Chinese migration to the Caribbean, from indentured labor and subsequent voluntary migration to the evolving relationships between Chinese Caribbean communities and the wider diaspora.
Our conversation traces the different waves of Chinese migration to Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, and Cuba, examining the significance of Chinese indentured labor within the post-emancipation plantation economy. We also explore the development of diaspora networks and community institutions, including Chinese associations and benevolent societies, and their roles in preserving, adapting, and negotiating cultural identities across generations. Drawing on his grandfather's experiences and family correspondence as described in The Asian Caribbean in the Caribbean Diaspora: Essays on Migration, Identity, and Literary and Cultural Representations, Dr. Attai reflects on how personal archives, memory, and silence can illuminate questions of identity and belonging, particularly where official historical records remain incomplete.
We also consider the lasting consequences of colonial racial hierarchies, including how divisions cultivated under colonial rule continue to shape interethnic relations, xenophobia, and stereotypes surrounding Chinese Caribbean entrepreneurship. From the experiences of Chinese shopkeepers to the influence of Chinese Caribbean communities on regional foodways and music industries, this conversation highlights the community's enduring contributions to Caribbean societies while challenging reductive understandings of their place in the region's history.
Nikoli Attai received his PhD in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto, a Master of Philosophy in Cultural Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communication from the University of the West Indies. His most recent book, Defiant Bodies: Making Queer Community in the Anglophone Caribbean, was published in 2023.
Attai’s broader research focuses on queer experiences in the Anglophone Caribbean beyond notions of disease and violence, and the need to flee the region. He also investigates international queer asylum interventions in Canada and the Netherlands, and decolonial cultural formations in Trinidad and Tobago and the anglophone Caribbean. This work appears in several academic essays and his recent co-edited collection titled Free Up Yuhself: Transgressive Bodies and Contestations in the Carnivalesque, published by Rutgers University Press in May 2026.
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