Picture provided by The British Chinese Project

By Yixiang Zeng

Chinese Londoners are hoping to have their own ethnic MP to be elected in the forthcoming general election and help raise their concerns.

Members of their community are worried about issues such as immigration and cultural integration into the mainstream British society.

George Lee, a Hong Kong born Conservative MP candidate standing for Holborn and St Pancreas said: “Restaurants in London's Chinatown need good Chinese chefs and workers, but the current points-based immigration system makes it difficult for the restaurant owners to employ the right people they need.

“One of the ways to address the issue is to ask the Chinese chefs to set up training schemes and train local people how to cook Chinese food.”

Christine Lee, a UK-based Chinese solicitor specialising in Immigration Law and a member of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association, said in her briefing to the House of Commons in 2008: “As a result of the new immigration rules, many of their [Chinese restaurants and takeaways] businesses are being forced to close down due to a shortage of staff. If this continues, London's Chinatown will collapse.”

According to Ms. Lee, the Chinese catering industry in the UK has always heavily relied on work permits to bring in skilled chefs back from China, but due to the high standard of the English language requirement implemented by the points-based system Tier Two rules, the community is now suffering from a staff shortage.

“Most Chinese chefs do not have a high standard of written Chinese and to impose a fairly high standard of spoken and written English on these chefs, the consensus is that virtually no Chinese chefs will be qualified,” said Ms. Lee.

Local members of the Chinese community in London say the ethnic Chinese here is described as reserved and silent, and the community's integration with the mainstream British society has never been an easy ride.

Merlene Emerson, a Singaporean Liberal Democrat MP candidate standing for Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush, said: “I believe the challenge of integration is greater for the first generation immigrants and this is partly due to language difficulties.”

These early-comers, mainly from Hong Kong in the 60s, speak little or no English at all; they socialise mainly within their Chinese circle after settling into catering businesses in the UK; in addition, they rarely show interest in the British way of life, such as practising their right to vote in the elections.

According to a 2005 Electoral Commission report, 30 per cent of the Chinese residents in the UK are not registered to vote, compared to a UK average of eight to nine per cent.

“However, I can see young British-Chinese have little difficulty of integrating into mainstream society,” Mrs. Emerson said. “There are now also British-Chinese in many of the professions, from medicine, engineering and law to business, media and the arts.”

Mr.Lee added: “I wish to see more Chinese professionals working in different industries, such as reading the news, getting involved in politics, serving in the companies' managerial level, and playing football or Rugby.”

Devon Chow, a second-generation British Chinese said: “If people ask me where I am from, I will say from Britain.

“I play with friends here and they are from various origins. I do not have a specific Chinese circle of friends. In fact, I speak only very little Chinese. But I like and know a lot of Chinese culture through my parents, such as festivals and food, and we eat mainly rice.”

The 11-year-old, who has recently won the UK Youth Parliamentary election, representing Ealing youths in the Youth Parliament, said: “I like my local community and naturally like to be involved in local youth activities. Being a member of the Youth Parliament, I just have more of these opportunities both local and nationally.”

Another Hong Kong born Labour candidate, Dr Stephen Ng, standing for Hillrise ward as a local councillor in the London borough of Islington, said: “It is important to encourage local Chinese residents to attend council/public meetings, read local newspapers, and do voluntary work in our borough, instead of mainly playing Mahjong or singing Karaoke.”

As a Chinese Arts and Culture Co-ordinator at the Islington Chinese Association, Stephen added: “For the Chinese community living locally in the borough, it is also important to introduce Chinese arts and culture to all the local residents, so the people and children will understand [our community], and we share the joy and excitement together.”

In order to involve more qualified Chinese voters to participate in the forthcoming general election, a London-based organisation, The British Chinese Project (BC), is aiming to raise democratic awareness within the UK Chinese community and has been campaigning hard for community members to vote.

Joseph Wu, BC’s media consultant, said: “We have been collaborating with the Electoral Commission, who provides us with a lot of English-Chinese leaflets and Chinese edition of registration forms.

“These materials have been distributed to our community members, we then help fill in the registration forms and explain to them how the voting procedure works. You just need to use their language to communicate with them.”

Steven Cheung, the 19-year-old BC's member who stood as an independent candidate from London to run in the 2009 Euro Election, is currently writing a book called “Election A B C”, with the hope of sharing his election experience with the community's youths and so raise their awareness of being active citizens.

Several London-based Chinese newspapers, such as the London Global Times, the UK Chinese, and the Chinese Spectrum Radio have also been featuring Chinese MP candidates as well as stimulating qualified Chinese residents to vote.

Residents like Xie De, of the Crispy Duck restaurant in Chinatown, said: “It would be nice to have a Chinese MP, of course, he or she will understand us, understand our community better.

When asked if he will vote in the general and local elections, he said: “Yes, I will. I voted several times before actually, and this time I will vote again.”

Overseas Chinese Affairs Counsellor Lin Xu of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, said of the British Chinese community, “as part of the British society, they should take the initiative to get involved in the mainstream society, they should be encouraged to become active citizens and make sure they take their ownership.”