Precise numbers of Chinese living in Myanmar are difficult to come by; most sources give an estimate of 3% of the population, although such a figure does not necessarily take into account the large numbers of Chinese migrant workers living in Myanmar at any given time. The Chinese have been a presence in Myanmar for over a thousand years. After WWII, the Chinese took over many of the trading and retail jobs that were left when Indians departed the country.
Sources
Mya Than, “The Ethnic Chinese in Myanmar and their Identity,” in Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians, ed. Leo Suryadinata (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1997).
Image Credits:
"Sino-Burmese merchant & wife," The Curzon Collection, modified from Wikimedia Commons.
