The huge influx of Chinese migration was directly caused by the poverty in rural China and massive employment opportunities in the British colonial or protectorate territories, with an estimated 5 million Chinese having entered by the 19th century.

How did Chinese come to Malaysia?

For hundreds of years, millions of Malaysian Chinese have called Malaysia home since their ancestors sailed over and settled in this region way back in the 15th century. Most of them are descended from immigrants - likely of Han Chinese ancestry - who arrived between the mid-19th and early 20th century.