Editing Tailspins & Tiki Gods:Smoots Guide Porte Cochere (section)

===A primer on the Chinese community in Port Cochere===

There has been a Chinese community in Port Cochere for about 90 years. (Captains of ships of immigrants heading toward the Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) and America found out about Ile Trouve, and wanted in.). They nicknamed the town Wǎngguān (Gateway).

The way the China Trade worked, in those days, was that Polynesian natives grew or gathered goods that the Europeans then transported and sold in China, in exchange for profits, some of which went to things for the natives. This triangular trade led to trade monopolies enforced by heavy tariffs and customs, in turn enforced by serious people.

Certain Chinese knights of industry decided to foster an underground trade, directly with the locals. They found the Kamekame as recalcitrant to deal with them as they would be with everyone else, but found that Ile Trouve made an excellent jumping-off point for dealing with more-amenable people, without too much scrutiny.

So, large Family Associations (or Clans, “Those who eat from the same pot”) sprang up, centered around very quietly handling what would have otherwise been legitimate trade. Those Associations were like small corporations as well as extended families, and soon included staffs, retainers, contacts and so on in their numbers. Rivalry got fierce. Stability was brought by the introduction of the Benevolent Society. 

The Benevolent Society (or Tong) is a sort of community center and clearing house. The Family Associations fund it, together, and agree on mutual decisions there. Other people use it as a place to mediate disputes, seek work, dispense charity, and simply gather to not be home all day.
 
The Society has a Chairman, and a Vice Chairman. They also have a ‘secretary’ who speaks non-Chinese languages (French and English), and handles permitting, et cetera. There is also a gentleman who manages the ‘hiring hall’ aspects of the place- his job is to know who is around, who is available, and who can do what kind of work.  

The stability the Benevolent Society brought allowed an actual Chinese community. While the core of the Chinese community were in the trading business, other businesses sprang up to support (feed, clothe, etc) and serve those businesses.  A medium-sized fishing community sprang up (large enough that some Westerners simply refer to the whole area as the “Chinese Fishing Village”.)

The Chinese community is robust, and also serves as host to visiting traders and crewmen serving, not only on Chinese vessels, but in crews from other nations. (By agreement with the Port Authority, food, drink and entertainment may be provided, but common crewmen (not officers) must “lodge” aboard their own vessels.) 

General Layout:
-The Family Associations built compounds ages ago: Large houses, laid out in a traditional Chinese style (south-facing, on rammed-earth foundations, etc), walled from the street with a courtyard, and so on. They also have ice-pits under them, (the cold air wafts up and provides a sort of ‘air conditioning’ in the tropical heat.) 

-As described elsewhere, the fishing village is catch-as-catch can as far as layout goes. Warehouses, shacks, proper homes, food-and-drink establishments, etc all exist where they can. (This is the catch-22 of the place: They are successful enough to want to organize more, maybe build some proper Hutongs- but demolishing the unplanned village and clearing construction on this scale would ruin the “privacy” that allows that success to happen.) 

-The majority of trade takes place in Port Cochere’s marketplace. Some ‘private’ trades are dealt with quietly, and things that are specific to the Chinese community happen in the Village. 

-There are few workshops and no factories. This is where the trade happens, not the making. 

-There are no temples in town. (Some say it’s a lack of devotion. Most say they have family shrines in their homes, it’s too far out to get monks, and we don’t want to deal with permitting it with the Christian authorities.)
 
-There are people here from Chinese communities worldwide (as far as London, Malaysia, America…), and a few pockets of non-Chinese Asian peoples. The mix provides an interesting (if sometimes claustrophobic feeling) community.) 

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