Burma / Myanmar: A baker's shop, Mandalay Chinatown, 1886

The Third Anglo-Burmese War culminated in the annexation of Upper Burma by the British on 1 January 1886. Chinese communities had existed for many centuries in rural Burma and were largely formed by migrants travelling overland from China into Burma along the north-eastern trade routes.

The urban Chinese population originated during the colonial era when Chinese from the coastal provinces of China came by sea to work as merchants, among other professions. The Chinese quarter in Mandalay was near the King’s Bazaar, on the south side of B Road. A caption by Hooper accompanying the photograph describes the shop:

'It is not perhaps a very inviting looking place, nevertheless the bread made in Mandalay is exceedingly good. Bread is much eaten by the Burmese, besides various kinds of cakes and chupatties, a sort of pancake or girdlecake: the man on the left is making one of these while the other man is tending the pot over the furnace'.

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

Willoughby Wallace Hooper

Credit:

Pictures From History