Honorary Whites - Chinese

Chinese

The new designation granted to the Japanese seemed grossly unfair to South Africa's small Chinese community (roughly 7,000 at that time), who it seemed, would enjoy none of the new benefits given to the Japanese. As Time wrote:

If anything, we are whiter in appearance than our Japanese friends.' huffed one of Cape Town's leading Chinese businessmen. Demanded another indignantly: 'Does this mean that the Japanese, now that they are White, cannot associate with us without running afoul of the Immorality Act?'

Chinese people could, however, sometimes benefit from passing as Japanese - at least at the swimming pools - because, as the chairman of the city council's Health and Amenities Committee stated, "It would be extremely difficult for our gatekeepers to distinguish between Chinese and Japanese". In 1984, South African Chinese, now increased to about 10,000, finally obtained the same official rights as the Japanese in South Africa, that is, to be treated as whites in terms of the Group Areas Act.