ABSTRACT
The majority of the old Chinese ‘Straits-born’ families of Malaya were living in the former Straits Settlements in the early years of the century. Of the China-born population in 1911, males exceeded females in the ratio of 4.6:1 in the Straits Settlements, and by nearly 7:1 in the Federated Malay States. In 1911, more than half of the total Chinese population of the F.M.S. and nearly two-thirds of the total Chinese female population lived in the tin-mining districts of Kinta in Perak and Kuala Lumpur in Selangor. The Indian population grew more rapidly than the Chinese population in the first decade of the century, mainly as the result of the large-scale development of European-owned rubber estates. By 1921 the Chinese had already gone some way towards becoming a permanently settled community.
