Chinese Community in Birmingham

Where they come from

Chinese families in Birmingham have roots across China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and beyond. Many early arrivals in the 1950s and 1960s came from Hong Kong's New Territories to work in catering, while more recent arrivals include students, academics and professionals from mainland China.

The community in numbers

At the 2021 Census, out of a city population of 1,144,919, 12,834 Birmingham residents described their ethnic group as Chinese; and 6,012 people living in the city had been born in China.

Working for Birmingham

Chinese enterprise helped build the Chinese Quarter around Hurst Street and the Arcadian. The Wing Yip business, which began in Birmingham in the 1970s, grew into one of Britain's best-known Asian food suppliers. Today Chinese-heritage residents work as doctors, pharmacists, engineers, academics, accountants and technology specialists, and Chinese students are one of the largest international groups at the city's universities.

Every community that has settled in Birmingham has helped to shape it. Newcomers have filled gaps in the workforce, opened shops and restaurants, and raised children who have gone on to become the city's doctors, teachers, engineers and entrepreneurs. The Chinese community is part of that tradition of hard work and ambition, and of the city's own motto: Forward.

Culture and community life

Chinese New Year brings lion dances, lanterns and crowds to the Chinese Quarter each winter, and the pagoda at Holloway Circus has become a city landmark. The Mid-Autumn Festival is marked with mooncakes, and Chinese restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets are loved by Brummies of every background.

Like so many of the communities that make up modern Birmingham, the Chinese community shows how a city can be home to many cultures at once. Its members are proud of where they come from, and just as proud to be Brummies.