The first Chinese immigrants to settle in the Malay Archipelago arrived from Guangdong and Fujian province in the tenth century C.E. They were joined by substantially bigger quantities of the Chinese in the 15th through 17th hundreds of years, following on the heels of the Ming emperor’s reopening of Chinese-Malay trade relations in the 15th century.In the 15th century, some little city-state of the Malay Peninsula regularly paid tribute to different kingdoms, for example, those of China and Siam.
Close relations with China were set up in the mid 15th century amid the rule of Parameswara when Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho), a Muslim Chinese, went to Malacca and Java amid his endeavor (1405– 1433). As indicated by a legend in 1459 CE, the Emperor of China sent a princess, Hang Li Po, to the Sultan of Malacca as a token of thankfulness for his tribute. The nobles (500 children of pastors) and hirelings who went with the princess at first settled in Bukit Cina and in the long run developed into a class of Straits-conceived Chinese known as the Peranakans.
