Reggae's Chinese progenitors

For a relatively small island with a population of less than three million inhabitants, Jamaica has exerted a disproportionate influence on the world's popular culture.

Reggae music, the unique, infectious hybrid put together by the island's masterful musicians in the 1960s, is now one of the most popular forms of music on the planet; the iconic figure of Bob Marley, often described as "the first Third World superstar", has been rightly feted as an exceptionally talented singer-songwriter whose universal messages of self-determination have struck chords with people on all continents.

Everyone knows Marley was Jamaican, yet few realize his first recording was made by a Jamaican record producer of Chinese origin, just one example of the crucial yet largely hidden role that Chinese Jamaicans have played in reggae's creation and dissemination.