When Parameswara founded the Malacca Empire in 1400, he was determined to turn the port into a major trading destination. Besides setting up trade-friendly infrastructure, he actively courted the Chinese, both for commerce and protection against the Siamese and Javanese. Luckily for Parameswara, it so happened that China, which tended to be more isolationist, was experiencing one of its periodic moments of interest in the outside world, and Chinese fleets like the one led by the famed eunuch admiral Zheng He became frequent visitors at Malacca’s port. It’s even said that the Chinese Emperor sent a princess named Hang Li Po to the Sultan of Malacca as a token of friendship, though she doesn’t exist in any of the historical records of the time.

What there is a record of, are the many Chinese merchants who settled in Malacca as early as the 15th century. Their descendents would become known as Chinese Peranakans or Baba-Nyonya, and even bigger waves of Chinese immigrants would arrive in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Chinese cemetery in Malacca is the oldest that exists outside of China.