Pidgin and Creole languages traditionally fall under the study of contact languages. Contact languages are ubiquitous in all parts of the world; China, with its diversity of languages within and beyond the Sinitic family, as well as its rich history of migration, conquest and foreign invasion, is no exception. 

The question of whether we find bona fide pidgin and Creole languages in China is purely a definitional matter. It has been suggested that there is only one reasonab…