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The Chinese of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, settled there roughly a century ago. That is why ever since the recent arrival of Chinese migrants from the Chinese Republic, they have been designated as 'old Chinese'. This urban minority comprises only a few thousand people but it is deeply rooted in urban life. The Chinese are buried in the municipal cemetery ; they do not live in a particular area (there is no Chinatown in Antananarivo) ; they are Catholic like most of the urban Malagasy population. Nevertheless, they have also developed other spatial identities. Aside from being Antananarivians, they remain attached to the city of Tamatave (Toamasina), an eastern port where the first Chinese arrived and where many of them still live. For many different reasons, they also maintain links both with France and China (through language, travels, studies, nationality...). Finally, this paper studies how this minority is perceived by the Malagasy population. Despite claiming tolerance and acceptance, the Chinese are in fact still considered as foreigners. The case of the Chinese shows that the Antananarivo society is based on a strict hierarchy and on subtil mechanisms of exclusion.