Pariah capitalism and the overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia: Problems in the definition of the problem

1989 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen J. Chun
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Definition Of

Between cooperation and survival

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
JongHo Kim
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
South China ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
Japanese Empire ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Japanese Occupation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Migrant Communities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in the maritime world of the South China Sea amidst the changing monetary systems of the rival empires and political regimes from 1939 to 1945. It particularly focuses on overseas Chinese remittance business in Shantou under the Japanese rule. Local societies in coastal China and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia experienced severe hardships due to the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War and the Chinese Civil War. As fighting among the rival empires and regimes intensified, Chinese migrant communities straddling between Southeast Asia and South China had to negotiate and adapt to survive these crises, regardless of whether they were government-affiliated or local autonomous subjects. Design/methodology/approach This research draws on archival materials to investigate the reactions of Chinese migrant communities in Chaoshan region in times of war and regime change. How did local maritime societies and overseas Chinese adapt to the harsh realities of the wartime? How did the Japanese Empire use Wang Jingwei’s puppet government in Nanjing to control the Chaoshan remittance network? How did the remittance network shift its operational structure in face of a wartime crisis? Findings Faced with the wartime crisis and the Japanese occupation, Chaoshan communities used a variety of survival strategies to protect and maintain the overseas Chinese remittance business. In dealing with remittances from Singapore, British Malay and Indonesia, they cooperated with the Japanese military authority and its puppet government to maximize the autonomy of their business operation in the Japanese-controlled East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. On the other hand, to secure the flow of remittances from French Indochina and Thailand, the indirectly controlled territories in the Japanese Empire, Chaoshan merchants sought an alternative path of delivering remittances, known as the Dongxing route, to bypass the Japanese ban on private remittances from these two regions. Research limitations/implications It would be a better research if more resources, including remittance receipts and documents during the Japanese occupation, could be found and used to show more detailed features of Chaoshan local society. Originality/value This research is the first one to investigate the contradictory features of local Chaoshan society during the Japanese occupation, an under-explored subject in the Chinese historiography.

Hailam Chinese in Sabah: A Study of Occupational Patterns and Changes

1975 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Han Sin-Fong
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
General Survey ◽  
Length Of Residence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Occupational Patterns

Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia have received substantial attention in the past two decades. Some studies focus on the Chinese of a particular place or country; others seek to make a general survey of Chinese communities throughout all of Southeast Asia. Most studies, however, concentrate on the problematic aspects and political implications of these Chinese communities. Due to the generalized treatment, without regard to place and length of residence abroad, the Chinese in Southeast Asia are often viewed as an undifferentiated mass, homogeneous in outlook and behaviour.

scholarly journals From Urban Involution to Proletarian Transformation

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (77) ◽  
pp. 295-308
Author(s):  
Terry McGee
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Empirical Processes ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Basic Reason ◽  
Wage Labour ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
Definition Of

Broad types and stages in the geography of development are identified. Notwithstanding their interest, these approaches have not adequately explained the processes of development, such as growth of wage labour. In earlier studies of these processes, during the sixties and seventies, the author had foreseen that proletarianization of labour would not occur rapidly in Southeast Asia. This proved to be wrong. The basic reason for this lack of foresight was due to the narrow definition of proletarian transformation for which a broader definition is still needed. A model is proposed to better understand how capitalist expansion penetrates non-proletarian activities. Felt needs and patterns of consumption must also be examined. Desire to obtain consumer needs can actually act as a factor of proletarianization. The question of the dislocation of non-proletarian activities appears crucial both in the agricultural and non-agricultural settings and a search for better theoretical understanding of these empirical processes is essential.

scholarly journals Archaeology of Early Chinese Settlement in Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
John Miksic
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Historical Information ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Historical Literature ◽  
Significant Size

Abstract Little historical information is available about early Chinese settlement in Southeast Asia. By the 15th century several Chinese settlements of significant size had formed, but they vanished by the time the Portuguese reached the region. This article surveys the historical literature on these early overseas Chinese settlements, and summarizes the contributions which archaeology can make to clarifying the timing and nature of the process.

Being Privileged Overseas: Taiwanese People in Jakarta (海外優勢移民：雅加達的台灣人)

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-231
Author(s):  
Ping Lin (林平)
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
International Migration ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Taiwanese People ◽  
Firm Relocation

During the 1980s, many Taiwanese firms moved to the prc or Southeast Asia due to rising production costs in Taiwan. This trend of firm relocation caused many Taiwanese people to move to the prc or Southeast Asia as entrepreneurs, firm managers, or accompanying family members. While many studies have explored the experiences of Taiwanese immigrants in the prc, studies on the lives of Taiwanese people in Southeast Asia are still limited. This pilot study is based on my fieldwork in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2015. Through conducting 24 interviews and participant observation of Taiwanese people affiliated with the Jakarta Taipei School (hereinafter jts), I argue that a certain number of Taiwanese people live their lives as ‘privileged migrants’ in Jakarta as most respondents lead a life that is of significantly higher quality than most locals. Those who marry rich Sino-Indonesians are accorded a status higher than what was available to them in Taiwan. Their life experiences show the intertwining relationship between international migration and social mobility. While some studies have suggested the importance of ethnic affinity in the process of integration, respondents’ complicated perception on the native Indonesians and Sino-Indonesians predicts that more studies on the issue of ethnicity in the field of privileged migration and overseas Chinese are necessary. 由於生產成本上升，台灣很多勞力密集產業自1980年代起便遷往中國大陸或東南亞地區。這樣的產業遷移吸引不少台灣人以企業經營者、高階管理人，或隨行家屬的身分前往相關國家。當不少研究關注移居中國大陸的台灣人時，關於台灣人在東南亞生活現狀的討論卻是非常有限。這份研究是以筆者2015年在雅加達針台北學校進行田野調查的資料為基礎，經過初步分析之後完成。藉由對24位受訪者進行訪談及參與觀察，筆者認為不少台灣人在當地享有相當優渥的生活。與當地華人通婚的受訪者，更擁有在台灣無法獲得的生活條件與發展機會。這些受訪者的遷移經驗顯示，社會階層的向上流動是有可能與地理邊界的跨國流動發生連結。此外，受訪者對印尼華人與印尼原住民的不同反應，更顯示族群因素依然是優勢移民及海外華人研究的重要議題。 (This article is in English.)

Overseas Chinese Commerce, Decolonization, and the Cold War in Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Lim
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Cold War

The term “overseas Chinese” refers to people who left the Qing Empire (and later on, the Republic of China or ROC) for a better life in Southeast Asia. Some of them arrived in Southeast Asia as merchants. They were either involved in retail or wholesale trade, or importing and exporting goods between the Qing Empire/ROC and Southeast Asia. With the decolonization of Southeast Asia from the end of World War II in 1945, overseas Chinese commerce was targeted by nationalists because the merchants were seen to have been working together with the colonial authorities and to have enriched themselves at the expense of locals. New nationalist regimes in Southeast Asia introduced anti-Chinese legislation in order to reduce the overseas Chinese presence in economic activities. Chinese merchants were banned from certain trades and trade monopolies were broken down. Several Southeast Asian states also attempted to assimilate the overseas Chinese by forcing them to adopt local-sounding names. However, the overseas Chinese continued to be dominant in the economies of Malaya (later Malaysia) and Singapore. Malaysia introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP), which has an anti-Chinese agenda, in 1970. The decolonization process also occurred during the Cold War, and Chinese merchants sought to continue trade with China at a time when governments in Southeast Asia were suspicious of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Attempts by merchants from Malaya and Singapore to trade with the PRC in 1956 were considered to have failed, as the PRC had other political concerns. By the time Singapore had gained independence in 1965, the door to investment and trade with the PRC was shut, and the Chinese in Southeast Asia turned their backs on China by taking on citizenship in their countries of residence.

Volcanic Hazards in Southeast Asia

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan J. Nossin
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Volcanic Hazards ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Tectonic Plates ◽  
Continental Plate ◽  
Historical Times ◽  
Oceanic Plates ◽  
Definition Of

Active volcanism in Southeast Asia is associated with marked zones of activity in the Earth’s crust that run through south and east Indonesia and the Philippines. These zones are also characterized by frequent earthquakes and a measurable movement of tectonic plates, often in the order of 5 cm yr−1. The underlying mechanism is that of subduction of oceanic plates below continental plates; the rigidity of the moving plates causes ruptures and shockwise adjustments (earthquakes). The oceanic plate, while being under thrust, sinks down to great depths below the continental plate and in the process loses its rigidity owing to heating and part assimilation into the underlying magma. Earthquakes are caused in the zone where the subducted plate is still rigid. Chapter 1 in this book puts this phenomenon in the regional context. Volcanism in this zone is marked by frequent eruptions, mostly violent and of an explosive nature. It is manifest in distinct belts that comprise all (or nearly all) of the Philippines, and large parts of Indonesia with the exception of, roughly speaking, Kalimantan and Papua. The violence of the eruptions poses threats to human settlements in the surroundings of the volcanoes, to the cultivated lands, and the infrastructure. These threats may occur during and after the actual eruption, and they may indirectly cause other hazards as well. Moreover, volcanoes in apparent dormancy that have not erupted in historical times may still come to life as the interval between eruptions may be very long. In the present chapter these hazards will be discussed. Natural hazards have been defined in four ways, of which the 1982 definition of the United Nations Disaster Relief Co-ordinator (UNDRO) seems appropriate to follow in the context of volcanic hazards (Alexander 1993). UNDRO defines natural hazards as ‘the probability of occurrence within a specific period of time and within a given area of a potentially damaging phenomenon’. A hazard therefore may represent a situation with the possibility of a disaster that may affect the population and the environment which are in some degree of vulnerability.

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