A Preliminary Study of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia (1842–1941)

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anh Sy Huy Le

Abstract This article provides a state-of-the-field assessment of a large body of English-language scholarship on Chinese migration to colonial Southeast Asia. It first explores the theoretical literature that grapples with the conceptual utility of “diaspora” as well as the attempted periodization and identities. It then turns the analytical gaze to the paradigm-shifting debates on transnational Chinese capitalism wherein the studies of networks, enterprises, and commerce in the age of empire have questioned the validity of “Chinese-ness” in dominant approaches to Chinese businesses and capital circulations. Finally, it engages with a growing scholarship on the social and cultural histories of Chinese diasporas that captures the diversity of their experiences, family and kinship networks, survival strategies, and Chinese encounters with the colonial powers. Rather than exhaustive, the article selectively focuses on the most productive areas of research that have preoccupied major scholarly debates in the field and hopes to shed light on new research directions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Kai Tan ◽  
Rodzay bin Haji Abdul Wahab

The Orthoptera, comprising grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids, is diverse and species rich in tropical Southeast Asia, including the island of Borneo. However, not every part of Southeast Asia is equally well sampled and studied. This includes Brunei Darussalam, specifically at the Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre (KBFSC) within the Ulu Temburong National Park. We present here an annotated and illustrated checklist of Orthoptera from the primary dipterocarp forest around Kuala Belalong based on three field trips in 2016 and 2017. We provide notes on their taxonomy (including how each species was identified) and natural history of species. In total, 72 species were recorded, representing eight of the 16 monophyletic orthopteran superfamilies. In total, 73.6% of all species recorded were singletons and doubletons, indicating that many species are probably rare. The collection led to the discovery of ten species new to science already published separately, with more expected to be described from pending material and confirmation. More species, including undescribed ones (at least four new species), are expected with continued sampling effort. Despite the 21 day-long surveying efforts from three trips around KBFSC, we believe that the species list provided here is non-exhaustive and only a preliminary one.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiel Verver ◽  
Heidi Dahles

This article outlines the contours of the scholarly debate on ‘Chinese capitalism’ in Southeast Asia. This multidisciplinary domain is business- and entrepreneurship-oriented, and concerns the ethnic Chinese who have migrated from Southern China to Southeast Asia and have come to play a dominant role in the region’s economies over the centuries. The debate revolves around the competing assumptions that ethnic Chinese business success in Southeast Asia relies either on ethnic affiliation and shared cultural values, or on strategic deployment of resources, power relations and institutional co-optation. We distinguish four perspectives on ‘Chinese capitalism’, and argue that the concept of culture holds the debate hostage in the divide between essentialism and anti-essentialism. The promise of an ‘anthropology of Chinese capitalism’ resides in matters of perspective, therefore, rather than in the theoretical concept of culture itself. We advocate a liaison amoureuse between business anthropology and institutional theory.


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