scholarly journals Capitalizing on Opportunities during the Covid-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-317
Author(s):  
Simeng Wang (王思萌) ◽  
Xiabing Chen (陈柙兵)
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Chinese Immigrant ◽  
Immigrant Entrepreneurship ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
French Economy ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Import And Export ◽  
Chinese Entrepreneurs ◽  
Chinese Migration ◽  
Negative Impacts

Abstract This article analyses business transitions among Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in France during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on a historical overview of the development of ethnic Chinese businesses over the last century and an empirical study carried out in five different industrial sectors (import and export, retail, catering, hotel, and tobacco) of the French economy, we examine what challenges these entrepreneurs have faced during the pandemic, what strategies they have adopted in response to these challenges, and what has enabled them to shift business patterns and commercial practices in this unprecedented situation. Our findings show that the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurship in France, from offline operations to digital business. However, the pandemic may not be the direct cause of this business transition; rather, it has created unique conditions which facilitate the transition. Before the pandemic, some Chinese entrepreneurs had already made or partially made the transition to “integrating online and offline businesses,” “hiring beyond Chinese ethnic networks,” and “paying attention to the local country’s policy directions,” which helped them greatly reduce the negative impacts of the pandemic. During the pandemic, two unprecedented business opportunities were opened up: “fostering local production” and “seeking low-risk sectors,” which some Chinese entrepreneurs have proactively pursued since April/May 2020. These may be the new trends for Chinese entrepreneurs in France in the future. Theoretically, our study suggests that business transitions among Chinese entrepreneurs in France need to be examined beyond the framework of pure economic rationality, taking into consideration the intersection of new dynamics of Chinese migration into host country and the cross-cultural, cross-institutional, cross-thinking, and cross-border social engagement of the entrepreneurs themselves before, during, and after the pandemic.

scholarly journals Challenges of Economic Stress on Chinese Entrepreneurs and TheirFamilies in Laos

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-37
Author(s):  
John Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Business Management ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Economic Stress ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
Chinese Entrepreneurs ◽  
The Impact

Chinese are increasing in number in Laos as new inter-governmental agreements permit labour migration for infrastructure development. Entrepreneurs have been accompanying migrants and establishing their own businesses, alongside the long-standing businesses established over the years by ethnic Chinese in the country. Many industrial sectors are involved. Problems that Chinese entrepreneurs might face include language issues and discrimination, as well as lack of business infrastructure and support services. Additionally, Lao consumers are primarily motivated by price alone and have little interest in exploring new brands or products. While these business management related issues are clear, what is not clear is the impact that conducting business on such a basis has on additional family members, who are also commonly employed within the business. Key informants were Chinese entrepreneurs and their family members in the capital city of Vientiane and they were interviewed personally with a view to understanding what stresses there may be on family members doing business in an environment which is not entirely friendly or welcoming, especially under conditions of global economic crisis. Competition is intensifying as increasing numbers of Thai and Vietnamese entrepreneurs are seeking to establish a foothold in the Lao market. Many Chinese entrepreneurs have, as a result of these changing conditions, been forced to offer better deals for customers, thereby restricting profits. This has had a follow-through effect on family members.

Between East Asia and Southeast Asia: Nanyang Studies, Chinese Migration, and National Jinan University, 1927–1940 (在東亞與東南亞之間：南洋研究、華人移民、與國立暨南大學,1927–1940)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-56
Author(s):  
Leander Seah (謝枝嶙)
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Port Cities ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
Chinese Migrants ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Migration ◽  
Chinese Intellectuals ◽  
Trading Networks

Global port cities have played important roles in the migration of ethnic Chinese worldwide. This article argues that the scholarship on Chinese migration between port cities in East Asia and Southeast Asia has overemphasized business and trading networks. It suggests instead that other topics should be examined since Chinese migration has been complex and multi-faceted. This article does so through analyzing the history of Nanyang studies, a Chinese-language scholarly field that is renowned among Chinese intellectuals in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Nanyang studies began with the establishment of the Nanyang Cultural Affairs Bureau at Jinan University, the first school in China for Chinese migrants, because the Bureau was the first systematic attempt by China-based scholars to study the Nanyang (Southeast Asia). This article analyzes the history of Nanyang studies from the Bureau’s founding in 1927 to 1940, when the center for Nanyang studies shifted to Singapore in the Nanyang. 全球港口城市和全球華人移民已有密切關係。本文認為，關於東亞和東南亞的港口城市之間華人移民的學術著作過度注重商業貿易網絡。它建議由於華人移民是複雜的，多方面的，所以其他議題也有重要性。因此，本文將通過南洋研究的歷史而分析華人移民。南洋研究在東亞和東南亞是個著名的學術領域。它的起源於南洋文化教育事業部之暨南大學的創辦。這是因為暨南是中國第一所華僑華人學府，而南洋文化教育事業部是中國學者第一個正式研究南洋(東南亞)的機構。本文將分析南洋研究的歷史，從成立於1927年到1940年轉移到南洋之中的新加坡為止。 (This article is in English).

scholarly journals Living in the Shadow of Mainland China - On Delineating Social and Political Constrains Among Southeast Asian Chinese Entrepreneurs

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 28-49
Author(s):  
Michael Jacobsen
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Chinese Economy ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
Chinese Entrepreneurs ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Taking a point of departure in the fluid political and economic landscape of East and Southeast Asia, this paper focuses on ethnic Chinese SME entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, who are gradually becoming the focus in a discussion of whether a rising Mainland Chinese economy is a positive or negative force in Asia. Contrary to the coherent nature usually associated with this particular ethnic group, this article argues, that in fact it is divided into many smaller factions. This differentiation of the ethnic Chinese community in Southeast Asia, it is argued, is a reflection of many different influences from, especially, colonialism, and different contemporary social and political developments within the individual Southeast Asian countries. This increasing societal complexity makes ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs vulnerable in the wake of a rising Mainland Chinese economy, as they await to see if the latter impacts positively or negatively on the various Southeast Asian economies, thus indirectly influencing how they are embedded within their societies. Keywords: China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Chinese entrepreneurship, national politics, ethnicity.

Evaluating the Sustainability of Urban Food Recovery Programs: A Quantitative Assessment in Chicago

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110357
Author(s):  
Junjun Zheng ◽  
Ning Ai
Keyword(s):  
Food Waste ◽  
Transportation Cost ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Neighborhood Characteristics ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Recovery Programs ◽  
Transport Services ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Negative Impacts

This study demonstrates the critical need for strategic transportation planning for sustainable food waste management in urban regions. The majority of food waste is generated from non-industrial sectors (i.e., residential, commercial, and institutional sectors that cluster in cities), while over two-thirds of discarded food could have been edible. Food recovery programs (FRPs) can help reduce food wastage, avoid the negative impacts of landfill disposal, and mitigate food insecurities. Notably, FRPs shift long-haul waste transport services destined for a central landfill location to local, short, and time-sensitive pick-up and delivery trips, which have not been carefully studied. This study quantifies the economic efficiency (i.e., cost) and environmental impact (i.e., emissions) of urban FRP scenarios by incorporating the characteristics of surplus food pick-up options, fleet, urban built environment, and donor program participation rates. The results of an empirical study in Chicago, U.S., show that urban FRPs can be both economically efficient and environmentally beneficial, although the preferred strategy for FRPs may vary by neighborhood characteristics. With strategic planning and management, the transportation cost could be as low as $ 0.06/lb of recovered food. Meanwhile, diverting 1 ton of edible food from landfills, on average, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 97%, or 0.51 MTCO2e. If the estimated volume of 10,000 tons of surplus food in Chicago can be fully recovered, the regional net emission reduction can reach 5,100 MTCO2e, which is equivalent to removing 1,110 vehicles from the roads. This study is anticipated to provide planning insights into initiating and scaling up city-wide FRPs.

Reading the Transpacific Journey as Borderspace: the Critical Accounts of Zhang Deyi and Fu Yunlong (1868–1888)

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-200
Author(s):  
Jennifer Junwa Lau
Keyword(s):  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
Chinese Migration ◽  
Migration Experiences ◽  
Chinese Empire ◽  
Chinese Travelers

Abstract In this article, travel narratives by two late Qing diplomats, Zhang Deyi 張德彞 (1847–1918) and Fu Yunlong 傅雲龍 (1840–1901), are examined to explore global history from the perspective of Chinese travelers, revealing how discriminatory laws, imperial desires, mass migrations, power imbalances, and economic interests affected Chinese travelers who were distinct from other ethnic Chinese and non-ethnic Chinese itinerants traveling across the Pacific Ocean on the same ship and in the same era. Many of these Mandarin-speaking diplomats traveled on vessels with Cantonese-speaking ethnic counterparts, an indication of the multiplicity of “Chinese” migration experiences and distinct intraethnic encounters in the nineteenth century. This article shows how the embodied experience of Chinese travelers on ships affected not only the way they recorded the experience but also their understanding of the position of the Chinese empire with respect to the world at large.

China Town malls in South Africa in the 21st century: Ethnic Chinatowns or Chinese state projects?

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Tu Huynh
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
21St Century ◽  
State Politics ◽  
Retail Sales ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
Chinese Entrepreneurs ◽  
Chinese State ◽  
State Projects ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Diasporic Communities

In recent years, wholesale centers that sell Chinese goods and which, most often, are owned by Chinese nationals or ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs, have proliferated across South Africa at the same time as the increase in migration of individuals and capital from China. Because these centers also provide for retail sales, they are referred to as malls. While many of these malls have names that suggest their possible connection to China, the few that are named “China Town” stand out. The latter, it is argued and demonstrated here, make claims to China’s global ascendance and shed light on a conflicting relationship between Chinese diasporic communities and Chinese state politics. China Town-named malls are more than merely spaces of commerce; they also present an analytical space to think about how diverse types of Chinese actors become implicated in and negotiate their identity and relationship to China’s shifting global image and politics.

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