Landscapes of Memories: A Study of Representation for Translocal Chinese Cultural Heritage in Kaiping, Guangdong, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-37
Author(s):  
Bo-wei Chiang
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Migration History ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, many young people emigrated from Guangdong to the American West in search of a better living, mainly through building the Pacific Railroad and panning for gold in California. Some of these overseas Chinese who eventually accumulated wealth sent remittances back to their hometowns to provide their families with a better life, or they built mansions for their own retirement. They also used their wealth to renovate ancestral halls, establish schools, get involved in local politics and issues of local public security, public hygiene, etc. The overseas Chinese were one of the important new rising social strata in modern China before the 1960s. This paper will focus on translocal Chinese cultural heritage in Guangdong and try to discuss how people memorize, narrate, preserve, and represent their migration history in these hometowns. Meanwhile, the meaning of the tangible cultural heritage as a landscape of memories in local society in China will also be discussed. Firstly, I think that there are three types of overseas Chinese memories: the memory of suffering, the memory of making fortunes, and the memory of a philanthropic image; secondly, I will deal with the narrative and representation of the collective memories since the 1990s and check how the collective memory became the cultural heritage beneath the state’s discourse; and finally, I will analyze how the overseas Chinese cultural heritage became resources for cultural tourism and local economic development, and show a process of commercialization of those landscapes.

The Global Recession: Its Impact in Asia and the Pacific

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Shirley
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Global Recession ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Short Time

The relationship between local economic development and the global economy is a dynamic process that differs in space and time and from country to country. Nowhere are these differences more evident than within the Asian and Pacific region—a region of contrasts. It is a region that contains nine of the so called ‘least developed’ countries and more than 50 per cent of the world's poor. It hosts Japan, which emerged as a major economic power in the 1960s and 1970s, to be followed a short time later by the ‘tiger’ economies of South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. More recently, the region's development has been dominated by the emerging global powers of China, India and Brazil. The contrasting characteristics and performance of these nations becomes even more graphic when the focus centres on the metropolitan cities of the region, including Mumbai, Shanghai, Apia, Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, Santiago and Auckland (Shirley, 2008).

Tan Kah Kee’s Heritage: Rethinking the Cultural Meaning of Jimei School Village and Ao Yuan in Xiamen

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-75
Author(s):  
Bo-Wei Chiang
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Architectural Style ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
New Type ◽  
British Colonial

Tan Kah Kee, an overseas Chinese, was not only a political leader but also an educator in Modern China and Southeast Asia. He devoted his life to Chinese education and social enlightenment, and founded Jimei School and Amoy (Xiamen) University during the 1920s-30s. As an overseas Chinese with strong national and local identity, he advocated a new type of education as a strategy for social improvement. He also created a hybrid architectural style known as yangzhuang wanmao (western dress with a Chinese round hat) which can be described as a British colonial building with Minan (southern Fujian) influence. This paper discusses the tangible and intangible cultural heritage left by Tan Kah Kee, using the examples of Jimei School Village founded by Tan and the space of the Ao Yuan burial site in his hometown. First, I will introduce the background of his growth and the process of his immigration overseas. Then, I will analyze the establishment of Jimei School Village and the construction of the campus. In addition, the “view of museology” exhibited by Tan Kah Kee’s cemetery, Ao Yuan, was used to analyze the educational enlightenment that he pursued throughout his life. Finally, through the discussion of Tan’s cultural heritage, I analyze the contribution of his modernity project and its deficiency.

Social Metadata and Public-Contributed Contents in Memory Institutions: “Crowd Voice” Versus “Authenticated Heritage”?

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chern Li Liew
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Digital Cultural Heritage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Technologies ◽  
Determining Factor ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractSocial technologies have led to increasing participatory activities and institutions are interested in the potential of using these for outreach and engagement. Through offering new spaces and tools that allow users to consume and also to contribute content, institutions are expanding their traditional services which could redefine their role and relevance in the digital cultural heritage landscape. This study investigates the decision-making and practices underpinning current handling of social metadata and public-contributed contents (PCC). The focus is on examining the motivations for soliciting contributions, if and how these are moderated and managed, if they are integrated into the institutional data and knowledge base, and the extent to which public stakeholders moderate. The study also involves an investigation of whether, and how, memory institutions consider diversity and inclusiveness in soliciting participation and contributions, and the values placed on PCC, as compared to institutional resources. The aim of this study is to shed light on these by surveying libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions.How institutions deal with the social metadata and PCC they gather, and what they do with the contributions, could be a key determining factor of the success of their participatory practice as part of their larger effort to capture and preserve collective memories. This survey shows that the profession still has a way to go towards these goals. There is little evidence that demonstrates integration of a participatory culture and activities into the strategic directions and documentary practices of institutions.

Sustaining Labor Politics in Hard Times: Race, Labor, and Coalition Building in Racine, Wisconsin

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-63
Author(s):  
Naomi R Williams
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Labor Politics ◽  
Working People ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract This article explores the shifting politics of the Racine, Wisconsin, working-class community from World War II to the 1980s. It looks at the ways Black workers’ activism influenced local politics and how their efforts played out in the 1970s and 1980s. Case studies show how an expansive view of the boundaries of the Racine labor community led to cross-sector labor solidarity and labor-community coalitions that expanded economic citizenship rights for more working people in the city. The broad-based working-class vision pursued by the Racine labor community influenced local elections, housing and education, increased the number of workers with the power of unions behind them, and improved Racine's economic and social conditions. By the 1980s, Racine's labor community included not only industrial workers but also members of welfare and immigrants’ rights groups, parents of inner-city students, social workers and other white-collar public employees, and local and state politicians willing to support a class-based agenda in the political arena. Worker activists’ ability to maintain and adapt their notion of a broad-based labor community into the late twentieth century shows how this community and others like it responded to the upheaval of the 1960s social movements by creating a broad and relatively successful concept of worker solidarity that also incorporated racial justice.

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.

scholarly journals Migration and Foreign Aid as Factors Restraining Regional Cooperation in the South Pacific

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Joanna Siekiera ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
The South ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Permanent Migration ◽  
The 1960S

Cooperation in the South Pacific region is unique due to the characteristics of its participants. Following the period of decolonization (1962-1980), countries in Oceania have radically changed. Achieving independence gave those nations international legal personality, yet complete independence from their former colonial powers. The following consequence was gaining an opportunity to draft, adopt and execute own laws in national and foreign policy. PICT (Pacific island countries and territories) have been expanding connections, political and trade ones, within the region since the 1960s when permanent migration of islanders and intra-regional transactions began. Migrations along with foreign aid are considered as the distinctive characteristics of the Pacific Ocean basin. Since the 1980s, the regional integration in Oceania, through establishing regional groupings and increasing the regional trade agreements number, took on pace and scope. The MIRAB synthetic measure (migration, remittances, aid, bureaucracy) has been used in analyzing the Oceania developing microeconomies. Last but not least, migration and foreign aid have been retaining the region from a deeper and more effective stage of regionalism.

scholarly journals Glocal Participatory System for the Recording, Documentation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage: A Greek Case-Study

Heritage ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitris Psychogyios ◽  
Nick Poulakis
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Sustainable Living ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
Catalytic Role ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Diffusion

The recording, documentation and promotion of local cultural heritage has been the subject of significant research from scientists from various fields such as architecture, anthropology, history, folklore, ethnomusicology, and museology. This paper argues that digital technologies could have a catalytic role concerning the operational part of a holistic–interdisciplinary approach to the maintenance of cultural heritage. Simultaneous and bidirectional recording, documentation and promotion of human histories, material elements of space, personal and collective memories, music, dance, singing and other performances, customs, traditions etc. has the effect of improving the understanding of each place and, therefore, contributing to the establishment of sustainable living conditions and environmental balance. At the same time, it facilitates the process of presenting the place’s local identity as well as its tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The paper proposes the design, the creation and the pilot operation of a glocal hybrid (physical and digital) participatory system for monitoring cultural heritage, which consists of (a) spatial recording and projection constructions (open micro-labs); (b) research and documentation centers; and (c) digital databases and mobile applications for interconnection and diffusion of digital content. The system’s implementation domain is considered to be “historic urban landscapes”, i.e., geographical areas with particular cultural features such as traditional settlements, monuments and historical centers, regarded as exceptional universal heritage. In particular, the project’s prime exemplary pilot setup is considered to be operated in specific Greek areas of cultural importance.

Big Data and “New” Global History: Global Goods and Trade Networks in Early Modern China and Europe

Itinerario ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Manuel Perez-Garcia ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Omar Svriz-Wucherer ◽  
Nadia Fernández-de-Pinedo ◽  
Manuel Diaz-Ordoñez
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Early Modern History ◽  
Trade Networks ◽  
Global Circulation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
European Markets ◽  
Early Modern China

Abstract This paper introduces an innovative method applied to global (economic) history using the tools of digital humanities through the design and development of the GECEM Project Database (www.gecem.eu; www.gecemdatabase.eu). This novel database goes beyond the static Excel files frequently used by conventional scholarship in early modern history studies to mine new historical data through a bottom-up process and analyse the global circulation of goods, consumer behaviour, and trade networks in early modern China and Europe. Macau and Marseille, as strategic entrepôts for the redistribution of goods, serve as the main case study. This research is framed within a polycentric approach to analyse the connectivity of south Chinese and European markets with trade zones of Spain, France, South America, and the Pacific.

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