Weakening ties with the ancestral homeland in China: The case studies of contemporary Singapore and Malaysian Chinese

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 39, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 559-597

  Hoe, Yow Cheun ^a  

^a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL RELATIONS; IMMIGRANT POPULATION; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS;

ASIA; CHINA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; FAR EAST; SINGAPORE [SOUTHEAST ASIA]; SOUTHEAST ASIA; WORLD;

EID: 25444486469     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X04001477     Document Type: Review

References (119)

1. The popularity of the term qiaoxiang can be easily found in qiaokan (magazine of Overseas Chinese), newspapers, and websites published and run by the local governments across Guangdong and Fujian.
2. For succinct analyses of the connotation and appropriateness of the term in different contexts, see Wang Gungwu, 'The Origin of Hua-Ch'iao,'in Wang Gungwu, Community and Nation: China, Southeast Asia and Australia (St Leonards, NSW: Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with Allen & Unwin, 1992), pp. 1-10;
3. Wang Gungwu, 'Sojourning: The Chinese Experience' in Wang Gungwu, Don't Leave Home: Migration and the Chinese (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 2001), pp. 54-72;
4. Leo Douw, 'The Chinese Sojourner Discourse,' in Leo Douw, Cen Huang, and Michael R. Godley (eds.), Qiaoxiang Ties: Interdisciplinary Approaches to 'Cultural Capitalism' in South China (London and New York: Keagan Paul International, 1999), pp. 22-44.
5. Lynn Pan (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas (Singapore: Archipelago Press & Landmark Books, 1998), pp. 27, 30.
6. The term 'Chinese overseas' has been coined by Wang Gungwu and will also be used here to refer to everyone, whether or not citizens of China, who is of Chinese descent and living outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. See Wang Gungwu, China and the Chinese Overseas (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1992).
7. Compare Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Guiqiao Qiaojuan Quanyi Baohufa (The Law on Protection of Rights and Interests of Guiqiao and Qiaojuan, People's Republic of China) (Beijing: Zhongguo Minzhu Fazhi Chubanshe, 2000)
8. and Guangdong Guiquo Huaqiao Lianhehui (ed.), Qiaolian Qiaowu gongzuo ziliao huibian (The Collected Materials of Overseas Chinese Affairs for Qiaolian) (1996).
9. Among the huge literature, see, for instance, Leo Douw, Cen Huang, and Michael R. Godley (eds.), Qiaoxiang Ties;
10. Wang Benzun, Haiwai huaqiao huaren yu Chao Shan qiaoxiang de fazhang (The Chinese Overseas and the Development of Chao Shan Qiaoxiang) (Beijing: Zhongguo Huaqiao Chubanshe, 2000);
11. Zhuang Guotu et al. (eds.). Zhongguo qiaoxiang yanjiu (The Studies of Qiaoxiang in China) (Xiamen: Xiamen Daxue Chubanshe, 2000).
12. For the recent studies on Southeast Asian Chinese, see M.Jocelyn Armstrong, R. Warwick Armstrong, and Kent Mulliner (eds.), Chinese Populations in Contemporary Southeast Asia Societies: Identities, Interdependence and International Influence (Surrey: Curzon 2001);
13. Leo Suryadinata (ed.), Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1997).
14. Chinese diaspora are loosely defined here to refer to those ethnic Chinese residing outside the mainland China's political system, thus including Hong Kong and Macau compatriots as well as Chinese overseas. For modification done on the concept of diaspora and different categories of diaspora, see Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction (London: University College London Press, 1997).
15. Joel Kotkin, Tribes: How Race, Religion, and Identity Determine Suceess in the New Global Economy (New York: Random House, 1993);
16. V. S. Limlingan, The Overseas Chinese in ASEAN: Business Strategies and Management Practices (Manila: Vita Development Corporation, 1986).
17. G. G. Hamilton, 'Overseas Chinese Capitalism,' in Tu W. M. (ed.), Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 328-42;
18. G. G. Hamilton, 'Competition and Organization: A Re-examination of Chinese Business Practices,' Journal of Asian Business Vol. 12, No. 1 (1996): 7-20.
19. Murray Weidenbaum and Samuel Hughes, The Bamboo Network: How Expatriate Chinese Entrepreneurs Are Creating a New Economic Superpower in Asia (New York: The Free Press, 1996);
20. S. G. Redding, The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism (New York: de Gruyter, 1990).
21. Luis Eduardo Guarnizo and Michael Peter Smith, 'The Locations of Transnationalism,' in Michael Peter Smith and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo (eds.), Transnationalism from Below (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1998), p. 4.
22. Alejandro Portes, Luis E. Guarnizo, and Patricia Landolt, 'The Study of Transnationalism: Pitfalls and Promises of an Emergent Research Field,' Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 22, No. 2 (Special Issues: Transnational Communities) (March 1999), p. 219. Highlights are my own.
23. See the different chapters in Smith and Guarnizo (eds.), Transnationalism from Below,
24. and articles in Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 22, No. 2.
25. See, for instance, Alan Smart and Josephine Smart, 'Transnational Social Networks and Negotiated Identities in Interactions between Hong Kong and China' in Smith and Guarnizo (eds.), Transnationalism from Below, pp. 103-61;
26. Elizabeth Sinn, 'Cohesion and Fragmentation: A County-Level Perspective on Chinese Transnationalism in the 1940s' in Douw, Huang, and Godley (eds.), Qiaoxiang Ties, pp. 67-8.
27. Before 1957, the Colony of Singapore and the Malay Peninsula were governed under British Malaya. In 1965 Singapore was separated from Malaysia that, formed in 1963, included the former Federation of Malaya (1948-1963) as well as Sabah and Sarawak that were previously administered by British North Borneo Company and Brook's Family respectively.
28. The figures are estimate in 1999. See M. Jocelyn Armstrong and R. Warwick Armstrong, 'Introduction: Chinese Populations of Southeast Asia,' in Armstrong, Armstrong and Mulliner (eds.), Chinese Populations in Contemporary Southeast Asian Societies, p. 2, Table 1.
29. See a good documentation done in George L. Hicks (ed.), Overseas Chinese Remittances from Southeast Asia 1910-1940 (Singapore: Select Books, 1993).
30. For the studies on Guangdong as a place receiving remittances from overseas, see Lin Jiajing et al., Jindai Guangdong qiaohui yanjiu (The Studies of the Money Sent Back by Overseas Chinese in the Pre-1949 Period) (Guangzhou: Zhongshan Daxue Chubanshe, 1999).
31. Yen Ching-hwang, The Overseas Chinese and the 1911 Revolution: With Special Reference to Singapore and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976).
32. Stephen Leong's doctoral dissertation remains the most comprehensive account of the Chinese nationalism in British Malaya. Stephen M. Y. Leong, 'Sources, Agencies and Manifestations of Overseas Chinese Nationalism in Malaya, 1937-1941' PhD dissertation (Los Angeles: University of California, 1976).
33. See a full discussion on these distinguishable groups of Malayan Chinese in terms of political interests and activities in Wang Gungwu, 'Chinese Politics in Malaya,' in Wang Gungwu, Community and Nation, pp. 251-80.
34. For generalization made to Southeast Asia, see Wang Gungwu, 'Political Chinese: Their Contribution to Modern Southeast Asian History,' in Wang Gungwu, China and the Chinese Overseas, pp. 130-46.
35. Tan Chee-Beng, 'Socio-cultural Diversities and Identities,' in Lee Kam Hing and Tan Chee Beng (eds.), The Chinese in Malaysia. (Shah Alam: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 37-70.
36. Chiew Seen Kong, 'From Overseas Chinese to Chinese Singaporeans,' in Suryadinata (ed.), Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians, pp. 211-27.
37. Lim Teck Ghee, Peasants and Their Agricultural Economy in Colonial Malaya, 1841-1941 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 103-6.
38. For historical studies of the Chinese economic activities in British Malaya, see, for instance, J. C. Jackson, Planters and Speculators: Chinese and European Agricultural Enterprise in Malaya 1786-1921 (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1968);
39. Lee Poh Ping, Chinese Sociey in Nineteenth-century Singapore (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1978);
40. C. A. Trocki, Prince of Pirates: The Temenggongs and the Development of Johore and Singapore 1874-1885 (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1979);
41. Wong Lin Ken, The Malayan Tin Industry to 1914, with Special Reference of the States of Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1965);
42. J. H. Drabble, Rubber in Malaya 1876-1922: The Genesis of the Industry (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1973).
43. C. A. Trocki, Opium and Empire: Chinese Sociey in Colonial Singapore 1800-1910 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990).
44. Yen Ching-hwang, A Social History of the Chinese in Singapore and Malaya, 1800-1911 Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1986).
45. Two of the major Japanese partners to Kuok were Nissin Sugar Manufacturing and Mitsui Bussan Kaisha while his major western partner was Sucden Kerry International (French). See Heng Pek Koon, 'Robert Kuok and the Chinese Business Network in Eastern Asia: A Study in Sino-Capitalism,' in Timothy Brook and Hy V. Luong (eds.), Culture and Economy: The Shaping of Capitalism in Eastern Asia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997), pp. 155-85;
46. J. Friedland, 'Kuok the Kingpin,' Far Eastern Economic Review 7 February 1991.
47. Heng Pek Koon, 'The New Economic Policy and the Chinese Community in Peninsular Malaysia,' The Developing Economies Vol. 35, No. 3 (1997), pp. 262-92;
48. Kunio Yoshihara, The Rise of Ersatz Capitalism in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 201-11.
49. Malaysia, Second Malaysia Plan (Kuala Lumpur: Government Press, 1971), p. 1.
50. Hara Fujio, 'Malaysia's New Economic Policy and the Chinese Business Community,' The Developing Economies Vol. 24, No. 4 (1991), pp. 350-70;
51. Peter Searle, 'Rent Seekers or Real Capitalism? The Riddle of Malaysian Capitalism,' PhD dissertation (Australian National University, 1994), Chapter 9;
52. Edmund Terence Gomez, Chinese Business in Malaysia: Accumulation, Ascendance, Accommodation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), Chapters 3 & 4.
53. Heng Pek Koon and Sieh Lee Mei Ling, 'The Chinese Business Community in Peninsular Malaysia, 1957-1999,' in Lee Kam Hing and Tan Chee Beng (eds.), The Chinese in Malaysia, p. 153.
54. Chan Kwok Bun and Ng Beoy Kui, 'Chapter 1: Singapore,' in Edmund Terence Gomez and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao (eds.), Chinese Business in Southeast Asia: Contesting Cultural Explanations, Researching Entrepreneurship (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2001), pp. 38-61.
55. Chen Ta did his field survey in Chaozhou in Guangdong and Quanzhou, Haicheng, and Xiamen in Fujian. See Chen Ta, Emigrant Communities in South China: A Study of Overseas Migration and Its Influence on Standards of Living and Social Change (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1939), especially tables on pp. 83, 95, & 115 for the breakdowns of the expenditures.
56. Lin Jiajing et al., Jindai Guangdong qiaohui yanjiu, pp. 35-7.
57. To take Guangdong as an example, the monies allocated in this period for investment never exceeded five percent of the total amount received from Overseas Chinese. See Feng Yuan, 'Luelun jiefang qian Guangdong sheng huaqiao huikuan' (A General Discussion on Money Sent Back by Overseas Chinese to Guangdong), Qiaoshi Xuebao No. 1 (1987), pp. 35-7
58. Richard Stubbs, Hearts and Minds in Guerrilla Warfare: the Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960 (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989).
59. 'China-Malaysia Joint Communique, 31 May 1974' in Jain R. K. (ed.), China and Malaysia, 1949-1983 (New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1984), pp. 221-2.
60. Stephen M. Y. Leong, 'Malaysia and the People's Republic of China in the 1980s: Political Vigilance and Economic Pragmatism,' Asian Survey, Vol. 27, No. 10 (1987), pp. 1109-26.
61. Straits Times, 14 July 1993.
62. Ho Khai Leong, 'Recent Developments in the Political Economy of China-Malaysia Relations,' in Leo Suryadinata (ed.), Southeast Asian Chinese and China: the Politico-Economic Dimension (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1995), pp. 230-48.
63. Yong Pow Ang, 'Singapore's Investment in China,' in Suryadinata (ed.), Southeast Asian Chinese and China, p. 251.
64. Yeung Henry Wai-chung, 'Regulating Investment Abroad: The Political Economy of the Regionalization of Singaporean Firms,' Antipode Vol. 31, No. 3 (July 1999), pp. 245-73;
65. C. H. Tan, Venturing Overseas: Singapore's External Wing (Singapore: McGraw-Hill, 1995).
66. T. Kanai, 'Singapore's New Focus on Regional Business Expansion,' NRI Quarterly Vol. 2, No. 3 (1993), p. 21.
67. These corporations include Petronas, Renong, United Motor Works, Hicom, and Eon. See Lee Kam Hing, 'Malaysian Chinese: Seeking Identity in Wawasan 2020,' in Suryadinata (ed.), Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians, pp. 78-9.
68. In 1986, Kanzen, originally named as Dreamland Corporation, signed an agreement with Dreamland Tianjin Pte Ltd to produce and market mattresses and by 1990 Dreamland Tianjin had established eight factories in different parts in China. The Lion Corporation is engaged in various development projects in China but its most successful has been in the retail business operating through a chain of Parkson stores. See Lee Kam Hing, 'Malaysian Chinese,' p. 79.
69. Ho Khai Leong, 'Recent Developments,' pp. 237-8.
70. Yong Pow Ang, 'Singapore's Investment in China,' p. 251.
71. The rigidity of boundary was not always in the same degree between any two particular dialect groups. See Mak Lau Fong, 'Rigidity of System Boundary among Major Chinese Dialect Groups in Nineteenth-Celntury Singapore: A Study of Inscription Data,' Modern Asian Studies Vol. 14, No, 3 (1980), pp. 465-87
72. and Mak Lau Fong, 'The Social Alignment Patterns of the Chinese in Nineteenth-Century Penang,' Modern Asian Studies Vol. 23, No. 2 (1989), pp. 259-76.
73. For a brief account of Chinese clan associations, see Yen Ching-hwang, 'Early Chinese Clan Organizations in Singapore and Malaya, 1819-1911' in Lee Lai To (ed.), Early Chinese Immigrant Societies: Case Studies from North America and British Southeast Asia (Singapore: Heinemann Asia, 1988), pp. 186-229.
74. For Chinese secret societies, see Mak Lau Fong, The Sociology of Secret Societies (Singapore/London: Oxford University Press, 1981).
75. Khoo Kay Kim, 'Chinese Economic Activities in Malaya: A Historical Perspective,' in Manning Nash (ed.), Economic Performance in Malaya: the Insiders View (New York: Professors World Peace Academy, 1988), p. 1.
76. Cheng Lim-keak, Social Change and the Chinese in Singapore: a Socio-Economic Geography with Special Reference to Bang Structure (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1985), pp. 90-3.
77. Phua Chay Long, Malaiya Chaoqiao tongjian (The Teochews in Malaya) (Singapore), p. 41.
78. Cheng Lim-keak, Social Change and the Chinese in Singapore, pp. 95-6.
79. Ibid., pp. 96-7.
80. Sharon A. Carstens, 'Form and Content in Hakka Malaysian Culture,' in Nicole Constable (ed.), Guest People: Hakka Identity in China and Abroad (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1996), 124-48.
81. Cheng Lim-keak, Social Change and the Chinese in Singapore, pp. 97-8.
82. Tan Chee-Beng, 'Socio-cultural Diversities and Identities,' p. 45.
83. Sharon A. Carstens, Chinese Associations in Singapore Sociey: An Examination of Function and Meaning (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1975), p. 19.
84. Tan Chee-Beng, 'Socio-cultural Diversities and Identities,' p. 43.
85. The Cantonese dialect variations in Guangdong can be divided into five subgroups: Guangfu, Siyi, Gaoyang, Goulou, and Wuhua, all spoken in most parts of the Pearl River Delta and the western part of the province. Panyu is located in the area where Guangfu variation is spoken, while Xinyi in the area of Gaoyang variation. See S. A. Wurm and L. Rong, et al. (eds.), Language Atlas of China (Hong Kong: Longman on behalf of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1987), p. B-13.
86. The scientific calculation of the population of the Chinese dialect groups is not available. This is the opinion I obtained from the interviews conducted in 1999 and 2000 with many Chinese leaders actively participating in social organisations in Singapore and Malaysia.
87. S. A. Wurm and L. Rong, et al. (eds.), Language Atlas of China, Map B16 a.
88. Yang Xuqing and Zhao Dingfang, 'Malaiya gedi Gaozhou Huiguan de chansheng he fazhan' (The Formation and Development of Gaozhou Associations in Different Parts of Malaysia), Guangdong Huaqiao Lishi Xuehui Tongxun (1982), pp. 20-2.
89. Panyuxian Qiaowu Bangongshi (The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Panyu) (ed.), Panyuxian huaqiao, Gang Ao tongbao zhi (An Account of Overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau Compatriots of Panyu Origin) (Panyu: Internal Document);
90. Chen Qizhu, et al. (eds.), Xinyi xianzhi (The Annals of Xinyi County) (Guangzhou: Guangdong Renmin Chubanshe, 1993), p. 988.
91. Lam Tao-chiu, 'Constitutional Constraints, Leadership and Development Strategies: Panyu and Nanhai under Reform,' in Jae Ho Chung (ed.), Cities in China: Recipes for Economic Development in the Reform Era (London and New York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 256-95;
92. George C. S. Lin, 'Transportation and Metropolitan Development in China's Pearl River Delta: The Experience of Panyu,' Habitat International (June 1999), pp. 249-70.
93. Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China: Guangdong under Reform (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1995), Chapter 8, pp. 251-74.
94. Chen Qizhu, et al. (eds.), Xinyi xianzhi, p. 988;
95. Luo Jingxiang, et al. (eds.), Panyu xianzhi (The Annals of Panyu County) (Guangzhou: Guangdong Renmin Chubanshe, 1995), p. 927.
96. In Chinese overseas communities, Xinyi people are customarily called Gaozhou people. This is because during the Ming dynasty, Xinyi was grouped together with Gaozhou, Maoming, Dianbai, Wuchuan, and Lianjiang counties under a larger administrative area called Gaozhou fu, which was continuously adopted by the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the late years of which saw a commencement of massive overseas migration of labor. See Xinjiapo quanguo shetuan daquan (Directory of Associations in Singapore, 1982-83) (Singapore: Historical Culture Publishers, 1983), p. L-57.
97. Liang Jiyi (ed.), Maoming huaqiaozhi (The Annals of Overseas Chinese of Maoming Origin) (Guangzhou: Zhangshan Daxue Chubanshe, 1989), p. 66.
98. This information is based on a letter written by Li Ruchang, a close relative to Li Jilian, on 10 January 1987.
99. In both Panyu and Xinyi during the reform period, the productive investments and donations made by Singapore and Malaysia Chinese have been minuscule and completely outshone by the Hong Kong people. For the case of Panyu, see Yow Cheun Hoe, 'Transforming an Old Qiaoxiang: Impacts of the Diaspora on Panyu, 1978-2000,' paper presented at the Second International Conference for Institute & Libraries for Overseas Chinese Studies 'Transnational Networks: Challenges in Research and Documentation of the Chinese Overseas,' in Hong Kong organized by the University Library-System, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Ohio University Libraries, 13-15 March 2003.
100. Liang Jiyi (ed.), Maoming haiwai mingrenlu, p. 90;
101. Chen Qizhu, et al. (eds.), Xinyi xianzhi, p. 1024.
102. Chen Qizhu, et al. (eds.), Xinyi xianzhi, p. 1024.
103. See footnote 70.
104. Chen Qizhu, et al. (eds.), Xinyi xianzhi, p. 1024.
105. I b i d.
106. Heng Pek Koon, Chinese Politics in Malaysia: A History of the Malaysian Chinese Association (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988).
107. Lee Kam Hing and Chow Mun Seong, Biographical Dictionary of the Chinese in Malaysia (Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications, 1997).
108. On Tan Kah Kee, see C. F. Yong, Tan Kah-Kee: The Making of an Overseas Chinese Legend (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987).
109. See the coverage made in Maoming Ribao, Dushiban (The City Section), 11 April 2000.
110. Maoming Qiaobao, New No. 126, 15 May 1998;
111. Chen Qizhu and Liang Qicheng (eds.), Xinyi Qiaolian wu shi nian (Fifty Years of Xinyi Association of Returned Overeas Chinese) (Shenzhen: Tianma Tushu Youxian Gongsi, 2001), p. 299.
112. Interview with Deng Chongke, the school's headmaster, 20 January 2001. See also the coverage made in Maoming Ribao, Dushiban (The City Section), 11 April 2000.
113. The survey started with some members in the Panyu and Xinyi associations, from whom a snowballing effect was generated to reach other Panyu and Xinyi people. As a matter of fact, many associations were facing a dwindling and graying membership problems and, outside the associations, it was very hard to identlify Panyu and Xinyi people. All these point to the fact that the ethnic Chinese were losing identification with their ancestral origins.
114. Guarnizo and Smith, 'The Locations of Transnationalism,' p. 4.
115. For an account for the contemporary case of Taishan people, see Madeline Y. Hsu, 'Migration and Native Place: Qiaokan and the Imagined Community of Taishan County Guangdong, 1893-1993,' Journal of Asian Studies 59 (2) (May 2000), pp. 327-8.
116. The concept of 'imagined communities' was advanced and meticulously examined by Benedict Anderson. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London and New York: Verso, 1998).
117. For succinct studies of the struggle of Malaysian Chinese education in response to the local changing political trends, see Tan Liok Ee, The Politics of Chinese Education in Malaya, 1945-1961 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1997)
118. and Tan Liok Ee, 'Chinese Schools in Malaysia: A Case of Cultural Resilience' in Lee Kam Hing and Tan Chee-Beng (eds.), The Chinese in Malaysia, pp. 229-54.
119. The present general view is that Greater China includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and possibly Taiwan. Nevertheless, whether or not Chinese diaspora should be included in such concept is still a subject of debate. See Wang Gungwu, 'Greater China and the Chinese Overseas,' China Quarterly No. 136 (December 1993): 926-48.