Abstract
Many studies have been conducted and published on the concepts of Chinese identities in Southeast Asia since the 1950s. How the Southeast Asian Chinese define themselves within the Southeast Asian context and how they are seen by the others spanning across national and geographical divides and historiography have been the core elements and the substantial research concerns of many scholars. Since 2013, in response to the rapid development of Chinese scheme in The Belt and Road Initiative, this long-standing subject has generally been viewed by the China’s government as a homogenous Chinese overseas, namely, “Huaqiao Huaren (华侨华人),” with shared Chinese identity outside China. Despite the concept is useful at explaining the unprecedented economic scheme by strengthening both the historical and cultural connections between China and Southeast Asia under The Belt and Road Initiative, it inevitably offers a fragmentary picture to the social transformation in which the permanent Chinese population have gone through in several generations in Southeast Asia. By reviewing the previous studies concerning on the Southeast Asian Chinese, this paper discusses and summarizes the social and cultural contexts in which the changes of Chinese identities have occurred in Southeast Asia, in order to help both China and Southeast Asian countries to better recognize and harness what does the term “Chinese identity” mean in the contemporary Asian context.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The recent writings on sinicization due to the resurgence of China could be found in Peter J. Katzenstein’s edited book Sinicization and therise of China: civilizational processes beyond East and West (London, New York: Routledge, 2012).
- 2.
The Federation of Malaya was a federation existed between February 1, 1948, and September 16, 1963, based upon the colonial territories of British Malaya since 1786, of which included the former Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States, and the Unfederated Malay States. The Federation of Malaya later became independent on August 31, 1957. In 1963, Malaysia was officially formed as a sovereign nation-state with present Singapore, North Borneo, and Sarawak Crown Colonies. Two years later, Singapore was separated from Malaysia and became a sovereign nation in 1965.
References
Andaya, B., & Andaya, L. (1982). A history of Malaysia. London: Macmillan Press.
Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.
Baker, H. (1987). The overseas Chinese. London: B.T. Batsford.
Begbie, P. (1967). The Malayan peninsula. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
Freedman, M. (1960). Immigrants and associations: Chinese in nineteenth-century Singapore. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 3(1), 25–48. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Freedman, M., & Skinner, G. W. (1979). The study of Chinese society: Essays. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hirschman, C. (1986). The making of race in colonial Malaya: Political economy and racial ideology. The Eastern Sociology Society, 1(2), 330–361. Baltimore: Eastern Sociology Society.
Horowitz, D. (1985). Ethnic groups in conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jackson, R. (1961). Immigrant labour and the development of Malaya, 1786–1920; a historical monograph. Kuala Lumpur: Government Press.
Katzenstein, P. (2012). Sinicization and the rise of China: Civilizational processes beyond East and West. London: Routledge.
Kuah-Pearce, K. E., & Hu-DeHart, E. (2006). Voluntary organizations in the Chinese Diaspora. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Kuhn, P. (2008). Chinese among others: Emigration in modern times. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Leong, M. (1982). Sources, agencies and manifestations of overseas Chinese nationalism in Malaya, 1937–1941. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International.
Li, Y. (1970). Yige Yizhi de shizhen: Malaiya huaren shizhen shenghuo de diaocha yanjiu一個移植的市鎮:馬來亞華人市鎮生活的調查研究 [An immigration town: Life in an overseas Chinese community in southern Malaya]. Taipei: Academia Sinica.
Li, M. (1995). Dangdai haiwaihuaren shetuan yanjiu 当代海外华人社团研究 (The study of contemporary Chinese overseas associations). Xiamen: Xiamen University Press.
Liu, H., & Zhang, H. (2007). Yuanshengxing Rentong, zuxiandi lianxi yu kuaguo wanglu de jiangou 原生性認同、祖籍地聯繫與跨國網路的建構:二戰後新馬客家人與潮州人的社群之比較研究 (Primordial ties, homeland linkages, and the construction of transnational networks: A comparative analysis of Hakka and Teochewese communities in post-war Singapore and Malaysia). Taiwan Journal of South Asian Studies, 4(1), 65–90. Taiwan: Association of Southeast Asian Studies.
Mills, L (2003). British Malaya, 1824–67. 1961. Reprint, Kuala Lumpur: Malayan Branch of Royal Asiatic Society.
Moese, W., Reinknecht, G., & Schmitz-Seisser, E. (1979). Chinese regionalism in West-Malaysia and Singapore. Hamburg: Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens.
Purcell, V. (1948). The Chinese in Malaya. London: Oxford University Press.
Purcell, V. (1980). The Chinese in Southeast Asia. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press (Original work published in 1965).
Reid, A. (1996). Flows and seepages in the long-term Chinese interaction with Southeast Asia. In Reid (Ed.), Sojourners and settlers: Histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese (pp. 15–50). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Reid, A. (2011). Chinese on the mining frontier in Southeast Asia. In Tagliacozzo & Chang (Eds.), Chinese circulations: Capital, commodities, and networks in Southeast Asia (pp. 21–36). Durham: Duke University Press.
Roosa, J. (1985). Tufts University: Students counter spies. Retrieved from the following link http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20021113133733/http%3A//www.cia-on-campus.org/tufts.edu/roosa.html. Accessed on 31 Jan 2018.
Skinner, G. W. (1959). Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Contemporary China and the Chinese, 321, 136–147. USA: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Somers Heidhues, M. (1992). Bangka tin & mentok pepper: Chinese settlement on an Indonesian Island. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Somers Heidhues, M. (2003). Golddiggers, farmers and traders in the ‘Chinese Districts’ of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Ithaca. Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications.
Suryadinata, L (1997). Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asian: Overseas Chinese, Chinese overseas or Southeast Asians? In Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians (pp. 1–24). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
T’ien, J. (1953). The Chinese of Sarawak: A study of social structure. London: London School of Economics and Political Science.
T’ien, J. (1983). The Chinese of Sarawak: Thirty years of change. Japanese Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 21(3): 275–287. Japan: Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
Tagliacozzo, E., & Chang, W. C. (2011). Chinese circulations: Capital, commodities, and networks in Southeast Asia. Durham: Duke University Press.
Unger, L. (1944). The Chinese in Southeast Asia. Geographical Review, 34(2), 196–217. USA: American Geographical Society.
Van den Berghe, P. (1981). The ethnic phenomenon. New York: Elsevier.
Vandenbosch, A. (1947). The Chinese in Southeast Asia. The Journal of Politics, 9(1), 80–95. USA: The University of Chicago Press.
Wang, G. (1958). The Nanhai trade: A study of the early history of Chinese trade in the South China Sea. Kuala Lumpur: JMBRAS.
Wang, G. (1959). A short history of the Nanyang Chinese. Singapore: D. Moore for Eastern University Press.
Wang, G. (1981a). A note on the origins of Hua-ch’iao. In Community and nation: Essays on Southeast Asia and the Chinese (pp. 118–127). Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann.
Wang, G. (1981b). The limits of Nanyang Chinese Nationalism, 1912–1937. In Community and nation: Essays on Southeast Asia and the Chinese (pp. 142–158). Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann.
Wang, G. (1988). The study of Chinese identities in Southeast Asia. In J. Cushman & Wang (Eds.), Changing identities of the Southeast Asian Chinese since World War II (pp. 1–21). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Wang, G. (1990). Merchants without empire: The Hokkien sojourning communities. In J. Tracy (Ed.), The rise of merchant empires: Long-distance trade in the early modern world, 1350–1750 (pp. 400–422). Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wang, G. (1991). Pattern of Chinese migration in historical perspectives. In China and the Chinese overseas (pp. 3–21). Singapore: Times Academic Press.
Willmott, W. E. (1966). The Chinese in Southeast Asia. Australian Outlook, 20(3), 252–262. UK: Taylor and Francis Group.
Yen, C. (1986). A social history of the Chinese in Singapore and Malaya 1800–1911. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
Yen, C. (2008). The Overseas Chinese nationalism: A historical study. In The Chinese in Southeast Asia and beyond: Socio-economic and political dimensions (pp. 337–359). Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.
Zeng, L. (2003). Yueyang zaijian jiayuan: Xinjiapo huaren shehuiwenhua yanjiu越洋再建家园: 新加坡华人社会文化研究 (Reconstruction of a homeland: Socio-cultural studies on Singaporean Chinese). Nanchang: Jiangxi gaoxiao chubanshe.
Zeng, S. C. (2004). Piaobo yu genzhi: dangdai Dongnanya Huaren zuqunguanxi yanjiu漂泊与根植: 当代东南亚华人族群关系研究 (Drifting and settling: A study on ethnic relations of contemporary Southeast Asian Chinese). Beijing: China Social Sciences Publisher.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wong, W.C. (2019). Chinese Identities in Southeast Asia. In: Islam, M.N. (eds) Silk Road to Belt Road. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2998-2_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2998-2_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-2997-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-2998-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)