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.
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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.
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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
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