Guangdong And Chinese Diaspora

China’s rapid economic growth has drawn attention to the Chinese diasporic communities and the multiple networks that link Chinese individuals and organizations throughout the world. Ethnic Chinese have done very well economically, and the role of the Chinese Diaspora in China’s economic success has created a myth that their relations with China is natural and primordial, and that regardless of their base outside China and generation of migration, the Chinese Diaspora are inclined to participate enthusiastically in China’s social and economic agendas. This book seeks to dispel such a myth. By focusing on Guangdong, the largest ancestral and native homeland, it argues that not all Chinese diasporic communities are the same in terms of mentality and orientation, and that their connections to the ancestral homeland vary from one community to another. Taking the two Cantonese-speaking localities of Panyu and Xinyi, Yow Cheun Hoe examines the hierarchy of power and politics of these two localities in terms of their diasporic kinsfolk in Singapore and Malaysia, in comparison with their counterparts in North America and Hong Kong. The book reveals that, particularly in China’s reform era since 1978, the arguably primordial sentiment and kinship are less than crucial in determining the content and magnitude of linkages between China and the overseas Chinese. Rather, it suggests that since 1978 business calculation and economic rationale are some of the key motivating factors in determining the destination and degree of diasporic engagement. Examining various forms of Chinese diasporic engagement with China, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese Diaspora, Chinese culture and society, Southeast Asian culture and society and ethnicity.

Leading scholars in the field consider the profound importance of meanings of place and the spatial processes of mobility and settlement for the Chinese overseas. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Chinese Diaspora Charity and the Cantonese Pacific, 1850–1949 sheds new light on the history of charity among Chinese overseas and its place in the history of charity in China and in the wider history of global philanthropy. It finds that diaspora charity, besides serving traditional functions of helping the sick and destitute and supporting development in China, helped to build trust among dispersed hometown networks while challenging color boundaries in host societies by contributing to wider social causes. The book shows that charitable activities among the “Gold Rush” communities of the Pacific rim—a loosely integrated émigré network from Guangdong Province perhaps better known for its business acumen and hard work among English-speaking settler societies in North America and Australasia—also led the way with social innovations that helped to shape modern charity in China. Fitzgerald and Yip’s volume demonstrates that charity lay at the heart of community life among Chinese communities overseas. From remittances accompanying letters to contributions to benevolent organizations, emigrants transferred funds in many different ways to meet urgent requirements such as disaster relief while also contributing to long-term initiatives like building schools or hospitals. By drawing attention to diaspora contributions to their host societies, the contributors correct a common misunderstanding of the historical Chinese diaspora which is often perceived by host communities as self-interested or disengaged. This important study also reappraises the value of charitable donations in the maintenance of networks, an essential feature of diaspora life across the Cantonese Pacific. “Fitzgerald and Yip’s fascinating collection is a major contribution to the growing study of charity and its relationship to social welfare. The essays show how remittances were used for much more than family support. The book fills a large gap on the almost unrecognized importance of charity among Cantonese communities in the Chinese diaspora.” —Diana Lary, University of British Columbia “This collection is a great contribution to our understanding of how important charity became among overseas Chinese in the early stages of the diaspora—between 1850 and 1949. Philanthropy was crucial in the creation of trust networks among the diasporic communities that earned Chinese recognition to the overseas communities both in China and in their host countries.” —Sue Fawn Chung, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

The book describes the alliance, since the mid-1980s, of the entrepreneurs of the Chinese diaspora with the new locally based industrialisation that reform in China has allowed to flourish in its townships and villages. The synergy between these two derives from the ability of small non-bureaucratic actors on both sides to establish networks based on personal trust and reciprocity, producing a new kind of transformative development-from-below in which established Western and Japanese multinationals have little role.

The first of its kind, The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas provides a panoramic and comparative view across past and present overseas Chinese communities world wide. The Chinese diaspora has inherited mainland experiences, and they have modified and enriched them by transplantation to other continents and civilizations. This book includes the most important aspects of these experiences. The volume is geographically and thematically organized. The largest section consists of country-by-country profiles of individual Chinese communities. The rest divides into thematic sections on origins, migration, institutions, ties to China, and interethnic relations. Each of the sections is meant to be read continuously. They are accessible, scholarly, and authoritative. Complex material is clearly and vividly presented in text, boxed features, maps, graphs, tables, and archival and contemporary pictures. Chinese proper names and terms are identified with their characters in a glossary, while full references to Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Russian works are given in the bibliography.

With around 30 million migrants worldwide, the ethnic Chinese and the Chinese in diaspora form the largest diaspora in the world. The economic reform of China in the late 1970s marked a huge phase of migration from China, and the new migrants have had a major impact on the local societies (including the ethnic Chinese) and on China. The transnational networks between the Chinese in diaspora and China have become even more significant as China has emerged as an economic world power.

The first volume of a two-volume set contains 15 essays selected from 150-plus papers presented at the Luodi-shenggen International Conference on Chinese Overseas held in San Francisco in 1998. The theme--luodi-shenggen or the planting of permanent roots in the soils of different countries--represents a departure from both an assimilationist point of view and from a China-centered "sojourner" point of view. The papers cover various aspects of two broad areas: transnational issues and concerns of Chinese overseas, and regional studies, including those of lesser-known regions. No index. Times Academic Press is in Singapore; US distribution is by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR