Book tells histories of Chinese immigrants

Book tells histories of Chinese immigrants

Sojourners and Settlers, Histories of Southeast Asia and the
Chinese
Edited by Anthony Reid
Allen and Unwin Pty Ltd, Australia, 1996
232 pages
ISBN-1 86373 990 4

JAKARTA (JP): When Jennifer Cushman died in 1989 at an early
age, her friends took two steps to commemorate her contribution
to her field of study: China's relation with Southeast Asia and
the historical role of the Southeast Asian Chinese. A memorial
fund was set up to encourage young scholars in this field,
particularly to enabling them to travel to the centers where
Jennifer Cushman worked -- Cornell University and the Australian
National University. A series of 10 lectures was also sponsored
and presented over a 16-month period at a number of venues in
Australia, United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
Eight of these lectures have been revised and form the basis of
this book.

In the book's introduction, Jamie Mackie Professor Emeritus
from Australian National University wrote that the financial
success of Southeast Asian Chinese -- currently the largest and
most successful minority -- has stimulated much writing.

The Chinese who came to Southeast Asia were merchants and
carried with them above all else "the values of trade". They
concerned themselves more with commerce and not with royal
rituals, like the Brahmins at many courts. Therefore, the
European observers had the impression that Southeast Asia was
more part of the Indian world.

The first chapter of the book is by Professor Wang Gungwu,
former vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong and once
the head of the Department of Far Eastern History of the
Australian National University, where Jennifer Cushman had
worked.

Professor Wang explains the use of the term sojourner, because
the early immigration pattern of the Chinese in Southeast Asia
was different from present-day immigration. Sojourning denotes
someone visiting very briefly, definitely planning to return home
after the visit. However, when conditions were favorable, many
decided to stay rather than to return home.

Over the years, immigration patterns have changed and Prof.
Wang was able to distinguish four stages.

1. The transitional states of the colonial or semicolonial
period following Europe's industrial revolution.

2. The newborn nation states of the second half of the 20th
century.

3. The prospect of remigration to the migrant states of the
Americas and Australasia.

4. Most recently, the extension of sojourning as part of the
globalization of migration.

Two chapters of a more general nature follow; Anthony Reid's
Flows and Long-term Chinese Interaction with Southeast Asia, in
which he analyses the flow of immigrants throughout history,
which was irregular in nature, with officially sponsored voyages,
such as the expedition in the Mongol period and the famous
expeditions under admiral Zheng He in the Ming dynasty.

Besides these, there were only trading voyages, which were
held on an irregular basis. However, the number of Chinese
settling in Southeast Asia increased steadily, especially when
colonial rule imported the coolie immigrants from the second half
of the 19th century onward.

In another chapter, G. William Skinner focuses on the
"creolized Chinese societies" as a result of traders
intermarrying with local women. By comparing these societies in
the Philippines, Java and Malaysia, he could determine various
patterns of integration and assimilation, ranging from total
integration into the host society to separate coexistence and a
variety of options in between.

After these chapters come the essays of a more specialized
nature and we find here an essay from Craig Reynolds, who used
the Thai versions of the Chinese epic Romance of the Three
Kingdoms, which had entered the Thai culture in the form of
plays, comic books, television drama, treatises on military
tactics and manuals for business managers to analyze how this
Romance is emblematic of the vitality of Sino-Southeast Asian
culture.

Indonesia

The last three chapters are about the Chinese in Indonesia and
probably more of interest for those living here.

Mary Somers Heidhues focuses on the various agricultural and
fishing communities, an aspect which did not have much attention.
One reason for the scarcity of histories on Chinese settlements
in nonurban areas is that they are hardly documented. She had to
do research on Western sources, primarily the colonial reports.
She stresses that most Chinese migrants came from agricultural
backgrounds and took up rural occupations such as cash crop
farming, fishing or mining.

The creolized communities have cause erosions in the culture
due to their assimilation into the host culture. Claudine Salmon,
a long time researcher on epigraphic material in Indonesia, found
in an East Java temple proof of a revival movements of Chinese
customs, dress and Confucian doctrines that had started as early
as in 1864. This movement was apparently set up for fear of the
danger that the Chinese community would be absorbed in other
communities and disappear.

Leonard Bluss has discovered new sources which may well
contribute to a better understanding of the junk maritime trade
between Batavia and Xiamen.

The essays in this book, all well-research and written by
experts, may have answers for many historians and scholars
dealing with the Southeast Asian Chinese. For others, the essays
may give rise to questions, serving as a starting point for a
study in this interesting field.

-- Myra Sidharta