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