Western writers cast SE Asia's Chinese in wrong light

Western writers cast SE Asia's Chinese in wrong light

Western writers should see ethnic Chinese economic activities
from a Southeast Asian, rather than a China-centric, perspective.

By Theresa C Carino

The economic boom in China and the rise of Asia as the center
of global economic prominence has once again cast the spotlight
on the ethnic Chinese in this region. Capitalizing on this
interest, authors and scholars have contributed to a
proliferation of writings on the subject, some of which have
created greater confusion and misconceptions than serve to
enlighten.

Sterling Seagrave's widely circulated Lords of the Rim: The
Invisible Empire of the Overseas Chinese belongs to this
category. Written in a popular style, it is somewhat reminiscent
of books churned out in the old days about China as the "yellow
peril" or the "red menace".

Seagrave begins with the sweeping claim that what he calls
"offshore China" is an empire of 55 million people, "an invisible
empire of conglomerates...run by super-rich heads of secretive
Chinese commercial syndicates" -- the Lords of the Rim -- who
control liquid assets to the tune of US$2 trillion which are
"salted all over the world". Seagrave seems, at points, to be
extolling the cleverness, resourcefulness and resilience of the
Chinese yet reveals a deep-seated prejudice against them and
other Asians in comments such as the sweeping statement that
"success in Asia is all but impossible without a special skill
for bribery and patronage".

Seagrave's latest work is a prime example of how inaccurate
stereotypes are propagated. Writing in a highly readable and
entertaining style, Seagrave never clearly draws the line between
fact and fiction, or history and imagination.

Nuggets of truth are interlaced with gaps filled with his
fertile imagination. His work evokes an image of a tightly woven
global network of ethnic Chinese centrally controlled by shadowy
forces in China. He attributes too much to clan loyalties and the
power of communal organizations and networks. Anyone at all
familiar with clan and hometown associations would have noticed
the keen competition and rivalry that divides ethnic Chinese
groups. To presume that business ties are consolidated simply
through membership in Chinese associations illustrates sloppy
research work and a complete lack of understanding.

Seagrave's China-centric perspective of the ethnic Chinese no
doubt stems from an intrinsic fear of China as a powerful
economic competitor to the West. It is revealing that Seagrave
begins with a reference to Sun Tzu's Art of War and its
successful application in the economic world by Chinese
entrepreneurs. He obliquely warns his readers that the Chinese
may prove even more formidable than the Japanese as China begins
to take her place as a major player in the world economy. To his
credit, Seagrave concedes that China's present preoccupation with
economic growth and prosperity will make for a less aggressive
China. He even recommends less interference or at least
reasonable tolerance from the Western world for China's political
system, arguing that a strong state is still necessary to hold
together a country as populous as China.

For those in search of a corrective to Seagrave's lack of
depth and his propensity for exaggeration, Sojourners and
Settlers: Histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese edited by
Anthony Reid provides a welcome antidote. The work features a
collection of carefully-researched and well-written articles by
noted scholars in the field, including Wang Gungwu, G. William
Skinner, Oliver Wolters and J. A. C. Mackie, to name a few. Not
only is the work significant in placing Chinese immigration and
settlement in Southeast Asia in historical perspective, it
documents how successive waves of Chinese migration to the South
have produced Chinese with diverse shades of Southeast Asian
identity. The collection shows that the process of interaction
and exchange between the Chinese and Southeast Asians has had a
long history and precedes Western presence in Asia.

Sojourners and Settlers presents historical accounts of the
ways in which the Chinese, who had originally been sojourners
have become integrated into the region's economic, social and
political life. According to G. Skinner, the historical migration
of Chinese in Southeast Asia has yielded a "wondrous array of
adaptive, acculturative and assimilative phenomena". The ethnic
Chinese in this region constitute a veritable laboratory for the
study of cultural blending between what is Southeast Asian and
what is Chinese.

Generations of Chinese have now grown up in the region,
identifying closely with their countries of birth and citizenship
rather than with China. As more Chinese identify themselves first
as Southeast Asians and only secondarily as Chinese, discerning
scholars in the past few years have begun to focus on the
identities and roles of the Chinese as Southeast Asians.

It should be recognized, though, that the process of political
integration has not always been smooth. After World War II when
the option of returning to China became no longer possible or
desirable for most, the Chinese had to deal with settling in the
emerging nation states of Southeast Asia and to carve a niche for
themselves.

In the early tumultuous years when Southeast Asian nationalism
was strong and heavily tinged with anti-Chinese sentiment, the
major form of personal security was economic wealth. In the 1960s
and 1970s, this kind of insecurity helped to fuel the pursuit of
profit and the strategic diversification of economic activities
and investments. Those who could afford it, sent their children
to Canada, the U.S. and Australia -- not only to get a first-
class education but also to establish second homes in places
where citizenship would be easier to acquire.

Where policies were inimical to their interests, the Chinese
minorities in Southeast Asia have been driven to search for more
hospitable and less hostile environments for their families and
for their economic survival. It is therefore expected that most
if not all Chinese in Southeast Asia have relatives in different
parts of the world.

Wittingly or unwittingly, the mobility of the Chinese has
contributed to the globalization process, and for those with a
keen nose for profit and enterprise, it has become a formidable
advantage. It is also true that once they enter China, many of
them find that they still have great difficulties communicating
in Mandarin and understanding the business and political
environment in China. In more ways than one, they find themselves
more Southeast Asian than Chinese.

There is little doubt that the Chinese in Southeast Asia will
continue to integrate and retain their Southeast Asian identity
even as they gear themselves to compete globally. For those
wishing to gain a foothold in the beckoning China market, there
has been a rush to brush up on Mandarin and to learn more about
Chinese culture and business practices. And Chinese mainlanders
are known to complain about the "foreignness" of some of the
Chinese from Southeast Asia -- notably those from Singapore.

Just as ethnic Chinese businessmen from Southeast Asia have
been investing in China, they have been equally prominent in
leading investment in other ASEAN countries. In the Philippines,
ethnic Chinese tycoons from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have
brought in significant amounts of investments to the country. And
their business partners are not always the local Chinese. For
large-scale ventures, partnerships with the local (non-Chinese)
elites seem to be the trend and probably considered more
strategic and reflective of good business acumen.

The ASEAN perspective of ethnic Chinese business is not
recent. The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce
led tours of ASEAN countries for its members beginning in the
late 1970s and counts it as one of its contributions and
achievements. High on their agenda in the 1990s has been to draw
more investments from other ASEAN countries into the Philippines.
These aspects of the activities of Chinese business in the
region, their contributions to the ASEAN-ization of the region
have largely been ignored by Western writers. Rather than see
ethnic Chinese economic activities from a China-centric
perspective, it is high time to look at it from a Southeast Asian
perspective.

To lump the Chinese in Southeast Asia simply as "offshore
China" or as an invisible empire of conglomerates, as Seagrave
does, is highly offensive and dangerous. It exhibits a singular
lack of understanding or knowledge about the complexity of
Chinese communities, their deep roots in Southeast Asia and their
often tenuous ties with China.

Theresa C. Carino is an Executive Director at the Philippine-
China Development Resource Center, Philippines.

Window:

Wittingly or unwittingly, the mobility of the Chinese has
contributed to the globalization process, and for those with a
keen nose for profit and enterprise, it has become a formidable
advantage.