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.