Imagining, Contesting, and Negotiating Chinese-ness: Four Books on the Chinese Diaspora

Abstract

Imagining, Contesting, and Negotiating Chinese-ness:Four Books on the Chinese Diaspora Richard T. Chu (bio) Hong Liu and Sin-Kiong Wong . Singapore Chinese Society in Transition: Business, Politics, and Socio-Economic Change, 1945-1965. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2004. viii, 299 pp. Hardcover $71.95. ISBN 0-8204- 6799-5. Jonathan Chua with Ellen H. Palanca and Clinton Palanca , editors. Chinese Filipinos. Jesuit Communications Foundation, Inc., 2003. xxvii, 308 pp. Hardcover, P2,200.00. ISBN 971-0305-09-3. (Note: A joint project of Ateneo de Manila Chinese Studies Program, Xavier School, and the Jesuit Communications Foundation, Inc.) Teresita Ang See, Go Bon Juan, Doreen Go Yu, and Yvonne Chua , editors. Tsinoy: The Story of the Chinese in Philippine Life. Manila: Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran, Inc., 2005. 267 pp. Hardcover P2,500.00. ISBN 971-8857-32-x. (Note: A project of the Kaisa para Sa Kaunlaran, Inc.) Andrew R. Wilson , editor. The Chinese in the Caribbean. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2004. xiii, 230 pp. Hardcover $68.95. ISBN 1-55876-314-7. Paperback $24.95. ISBN 1-55876-315-5. The production of books on the Chinese diaspora continues at a good pace with the publication of several books in the last few years. Four of these-one on the Singaporean Chinese, another on the Chinese in the Caribbean (Panama, Cuba, and the British West Indies), and two on the Chinese in the Philippines-are the subject of this review essay. While these books differ in many ways, they nevertheless share something in common that warrants this review. As I elaborate later on, they can be regarded as part of a corpus created by various groups or organizations (e.g., academic institutions, religious groups) attempting to understand, describe, and define what it means to be "Chinese" in a specific country or region at particular historical junctures. But first, allow me to give an overview of each book. Liu and Wong's Singapore Chinese Society in Transition has for its objective to "investigate the dynamics, processes, mechanisms, and consequences of socioeconomic changes in Singapore Chinese society from 1945-1965," because previous [End Page 63] literature largely focused on the topic of identity conversion, and were "less concerned with the intertwining process of social, economic and political changes and their impact upon the Chinese community as well as the latter's role in the making of modern Singapore."1 The authors choose to focus on these two decades after World War II (WWII) because this period "laid the foundation for modern Singapore and [ … ] the ethnic Chinese were the most important force in this process of turbulent socio-political transformation."2 The "ethnic Chinese" the authors refer to are people who have "a strong self-identification with Chinese culture and consciousness of being a part of the ethnic Chinese community whose activities often extended beyond the boundaries of Singapore," in other words, these people were pre-cursors of modern Chinese transnationals in Singapore.3 Using a rich array of English and Chinese sources, the authors show in eight chapters how the interaction between the Chinese community-through its various associations, groups, or individuals-and wider socio-historical forces or groups (e.g., colonial government) helped shape the course of modern-day Singapore. Chapter 1 looks at the development of certain "Chinese" institutions, particularly the bang, from the nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Quoting other works, the authors describe the bang as a "Chinese politico-socio-economic grouping based principally on a dialect."4 The Hokkien bang is considered the most influential by virtue of the predominant Hokkien background among ethnic Chinese, as opposed to the other major bangs consisting of members of the other groups of Teochews, Cantonese, Hakkas, and Hainanese. The chapter proceeds to discuss how the bangs' relationships with one another went from being confrontational to being more cooperative, making possible the creation of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) in 1906. The establishment of the SCCC provided the bangs with "a power base where they could have dialogue and work together for the welfare of the whole Chinese society in Singapore."5 The chapter also describes the attitude of the colonial and Qing governments...