Positioning strategies of Southeast Asian Chinese entrepreneurs

Abstract

Based on recent fieldwork, this article examines the factor of ethnicity in the positioning strategies of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs in relation to the emergence of China as a land of seemingly great economic potential. The focus is on small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs, rather than highly mobile business conglomerates. The article compares such entrepreneurs in Manado (eastern Indonesia), Singapore and Johor Baru (southern Peninsular Malaysia). The analysis reveals different versions of “Chineseness” in the three cities, produced by different demographic, social and political contexts. What these versions have in common is the subject position of being constructed as “Other” in opposition to the indigenous “Self.” Nevertheless, despite such “othering” processes, these entrepreneurs are committed to local societies to which their families and fortunes are tied. They do not regard China as a diasporic “home.” Their “Chineseness,” defined through exclusion, does not enhance their proximity to contemporary China.