Sojourning and emigration: emigrant communities in Chaoshan area (1949-1958)

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how the Chaozhou-speaking communities in northeast Guangdong Province dealt with new barriers of border control during the 1950s, and how they circumvented these institutional obstacles to leave China for Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. The emigration process was reshaped by new social and political forces in Maoist China. How did the Chaoshan people apply for the travel permit to leave China? How did they enter the hosting countries? How did the emigration experience influence the identity formation of Chaoshan Chinese in the 1950s?Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on archival sources, memoirs and interviews to demonstrate the ways in which Chaoshan people pursued new strategies of emigration during the 1950s.FindingsIn Maoist China, the application for an entry-exit permit was a rather complicated bureaucratic process for ordinary people. One needs to consider the class status, geographical origins and overseas connections of the applicants as well as the changing official policies toward overseas Chinese.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper emphasizes on the impacts of emigration experience on the identity formation of Chaoshan people and the incremental transformation of these emigrant communities in Guangdong Province.Practical implicationsThis scholarly finding throws light on the transformation of Chaoshan from a fluid, mobile maritime environment to an increasingly state-centric agrarian society during the 1950s.Originality/valueThis paper is an original scholarly study of the history of Chaoshan communities in South China and their emigration to Southeast Asia.