Chinese Voluntary Associations Research Articles

Diasporic Chinese voluntary associations engage China's rise

Since the late 1970s, China has gradually risen as a global power, which culminates in the present moment when large‐scale geopolitical and economic ventures such as the Belt and Road Initiative have generated diversified cross‐border connections. This is most forcefully felt in the Chinese diaspora, and particularly those in Southeast Asia since the region is home to the largest and most diverse diasporic Chinese population. Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs), as crucial social institutions in the Chinese diaspora, are actively engaging with China's rise and responding to the (trans) regional political‐economic and socio‐cultural changes. In this introduction of the special section, we open up a collection of five research articles and one commentary that discuss the ambivalences and tensions in CVAs’ engagement with China's rise. We conceptualize CVAs as ever‐evolving ancestral communities which actively (re)position themselves in relation to complex configurations of power dynamics taking place between actors in China and the Chinese diaspora. Ancestral communities evolve through a constant mediation of the two mutually‐constitutive processes of transnationalization and localization, which take on dual‐facing and double‐embedded orientations. This special section also highlights the continuing significance and renewed engagement of CVAs and potential tensions and conflicts generated in changing geopolitical and domestic environment.

Between positionality and nudging: A rising China and Chinese voluntary associations in Southeast Asia

Drawing upon cases studies from Southeast Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia, this article addresses the following questions pertaining to the rise of China and its impact upon Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) in the region over the past two decades. By employing theoretical insights of positionality, nudging and de‐territorialisation and by focusing on various strategies pursued respectively by CVAs and the state, we conclude: (i) the growing economic ties between China and Southeast Asia serve as the platform through which the reconstruction of the CVAs take place; (ii) the reconstitution of the CVAs has been significantly driven by their own initiatives to compete in a new economy, in which knowledge of and connection with a rising China as an expanding market and a culture has advantages; (iii) the states in both China and Southeast Asia have played a part in the reconfiguration of the CVAs, motivated by their respective political and economic agendas; and (iv) it is imperative to go beyond the conventional approaches in understanding CVAs (internal structure and external connections) that have dominated much of the existing literature; and we argue that it is in the interactions and intersections between the internal dynamics and external political economy that a new type of CVAs has emerged.

Dual‐facing bridges and brokers: Diaspora politics and Chinese voluntary associations

This commentary introduces the term ‘dual facing’ to describe the way that Chinese voluntary associations orientate themselves as collectives situated between the ancestral land (China) and their countries of settlement. The commentary uses examples of Chinese voluntary associations in Singapore and Myanmar to reflect on China's longstanding presence and expanding reach in Southeast Asia, including through its diaspora engagement with the Chinese abroad. It argues that such associations are embedded not only in the nation‐building efforts of their countries of settlement, but also the ancestral land. However, this dual‐facing orientation also means that they can become embroiled in conflictual domestic and foreign politics at both ends, potentially jeopardising how they are otherwise seen as bridges and brokers by China and in the countries where have settled.

Beyond as bridges: The role of the Chinese voluntary associations in Chinese outward foreign direct investment in Southeast Asia

With the implementation of the ‘Go Global’ strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese enterprises have gradually grown into the main force of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) around the world. Overseas and domestic Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have actively promoted inward foreign direct investment in China, while their role in helping Chinese enterprises invest abroad has not been fully revealed. To address this lacuna, we explore the role of CVAs in the foreign direct investment of Chinese enterprises in Southeast Asia and the heterogeneity of their roles based on different types of associations. Our main argument is that CVAs play an intermediary role in shaping Chinese OFDI by facilitating bilateral information exchange and resource matching to enable enterprises' global–local interactions. This research contributes to verifying the impact of CVAs on Chinese enterprises' OFDI and providing implications for both host countries to attract investment and multinational enterprises from China and other developing countries to achieve internationalisation.

Moving beyond survivalism? Youth perspectives on non‐Mandarin Chinese languages in the study of Chinese voluntary associations in Singapore and Vancouver

The contributions of Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have often been viewed through a survivalist lens. As a process by which the activities of such organisations are interpreted through a rigid sense of what a Chinese community association is and should be, survivalist tendencies in academic scholarship must be re‐thought to fully assess the functions of several types of CVAs, including amid the cultural rise of the People's Republic of China. In light of Sara Ahmed's notion of ‘orientation’, we offer a vantage point from which to rethink the roles of such associations. We do so by illuminating the contributions of key organisations involved in efforts to revitalise Chinese languages other than Mandarin in two locales outside of China, namely the Siong Leng Musical Association and Viriya Community Services in Singapore, and Wongs' Benevolent Association and Youth Collaborative for Chinatown in Vancouver. By focusing on these four voluntary associations in Singapore and Vancouver and, more specifically, on the perspectives of their youth members, we show the similar dialectical nature of their activities, which are caught in the dynamic interplays between local and global cultural forces and between intergenerational perspectives on language use.

‘A Beautiful Bridge’: Chinese Indonesian Associations, Social Capital and Strategic Identification in a New Era of China–Indonesia Relations

In Indonesia, Chinese voluntary associations took on a new level of importance after the fall of Suharto’s New Order regime in 1998 that ushered in a revival of Chinese identity politics. At the same time, Sino-Indonesian relations are blossoming, and the rise of China as a global power means that Indonesia can only benefit from stronger ties with China in the future. In this new atmosphere of cooperation, I argue that Chinese Indonesian individuals and voluntary organizations play a crucial function as trade and cultural intermediaries. Drawing on both empirical and qualitative fieldwork data, in this paper, I examine how members of Chinese voluntary organizations view their ethnicity, national belonging, and strategic position in the contexts of post-Suharto Chinese identity politics and Sino-Indonesia relations. More broadly, this paper also offers a critical analysis of the internal dynamics of contemporary Overseas Chinese voluntary organizations and the role they play in building trade and sociocultural relationships between China and other countries.

Gods and/or Ancestors: Practicing Lineage in Contemporary Singapore

AbstractThis paper attempts to examine the roles and functions that lineages play in the social and cultural experiences of certain segments of Singapore’s Chinese community. Since Maurice Freedman argued over half a century ago that beyond the nuclear families and their immediate kin, the Chinese in Singapore normally did not organize themselves according to the ideal of lineage, researches on Chinese voluntary associations in Singapore have by and large overlooked the fact that the practice of organizing kinsmen around the ideas of lineage has persisted up to the present day. The paper looks at two cases — the Wengshan Hongs and the Bangtou Bais — of lineage practices in contemporary Singapore. The former highlights an intangible display of kinship consciousness in a religious space. Gods, rather than ancestors, are symbols that help to bind its kinsmen together. By comparison, the Bangtou Bai lineage is very explicit in the display of their common ancestry identity. The common surname association, the religious space, and the lineage space have been converged. It is the contention of the authors of this paper that the two cases can represent two major strategies of combining religious affiliations and memories of ancestors in a fast-developing urban environment.

Old Linkages, New Networks: The Globalization of Overseas Chinese Voluntary Associations and its Implications*

Together with Chinese schools and newspapers, voluntary associations (shetuan) have long been regarded as one of the “three pillars” of Overseas Chinese societies, playing an important role in the evolution of Chinese diaspora communities. As such they have been extensively studied and documented, and this broad range of works lays the foundation for our knowledge of the subject. The existing literature, however, seems predominantly concerned withshetuan's political and socio-cultural activities in domestic settings and within the national boundaries. Little attention has been paid to questions of why and how Chinese voluntary associations operate and function in a cross-national and inter-regional environment and what effects those transnational movements have had on the socio-economic conditions ofqiaoxiang, the ancestral hometowns of the Chinese diaspora. Correspondingly, there has been insufficient appreciation of the intimate and institutionalized links betweenshetuan's increasing and conspicuous international presence and the flourishing Chinese business networks, often characterized as informal relationships based on personal and family ties.

The Social Alignment Patterns of the Chinese in Nineteenth-Century Penang

AbstractBeing the concluding part of the study on the Chinese in the nineteenth-century Straits Settlements, the inquiry has a twofold aim: to construct a social alignment pattern of the Chinese in Penang, and to compare the pattern with those in Singapore and Malacca. Altogether 14,500 names of donors from epigraphic sources were processed.The Penang Chinese exhibited a rather unique social alignment pattern in that the Hokkiens had been very active in a number of community oriented associations. Cases of cross-dialect-group participation were few, as compared to the other two settlements, for the various dialect groups in Penang, particularly the Hokkiens, were largely attracted to the inter-provincial associations. This was a unique social alignment pattern.The findings from Penang, together with those in Singapore and Malacca were used to reconstruct an unidimensional scale for measuring the system rigidity of Chinese voluntary associations.

Psycho-social stress and the construction of a flood-control dam in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

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Chinese Voluntary Associations in Alor Star, Malaysia

Chinese Voluntary Associations in Alor Star, Malaysia