Chinese Diaspora, McKeown 1999

Conceptualizing Chinese Diasporas, 1842 to 1949
Author(s): Adam McKeown

Source: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 58, No. 2 (May, 1999), pp. 306-337
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
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ConceptualizingChinese
Diasporas,1842 to 1949
ADAM McKEOWN
By and large,the social organizationand customsof overseasChinese ... wereall
carried over fromrural life in China. In the long term, the transmissionand
of Chinese culturebuilt the mutual developmentof overseasChinese
preservation
societyand the Chinesehomelandinto an unbreakablerelationship.Much evidence
shows the difficulty
of severingoffthe Chinese soul within those living abroad.
Preciselybecauseof this,the greatmajorityof overseasChinesehad a greatconcern
forthe securityof theircountry.This sentimentdid not depend on the existenceof
the Qing or Republican governments,but mostly emerged from the natural
dispositionto cherishone's home.
(Huang 1993, xi-xii)
observerschargedtheChinesewitha refusalto assimilateto American
Contemporary
ways,and manyscholarshave stressedhow the Chinese have adamantlypreserved
theirculturein the United States.Many Chinesevalues,practices,and patternsof
to Americansoil, but the factremains
social organizationwere indeed transferred
thatChinesecommunitiesthatdevelopedin Americawereby no meansreplicasof
thosein China.
(Chan 1986, 369)
Each of these epigrams is from an exemplary work of primary research. While
not entirely exclusive-potential for overlap appears in the ideas of "mutual
development" and "transfer" of culture-they each exemplify differentresearch
agendas that result in competing narrativesof Chinese migration. Sucheng Chan's
work is part of a largerproject of contemporaryAsian American studies to incorporate
Chinese as important actors in American history. It emphasizes the adaptations of
Chinese social organization in the United States, and explains them as necessaryand
unprecedentedresponsesto unfamiliarchallenges. Although Chan pays more attention
than many Asian American historians to Chinese nationalism, transnationalfamilies,
and continued links to China, she does not follow the implications of these
descriptions so far as to reformulateher narrativeof migration as a monodirectional
relocation followed by locally conditioned transformation(see also S. Chan 1991, 63of Historyat Northeastern
University.
Adam Mckeownis an AssistantProfessor
Earlierversionsof this paper were presentedat the Universityof Illinois at Urbanaand at the 50th AnnualMeeting
University,
College, Northeastern
Champaign,Swarthmore
of the AssociationforAsian Studies,March26-29, 1998. I am gratefulforcommentsoffered
at all of theseevents.
TheJournalofAsian Studies58, no. 2 (May 1999):306-337.
?) 1999 by the AssociationforAsian Studies,Inc.
306

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
307
versions,Asian
66, 96-97; 1990). In their most extremelyAmerica-centered
phenomenaas littlemorethan
Americanhistorieshave treatedtheseextra-American
Chinese
byproducts
ofexclusionand racism,and denouncedtheidea ofthetemporary
(A. Chan 1981).
sojourneras an orientalistconstruction
embeddedin a traditionofChinese
Huang Jianchun,on theotherhand,is firmly
languagescholarshipthatgoes back overninetyyears,and emphasizesthe enduring
love, patriotism,connections,and contributionsof Chinese to theirhomeland(G.
Wang 1991, 22-40). In its mostextremeversion,thisscholarshipmayeven talk of
the patrioticresistanceof Chinese emigrantsagainst assimilation.The dichotomy
betweenthese two perspectivescould be multipliedand complicatedby examples
fromotherplaces and disciplines.When takentogether,theseworksdo notproduce
a coherentpanoramaofthenetworks
and processesofChinesemigration,
butfragment
and obscurethemwithinthecracksbetweencompetingnation-basedclaimsoverthe
historiesof Chinesemigrants.1
Over the past decade, a revivalof the idea of diasporaand the formulation
of
globalization,and the deterritorialized
newer concepts such as transnationalism,
fromwhichto approachissuesof
perspectives
nationstatehavesuggestedalternative
social organization,and identitiesthat cross nationaland
migration,transnational
culturalboundaries.These approachesattemptto centermobilityand dispersionas a
basis fromwhichto begin analysis,ratherthanas streamsof people merelyfeeding
into or flowingalong the marginsof nationaland civilizationalhistories.Thus, a
phraselike "theChinesediasporain Canada" (oranyotherlocale)shouldnotbe merely
a substituteforphraseslike "Chineseimmigrants
in Canada" or "overseasChinesein
Canada,"whicharerootedin thenarratives
oftheCanadianand Chinesenation-states,
respectively.Rather,a diasporicperspectivewould complementand expand upon
nation-basedperspectivesby drawing attentionto global connections,networks,
thatbridgethesemorelocalizedanchorsof reference.2
activities,and consciousnesses
This essay is an attemptto outline the shape and significanceof narrativesof
It beginswith
orglobal perspective.
Chinesemigrationthatstartfroma transnational
a surveyof recentdebatesover the idea of diaspora,not because diasporaoffersthe
most appropriatevocabulary and approach, but because the contentiousness
its use can highlightmanyoftheissuesat stake.Taken as a whole,these
surrounding
have
debates
expandedthe idea of diasporafroma relativelynarrowand particular
experienceinto a field for the conceptualizationof many intertwiningprocesses
diasporaas a category
(Clifford1994). I will take the positionthat understanding
that can be used to defineand describesocial groups is not so desirableas the
developmentof a diasporicperspectivethatcan directthe analysisofgeographically
dispersedinstitutions,
identities,links,and flows.
The bulk of this paper will investigatedifferent
ways in which a diasporic
ofChinesemigrationfrom1842 to 1949perspectivecan shapetheunderstanding
1L.Wang (1995) also notesthecompetingclaimsofAmericanand Chinesehistoriography,
but arguesthatAsian AmericanStudiesis an alternativeto thesedominantparadigms.
2A few recenthistoricalworks,includingthe introductory
essaysin Chirotand Reid
(1997), Ownbyand Heidhues (1993), and Trocki(1990) have embeddedhistoriesofChinese
migrantsin contextsotherthan the usual nationalnarratives.None of them,however,has
areasof Chinesesettleconceptualizethe linksbetweendifferent
attemptedto systematically
ment.Hamilton(1996) is perhapsthe mostcoherentargumentthatrecentChineseeconomic
activitycan be understoodonly if networks,ratherthanthe nation,are takenas the starting
point of analysis.

308
ADAM McKEOWN
what might be loosely called "modern"Chinese migration.The purpose of this

analysisis to highlightglobal processesthat are usually left out of nation-based
histories,and suggest the ways that they can engage and articulatewith local
perspectives.The analysisis divided into categoriesof diasporiclabor, diasporic
networks,diasporicnationalism,ethnicChinese,and diasporiccultureto highlight
the way that practicesand ideologiesof migrationare embeddedin largerglobal
trendsand transnational
activities,with different
aspectsdevelopingand comingto
the forefront
at different
times. This divisionalso highlightshow migrationand
diasporicidentitiesarenotcharacteristic
qualitiesthatdefinea group,but arestrongly
linked to particularsocial perspectivesat particulartimes, such as global trade
networks,the views fromwithinparticularnationstates,the moderninternational
systemas a whole,and different
socioeconomicclasses.
Debating Diasporas
The long historyand powerfulimplicationsof the worddiasporamake it one of
the more problematicconceptualalternativesto nation-basedhistoricalnarratives.
Until recently,the idea of diasporahas been intimatelylinkedto the historyof the
has meantthat recentwriterstryingto
Jews.3At the veryleast, this identification
develop a more generalizableunderstandingof diaspora have had to customize
computerspell-checkprogramsthatstill onlyrecognizediasporawitha capital"D."
the associationof diasporawith Jewishnesshas strongmoral
More substantively,
tenacious
overtones,associatedwith traditionsof forcedexile, communalsuffering,
identity,and longing forthe homeland.This moral dimensionhas facilitatedthe
relatively
easyappropriation
ofdiasporato describetheArmeniandispersal,impelled
bygenocidalattackson theirhomelandaftertheturnofthecentury.The morerecent
appropriationof diaspora to describethe dispersalof Africansis more clearlyan
createa coherentidentityout of scatteredand disjointed
attemptto retroactively
and exile resonatesso strongly
peoples,yet the moralflavorof diasporaas suffering
with the experienceof slaverythatit lends thisconstruction
ofpan-African
identity
an air ofvalidityit mightnototherwisehavehad (Gilroy1993, 205-12). In contrast,
Gypsieshave long been knownas a geographically
dispersedand mobilegroup,yet
almostneveras a diasporabecauseoftheirlack ofa politicsor sentimentofexileand
homeland.Similarly,the factthatEuropeanimperialistdispersalsafterthe fifteenth
centuryhave not inheritedor appropriatedthe label of diaspora underlinesthe
as victimsof suffering
and dispersal,ratherthanas the
importanceof identification
willingperpetrators.
of the idea of diasporahave latchedon to it in
Manymorerecentappropriations
a verycontrasting
manner:ratherthana wayto describeand promotethepreservation
and hardship,it has becomepartofa wider
ofidentitydespitescattering,
persecution,
attackon boundedand staticunderstandings
ofcultureand society.This workfocuses
and dislocationscreatedby movement,and diasporabecomes
on the transformations
thedislocationsofmodernity,
a signifier
ofmultiplicity,
fluidity,
wildness,hybridity,
and postcolonialism.Narrativesand
or the decenteredtexturesof postmodernity
3Theworddiasporacan be tracedback still earlier,to a Greekwordused to describethe
(Cohen 1997a,
sowingof seeds,and thenapplied to Greekcolonizationin the Mediterranean
117-20).

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
309
analysesofdiasporaareerectedas critiquesofessentializednotionsofraceand culture,

as subversionsof hegemonicnarratives
ofpoliticaland culturalnationalism,as fields
forthe interplayof identitypolitics,and as calls forwiderrecognitionand inclusion
ofdiversity
(see thefirstincarnation
ofthejournalDiaspora,vols. 1-4, 1991-95; Hall
1994; Ong and Nonini 1997). This diaspora-as-heterogeneity
still entailsa morality
constructed
in oppositionto oppression,
onlynowit focusesmoreon resistance
against
continuingoppressionthan on an originatingact of oppression.Moreover,the
oppressoris now likelyto be preciselythose narrativesof essentialized,primordial
identitythatwereso importantin earlierdefinitions
ofdiaspora.
One appealingaspectofthisapproachto diasporasis thewaythatanyapplication
ofthewordis also an interrogation
ofwhatand who we are talkingabout.Attaching
an adjectivesuch as "Chinese"in frontofdiasporais to implicitlyask how so many
different
peoplescan actuallybe groupedtogether,and whatare the consequencesof
doing so? For example,a Chinesediasporacould potentiallyincludepeople as diverse
as participantsin the California Gold Rush, Sino-Vietnameseboat people,
cosmopolitanChinese businessmenconstantlymoving around the world with
multiple passports,Filipino patriot Jose Rizal; and peranakanswho are the
descendantsofintermarriages
betweenChineseand Malaywomenthatbegancenturies
ago, speakMalay dialects,and yetare oftenknownfortheirstubbornmaintenanceof
Chinesetraditions.A graduatestudentfromNorthChina mayhavemorein common
withanotheracademiclikeme thanwithCantoneseimmigrants
workingin restaurant
kitchens.Exiles fromthe Tiananmen massacreof 1989 fit many of the moral
requirements
fora diaspora-as-exile,
yetone ofthemostfamousexiledleaders,Wuer
Kaixi, is not an ethnicHan Chinese.All of thesepeople could potentiallybe called
Chinese,yetChinesenesscertainlydoes not signifythe same thingin everyinstance,
and mayevenbe rejectedby people such as Rizal.
If diasporais an excellentpositionfromwhichto highlightdiversity,
it is also a
fineperspectivefromwhichto focuson links and flows.Thus, the recentemphasis
on diversityhas been counteredwithargumentsthatifdiasporais to be a usefuland
coherentcategory,it shoulddescribeculturalbonds,tiesto a homeland,transnational
or networkslinkingpeople togetheracrossgeographicboundariesand
organizations,
ofDiaspora,vol. 5, 1996 onward,especially
dispersion(see themorerecentincarnation
Tololyan 1996; Cohen 1997; Tu 1991). These argumentshavetendedto accept,and
evenpromotea deemphasison moralimplicationsin favorofconceptualizing
diaspora
and comparisonofa wide
as a generalizablecategoryapplicableto theunderstanding
varietyof mobilitiesand dispersals.Ideas of homelandand exile are oftencrucialin
definingthesediasporas,but can be replacedbyotherbondsand processeswhichhelp
to shape scatteredpeople togetheras a group.
This versionof diaspora can be the basis for a historythat startsfromthe
thattake
connectionsbetweenplaces,and theflows,interactions,
and transformations
place throughtheseconnections.In doing so, it can avoid some of the dichotomies
and multiplicitiesthat oftenplague discussionsof migrantidentity.For example,
FrankMoy was bornin Portland,Oregon in 1874 and receiveda primaryand high
school educationin Chicago. He grew up to marrya Caucasian American,have
childrenwhowouldgrowup to be lawyers,becomeinvolvedon thelocal schoolboard,
drivea black Lincoln,wear tailoredsuitswithgold chains,make friendswith local
politicians,and developa reputationas an upstandingChicagobusinessman-whom
one reportercalled "as hospitableas a SouthernColonel" (Drury1932, 14). Chinese
in Chicago also knew him as presidentof the local tong (a "secret"societythat
in theanti-Japanese
and a high-profile
controlledgamblingand extortion),
fund-raiser

310
ADAM McKEOWN
movement,forwhichlocal Chinesepapersnotedhis cause of death in 1937, at the

age of sixty-three,
as "overexertion
in patrioticactivities"(San Min ChenBao, 24
September1937). Frankwas also a partnerin a Hong Kong businessfirmthatmade
much of its profitthroughthe smugglingof illegal migrants,and posed in long
Chineserobeswhentakingphotographswithbusinessassociates.His brothersborne
by his father'sotherwife(or,possibly,wives)in Chinagrewup studyingtheChinese
classicsand otherskills necessaryto become an officialin China (Chicago Chinese
Case File, 2008/5;Fan 1926, 97; Siu n.d.a,60). Is it possibleto talkaboutthisperson
and his familywithoutresortingto a vocabularyof fragmentation
and multiple
identities?Eventheidea ofhybridity
suggestsa kindofliminalareabetweendifferent
bastions of "pure" and stable identity.A diasporic perspectivethat focuseson
institutional
and imaginativelinkscan providea framework
fromwhichto describe
thisman'slifecoherently
ratherthandivideit betweencompetingvisionsofnational
or culturalidentity.
links
One problem,however,withfocusingon diasporaas a set of transnational
and emotionalties is the temptationto unlinkdiasporasfromanyhistoricalcontext.
Diasporasare too oftenpresentedas given entitiesdescribedby the verylabels,like
Chinese,Indian,or Gypsy,whichneedbe interrogated
or justifiedin conceptualizing
a diaspora.In some cases, this may even resultin the productionof a checklistof
qualitiesused to determineif a givendispersionis indeeda diasporaor not (Cohen
1997b; Safran1991). Such an approachis moreof a prescription
thana description
of diaspora.Not onlydoes the processof siftingfororthodoxyleave littlespace for
further
but it easilyloses sightof how identifications
productiveconceptualization,
and attachments
will changeovertimeand betweendifferent
sectorswithina single
group label. For example,the idea of home can easilyrangefromlinks to a family
altar,to loyaltyto a nationstate,to longingfora nearlymythicalsiteoforigin,even
withinthemindofa singlemigrant.In thismethodofconceivinga diaspora,it may
have a history,but it is not the objectofhistory.Usually,an eventor processthatis
suchas theAfricanslavetradeorTurkish
prominentin thepopularhistoricalmemory,
massacresin Armenia,is singled out as ultimatelygenerativeof contemporary
That is to say,thecontoursand contentsofthediaspora
dispersaland heterogeneity.4
are takenforgranted.It is onlyleftto the historianto ask how it came into being
and developedovertime,ratherthan to investigatehow the veryconceptualization
and consciousnessofthe diasporais embeddedin largerhistoricalcontexts.
On the other hand, excessiveemphasison the floweringof multiplicityand
hybriditythroughdiaspora is overly contextualizedwithin the peculiaritiesof
and ideals of self. Many such conceptualizations
of
contemporary
understandings
diaspora have much in common with theoriesof culturalglobalization,with its
vocabularyof nodes, flows,and shiftingrelationships;its focus on the ways that
and recycledas they travel
meaningsand objects are appropriated,transformed,
oftheglobal
throughglobal networks;and attentionto thewaysthatunderstandings
and local cannot be taken as given, but are mutuallyconstructedrelationships
(Appadurai 1996; King 1997; Robertson 1992). Both globalization theoryand
tend to frame themselvesas attemptsto
presentationsof diaspora-as-diversity
understandchangesthathave occurredoverthe past thirtyyears,such as the riseof
in the present,but promotesan es4Hall (1994) is a proponentof diaspora-as-diversity
sentializingview of history.In contrast,Khan (1995), writingof Muslims and Indians in
Trinidad,notes that memoriesof diasporaand migrationare varied,as should be expected
whenwe considerthe varietyof mechanismsby whichmovementwas facilitatedovertime.

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842
TO
1979
311
transnational
business,electronicmedia, and increasedmobility.Historybeforethe
1960s is still understoodeitheras primarilythe expansionofEurope,or as theera of
nationstatesand hard boundaries,and diasporais thenset up as a challengeto the
international
patchworkof nationsand fixedidentities.
Does this change in quantityof interactionsand movement,as embodied by
and increasedphysicalmovement,really
corporations,
electronicmedia,transnational
in thequalityofsocial identities?I would
correspond
to a disjunctivetransformation
suggestthatthe greatestchangein the past thirtyyearsis not so much in the ways
thatpeople,goods, and information
circulateand are appropriatedthroughcontact,
and status of diaspora as a way of life. This
but in the risingself-consciousness
contemporary
prestigeofdiaspora,and ourowninterestin thecelebrationofdiversity,
and movementshouldnot be projectedas a descriptionofdiasporaper se.
hybridity,
than
Justbecausemigrantshave,in thepast,beenmoreoftenclassifiedas immigrants
as membersof diasporas,it does not necessarilyfollow that theiractivitieswere
different.
A morenuancedhistoricalperspectiveis necessaryto qualify
categorically
the emphasison disjunctivenewness,to createa less totalizingvision of what a
and implicationsofcontemporary
diasporacan be,and to bettersituatethesignificance
diasporapolitics.
Thus, the idea of diasporais anchoredby two vastlydivergentideals, that of
and diaspora-as-diversity.
The word is oftendeployedin versions
diaspora-as-exile
that are less extremethan these two anchorsbut such applicationsoftentend to
producemoredissensionthanconsensus.What can be salvagedfromthisdeadlock?
Recentshiftsin the use of the word "culture"can give some indicationof how
the verydebate over diaspora could facilitateits emergenceas a useful analytic
perspective.The use of cultureas a noun has declined precipitouslyin academic
discourse,having become associatedwith a vision of human beliefsand values as
and staticentities,isolatedfromanybut themost
holisticallybounded,deterministic,
violent historical conjunctures.Yet despite the many trenchantcritiques and
overthe idea ofculture,use of the wordas an adjectivehas blossomed.
controversies
The precisemeaningof a "cultural"analysisis stillvague at the edges,but it can be
generallyexpected that such an analysiswill focus on discourse,representation,
ideology,and a description
ofthewaysthatmeaning,socialbehavior,and organization
are historicallyproduced.That is to say, ratherthan being discarded,the idea of
cultureas a noun has been made problematicby culturalanalysesthat attemptto
tracethemechanisms
and assumptionsbywhich"culture"shapesourlives.In essence,
the debates have produced a more sophisticatedand historicalunderstandingof
culture.
dispersed
Similarly,as a noun,diasporasuggestsa coherentunitofgeographically
people bound by sentiment,culture,and history.Such a usage promotesthe idea of
unhistoricalculturalbonds. It is in this sense that the idea of diasporacan appear
threateningto non-Chinesegovernmentsand ethnic Chinese around the world,
ofspaceand time.'
depictinga concreteentitythatis indissolubleoverlong stretches
When used in a more adjectivalsense, the idea of diasporacan move away from
identifyinga bounded group, and instead focus on geographicallydispersed
and discoursesthat cannotbe readilyaccountedforfrom
connections,institutions,
It is not a matterof merelychanging the
purely local or national frameworks.
grammaticalfunctionof the word.To talk about the "diasporicChinese"is no less
5Tan (1997, 28), writesof the applicationof the termdiasporato the SoutheastAsian
Chinese: "We fearbeing perceivedas scatteredcommunitieswithouta sense of belonging,
whateverthe good intentionsof the term'susers."

312
ADAM McKEOWN
essentializingthan to talk about the "Chinesediaspora":both make claims over a

group of people as a holisticentity.Rather,it entails an acknowledgmentthat a
histories,
while
canprovidea neededsupplementto nation-based
diasporicperspective
simultaneouslyagreeing that the historicalproductionof diasporas needs to be
interrogated.
Of course,the implicationsof the worddiasporacan not be changedby simple
or otherwise.The wordis stillladenwithcontentious
fiat-grammatical,intellectual,
need to be workedthrough,however,
and contradictory
meanings.These difficulties
becausethereis still no completelysatisfactory
vocabularyby whichto approachthe
and the vocabularyof nodes,flows,and
phenomenonin question.Transnationalism
that surroundsglobalizationtheoryare veryuseful,but are still
deterritorialization
thatare now
verymuch investedin the erectionof nation-basedframesof reference
being challengedby postnationalor postmodernways of being. They providefew
thatexistedbeforeand duringthehegemony
toolsforconceivingofa transnationalism
of nation-states.
Similarly,the idea of migrationis stronglylinkedto nation-basedperspectives.
This can be seen clearlyin the vocabularythat has grownup around migration:
dichotomieslike immigrationand emigration,or push and pull; metaphorslike
uprooted and transplanted;and processes like settlement,assimilation, and
acculturation.Such concepts combine to create migration as a process of
by a breakfromthe old and relocationin
monodirectional
relocation,characterized
concernabout
the new.Interestin migrationis usuallyjustifiedby a moreoverriding
howimmigrants
integrateintothenation,or,on theotherend,howtheyareproduced
by and contributein returnto the locales that they left. Returnmigrationand
associationsthatfacilitatethecirculationofgoods,money,and peoplearerecognized,
intothestory
and evenresearched
historians,
but rarelyincorporated
by immigration
in anymeaningfulway.The returnmigrantsare people who drop out of one history
and returnto the historyof the land theyleft,and the networksofcirculationare of
interestprimarilyas the causes that pushed people into the new nation.6In some
to the vocabulary
ways,the dissensionoverthe idea of diasporamakesit preferable
ofmigration,becauseit places theunderlying
assumptionsand issuesto theforefront
ratherthan taking them for granted.In practice,however,I will use a mixed
and migration,accordingto whateverseems
vocabularyofdiaspora,transnationalism,
mostappropriatein developinga particularaspectof a global perspective.
The organizationof the followinganalysisinto different
categoriesis in many
of the divisionof Chinese migrationinto the trader,coolie,
ways a reformulation
sojourner,and descent patternsby Wang Gungwu (1991, 3-21).7 The most
ofthecategories,but in the
difference
lies notin theminorreorganization
significant
6McKeown (1997) goes intogreaterdetailabout how thedevelopmentofmigrationstudies in the United Stateswas entwinedwith the productionof nationalidentityand history.
Thistlewaite(1964) and Tilly(1990) areexcellenttheoretical
attemptstoput migrationhistory
on a moreglobal footing.Wyman(1993) presentsempiricalresearchon returnmigration,but
makesno attemptto reconceptualize
the usual migrationnarratives.
Wang (1991,
7Theseare the huashang,
huagong,
huaqiao,and huayipatterns,respectively.
198-221) also suggeststhe categoriesofHistorical,Chinesenationalist,Communal,National
(local), Cultural,Ethnic,and Class identity.The discussionof thesecategoriesis betterdeveloped than his formulationof migrantpatterns,but theyare primarilyappropriateforthe
I agreewithHirschman's
descriptionofChineseidentitiesfromwithina nationalframework.
(1988) criticismof Wang's deploymentof thesecategoriesof identity,whicharguesthathe
gives insufficient
attentionto the way theyare embedded in historicaleventsand political
policies,and thinkthiscriticismcan also be applied to Wang's migrantpatterns.

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842
TO
1979
313
understanding
of what thesecategoriessignify.It is veryunclearif Wang's idea of
"patterns"is meant to depict social structuresor the orientationof individual
migrants.The traderand coolie patternsare essentiallyformsof occupationaland
The sojournerpattern,however,describesideologicalprojects
economicorganization.
to developan identification
of the migrantswith China. Despite Wang's claim that
in every
the sojournerpatternwas "all-embracing,protectiveand interventionist
aspect of overseasChinese life" (1991, 10), he fails to show how the discourseof
sojourning(or huaqiao) interactedwith or replaced the concretepracticesof the
previoustwo patterns.The fourthpatternis determinedprimarilyby birthoutside
of China, and although Wang proposes several interestingquestions about the
subjectiveidentitiesofsuch migrants,he does not show thattheiractualpracticesof
thanin thepreviouscategories.The diasporicperspectives
migrationareanydifferent
presentedbelow are not meant to be isolated as separatepatternsthat somehow
on different
aspectsof migration
interactwitheach other,but as global perspectives
as it changesovertime.
Beginnings of Modern Chinese Migration

Many gradual changes across the South Pacificand SoutheastAsia over the
nineteenth
centuryshapedtheemergenceof"modern"Chinesediasporasbuiltaround
the expansionof capitalism,nationalism,and modernistideologies.These changes
includedincreasedEuropeancolonialpenetrationinto SoutheastAsia, the expansion
of global markets and economic networksthroughoutthe Pacific, and the
displacementof the Fujianese junk tradeby Europeansailing vessels(managedby
both Europeansand non-Europeans)in the firsthalfof the century,followedby the
relativelyinexpensivesteamshiplines thathelped increaseand channelthe flowsof
Chinesemigrantsin the secondhalfof the century(Cushman 1993; Skinner1957,
42-45, 64; Trocki 1997).
Withintheselargertrends,theestablishment
ofa Britishcolonyat Hong Kong,
and, to a lesserextent,the creationof treatyportsin Xiamen (Amoy)and Shantou
on theshapeand volume
(Swatow)on theSouthChina coasthad themostdirecteffect
of Chinese migration.Firstoccupied by the Britishin January1841, the island of
ceded in the Treatyof Nanjing in 1842, a resultof the
Hong Kong was officially
oftheOpium War has often
Opium War betweenBritainand China.The significance
been interpretedas markingthe penetrationand disruptionof a traditionalrural
economyby westerncapitalism.Much local researchargues,however,thatthedepth
and effects
of thispenetrationbeyondtreatyportsvariedgreatlyfromplace to place,
and thattheseeffects
werenotfeltimmediately,
but as a gradualseriesofadjustments
overdecades(Faure 1989; Lin 1997). The mostimmediateeffectof the Opium War
on the Pearl RiverDelta regionnorthof Hong Kong was the shiftin foreigntrade
to newlyopenedtreatyportsfurther
northon thecoast,resultingin a shortdepression
influenced
(further
bya depressionin Britain)in an alreadycomplex,commercialized,
and outward-looking
economy(Wakeman 1966, 98). Of morelong-termsignificance
was the creationof Hong Kong as an outpostof Britishimperialism,closelylinked
to an expandingPacificeconomy.Hong Kong and the treatyportsbecameportals
throughwhich local merchantscould more easily search out and link up with
economic opportunitiesand facilitateaccess to laborersfromSouth China. The
ofHong Kong markedthebeginningofa decisiveshiftawayfromthe
establishment

314
ADAM McKEOWN
Fujian merchantnetworksand Hakka minersfromwesternGuangdongas the main

axesoftheChinesediaspora,towardsHong Kong as theprimarynodethroughwhich
Chineseoverseasmigrationincreasedto unprecedented
volumes.
Migrationabroad fromSouth China was just one streamin a largerpatternof
movementto cities,frontier
areas,and otherlocalitiesthroughoutChina, and into
northern
landslikeMongolia,Siberia,and Manchuria(Ma 1984). A Cantonesevillager
was just as likelyto migrateto the local countytown,Canton,Shanghai,or some
otherurbancenteras to go abroad.Similarly,as villagersfromrelatively
poorcounties
like Kaiping in GuangdongProvincemigratedabroad in searchof profit,so even
moreimpoverished
villagersfromfurther
inlandwould migrateto Kaiping to work
as wage laborerson the lands leftbehind(Woon 1984a, 299-300). Within such a
context,it is importantto understandwhyoverseasmigrationincreasedsharplyover
the late nineteenth
and earlytwentiethcenturies,fromparticularpartsofFujian and
Guangdongprovince,ratherthanfromotherpartsof China.
ExplanationsformigrationfromSouth China that draw attentionto the midcenturyrebellionsand worseningland-manratiosas push factorsgenerallyfail to
in time and place of this migration(Mei 1979). The
accountforthe particularities
greatincreaseof the Chinesepopulationoverthe eighteenthcenturyfailsto explain
whyemigrationfromSouthChina,and the Cantonregionin particular,did nottake
offuntilthe 1850s, and continuedto growin thelate nineteenth
centuryas political
and economicstabilityreturnedand thepopulationremainedlevel.8Attentionto the
correlationof regionaleconomiccycleswith migrationcan providemore help in
a centuryunderstanding
long-termflowsofemigration.The Cantonareaexperienced
long economicdownswingafterthe 1830s, and Hong Kong was a portal to the
increasingly
livelyeconomyovermuchofthe Pacific(Leong 1997, 42). On theother
hand, westernGuangdongand Fujian provincesexperiencedan economicupswing
overthissame period.Migrationalso increasedfromtheseareas,althoughnot to the
extentthatit did fromthe Cantonarea. Thus, some correlationof emigrationwith
to understandwhy Chinese
economiccyclesseems probable,but is not sufficient
increasingly
choseto migrateoverseasat thistime.
Similarly,althoughmost of China experiencedviolentturmoilfromthe 1850s
throughthe 1870s, otherregionsof China did not producesignificant
numbersof
overseasmigrants.The Red Turbanrebellionand Hakka-BendiwarsofthePearlRiver
Delta area,and the otherlineage and village feudsthroughoutSouth China in this
and disordertakingplace elsewhere.9
periodwereactuallymilderthanthedestruction
Perhapsonly the laborersrecruitedthroughdeceptionand kidnappingin the early
yearsof the labor tradecan be directlyattributedto social unrest.Even then,access
to opportunities
throughHong Kong and the treatyportswas most responsiblefor
channelinglocal restlessnessand lack of opportunityinto concentratedoverseas
8Therewas a 23 percentincreasein cultivatedland in GuangdongProvincefromthelate
nineteenthto the earlytwentiethcenturies,aftera lack ofincreasethatlastednearlya century
(Lin 1997, 28). Local, ratherthan provincial,statisticsare necessary,however,to determine
the relationshipbetweenman-landratiosand emigration.
unrestin thePearl
9Wakeman(1966) is the classicdescriptionofmid-nineteenth-century
RiverDelta area,butmakeslittledirectreference
to emigration.In fact,thelocalmilitarization,
increasedfeuding,and banditrycould have occupied potentialmigrantsratherthanpushed
themout, althoughthe kidnappingand sale of enemiesin feudswas a likelysourceof many
indenturedmigrants.

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
315
Unrestand scarcityof local opportunities

existedin SouthChina,but,as we
flows.10
precedent,
dependedmoreon stability,
shallsee below,emigrationas a familystrategy
thanon disorderand poverty.That the burstin overseasmigration
and opportunity
duringthe secondhalfof the nineteenthcenturyshould flowthroughHong Kong,
treatyportslike ShanghaiorTianjin,was
Xiamen,and Shantou,ratherthannorthern
a resultof the connectionsand networksestablishedthrougha long traditionof
migrationand exchangewith non-Chinesethat gave people in South China the
experienceand means to take advantageof opportunitiespresentedby a changing
Pacificeconomy.
Diasporic Labor
of the establishment
of Hong Kong was the
One of the most immediateeffects
rise in Chinese labor migrationover the subsequentfourdecades. Chinese had for
centuriesbeen working throughoutSoutheast Asia in mines and agricultural
recruited
and organizedthrougha widevarietyofdebtbondageandprofitenterprises,
schemes
sharing
(Heidhues 1992; Trocki 1979; T. Wang 1994). A fewattemptshad
even been made by non-Chineseto importlaborersto plantationsin Trinidadand
Brazil in the firsthalfof the nineteenthcentury.Afterthe middle of the century,
Chinesemigrationto
however,this labor migrationbegan to increasedramatically.
and
theBritishcolonyofSingapore-whichwas botha majorpointoftransshipment
a freetradeentrepotthat attractedChinese alreadyliving in SoutheastAsia-rose
oflaborersto Cuba after1847 and Peruafter
quicklyin the 1840s.11 The recruitment
1849 would, over the next two decades, result in the firstsignificantflowsof
indenturedChineselaborersoutsideofSoutheastAsia. In thesetwo cases,the riseof
the Chineselabortradewas closelytied to the gradualdemiseofAfricanslaveryand
(Hu-Dehart 1993; Rodriguez
the searchby plantationownersfora viablealternative
Pastor1989; Stewart1951). In a moregeneralsense,thisincreasein labormigration
was tied to theexpansionofworldmarketsintothePacific.Thus, laborcould be used
evenin places thatwere
withincreasingprofitin agriculturaland miningenterprises
not compensatingforthe demise of slavery(Heidhues 1996; Jackson1968; Trocki
1990). This more generaldevelopmentwas closelylinked to the establishmentof
Hong Kong as an outpostof Britishimperialism,and a convenientsite fromwhich
of
to escape the restrictions
of the Chinese governmentagainst the recruitment
in the 1850s by planters
laborers.Some of the earliestattemptsat laborrecruitment
fromPeru, Cuba, and Hawaii had been in Xiamen, but recruiters
quickly turned
towardsHong Kong as a muchbetterbase forsuchprojects(Glick 1980, 7; Li 1996;
Stewart1951, 18).12
'0Localesspecializingin theexportofall kindsofhumantalent,rangingfromstonecutters
and bankersto male prostitutesand monks,wereusuallywithinstrikingdistanceofan urban
center,althoughHakka expansionwas an exception(Skinner1976, 354).
ofChinesetravelingthroughHong Kong to Singaporewerelimitedto twenty
"1Numbers
passengersper voyage of under thirtydays by the Chinese Passengers'Act of 1855. This
limitationwas removedin 1871, and the effectwas immediate,with migrationincreasing
froma handfulover the 1860s, to 9,790 passengersin 1872, to over 35,000 per yearafter
1881, amountingto overhalfof all emigrantsthroughHong Kong (Sinn 1995a, 25-26).
"2Figuresfor 1876-98 count 1,349,705 Chinese leaving fromHong Kong, 1,042,285
fromXiamen,and 359,458 fromShantou(Skeldon 1994, 24).

316
ADAM McKEOWN
The bulk of this labor migrationwas controlledby Chinese.In the villagesof

SouthChina,Chinese"crimps,"paid by the head foreach laborertheycould recruit,
used a varietyof means to enticepotentialmigrants,includingkinshipnetworks,
materialadvances,promisesof fortunesforthe taking,paymentof gamblingdebts,
deceit,the purchaseofprisonerstakenin feuds,and kidnapping(Stewart1951, 32;
S. Wang 1978, 304; Zo 1978, 38-39). Peruand Cuba weretheonlyplacesforwhich
at everylevel above the village. In much of
non-Chinesecontrolledrecruitment
SoutheastAsia, Chinesecontrolledthe organizationof labor all the way to the very
productionand marketingofgoods. The risein Chineselabormigrationwas linked
withthe expansionof the worldeconomy,but not onlyas chattelshippedaroundin
accordancewith Westernneeds. Chineseactivelyparticipatedin the productionof
capitalistexpansionin the Pacific.At times, Chinese interestscould even block
Westernneeds.A Britishattemptto recruitlaborersforSouth Africain 1904 was
forcedto relocateits operationsto northern
resistancefrom
China,afterencountering
entrenchedSoutheast Asian recruitingrings and officialsopposed to Westerndominatedrecruiting
(Richardson1982, 78-90).
The movementofChineselaboris an aspectofChinesemigrationthathasreceived
the most thoroughhistoricaltreatmentfromdiasporicperspectivesattemptingto
understand
thecauses,mechanisms,
and global patternsofmovement.Interestin this
migration,however,has been primarilyas an aspect of the growthof Western
capitalism (Bonacich and Cheng 1984). As far as the Chinese themselvesare
a diasporicperspective
can usuallyprovidelittleinsightbeyonddescribing
concerned,
the movementitself.Labor migrationleftbehindfewdiasporiclinksand tendedto
be primarilya formof relocation.
Two extremeexamplesoflabormigrationas mererelocationare the recruitment
of 62,000 laborersfromthe northern
provincesof Shandongand Zhili to the South
Africangold minesin the firstdecade of the twentiethcentury,and nearly140,000
to Franceto build roadsand dig gravesand trenchesduringWorld War I (T. Chen
1923, 142-48, 207-10; Richardson1982). Nearlyall oftheselaborerswerereturned
to China afterthe completionof theirtasks, leaving behind few, if any, lasting
structures
or traditionsof migration.The otherextremecan be seen in Chinesesuch
as thosewho had finishedout theircontractsin Peru in the late nineteenthcentury
and were leftthereimpoverishedand with few active connectionsto China. They
and graduallyintegrateinto the coastal
tendedto take Spanishnames,intermarry,
lowerclasses,again creatingno permanentdiasporicstructures.
The establishment
of
a steamshiplinebetweenHong Kong and Lima in 1904 revitalizedtheflowofChinese
migrants,and some of the old laborersbegan to use theirChinesenamesagain, join
Chineseassociations,marrytheirhalf-Chinesedaughtersto the new migrants,and
an activeChineseidentity(Lausent1983, 102-7; McKeown 1996).
reconstruct
It is throughChinese involvementin managingthe labor trade that we can
The profitto be gainedbyorganizingand transporting
developa diasporicperspective.
increasednumbersof laborersfacilitatedthe increasedpowerof a diasporaelite that
had a directinterestin continuedcirculationand relocationof people. The greater
the controlof non-Chineseinterestsovermigration,the higherthe likelihoodthat
labor migrationwould result only in dispersion,ratherthan the emergenceof
continuedmigrationand transnational
connections.
ContractedChineselabormigrationreacheda peak in the 1870s, althoughit has
continuedin some formor anotherto thisday. The earliestlaborersbroughtto any
or unableto maintaintransnational
regiontendedto be eithertemporary
connections,
but theyoftenlaid the basis formore stable diasporicflows.Some would become

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
317
merchantsand craftsmen,
and otherswould providethe connectionsand clienteleto
attractnew merchantsand craftsmen,
who would, in turn,createa muchwiderand
self-perpetuating
systemforthecirculationofgoods,money,information,
and people.
As theselargernetworksbecameestablished,migrationin orderto laborbecameless
an end in itselfand more of a firststep in the hope that afterthe contractwas
completed,or debtsrepaid,a realfortunecould be made.
Diasporic Networks
It is in the processof recruitment
thatthe labor diasporamost clearlyoverlaps
withthenetworkdiaspora.Networksarethetransnational
institutions,
organizations,
and personalconnectionsthat made migrationinto a viable economicstrategyand
stable systemfor the circulationof goods, people, information,
and profit.The
networksbuilt by Chinesewere remarkablefortheirstrength,scale, and resilience,
and the extentto which theynot onlyfacilitatedand directedmovement,but also
dependedon the continuedgenerationof movementas a sourceofprofit.
Chineseparticipationin thegold rushesto Californiaand Australiain the 1850s
was evengreaterthanthecontemporaneous
and evenmore
growthin labormigration,
dependenton access to world communicationnetworksthat flowedthroughHong
Kong. As manyas 30,000 Chinesemigratedto San Franciscoin 1852 (totalemigration
fromHong Kong would not reachthatlevel again until the relaxationof emigrant
shippingregulationsto Singaporein the mid-1870s), and migrationcontinuedat
severalthousanda yearto Californiaand Australiain the 1850s (Sinn 1995a, 16).
Gold rushmigrationwas also exemplaryof the credit-ticket
systemin which labor
and networkmigrationsbecome indistinguishable.Credit-ticketmigrantsarrived
abroad indebted for the cost of their passage. This debt was transferred
from
transportation
brokersto employers,
withnativeplace associationsand secretsocieties
oftenassistingin the supervisionof thesehumaninvestments
(Cloud and Galenson,
1987; Sinn 1995b, 37-38; S. Wang 1978, 101-17; Zo 1978, 95-104). This system
was clearlya meansofmobilizinglabor,althoughwithoutthecontractsand extreme
methodsof physicalcontrolthatcharacterized
indenturedmigration.The legacyof
thecredit-ticket
systemwas,however,morelong-lastingthanthatofcontracted
labor
migration.Even when the institutionalized
practiceof credit-ticket
migrationdied
out in a particularlocality,thenetworks
and organizations
builton symbolsofkinship
and nativeplace stillpersistedand helpedchannelfurther
flowsof chainmigration.
Familieswerethemostbasic institution
on whichmigrationnetworks
werebuilt.
MigrationfromSouth China was rarelya trailblazingendeavoron the part of an
individualmigrant.He quite likelyfollowedin the footstepsof an uncle, father,
and even great-grandfather
grandfather,
who had made the trip beforehim. Over
generations,individualsfromsuch migrantfamiliesmay have been born in China,
and yet lived most of theirlives abroad,returningto China only long enough to
inseminatetheirwives and createthe next link in the chain. Personalmotivations
oftenhad a role in the departureof an individual,some boyslongingforadventure,
somepiqued bythesightofa returned
villagerflashinghis accumulatedwealth,some
tryingto evade pillaging bandits or possible conscriptionby local armies,some
lookingto escapean unpleasantfamilysituationora wifetheydid notlike,and others
who just could notstandtheidea ofbeinga farmer
(Kulp 1966, 184; Siu 1987, 10712). Whateverthepersonalambitionsofa migrant,his familyoftenallowedhim no

318
ADAM McKEOWN
choice,sincemigrationwas just one ofa varietyof investment

strategiesdesignedto
keep the familyline solvent.A prudentand fertilefamilymight develop a safely
diversified
portfolioby assigningone son to workthefamilyfields,one to hireout to
the neighborsas a wage earner,one to studyforan officialposition,one to take up
in a nearbytown,and othersto seek fortunesin distant
some businessopportunity
lands like Canada or Thailand.One of themwas bound to bringsuccessand fortune
back to the family,or at leasta steadystreamof materialsupport.
The depiction of many Chinese migrant communitiesabroad as bachelor
communitiesis onlyaccurateifwe insistthatfamiliesmustbe geographically
unified
nuclearunitsof cohabitingspousesand children.More importantformanyChinese
familieswas the maintenanceof a patrilinethroughtime, fromdead ancestorsto
descendantsnotyetborn.Earningthematerialresourcesto maintainand extendthis
patriline,and its physicalmanifestation
as altarand household,was oftena primary
motivationformigration.As long as themigrantand his wifecontinuedto sharethe
same kitchenas his brothersand parents,the migrantcontinuedto be a partof the
extendedfamily,no matterhow long he had beenawayand whathis familysituation
overseaswas. Because ofhis income,thedistantmigrantwas oftenthemaindecision
makerof the family,even if not entitledto such status by seniority.When local
violenceled to China-basedfamilymembersrelocatingin a countyseat, Cantonor
Hong Kong, remittancessent by migrantsoftenassuredthat the familydid not
becomepermanently
scattered(H. Liu 1992; McKeown 1999). A formaldivisionwas
theonlywayto breakup thestemfamily,althougha migrantwas neverexcusedfrom
the widerresponsibilities
of the patrilinealdescentline. If divisionhad takenplace
and the migrantmovedhis wifeand childrenoverseas,he would stilloftenmaintain
a house in his village in case of a possible return.He would even spend money
maintainingand improvingthehouse,lookingnot so muchto impresspeople in the
village,as to impressfellowmigrantswho made the triphome (Siu 1952). Like the
family,thevillage also becamea transnational
entity.
ofmorethan
Migranthouseholdscould also proveamenableto theestablishment
one localized nucleus. When allowed by local sentimentand legislation,Chinese
would occasionallyformallianceswith local non-Chinesewomen.Many of the local
womenmarriedby Chinese,as well as wives broughtin fromChina, wereactually
secondwives,a practiceengagedin by Chinesemen bornoutsideofChina as well. If
themigrant'sfirst
marriageoccurredabroad,relativesat homemightnotevenconsider
it to be a realmarriage,and stillmakeplans to acquirea primarybridein thevillage.
The primarywifeusuallyremainedin China,maintainingthe householdand raising
childrenborn of any of her husband'salliances.Some of theseprimarywives even
encouragedthe marriageof theirhusbandsto local women,because the men were
and be less inclinedto
then morelikelyto feelthe weightof theirresponsibilities
gamble, visit prostitutes,or otherwisedissipate their earningsin the recreations
commonto men withoutfamilies(T. Chen 1940, 118-45; Pei 1994; Siu n.d.b.).
Alliances with non-Chinesewomen tended to incorporatethe women into
migrantnetworksas muchas theyintegratedthe groomsinto local society,and not
all non-Chinesewives realized what theywere gettinginto. Reportsof Peruvian
womenbeggingin the streetsof Hong Kong in orderto earnpassage back to Peru
caused repeatedscandalsin early-twentieth-century
Lima.3 They all told storiesof
13HongKong entradas25 March 1902:25, 4 December 1908:96, 12 October 1917:37a,
29 July1918:53/2,30 November1918:70, and 31 January1934:12, ArchivesoftheMinistry
(Sept, 1916), p. 11. By the 1930s, Mexican
of ForeignRelations,Lima, Peru; andJuventud
wivesweremorelikelyto be foundin similarsituations,perhapsas a resultof the expulsion
of Chinesefromnorthern
Mexico in 1931.

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
319
havingmarrieda Chineseman in Peru,accompanying

him to China,and thenbeing
leftthereas a secondarywifewhenthehusbandreturnedabroad.Most ofthewomen
claimed to have been positivelyimpressedby how diligentand consideratetheir
husbandshad been at home. They traveledto China knowingnothingof the other
wife,or wives,fullyexpectingthesame favorabletreatment
to continue,onlyto find
themselvessuddenlyat thebottomofa spousalpeckingorderwithno sympathy
from
their husbands.Hawaiian women, coming froma strongertraditionof multiple
partneralliances,seemedto be moreopento theChinesefamilysituations,
occasionally
becomingclose friendswith the primarywife aftermoving to China. The most
significant
problemin Hawaii, at least accordingto Hawaiian missionaries,
was the
abandonmentof wives and childrenin Hawaii by men returningto China (Adams
1937, 147).
could go beyondsinglefamiliesto incorporate
Migrationas an economicstrategy
entirevillages and lineages. In some villages, all the able-bodiedmen were sent
overseas,leaving behind agriculturalfieldsgone wild, and women, children,and
A villagetwo kilometers
downtheroadwithout
elderlypeople livingon remittances.
anysignificant
advantagesor disadvantagesin local economiccircumstances
mayhave
producedno emigrantfamiliesat all (T. Chen 1940). Some villagesevenestablished
schools to trainchildrenin areas such as language,geography,and bookkeeping,
subjectsthatwould be usefulin theirfuturelivesabroad.The remittances
mightbe
used to maintaintraditionalritualsand lifestyle,
or by a lineage to develop a local
commercialor politicalmonopoly(Watson 1975; Woon 1984b).
Lineagesand villagesalso providedthe personnelforinstitutions
and businesses
in Hong Kong, and aroundthe world,that were links in a chain of servicesthat
supportedmigrationand made it into a viable economicstrategy.By the end of the
nineteenthcentury,the importanceof Hong Kong as a hub forthesenetworkswas
evenmoreimportantthanas a centerof laborrecruitment.
ChineseHong Kong was
freefromthe exactionsand corruptionof Chineseofficialdom,
and was underwritten
infrastructure
by a Britishlegal and administrative
designedto promotefreetrade
and access to the world economy.The colony even helped facilitaterepatriation
servicesfordestitutemigrants(Sinn 1995b, 38-46; Woon 1984a, 287-88; Xia, 1452).
Hong Kong was an ideal site forthousandsof Chinesebusinessestablishments
specializingin themovementofgoods,information,
people,and money.Most ofthese
in
businessesmaintainedexclusiveconnectionswithstoresand financialinstitutions
China and abroad,sometimesas administratively
integratedbranches,but usuallyon
thebasisofless formalized
connectionsthroughkinshipand villageties.Forexample,
in the 1930s overone hundredstoresand banksin Taishancountywereconnectedto
the United StatesthroughGolden Mountainfirmsin Hong Kong. These firmstook
care of transmitting
goods fromthe Chinese interiorto importersabroad-which
included both storesthat sold curios and tea to non-Chineseand those that sold
foodstuffs
to theChinesemigrants-and distributing
lettersand remittances
back to
the villages.They also acted as transnational
bankinginstitutions.
Migrantsabroad
could takeout loans or deposita largesum of moneywiththeirlocal nativeplace or
surnameassociations,and thatmoneywould be carriedto an associatedbusinessin
Hong Kong, which would then distributeit to appropriaterecipientsin China,
sometimeseven dividingit into regularmonthlypayments(Hsu 1996, 59-72, Z.
Liu 1959). By the turnof the century,migrantsfromChaozhouand Hainan Island
traveledthroughHong Kong and sent remittancesthroughthe more
increasingly
sophisticatedand secure money transferbusinessesthere,which had the added

320
ADAM
McKEOWN
advantage of access to marketrates,ratherthan the officiallyimposed currency

exchangerates(Sinn 1995b, 25; Xia 1992, 43-47).
Perhaps the most competitiveand profitableservicesprovidedthroughthese
networkswas themovementofpeople. All aspectsofmigrationwerecommoditized:
steamertickets,falseidentities,accessto consulsand visas,successfulmedicalexams,
citizenships,humansmugglingopportunities,
and witnesseswho could claim to be
a migrant'smotheror to have knownhim whenhe was a babe in arms.Many Hong
Kong businesseshad employeesand associatesin local consularofficeswho helped
expeditecustomsand migrationformalities
(McKeown 1996, 77). These connections
with officialsand information
about changingimmigrationproceduresand border
securitywere easily translatableinto cash or favors,and jealouslyguardedagainst
competitors.For migrantswho could not affordthe fees,surcharges,and bribes
attachedto theserequirements,
the firmsin Hong Kong would also providecredit.
Largerfirmsevenprovideddormitories
and waitingrooms.Theyalso servedas a link
to employmentopportunitiesabroad,which both assistedthe migrantsand helped
the lenderskeep an eyeovertheirinvestments.
transnational
Thus, a well-integrated
businessnetworkcould simultaneously
stakea claim in the lucrativemigranttraffic,
block access to competitors,
and assurethat theiraffiliated
interestsoverseaswould
neverlack formanpowerand goods. Westerncompaniesthatoperated,chartered,
and
provisionedshipsalso sharedin theprofitofcontinuedmigration(Sinn, 1995b, 4345). These businesseswereessentialto the maintenanceof geographically
extensive
migrantnetworksthatcould persistfordecades and overgenerations.Withoutthe
servicesofferedby businessesand associationsin Hong Kong and the treatyports,
migrationwould rarelyhavebeen a feasibleor lucrativeventurefromtheperspective
of the survivalstrategiesof a household.At the same time,movementitselfbecame
a self-perpetuating
sourceofprofit,and an interestto be defended,aboveand beyond
anyotherbenefitsthatmightbe gained frommigration.
In Chinese migrant communitiesaround the world, these networkswere
institutionalized
as swornbrotherhood,
surname,and nativeplace associations.These
associationscalledupon a varietyofsymbols,suchas ritualoathsand bondsofkinship
and createlinesoftrust
basedon distant,mythicalancestors,to legitimizethemselves
of these
and controlamong theirmembers.In turn,the veryinstitutionalization
as concreteconcernsshapingthelivesand culture
theirsignificance
symbolsreinforced
ofmigrants.Throughsuchassociationsmigrantsmaintainedlinksto newsfromtheir
villages,funneledmoneyand influence
back home,had theirbonesshippedbackafter
they died, and met with fellowmigrantswho providedmutual aid and mutual
pressureto maintainvillage moralityand live up to village standardsofsuccess(Xia
1992, 165-208; Yu 1983).
These networksconstantlyshiftedand reshapedthemselvesas part of their
changingrelationshipswith local governmentsand theirembeddednessin larger
global forces(Hamiltonand Waters 1997). PoweramongChinesein Malaya shifted
over the middle of the nineteenthcenturyfrommilitarizedfraternal
societiesthat
could dominatethe organizationof laborers,to the increaseddominanceof urban
merchants
who controlledlaborthroughmoney,revenuefarms,and accessto theforce
of the colonial states(Carstens1993; Trocki 1990 and 1997). By the turnof the
controlbystatesand colonial
century,
however,theextensionofdirectadministrative
governmentsaround the world led to the dismantling of revenue farms,
offraternal
criminalization
associations,and thewidespreademergenceofnativeplace
and surnameassociationsas key migrantinstitutions.
These associationsweremore
acceptableto non-Chinesegovernments
becausetheyshiftedtheloci ofmigrantpower

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
321
away fromextensiveruralnetworksthat could appearto be impenetrable"empires

urbanorganizationsdominated
themin fragmented
withinempire,"and recentered
whoseinterestslay in theperpetuationofstableeconomicgrowth,and
by merchants
ofrelatively
The
unthreatening
parochialaffections.
whichappearedto be expressions
fromwhichthewealthycould exertleadership,
rolesoftheseassociationsas platforms
and disputemediationcould take place, suggests
and whereeconomictransactions
theywereas muchan adaptationto commercialand capitalistgrowthas an expression
of "natural"affection.
They provideda relativelyflexibleyet closelyknit means of
shaping increasedflowsof migrantsinto extensiveand competingmarketingand
financialnetworks(Hamilton 1977).
These networkswere often subversiveto nation states. They undermined
immigrationlaws and otherbarriersagainstmobilitydesignedto preserveterritorial
and introducedresidentswho mighthaveno interestin loyalty
and culturalintegrity,
wereshaped
and integration
intothelocale.Yet, at thesametime,diasporicnetworks
by, and even dependenton, nationstates.The distributionof Chinese aroundthe
ofthenationalbordersthat
worldcan notbe understoodwithoutsomeunderstanding
ofChinesein borderregionslike El
shapedthismovement.The small concentrations
Chile on the Peruvianborder,drawattention
Paso, Texas,and thedesertof northern
but also
not onlyto the importanceof nationalboundariesin shapingdistribution,
to the profitsthat could be made by carryingpeople acrossthose boundaries.The
and abilityto transport
goods and people past immigration
knowledge,connections,
and customsproceedings,bothlegallyand illegally,was an immensesourceofpower.
The elitewho coulddominatethesecrossingshad privilegedaccessto goodsand labor,
and an interestin promotingthe continued transgressionof these boundaries.
Moreover,the ability of elites to conformto local and internationalstandardsof
in orderto justifycontinuedmigrationand monopolizetheinformation
respectability
to the
necessaryto dominatebordercrossingsadded a level ofculturaldifferentiation
economicdistinctionscreatedby theirdominationof thesenetworks.
we can imagineHong Kong as a hub fromwhichrays
Froma global perspective,
spreadout in one directionto South China villages,and in the otherto locations
around the world,furtherbranchingout fromsecondarynodes in places like San
Franciscoand Singapore.Hong Kong was not so mucha centeras a point oftransit,
a bottleneck.Only a fewelite were able to travelfreelyacrosstheserays.For most
a kindofgroovewithinwhichtheprecedents
and assistance
migrants,
theyconstituted
of relativesand fellow villagers had become partially institutionalizedas the
associationsand businessesthat providedthe supportand opportunitiesthat made
and symbolsmobilized
migrationpossible.The roleof credit,and ofthe institutions
to protectand distributecredit,was crucialas a medium binding these networks
together.Creditand debt were links by whichChinesecould mobilize and exploit
labor,the opportunitiesby which individualscould obtain the capital to migrate,
aftertheturnofthecentury,
establishthesmallstores,distribution
and, increasingly
networks,and middlemanoccupationsthatoftenprecededand facilitatedstateand
colonialpenetration.
These raysshaped the view fromemigrantvillages in such a way that social
distancewas notcongruentwithgeographicdistance.In theeyesofa villager,distant
Jamaicamayhave seemedeasierto travelto and morefamiliarthanthe local county
town because Jamaica was a node of the networkswithinwhich the village was
embedded.Nearly all of the Chinese in Jamaicabeforethe 1980s came fromfive
villageslocatedat the borderof threecountiesbetweenHong Kong and Canton,an
area thathas producedfewmigrantsto anyotherlocationin theworld.The original

322
ADAM
McKEOWN
640 migrantshad been recruitedas contractlaborersto Jamaicain 1884, settingin

motiona chainofmigrationthathas continuedto thisday. Moreover,foryearsafter
theopeningofthePanamacanal,migrantsto Jamaicastillfolloweda exhaustingand
costlyrouteby boat to Vancouver,trainto Nova Scotia,on which theyhad to pay
high Canadian passage taxes,and finallyby boat to Jamaica(Chang 1956, 43-44;
Look Lai 1993, 49). This underlinesthe extentto whichnetworkscould crystallize
intoinflexible,
self-reproducing
grooves.
madepossiblethroughparochialism:local
These grooveswerea transnationalism
specializationin internationalmovement(Skinner 1976). The meaning of local
social bondsand
eventuallygave way to transnational
changed,however,as territory
institutionsas the bases of parochialism.James Cliffordargues that the kind of
movementrepresented
by one of thesegrooves(whichhe refersto as a transnational
migrantcircuit,quoting Roger Rouse) should not be considereda diasporabecause
taboo
"Diasporasusuallypresuppose... a separationmorelike exile: a constitutive
on return,or its postponementto a remotefuture.Diasporas also connectmultiple
communitiesof a dispersedpopulation" (Clifford1994, 303-4). He is primarily
of
interestedin diasporasas a culturalphenomenaand privilegesthe construction
diaspora as an imagined community.Any successful discourse of imagined
bytheexistenceofconcreteinstitutions
communities,
however,is alwaysunderwritten
and networks.
Eventhoughindividualmigrantstravelingthroughsinglegroovesmay
have had no subjectiveawarenessof a largerdiaspora,none of thosegroovescould
have existedwithoutthe moreextensivecomplexof institutionsand activitiesthat
broughtthemtogetheras a largerbundleintegratedinto theworldeconomy.Taken
as a whole,thesenetworksdid connectmultiplecommunities,and theircontinued
was dependenton the extentto which they could facilitatefurther
functionality
movementand avoid an aggregatereturnof migrantsto China. While a strong
of diaspora,such a
argumentexistsformaintaininga psychologicalunderstanding
positionshould not be takenwithoutprovidingadequatevocabularyfromwhichto
and networks.This construction
institutions
understandtheseconcretetransnational
is bestunderstoodwithin
ofdiasporaas self-conscious
exileand dispersedcommunity
identitiesthat arose over the
the contextof the nationalismsand cultural-political
and earlytwentiethcenturies.
courseof the late nineteenth
Diasporic Nationalism
By the turnof the century,manyof the Chinesewho crossednationalborders
ofhome,culture,loyalty,and
had also begunto reconceptualize
theirunderstandings
self within the termsset by those nationsand borders.The global politics that
sovereignstates were increasingly
privilegedmembersof strongand territorially
This international
obviousto manyChineseoverthefirsthalfofthetwentieth
century.
awarenessarticulatedwith an increasingdesireto become "modern,"althoughthis
in a vastdiversity
ofoftenconflicting
was manifested
including
signifiers,
modernity
clothingstyles,wealth and power, cosmopolitanmanners,professionaleducation,
individualism,and collectiveracialidentity.
in personal and communal self-perceptions
were not
These transformations
the
the directresultof encountersbetweenChinesemigrantsand
people
necessarily

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
323
carriedabroad
amongwhomtheylived. More likely,theywereideas and sentiments
by intellectualsand officialsfromChina who were sensitiveto widerglobal power
relationsand conceptionsofpeoplehood.This circulationof ideas could lead to some
interesting
reappropriations
of symbols,such as the "modern"weddingsof Chinese
in Singaporeduring the middle of the twentiethcenturyin which couples wore
Westernclothesand got marriedby thedozensin massceremonies.Such ceremonies
wereinspiredmoreby trendscomingout of China than by directcontactwith the
British. Nonetheless,they were directed,in part, towardsthe Britishas public
expressionsof the modernunityof the Chinesepeople, althoughthe Britishtended
to interpret
themas a holdoveroftraditionalEasterncommunalism(Freedman1957,
165-76).
As earlyas the 1870s, representatives
of the Qing empirebegan to reformulate
theircondemnation
ofemigrantsas "traitors,"and to moveacrossdiasporicnetworks
in orderto establishlinksbetweenmigrantsand theimperialgovernment.
Theirearly
motivationwas to bolsterthe prestigeof the empire by establishingdiplomatic
representation
and extendingofficialprotectionto the migrants.By the late 1890s
theyincreasingly
saw overseasChineseas a fruitful
sourceof financialcontributions
and loyalty,obtainable in returnfor a few symbolsof officialrecognition,and
to investin China (Godley 1982; J. Huang 1993). At the turnof the
opportunities
nationalistorganizers,manyof whomhad been
century,reformer
and revolutionary
exiled fromChina, joined these activitiesin a more concentratedand aggressive
manner.They wereboth morediligentin searchingforwide bases of contributions
and support,and more generousin theirdistributionand promisesof recognition
(Duara 1997a; J. Huang 1993; Ma 1990). In the earlyyears,Chinese nationalist
visionscould expandto the scale ofpan-Asiansolidarityand descriptionsofChinese
but
overseasmigrantsas colonizers,or shrinkto thescale ofCantoneseindependence,
to withinthe bordersof the
by 1908 nationalistorthodoxyhad settledcomfortably
focusof loyalty(Duara 1997b).
Chineseempireas the territorial
oftheserepresentatives
andproselytizers
contributed
The combinedefforts
greatly
theirnetworks,
to a shiftin the way thatChinesemigrantsconceivedof themselves,
and theirhome.Home was no longerjust a villagewherethefamilyaltarwas located,
a centralnode in a chain of relationships.It was part of a much largerentity,a
whichincludedstrangerswho spoke unintelligibledialectsand, yet,if
motherland,
nationalistpropagandawereto be believed,wereinalienablylinkedto each otherand
to China byvirtueofrace,culture,history,
and affection.
Even belongingto surname
or fraternalassociations began to imply more than mere embeddedness in
networks.Althoughmanynationalistslooked on theseorganizations
particularistic
with suspicion,as underminingthe more significant
loyaltyto race and nation,in
practicetheywere importantvehiclesof nationalistpropagation.Interestin native
thatdefined
place and familycame to be seenas preciselythekindsofbasic affections
Chineseas Chinese,while the historyoffraternal
associationswas retoldas a storyof
persevering
anti-Qingactivism(Goodman 1995; Murray1993).
also formednewinstitutions
thatcreatedwiderlinksacross
Nationalistorganizers
the grooves of migrant networksemanating from Hong Kong. Chambers of
Commercesupportedby the Qing and governmentsof the Chinese republic,and
political parties like the reformerEmperor Protection Association and the
revolutionaryTongmenghui and Guomindang, attracted many migrants as
members-membershipsthatwould ebb and flowalong with the politicalfortunes

324
ADAM McKEOWN
ofeach group.Nationalistgroupsalso establishedmanyofthefirstChineselanguage

schools(sometimesin Mandarinratherthan southerndialects)and newspapersnot
run by Christianmissionaries.The languageof the politicaleditorialswas oftentoo
flowery
formanymigrantsto comprehend,
and thepedagogyoftheschoolswas aimed
towardschildren,but by the 1930s theirChina-orientednationalistagendas had
becomewidelyacceptedin migrantcommunitiesthroughoutthe world.
Not all nationalistvisionsemanatedfromChina.Some Chinesebornin Southeast
Asia wereparticularly
interested
in recovering
Confucianism
as a respectablenational
heritage.The earliestof such projectsincludedlate-nineteenth-century
attemptsby
the peranakanelite ofJavato promotethe foundingof ancestralhalls and resinicize
fellowmigrantswhom theyfeltwere being seduced by the superstitions
of Islam
(Salmon 1996). This movementwas institutionalizedin the ZhonghuaHuiguan,
establishedin 1900 with an agenda of promotingeducation,reforming
rituals,and
"furthering
knowledgeand correctness
amongtheChinesein orderthatpeoplemight
not remainignorantor in an inferiorposition"(Williams 1960, 57). Later it also
promotedthe translation
ofChineseclassicsintoMalay (as manyoftheleaderscould
neitherspeaknorreadChinese),helpedestablishConfucianchurchesto competewith
Christianchurchesand Islamicmosques,and providedscholarships
foryoungChinese
to studyin Europeor China (Coppel 1981).
These overseasreform
associationshad much in commonwiththe agenda of the
EmperorProtectionAssociation,but the divergenceoftheirperspectives
can be seen
clearlyin theexampleofLim Boon Keng,a Straits-born
Chinese,trainedas a physician
in Britain.In 1898 he, along with SingaporelawyerSong Ong Siang, establisheda
ConfucianStudySocietyto promotea deeperunderstanding
of Chinesereligionand
reform
the"superstitious"
practicesoflocal Chinese.In 1900, he also helpedestablish
theStraitsChineseBritishAssociation"to promoteamongthemembersan intelligent
interestin the affairsof the BritishEmpire,and to encourageand maintaintheir
loyaltyas subjectsof the Queen" (Tan 1988, 54). Howevercontradictory
thesetwo
taken
draw
from
a
tradition
of
Chinese
projectsmay seem,
togetherthey
migrant
elites in SoutheastAsia as culturaland economic mediators,and extend it to a
conviction that acceptance by local Europeans was dependent on widespread
recognitionof China as a civilized and deeply rootedculture,capable of its own
transformation
into nationhoodand of producingits own exemplarsof modern
It was a nationalismnot predicatedon politicalloyaltyto China.
cosmopolitanism.
Diasporicnationalismwas also a spacewithinwhichChinesestudents,diplomats,
and businessmenwho had traveledabroad throughdifferentnetworks(such as
and diplomaticchannelsdominated
missionarynetworks,educationalopportunities,
by non-Chinese)weremost likelyto come into contactwith migrantsembeddedin
the networksradiating from South China. Ironically,mutual participationin
nationalistactivitieswas also an intersectionat which constructionsof common
nationalheritagesimultaneously
into new and hostileidentitiesshaped
fragmented
mutual
by class, occupation,and education.These interactionsoftentransformed
ignoranceinto mutual suspicionand distaste.Studentsand diplomatscomplained
thatthe nationalistcommitmentof merchantsand laborerswas dilutedby devotion
to profit,parochialism,and pettyjealousies,while southernmigrantsoftenresented
the arroganceof studentsand officials,and were extremelycriticalof those who
appearedto be quite devotedto reformwhile abroad,yetused the statusgained by
their overseasexperienceto returnto China and join the world of corruption,
dominance,and arrogancetheyhad onceopposed(Y. Leong 1936; 108-11; Xie 1984,

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
325
completelyto theother'svisionofwhat
26-29).14 Neithersidewas willingto conform
modernChinesenessshouldencompass.
The emergenceof new class divisionscould be seen in the nationalisticantiAmericanboycottof 1905 (Tsai 1976; McKee 1977). The criticismsoftheAmerican
exclusionlaws,whichwerethe object of thisboycott,rarelywentso faras to attack
the basic rightof the United Statesto excludelaborers.Most Chineseagreedthata
nation had a rightto controlits own sovereignborders.Rather,resentmentand
humiliationarosefromthefactthatChineseweresingledout fromothernationalities
and fromfrequent
in laws thatwereunilaterallyimposeddespitetreatyagreements,
harassmentby immigrationofficialsof merchantsand other"respectable"Chinese
who were exempt fromexclusion. Thus, much of the boycottrevolvedaround
protectingthe internationalhonor of China as somethingmore than a land of
uneducatedlaborers,and on attainingtreatmentthat distinguishedcosmopolitan
excluded(although
Chinesefromthe "uncivilizedcoolies"who could be legitimately
Chinese also complainedtheywould not fullyaccept exclusionuntil uneducated
laborersfromall nationswerealso excluded).
of a nationalist
I hesitateto overstress,
however,the widespreadinternalization
consciousness.Diasporic nationalismwas also utilizedby migrantsin termsof their
own interestsand networks.Nationalistorganizersdependedon previouslyexisting
and oftenendedup as much
diasporicnetworksto help themmobilizea constituency,
throughthesecollaborations.The
the recipientsas the instigatorsof transformation
and politicalagendasof nationalist
participationof migrantelite in the fund-raising
organizerswas oftenwith as much an eye towardthe prestigeand connectionsthey
could develop locally as to any devotion to the nationalistcause. The patriotic
war from1931 to 1945 was probably
mobilizationaccompanyingthe anti-Japanese
thezenithofthenationaldiaspora,whenalmostall behaviorwas justifiedbya rhetoric
ofpatriotism,
and everypublic eventwas a collectionmovement(Xia 1992, 249-50;
Yu 1992, 142). Scatteredaccounts,however,suggestthateven thenmanymigrants
resentedthe constantdemandson theirtime and moneyand the regulationsthat
as a matterof routine,and consideredthe mostactive
extractedtheircontributions
oftheirownpersonalpower(Siu 1987, 224fundraisersto be hypocritical
promoters
26; Wilson 1969, 92).
The declineoftheEmperorProtectionAssociationand its associatedCommercial
howquicklynationalist
and dissensionafter1907 reflects
Corporationintocorruption
ofthemigrant
withthefactionalism
and profitorientation
interests
wereintertwined
networkstheydepended on forinvestorsand contributors
(Glick 1980, 310; Ma
of commercialinfluenceon nationalismcould be seen
1990). Anothermanifestation
in the way that Ou Qujia's 1902 pamphletNew Guangdongcouched a call for
Cantoneseindependencewithina mercantilemetaphorof the nationas corporation
and its citizensas stockholders
(Duara 1997a, 55-56; Ma 1990, 85). Reconfigurations
concerns.After
of nationalistdiasporascould also be predicatedon noncommercial
of the ChineseRepublic, the Zhigongtang,a politicallyoriented
the establishment
fraternal
associationin San Franciscothathad oftenassistedSun Yat-senin his travels
14Acrudebut efficient
exampleof this is a Universityof Chicago graduatestudentfrom
North China who visitedthe local Chinatownin the 1930s, only to have a Cantoneseshopkeepermistakehim fora Japanesewhen he could not understandhis Mandarin,and throw
him out ofthestore.As a resultofthisexperience,thestudentwrotea termpaperin sociology
witha paragraphdevotedto criticizingthe stupidityand uncivilizednatureofthe Cantonese
(I. Chen n.d., 49).

326
ADAM McKEOWN
between1904 and 1912, had come to resentwhat theysaw as Sun's betrayalof his
brotherlyoaths and his subjectionof their organizationto the leadershipof his
revolutionary
party.The Zhigongtangdemandedrecognitionin China as a political
partyin its own right.By the 1920s, severalmigrantfraternal
associationsaround
the world had linked themselvesup into what was now an international
Zhigong
in China (S. Huang 1936; Ma 1990).
Partythatcontinuedto struggleforrecognition
A less politicallythreatening
examplewas the attemptby Hakkas-a dialectgroup
scatteredthroughoutSouth China-in 1921 to link up Hakka migrantassociations
aroundthe worldas branchesof a single,global Chongzhengassociation(Constable
1994, 82; S. Leong 1997, 87-88). As with nativeplace associations,this was an
formofChineseness
organizational
wayofexpressingtheirHakkanessas an exemplary
(althoughsomeHakkasdenouncedtheChongzhengas a formofparochialismcontrary
to thegoals ofnationalism).Theseassociationsalso promotedand distributed
histories
of the Hakkas thatwereframedas a historyofsuccessivemigrations,thususing the
tropesof nationalismto constructa diasporicethnicity.
What all of these nationalismshad in commonwas theirconvictionthat the
experienceand statusof Chinese abroad was a directresultof the statusof China
within the internationalsystem.If Chinese people were bullied locally,that was
because China receivedno respectinternationally.
To be Chinese,anywherein the
of the motherland,
to have a stakein the futureof
world,was to be a representative
China, and to recognizethe claims of China and Chinesecultureovertheirloyalty.
The boundariesof raceand ethnicitybegan to be seenas moreimpermeable,
and the
Chinese capitansand othermediatorswho had once dominatedmigrantnetworks
began to come undersuspicionas traitors(Williams 1960, 128-32). It is here in
diasporic nationalism,where Chinese were most concernedwith assertingtheir
and being acceptedas a fullpartof the modernworldand international
sovereignty
system,thatwe come closestto havingthe Chineseconformto a more"traditional"
of diasporaas a culturalentityscatteredacrossthe globe, yetlinked
understanding
by cultureand yearningsforthe homeland.This developmentwas made possibleby
institutionssuch as newspapers,schools, political parties, and contribution
movements,the same institutionsthathave playedimportantrolesin modernstate
building.It is a reminderthatdiasporaas a self-conscious
identityis a phenomenon
thatgrewwiththe riseof nationstates,ratherthanonlyin oppositionto them.
EthnicChinese
were erectedaround ideas of race,
As increasinglyhard lines of identification
culture,and political sovereigntyin the early twentiethcentury,behaviorthat
or dividedloyaltiesbecameincreasingly
appearedto expresshybridity
suspiciousand
untenable.Public choiceshad to be made. For mostmigrants,the choiceto identify
withChinaand diasporicnationalismwas an easyone. Nonetheless,a slowlygrowing
numberof migrantschose to identifywith the land wheretheylived, choosingto
becomeAmerican,Filipino,Thai, or anyof a numberof otherpossiblenationalities.
This was especiallytrueamong Chinesewho werebornoutsideof China, but over
the earlytwentiethcentury,growingnumbersof Chinese began to relocateentire
networks(Cushmanand
familiesabroad and cut themselvesofffromtransnational
Wang 1988).
difficult.
ofthesincerity
tendedto be extremely
Such identifications
Irrespective
he was likelyto encounterracializedand
of an individual'ssubjectiveidentification,

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
327
nationalistsentiments,
whichmade anyattemptsto takepartin local institutions
or
be accepted as a conational difficult,if not impossible. Such exclusions were
claims over migrantloyaltyfromChina, and
exacerbatedby physicaldifferences,
policiesby colonialregimesand nativerulersthatseparatedChineseout as a special
mercantileclass or dehumanizedthemas alien laborers.It was onlyafterthe Second
World War, when furthermigrationhad been cut offand it was clear that most
Chinese migrantsaround the world were there to stay, that ethnic identities
appropriate
to pluralistpolitiesbeganto be negotiated,usuallyin somesortofhybrid
formulation
such as ChineseAmerican,Filipinoof Chinesedescent,or lookjin(SinoThai). Such identitieswerepredicatedon the idea that it is possibleto be Chinese
The detailsoftheseidentitieswerevery
and stillbe a partofthenationalcommunity.
mucha productoflocal politicsand statebuilding,drawingupon culturaltraitsthat
as well as on local experiences
or wereproducedforthe local environment,
flourished
of struggleand solidaritythat made up the historicalcomponentsof theirlocal
identity.Theseethnicidentitiesincludeda varietyofsubjectiveattitudes.Manyethnic
Chinese considerthemselvesto be local nationals,yet still feel theyare outsiders
or rejectionby the wider society.At other times,
because of culturaldifference
citizenshipand local identitieswere takenup almostentirelyin the interestof the
more commercialconcernsof migrantnetworks,with little change in subjective
At theotherextreme,manysecond-orthird-generation
orientation.
migrantsrejected
China and all thingsChineseas representing
the social awkwardness
backwardness,
ofparents,and as generativeof exoticizingand marginalizingattitudes.
The emergenceof ethnicChineseis a topicbestapproachedfromnationalrather
thandiasporicperspective.It is an area in whichthe identityand meaningof being
Chineseis moststronglyformedby local social relations,whereChinesenessbecomes
a heritage,a politicalstatus,or merelya colorof skin.Much workhas alreadybeen
done on the ways that colonial policy, citizenship regulations, economic
nationalizationpolicies, and racializingideologies have helped constructChinese
ethnicitiesin variousnations,and need not be recountedhere."5
Although a local perspective is most relevant to understandingethnic
At the veryleast, the diasporicnetworksand
Chineseness,it is still not sufficient.
economicintereststhatmovedlaborersand merchants
aroundtheworldalso haveto
be takeninto accountto understandthe emergenceof a local Chineseminorityand
the intereststhat shaped themas a local community.Moreover,theseinterestsdid
not alwaysbecome irrelevantas locallyborn Chinesebegan to identifythemselves
morecompletelyas local ethnics.ManyyoungChineseethnics,as theygrewfrustrated
in thefaceofobstacleserectedagainsttheirattemptsto integrateintolocal societies,
turnedtowardsdiasporicnationalismas an alternative,
directingtheirattentionback
15MostworksofAsian Americanstudiesarededicatedto thisprojectofcreatinga Chinese
or Asian Americanidentity.Cushmanand Wang (1988) is one of the earliestworksto systematicallyinvestigatethe politicalaspectsofethnicChineseidentitiesthroughoutSoutheast
Asia, acknowledginga strongintellectualdebt to the workofJudithStrauch.The essaysin
Suryadinata(1997) make a strongcase forthe identification
of Chineseas a SoutheastAsian
ethnicgroup. I think,however,thatSuryadinatastacksthe deck againstany otherinterpretationon thefirst
page ofhis openingessay,whenhe asksifChinesein SoutheastAsia "perceive
withChina
themselvesas Chineseoverseasor SoutheastAsians?" thus makingidentification
or with SoutheastAsian statesinto the only alternatives,and ignoringthe possibilityof a
withSouthdeterritorialized
identity.Nonetheless,a fewoftheessaysunderstandidentification
with local nationstates,but also in termsof a
east Asia not only in termsof identification
broaderpan-nationalsense of SoutheastAsianness,a constructionthat seems no less reified
thanthe idea of a Chinesenationaldiasporathatis being criticized.

328
ADAM McKEOWN
to a China theymay have once scorned.Some even physicallymoved to China, not

knowingthe languageor havinganyconnectionsthere,but still hopingto use their
educationand skillsto help "save the nation."
The institutions
ofdiasporicnetworkscould also be appropriated
and put to new
use byethnicChinese.One ofthemoststrikingexamplesis in Hawaii, wheresurname
associationsbegan to mushroomin the 1930s, mostlyestablishedby locally born
Chinese. Like the associationscreatedby their immigrantparents,these groups
maintainedlinksto hometownsand contributed
moneyforlineagehalls,schools,local
militia, and the publicationof genealogies.They also maintainedan interestin
ancestors,
but insteadoffocusingon lineagefounders
and successfulimperialscholars
bornhundredsofyearsago, theydrewattentionto thepioneermigrantswho,as they
said, "helpedbuild Hawaii." The interestsofthesenew surnameassociationswas not
the directinterestin self-protection
and statusin the eyesof theirvillage neighbors
thattheirparentshad. Rather,it carriedovertonesof charity,and was fueledby an
interestin rootsand heritagethatwas most immediatelyrelevantin the contextof
links were still important,but
multiculturalHawaii. Mutual aid and transnational
primarily
as a local markerof Chineseheritage,a mediumto reinforce
local Chinese
businessnetworks,and fromwhichto constructan image of Chineseas pioneersof
Hawaii. Local conceptionstendedto place Chinesesecondin the ethnichierarchy
of
status and economic success, preceded only by Caucasians, and the surname
associationswerea concreteway to maintainboth solidarityand economicinterests
withinthat status.The ethnicizingtransformation
of surnameassociationsalso had
the advantageof being able to deflectpossible negativestereotypesand fearsof
nationalistand culturalsubversionon the part of the dominantsociety,by tying
Chinesenessmore to the timingand conditionsof theirarrivalin Hawaii than to
anythinghavingto do withloyaltyto Asia, race,or adherenceto culture(McKeown
1997, 476-89).
Continuedattentionto diasporiclinksalso helps understandthe discoursesand
practicesused by non-Chineseto characterizeChinese minorities.Just as labor
and Chinesenationalismwereembeddedin economic
migration,migrantnetworks,
and politicalrelationsat a global scale,so local politicalattitudeswereembeddedin
globallycirculatingdiscoursesof race and images of Chineseness.One of the most
famousexampleswas the pamphletTheJewsoftheEast writtenby King Vajiravudh
ofThailand in 1914. In it tropesoftheeternallyalienJewthatthe kinghad learned
during his studies in London were applied to the Chinese, depicting them as
unassimilableoutsiders,loyalonlyto money(producingwhatKasian [19971 calls an
"imagined uncommunity").Depictions of Chinese as degraded, as parochial
sojourners,as a Yellow Peril,or as scheming,insularbusinessmen-manyof which
seemed all the more accuratewhen observersfromlocal perspectivesviewed the
diasporicactivitiesof Chinese-had wide currencyat an international
level, which
helpedlegitimizetheirlocal applicationall themore.At the same time,theChinese
themselvescould appropriateand redeploythese images as industrious,peaceable
businessmenwho refrained
frompoliticalagitation,contributedto local economies,
and integratedlocal nationsintoglobal marketopportunities
(Ong 1993; McKeown
1997; Mitchell1997).
A comparisonofrecentethnicidentitieswiththecreoleChineseidentitiescreated
in earliercenturiescan help highlightthe waysthatethnicidentitiesare embedded
in global historicaltrends.Peoples such as the peranakansof Java, the Babas of
Malaysia,and the mestizosof the Philippineswerethedescendantsofintermarriages
betweenChinesemigrantsand local women that began severalhundredyearsago.

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
329
They spoke(and still speak) variousMalay and Chinesecreoles,yetwereknownfor

maintainingcertainaspectsofChinesedressand rituallifethathad longbeendropped
by morerecentChinesemigrants(Skinner1996; Tan 1988). As withethnicChinese,
the formationand differences
of thesecreolegroupswere stronglysituatedin local
politicaland social relations.Yet, the importantmarkerof difference
tendedto be
culturalpracticesratherthanrace.That is to say,a modernethnicChinesemay,in
termsofclothes,language,and habits,see himselfas in harmony
withthemainstream
nationalculturewherehe lives,and yetstill be markedoffas a minority,
whereasa
creole may be physicallyindistinguishablefromthe surroundingpopulation yet
distinguishhimselfthroughculturalmarkers.Both peranakanand Chineseethnics
still existas different
groupsin partsof SoutheastAsia today.This distinctionwas a
productboth of the factthatthe new waves of migrantsthatbegan arrivingin the
second half of the nineteenthcenturywere not well incorporatedinto limited
peranakannetworks,
and of the riseof the nationaldiaspora,withinwhichcreolized
Chinesewereoftendisparagedand isolatedas not modern,not trulyChinese,or as
runningdogs of the imperialpowers.
If we accept postmodernistvisions of diaspora as a site of multiplicityand
thenethnicChinesecould be conceivedof as a diaspora,with the label of
diversity,
Chinesesignifying
in each local context.The application
somethingslightlydifferent
of such an overarchingcategory,however,would obscure more than it would
illuminatein an interrogationof Chineseness.Rather, it is more importantto
rememberthat no ethnicgroup emergesin completeisolation,that contemporary
ethnicityis verymucha productof modernglobal politics.
Diasporic Culture
The closing of the bordersof China afterthe establishmentof the People's
Republic of China in 1949 severelyweakenedthe links of migrantnetworkswith
theirhomevillages.The divisionofthegovernment
betweenBeijing and Taiwanalso
createdgreatconfusionand uncertainty
amongproponentsof diasporicnationalism.
The rapiddeclineofdiasporicnationalismwas also embeddedin moregeneraltrends
ofthemid-twentieth
ethnicChineseidentities.
entrench
centurythathelpedto further
These included the increasingtendencyforChinesemigrationto take the formof
relocationof families,the disruptionof diasporicnetworksby the depressionand
World War II, and the political suspicionand demandson the loyaltyof overseas
Chinese that came with the Cold War and the postindependence
rise of Southeast
Asian nationalism.
Over the past thirtyyears,however,transnationallinks among Chinese have
reemergedmorestronglythanever.These new flowsofcommunication
followmany
of the routesand networksbuilt up overpast centuries,yetare also a transformation
of thosenetworks.These linkscan now be describedmoreaccuratelyas a web, rather
thana set of radiatinggrooves,with new citieslike Vancouver,Taibei, Sydney,and
New York overshadowing
earliernodeslike Hong Kong, Singapore,and Xiamen.As
in earliernetworks,the familyis still a basic institution,
but thesefamiliesare now
cut offfromthe householdin China and less interestedin the maintenanceof the
patriline.They are moreconcernedwith the materialsurvivalof the nuclearfamily
foreconomicactivity,education,and political
by takingadvantageof opportunities
stabilityaroundthe world.Geographicdispersalis still common,and the abilityto

330
ADAM McKEOWN
maintain connectionsacross large distances and political boundariesis still an

importantsourceof profitand strength,but the altar and householdas an anchor
groundingthisfamilyin space and acrosstimehas largelydisappeared.
These new and reemergentlinks could be profitablydescribedin termsof
or evenas theemergenceofa global bourgeoisieas these
diasporicentrepreneurialism,
in the
networksbecomeincreasingly
identified
witheconomicpowerand modernity
Pacific(Nonini and Ong 1997; Wang 1991, 213; and severalessaysin Chirotand
Reid 1997 thatmake the comparisonwithJewishliberalmodernityin nineteenthcenturyEurope). I would like to underline,however,how these links bring the
Culture,of course,is a broadly
productionof a diasporiccultureto the forefront.
inclusiveword. The bonds holding togetherChinese networksand the imagined
communitiesof nationalismand ethnicityall have aspectswhichcould be described
as cultural.Here, however,I would like to highlighttwo processesthat have only
been impliedin the precedingdiscussion.They are aspectsthatare now comingto
in the construction
the forefront
of a self-conscious
global Chinesenessthat has no
necessarylinks to China, as increasinglymobile Chinese are circulatingin all
directionsaroundthe world,wheretheyencounterotherChinesewith whom they
have no priorconnectionsthroughnetworksor nationalcitizenship.
The firstculturalprocessis the way thatsharedformsof inscribedbehaviorcan
facilitatethe constructionof networksin a practical sense. People previously
unfamiliarwith each othercan findtheyspeak a similarlanguage,eat similarfood,
haveancestorsfromnearbyvillages,and can readeach other'sbodylanguage(Kotkin
1992; LeverTracyand Ip 1996; Redding 1990). These similaritieshelp themto feel
they know what to expect and when they can trusteach other,thus laying the
in which
and extendedrelationships
groundwork
forbusinessdeals,socialencounters,
in personalexperiencecan be overcome,and an even richertextureof
differences
common practices and attitudes can be produced. The urge to develop such
forprofit,but also throughthe
is partiallyshapedby the opportunities
relationships
productionof culturein a more ideologicaland imaginedsense; the creationof a
common sentimentand culturalheritagethat exists above and beyond political
loyaltiesand personalexperience.A recentjournalisticaccountofChinesemigration
culturalheritageas its
used one of the mostsuccinctexpressionsof this constructed
title,SonsoftheYellowEmperor
(Pann 1990). The discourseofConfucianethicsas the
rootofEast Asian developmentand Chinesebusinesssuccessis one ofthemostwellof this kind of culturalidentity-extendedto incorporate
known manifestations
Koreanand Japanesesuccessas well-even thoughthefamilyvalues thatsupposedly
embodythis ethic sometimesseem more appropriateto an Americanpresidential
campaignspeechthanto anythinga Confucianscholaroftwohundredyearsago would
havepromotedas an ideal family.
The emergenceofChinaas a growingeconomicpowerhas helpedfuelthisinterest
in a diasporicculture,but it is only one nexus in a much more complexweb of
and mobility.Participationin thisdiasporiccultureoftentakes
economicopportunity
the form of resinicization-like sending children to learn Mandarin or the
suchas thelion dance-but it is also based on
of culturalperformances
revitalization
a claimthatto be Chineseis also to be modern,to be at thecuttingedge ofeconomic
as a
and culturalglobalization.As nationsfall away,culturecomes to the forefront
in
oftheThreeKingdoms,
primaryactor.The popularityof the Chinesenovel,Romance
Thailand as a model for successfulbusinesscompetitionand a veiled critiqueof
bureaucratic
politiciansis a simpleexampleofhow Chineseculturecan be associated
with economic success and modern values (Reynolds 1996). It must also be

CONCEPTUALIZING
CHINESE
DIASPORAS,
1842 TO 1979
331
emphasized,however,thatto the extentthatsuch a diasporiccultureexists,it is far

fromuniversaland is in manywaysa class-basedideology.Only a small portionof
people who identifythemselvesas ethnicChinesehave the means,language skills,
and inclinationto take part in this diasporic culture,and many resist it as an
infringement
on hard-wonlocal identities(Dirlik 1996; Suryadinata1997; Wong
1995).
Where, then, does this diasporicanalysislead us in an interrogation
of the
categoryof "Chinese"?Nothingis uniquelyChineseaboutanythingdescribedin this
paper.It is all potentiallyapplicableto othermigrationsand transnational
networks,
perhapsdiffering
only in detail and magnitude,such as the intensityof nationalist
sentiment,
frequency
of tripshome,long-termviabilityof transnational
families,or
the importanceand functionof migrantassociations.On the otherhand, fromthe
perspectiveof participantswho made up these networksand communities,being
Chinesecould be everything.
Participation
dependeduponand producedChineseness.
A personwas Chinesebyvirtueofthefactthathe movedthroughnetworks
channeled
throughHong Kong, Shantouor Xiamen,and back to villagesin whichthey,or their
ancestors,
wereborn.The precisesymbolsused to mobilizeloyaltyand trust,suchas
chickenblood oaths and fictionalkinship bonds derivedfromold stories,would
resonatelittle with a Sicilian looking to join an organizationand formbonds of
community,but were very powerfulin appealing to and furtherstrengthening
identification
as Chinese.Similarly,althoughnationalismwas a formofidentification
on manydifferent
workingsimultaneously
peoplesaroundtheworld,thecommunity
ofpeoplewillingand able to be acceptedas Chinesenationalswas limited.Moreover,
the barrierscreatedby prejudicesand racializedconceptionsof Chinesenessoften
assuredthatevenpeople who wantednothingto do withChinesenesshad no choice
but to be identifiedas Chinese anyway.Finally,access to increasinglypowerful
business networksin the Pacific are facilitatedby language skills and personal
connectionsthatcan identify
one as Chinese,withthe latteroftenbeing muchmore
difficult
to build fromscratchthantheformer.
and
Participationin theseexperiences
processesmade people Chinese,but nonewereunique to the Chinese.
To recapitulate,
thisessayhas arguedthatan understanding
ofChinesemigration
and of ethnicChineseneeds to incorporatean historicalperspectiveotherthan just
those shaped by nationstates.We need to directattentionto the roles played by
transnationalinstitutions,flowsand connections,as well as to the way that local
are embedded in larger, global processes. As yet we have no
transformations
completelysatisfactory
vocabularywith which to engage in such a project,but the
very debate over the terms of conceptualizationbrings importantissues to our
attention.Transnationallabor movementand diasporicnationalismare topics that
havealreadyreceivedscholarlyattention,
butglobalperspectives
on migrantnetworks,
ethnicidentity,and culturalflowscan still providemanynew insights,and further
dissuadeus fromtakinglocallyor culturallyboundeddepictionsof social groupsas
absolute.
historically
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Conceptualizing Chinese Diasporas, 1842 to 1949

Author(s): Adam McKeown

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what might be loosely called "modern"Chinese migration.The purpose of this

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analysesofdiasporaareerectedas critiquesofessentializednotionsofraceand culture,

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movement,forwhichlocal Chinesepapersnotedhis cause of death in 1937, at the

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essentializingthan to talk about the "Chinesediaspora":both make claims over a

This content downloaded from 128.82.252.58 on Wed, 28 Aug 2013 09:24:53 AM

Beginnings of Modern Chinese Migration

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Fujian merchantnetworksand Hakka minersfromwesternGuangdongas the main

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Unrestand scarcityof local opportunities

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The bulk of this labor migrationwas controlledby Chinese.In the villagesof

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choice,sincemigrationwas just one ofa varietyof investment

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havingmarrieda Chineseman in Peru,accompanying

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advantage of access to marketrates,ratherthan the officiallyimposed currency

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away fromextensiveruralnetworksthat could appearto be impenetrable"empires

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640 migrantshad been recruitedas contractlaborersto Jamaicain 1884, settingin

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ofeach group.Nationalistgroupsalso establishedmanyofthefirstChineselanguage

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to a China theymay have once scorned.Some even physicallymoved to China, not

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They spoke(and still speak) variousMalay and Chinesecreoles,yetwereknownfor

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maintain connectionsacross large distances and political boundariesis still an

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emphasized,however,thatto the extentthatsuch a diasporiccultureexists,it is far

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

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edited by Aihwa Ong and Donald Nonini.

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Hu-DEHART, EVELYN. 1993. "ChineseCoolie Labour in Cuba in the Nineteenth

LEONG GOR YUN. 1936. Chinatown

LIu HAIMING. 1992. "The Trans-PacificFamily: A Case Study of Sam Chang's

AsianStudies18: 307Dynasty:Organizationsin FluxforMobile People." Modern

ADAM. 1996. "Inmigracion china al Peru, 1904-1937:

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.1997. "ChineseMigrantsamong Ghosts:Chicago,Peru and Hawaii in the

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Siu, PAUL. 1952. "The Sojourner,"American

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WANG GUNGWU. 1991. Chinaand theChinese

WANG, L. LING-CHI. 1995. "The Structureof Dual Domination: Toward a

Paradigmforthe Studyof the ChineseDiaspora in the United States."Amerasia