From the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, colonial Singapore served as a focal point fo... more From the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, colonial Singapore served as a focal point for the Asian commodity trading hub. At the turn of 1965, the Republic of Singapore, as an independent nation-state, attempted to maintain its colonial status in Asia and beyond. This attempt by Singaporean elites was successful even beyond the ideological conflict during the 1960s, which means that communist countries such as the Soviet Union, China, North Vietnam, and North Korea wanted access to Singapore for commercial trade. North Korea was a rare Asian country in the 1950s and 1960s that achieved relatively high industrial performances with synthetic fabrics, machinery, underground resources, heavy machinery goods, and so on. North Korean leaders also tried to use Singapore to distribute industrial commodities and propagate economic performances in diplomatic terms over South Korea.
The attempt of North Korean communist leaders could be examined by diverse activities between Singapore and North Korea, such as launching mutual exchanges of high elites, connecting with overseas Chinese merchants in Singapore, and opening the industrial exhibition for North Korean industrialization. In the case of Singapore, its leaders hoped to draw on the experiences of North Korean industrialization because the ultimate mission before and after the independence was a high proportion of industrialization guided by the UN economic adviser and Goh Keng Swee, the Minister of Finance, beginning with the construction of the Jurong East industrial estate. Through primary sources of Singapore news articles, North Korean news articles, South Korean diplomatic archives, and CIA archives, this paper focuses on the mutual interactions of Singapore, the trading hub, and North Korea, the industrial estate.
Abstract
Due to its geographical proximity to the two most advanced and populous civilizations in... more Abstract Due to its geographical proximity to the two most advanced and populous civilizations in Asia, the Indian subcontinent and mainland China, Southeast Asia has long been a meeting ground for Chinese and Indian diaspora. The aggressive expansion of Western empires, particularly the British Empire, into Southeast Asia during the colonial era beginning in the 19th century had increased the mass migration of Chinese and Indians to this area. In this background, the overseas Chinese and overseas Indians encountered in the colonial Southeast Asia, especially the British colonial territories including the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, and British Burma of the British India. Along with this tendency, Chinese and Indian economic institutions co-existed and often connected with one another in the British colonies of Southeast Asia. This research compares financial customs of two diaspora groups in Southeast Asia, paying particular attention to the capital flow in terms of remittances, credit business, bill of exchange and so forth, and figures out the historical moments of interaction. Given that this kind of study has received relatively little attention from the existing scholarship of Asian economic history, overseas Chinese and overseas Indian history, and Southeast Asian history, it will contribute to a better understanding of trans-national/regional financial transactions conducted by the two diaspora groups in a comparative perspective. With the large number of migrants, the overseas Chinese could relocate all throughout Southeast Asia and became deeply rooted in the local society and economy. Furthermore, they constructed vast but dense network through remittances (thanks to the massive movements of labour population), known as Qiaopi network and Piaohui(draft) payment system. On the other hand, the strength of Indian merchants in dealing with trans-regional credit transactions (remittances, moneylending, payments, etc.) within British colonies was their greater financing capabilities. In the British colonial dominion of Southeast Asia, the Chettiar merchant caste was known for controlling the credit business sector. The ability of Chettiars to raise capital provided complete backing for the colonial economy in Burma, the Malay States, and the Straits Settlements. The hundi system was crucial for their trans-regional and inter-ethnic money transactions. The encounter of Chinese and Indian merchants in Burma, Malay States, and Singapore frequently resulted in a combination of Chinese infiltration into locals because of the bigger population and Chettiars' finance capability. Acquiring the massive quantity of capital managed by two diaspora groups - Chinese for the foreign exchange market and Chettiars for loanable capital - was made possible by the British banking industry's focus on the Asian market. As a result, a connected commercial network of ‘Qiaopi’ and ‘Hundi’ between China, Southeast Asia, and India was formed during the colonial period.
In the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese entrepreneurs in both mainland China and Southeast Asia experienced great hardship as a result of the Anti-Japanese War and the Asia Pacific War. As conflicts among Britain, Japan, and China peaked, Chinese companies with networks stretching between Southeast Asia and South China had to find ways of adapting and surviving. They had to react rapidly frequent changes in the external environment, including the weakening of British colonial rule, Japanese threats, and the Japanese occupation. Their reactions and adaptations of Chinese company are the focus of this paper.
Eu Yan Sang, a well-known Cantonese overseas Chinese enterprise, was not exceptional in this case. Its trans-national commercial network stretching from Singapore and the British Malaya to Canton via Hong Kong as headquarter was also vulnerable to the changing circumstances during the wartime period. Before the outbreak of the war, Eu Yan Sang achieved a great success through doing overseas Chinese remittance business, especially focusing on foreign exchange business. There has been diverse researches studying Eu Yan Sang’s business network. However, its accounting books and foreign exchange network have not been concerned much by scholars. It will show the connection between Guangzhou(Canton) and Southeast Asia via Hong Kong through the flow of overseas Chinese capital dealt by Eu Yan Sang, a Cantonese enterprise.
Conclusion
According to the list of Eu Yan Sang accounting books, both Hong Kong and Guangzhou offices re-opened their businesses of remittance and traditional medicine shops in 1946. Moreover, remittances through telegraph (Dianhui 电汇) from Malayan branches such as Singapore (石叻), Penang (庇能), Kuala Lumpur (吉隆坡), Seremban (芙蓉), Perak (坝罗), Kampar (金宝), and Gopeng (务边) were also normalized as per the business situation before the war. After the surrender of the Japanese Empire, the major banks of Eu Yan Sang where a large amount of capital was transacted were HSBC and the Bank of East Asia (BEA). Eu Yan Sang had several bank accounts with BEA, such as the Guangzhou BEA account, the Hong Kong BEA account, the BEA Yan Sang, and the BEA Singapore account. Among these accounts, the major bank account was the BEA Yan Sang, which is where the largest capital was transacted. HSBC bank account of Hong Kong Eu Yan Sang was mainly used for transactions between Hong Kong and branches in British Malaya.
During the British re-occupation era in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula, Eu Yan Sang constructed its foreign exchange network with Guanzhou branch in a different shape, the British sterling-backed foreign exchange network. This new type of network was organized due to the distrust of the Nationalist government and a strong confidence in the HKD. The HKD was trusted by the public of Hong Kong and Guangdong province even during the Japanese occupation. This confidence created a great obstacle for the Japanese Empire to circulate military notes. At the same time, the exchange rate of the HKD with the British sterling was determined as 16 HKD per one British pound, which reflected the official sterling conversion rate of 4.06 US dollars. In 1945, Hong Kong became a member of the Sterling Area group. Because the Malayan dollar, which had been circulated mainly in Straits Settlements (including Singapore) and British Malaya before the Pacific War, was also backed by the sterling, a free market could emerge among Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula based on the sterling standard monetary system.
Due to the monetary confidence of the public and the link with Singapore and branches in British Malaya within the British sterling sphere, Eu Yan Sang could circulate foreign exchange when dealing with overseas Chinese remittance. It was not necessary to convert HKD into the Chinese legal tender or the Gold Yuan note 金圓券 for distribution to the local society, because local societies in Hong Kong, Guangdong province, and further South China mainly accepted the Hong Kong dollar, the British pound, and the US dollar. It could be more useful to remit Hong Kong dollars directly to the receivers. In addition, the Chinese legal tender issued by the Nationalist Government failed to be trusted by the public due to its disastrous exchange rate caused by the Civil War.
In conclusion, during the war years, Eu Yan Sang faced a number of external constraints, including British rule, Japanese threats, the Japanese occupation and the British re-occupation. Up until 1941, it was not much experienced by the Japanese problems without the closure of Guangzhou branch, so the remittance trade carried on as usual. However, once Hong Kong was under Japanese military administration, Eu Yan Sang had to adapt and survive without access to the trade. In the end, it attempted to survive under Japanese financial control by putting the emphasis on its ties to local society as well as its adaption to Japanese colonial rule. After the Japanese surrender, with the British re-occupation on Hong Kong and Malay Peninsula, Eu Yan Sang could begin to form its own business network backed by the British sterling monetary system.
In the late imperial China, Chinese who tried to depart imperial territory across the South C... more In the late imperial China, Chinese who tried to depart imperial territory across the South China Sea and make a living overseas were regarded as criminals or useless people by the Qing government. Therefore, they were often executed by Qing government. This kind of perspective by the Qing dynasty had been changed from the mid-1870s as Qing government began to realize the economic potentials of Chinese in abroad, so called overseas Chinese. Before this change of perspective by Qing government, various kinds of harsh circumstances like Taiping Rebellion, corruptions of the officials, and natural disasters pushed the numerous population of Chinese to cross the sea. Externally, there had been the creation of new demands for Chinese labor as the plantation economics of Western imperial countries in Southeast Asia had developed. Due to those internal and external reasons, from the early-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, a significant number of Chinese departed their hometowns in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Because the main reason of their departure was normally economic poverty, the major purpose of their departure was working and supporting their family such as living necessaries, education of their children, and cash gifts for family. Therefore, the increase of Chinese migrants means the increase of remittances from Southeast Asia to China. With the money returning back to their hometown, the numerous letters written by Chinese laborers in Southeast Asia were also sent to the hometown in China. The combination of letters and remittances was called as ‘Qiaopi (侨批)’ in Chinese and, especially, in the case of letter, it reveals the real life and conditions of them. Due to the importance of ‘Qiaopi’ in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, it was nominated by UNESCO to be listed in the Asia-Pacific Memory of the World Register in May 2012. As noted above, Chinese who were working or searching for the living overseas were not regarded as the subjects under the protection of Qing government until the 1875 when the Qing government decided to treat them as the people that should be protected and to send the consuls to Western countries and Singapore. Finally, in 1877, Qing government could establish the consulate in Singapore to protect overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia after negotiating with British government. However, it means that they were working in overseas countries as foreign laborers who were not accepted by their home country until 1877. As migrant workers who were left stateless until 1877, how did overseas Chinese perceive themselves? What kind of factors formed their identity instead of nationality? To answer those questions regarding overseas Chinese identity before 1877, this article will examine their thoughts, perspectives, and ideas on the environment surrounding them via remittance system and letters from Southeast Asia to China. Those letters to their parents or wife and children would be a good method to reveal their perspectives on themselves. In this regard, with the investigation on processes of sending letters and money back to their hometown, this article will identify what the letters of overseas Chinese laborers shows us on their identity, which could be the root of contemporary overseas Chinese identity.
Social Transformations in Chinese Societies 14(2), 2018
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaosh... more Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in the maritime world of the South China Sea amidst the changing monetary systems of the rival empires and political regimes from 1939 to 1945. It particularly focuses on overseas Chinese remittance business in Shantou under the Japanese rule. Local societies in coastal China and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia experienced severe hardships due to the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War and the Chinese Civil War. As fighting among the rival empires and regimes intensified, Chinese migrant communities straddling between Southeast Asia and South China had to negotiate and adapt to survive these crises, regardless of whether they were government-affiliated or local autonomous subjects.
Design/methodology/approach – This research draws on archival materials to investigate the reactions of Chinese migrant communities in Chaoshan region in times of war and regime change. How did local maritime societies and overseas Chinese adapt to the harsh realities of the wartime? How did the Japanese Empire use Wang Jingwei’s puppet government in Nanjing to control the Chaoshan remittance network? How did the remittance network shift its operational structure in face of a wartime crisis?
Findings – Faced with the wartime crisis and the Japanese occupation, Chaoshan communities used a variety of survival strategies to protect and maintain the overseas Chinese remittance business. In dealing with remittances from Singapore, British Malay and Indonesia, they cooperated with the Japanese military authority and its puppet government to maximize the autonomy of their business operation in the Japanese controlled East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. On the other hand, to secure the flow of remittances from French Indochina and Thailand, the indirectly controlled territories in the Japanese Empire, Chaoshan merchants sought an alternative path of delivering remittances, known as the Dongxing route, to bypass the Japanese ban on private remittances from these two regions.
Research limitations/implications – It would be a better research if more resources, including remittance receipts and documents during the Japanese occupation, could be found and used to show more detailed features of Chaoshan local society. Originality/value – This research is the first one to investigate the contradictory features of local Chaoshan society during the Japanese occupation, an under-explored subject in the Chinese historiography.
동아연구(The Journal of the Institute for East Asian Studies Sogang University), 2019
Shophouse also known as Qilou and Wujiaoqi in Chinese, a tropical architectural culture in South... more Shophouse also known as Qilou and Wujiaoqi in Chinese, a tropical architectural culture in Southeast Asian urban district, has been one of symbols showing the hybrid characteristics of Southeast Asia. Interestingly, this architectural culture had been spread throughout diverse main urban districts in East Asia, especially surrounding South China Sea rim, such as Singapore, Malacca, Penang, Batavia, Hong Kong, Canton, Cahozhou, Shantou, Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Taiwan, Jinmen. It shows well the cultural interaction between Southeast Asia and South China through overseas Chinese trans-regional network. This paper aims at exploring the features of forming urban district in Singapore via Shophouse; tracing the transplantation process of Shophouse culture from Singapore to Xiamen of Fujian Province; lastly, thinking the role of overseas Chinese doing business between Southeast Asia and South China in this trans-regional interaction of culture. Based on primary sources and existing secondary researches, this paper finds that the Singapore was the first port-city of building the main urban streets with shopping arcade through constructing shophouse buildings. It was due to diverse consideration including natural environment, urban administration, increasing population, urban economic infrastructure and so on. In 19th to 20th century, Singapore became one of the most modernized city in Asia with the well-developed and well-arranged urban districts. All these processes could be attributed to the major contribution of Chinese in Singapore because they had provided most urban infrastructure enjoyed by European, Malay, Indian, and Chinese. Therefore, it could be noted that the Shophouse is a hybrid culture developed and utilized by overseas Chinese in terms of urban administration. This concept of shophouse architectural culture had been transmitted to Xiamen city, a major Fujian overseas Chinese home village and an essential port-city. With the plan of the Nationalist government to launch the re-development of southeastern port cities, overseas Chinese with huge capital began to invest in property industry of Xiamen. At the same time, they formed the urban district following the way of constructing shophouse streets in Singapore and other cities of Southeast Asia. They already experienced this shopehouse streets was a effective and well-arranged way of building modernized urban area in their hometown. Shophouse architectural cultrue and ‘five feet’ spaces called veranda for shopping arcade had been a common urban environment throughout South China Sea rim until the mid 20th century. It has been inherited today as a legacy of overseas Chinese cultural network between South China and Southeast Asia.
For thirteen years from 1937 to 1949, many Chinese entrepreneurs in both mainland China and South... more For thirteen years from 1937 to 1949, many Chinese entrepreneurs in both mainland China and Southeast Asia experienced harsh circumstances due to the Anti-Japanese War, the Asia Pacific War and the Chinese civil War. In particular, overseas Chinese enterprises with their business networks spreading to Southeast Asia and South China had to find ways of adapting and surviving. They had to react rapidly frequent changes in the external environment, such as the British colonial rule, the Japanese threat, the Japanese occupation and the British re-occupation after the war. Their reaction and adaption are the focus of this paper. Owing to Parks M. Coble's research on Chinese capitalists in Shanghai under the Japanese rule and Kuo Huei-Ying's concept, called 'Bourgeois Nationalism', on the overseas Chinese merchants, this paper deals with OCBC(Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporations), a major overseas Chinese-funded bank, as a case study. In 1932, OCBC incorporated other two overseas Chinese banks in Singapore, Ho Hong Bank and Huashang Bank, to survive the horrible economic crisis in Asia caused by the Great Depression and became the largest overseas Chinse-funded international bank. Until now (2017), OCBC has been an outstanding transnational bank having branches in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and South China. What this paper concentrates on is OCBC’s commercial activities to make balance between empires and regimes, such as the Britain, Japan and the Nationalist Government, before and after the war exploded. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese military administration in Singapore, called 'Syonan-to', wanted to use the OCBC's transnational network and its contribution on the Malay local society to stabilize occupied territories in Southeast Asia. Based on several evidences, this paper finds that OCBC re-launched the commercial activities in Singapore, Malay Peninsula and Xiamen in China under the Japanese colonial rule, so called 'East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere'. On the other hand, the leaders of OCBC moved to India just after the outbreak of the War and pursued re-opening its business through the support of the Britain and the US. With the end of the War in 1945, OCBC could re-open its business in Singapore with the allowance of the British colonial office and re-connect the transnational business network straddling from Southeast Asia to South China as well. All these efforts of OCBC to survive and adapt to the changing circumstances during the wartime period help us conceptualizing the fundamental character of the overseas Chinese capitalists as 'Entrepreneurial Nationalism'.
Recently, with the rise of China and its expansionism to Asia, the constant tensions and conflict... more Recently, with the rise of China and its expansionism to Asia, the constant tensions and conflicts between China and overseas Chinese political communities such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have emerged. This comtemporary international political issues offer meaningful implications to some researchers who are interested in the Asian studies, especially overseas Chinese and its diaspora. The aim of this paper is to introduce diverse analysis of these researchers on overseas Chinese studies to the Korean scholarly environment, which has not been familar with this topic. Two of most general tendency among the overseas Chinese studies can be observed in the debates on the characteristics of the overseas Chinese community. As Wang Gung-wu implies in his pioneer researches, Chinese communities in the mainland China and the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia both has shared something like common traditional values, so called “Chineseness”. On the other hand, Adam McKeown criticizes this kind of China-centered perspective and suggests an alternative approach, “Diasporic Nationalism”, which regards overseas Chinese communities in the world as an independent subject against ‘home country’-‘host country’ discourse. The problem of these two perspectives on the overseas Chinese communities is that these researches – despite of their collisions – fundamentally have a common premise, ‘every overseas Chinese community shares the same homogeneity’. This premise could not describe the entire overseas Chinese communities in the globe including Southeast Asia. In this regard, the “ecological differences” that is proposed by Philip Kuhn could be an appropriate concept to study overseas Chinese communities, because it emphasizes the diversity of studying overseas Chinese history regardless of any other theoretical framework. The ‘ecological differences’, as a research approach in understanding overseas Chinese community, carries a proper way of facing the coming resurrection of Chinese ‘Empire’. To understand the diverse dimensions of conflicts between the Chinese expansionism and the overseas Chinese politico-socio-cultural communities including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, it is necessary to deal with those confrontations individually because Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have been rested on the different ecological environments from each other.
In the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese entrepreneurs both of mainland China and Southeast Asi... more In the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese entrepreneurs both of mainland China and Southeast Asia had been experiencing harsh circumstances due to the continuous wars such as Anti-Japanese war and Asian Pacific war. As conflicts among empires and political regimes like Britain, Japan, and China reached at peak, Chinese companies, which had a network between Southeast Asia and South China, had to adapt and survive under those tensions. In the wartime period from 1937 to 1941, especially, because those Chinese companies had faced frequent changes of external environments such as British colonial rule, Japanese threats, and Japanese occupation, they had to react rapidly to those external changes. These reactions, survivals, and adaptations of Chinese companies are the main argument of this research. In particular, this paper focuses on the overseas Chinese remittance network and the foreign exchange business that was a major profit of the overseas Chinese remittance business. The China & South seas Bank, which was a big commercial bank established by the outstanding overseas Chinese entrepreneur, Huang Yizhu, also faced this kind of harsh wartime circumstance. During the Anti-Japanese War, the China & South seas Bank closed most of branches in China without Hong Kong and Gulangyu offices and tried to concentrate on the overseas Chinese remittance business, so called Qiaopi trade, and the foreign exchange flow, which was the most profitable business of the bank. Huang Yizhu decided to focus on the foreign exchange flow from Hong Kong to Shanghai via the Qiaopi network. On the other hand, the Bank of China, the largest governmental bank during the Republican era of China, was an important part of the financial plan of the Nationalist Government to stabilize the monetary circumstances of the Central China in competing with the Japanese monetary regulations. The foreign exchange flow within the Qiaopi network between South China and Southeast Asia was a key target of the Nationalist Government to secure the foreign exchange reserve, which could stabilize the value of the Chinese legal tender circulated in the Central China. Through the collaborations with other governmental institutions in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, the Bank of China expanded its Qiaopi network and dealt with the foreign exchange in large quantities. The wartime vulnerability was an opportunity for the Bank of China. At first, the general structure of the Qiaopi network and the financial policies of three political regimes, such as the British Empire, Japanese Empire and the Nationalist Government, during the Anti-Japanese War are provided as a background information of this paper. And then, this paper investigates the reactions of two banks on the outbreak of the war and the subsequent changing monetary environments of diverse political regimes. This is a key topic of this research.
During the period from the 19th to the mid-20th centuries, colonial Singapore played a central ro... more During the period from the 19th to the mid-20th centuries, colonial Singapore played a central role as an Asian trading hub. From 1965, the Republic of Singapore, as a sovereign nation, attempted to uphold its former colonial position of dominance. The efforts undertaken by the Singaporean elites proved to be highly effective, surpassing even the ideological conflict of the 1960s. This resulted in communist nations like the Soviet Union, China, North Vietnam, and North Korea expressing a desire to establish commercial trade relations with Singapore. In the 1950s and 1960s, North Korea stood out as an Asian nation that had achieved notable industrial advancements. North Korean leaders sought to utilize Singapore as a platform for disseminating its industrial products and economic achievements. The efforts made by North Korean communist leaders can be analyzed through various activities carried out between Singapore and North Korea. In the case of Singapore, its leaders aspired to broaden its trading horizons by establishing connections with socialist nations and adopting the insights gained from North Korean industrialization. Through primary sources of Singapore news articles, North Korean news articles, South Korean diplomatic archives, and CIA archives, this paper focuses on the mutual interactions of Singapore, the trading hub, and North Korea, the industrial estate.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in the maritime world of the South China Sea amidst the changing monetary systems of the rival empires and political regimes from 1939 to 1945. It particularly focuses on overseas Chinese remittance business in Shantou under the Japanese rule. Local societies in coastal China and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia experienced severe hardships due to the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War and the Chinese Civil War. As fighting among the rival empires and regimes intensified, Chinese migrant communities straddling between Southeast Asia and South China had to negotiate and adapt to survive these crises, regardless of whether they were government-affiliated or local autonomous subjects. Design/methodology/approach This research draws on archival materials to investigate the reactions of Chinese migrant communities in Chaoshan region in times of war and regime change. How did local...
From the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, colonial Singapore served as a focal point fo... more From the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, colonial Singapore served as a focal point for the Asian commodity trading hub. At the turn of 1965, the Republic of Singapore, as an independent nation-state, attempted to maintain its colonial status in Asia and beyond. This attempt by Singaporean elites was successful even beyond the ideological conflict during the 1960s, which means that communist countries such as the Soviet Union, China, North Vietnam, and North Korea wanted access to Singapore for commercial trade. North Korea was a rare Asian country in the 1950s and 1960s that achieved relatively high industrial performances with synthetic fabrics, machinery, underground resources, heavy machinery goods, and so on. North Korean leaders also tried to use Singapore to distribute industrial commodities and propagate economic performances in diplomatic terms over South Korea.
The attempt of North Korean communist leaders could be examined by diverse activities between Singapore and North Korea, such as launching mutual exchanges of high elites, connecting with overseas Chinese merchants in Singapore, and opening the industrial exhibition for North Korean industrialization. In the case of Singapore, its leaders hoped to draw on the experiences of North Korean industrialization because the ultimate mission before and after the independence was a high proportion of industrialization guided by the UN economic adviser and Goh Keng Swee, the Minister of Finance, beginning with the construction of the Jurong East industrial estate. Through primary sources of Singapore news articles, North Korean news articles, South Korean diplomatic archives, and CIA archives, this paper focuses on the mutual interactions of Singapore, the trading hub, and North Korea, the industrial estate.
Abstract
Due to its geographical proximity to the two most advanced and populous civilizations in... more Abstract Due to its geographical proximity to the two most advanced and populous civilizations in Asia, the Indian subcontinent and mainland China, Southeast Asia has long been a meeting ground for Chinese and Indian diaspora. The aggressive expansion of Western empires, particularly the British Empire, into Southeast Asia during the colonial era beginning in the 19th century had increased the mass migration of Chinese and Indians to this area. In this background, the overseas Chinese and overseas Indians encountered in the colonial Southeast Asia, especially the British colonial territories including the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, and British Burma of the British India. Along with this tendency, Chinese and Indian economic institutions co-existed and often connected with one another in the British colonies of Southeast Asia. This research compares financial customs of two diaspora groups in Southeast Asia, paying particular attention to the capital flow in terms of remittances, credit business, bill of exchange and so forth, and figures out the historical moments of interaction. Given that this kind of study has received relatively little attention from the existing scholarship of Asian economic history, overseas Chinese and overseas Indian history, and Southeast Asian history, it will contribute to a better understanding of trans-national/regional financial transactions conducted by the two diaspora groups in a comparative perspective. With the large number of migrants, the overseas Chinese could relocate all throughout Southeast Asia and became deeply rooted in the local society and economy. Furthermore, they constructed vast but dense network through remittances (thanks to the massive movements of labour population), known as Qiaopi network and Piaohui(draft) payment system. On the other hand, the strength of Indian merchants in dealing with trans-regional credit transactions (remittances, moneylending, payments, etc.) within British colonies was their greater financing capabilities. In the British colonial dominion of Southeast Asia, the Chettiar merchant caste was known for controlling the credit business sector. The ability of Chettiars to raise capital provided complete backing for the colonial economy in Burma, the Malay States, and the Straits Settlements. The hundi system was crucial for their trans-regional and inter-ethnic money transactions. The encounter of Chinese and Indian merchants in Burma, Malay States, and Singapore frequently resulted in a combination of Chinese infiltration into locals because of the bigger population and Chettiars' finance capability. Acquiring the massive quantity of capital managed by two diaspora groups - Chinese for the foreign exchange market and Chettiars for loanable capital - was made possible by the British banking industry's focus on the Asian market. As a result, a connected commercial network of ‘Qiaopi’ and ‘Hundi’ between China, Southeast Asia, and India was formed during the colonial period.
In the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese entrepreneurs in both mainland China and Southeast Asia experienced great hardship as a result of the Anti-Japanese War and the Asia Pacific War. As conflicts among Britain, Japan, and China peaked, Chinese companies with networks stretching between Southeast Asia and South China had to find ways of adapting and surviving. They had to react rapidly frequent changes in the external environment, including the weakening of British colonial rule, Japanese threats, and the Japanese occupation. Their reactions and adaptations of Chinese company are the focus of this paper.
Eu Yan Sang, a well-known Cantonese overseas Chinese enterprise, was not exceptional in this case. Its trans-national commercial network stretching from Singapore and the British Malaya to Canton via Hong Kong as headquarter was also vulnerable to the changing circumstances during the wartime period. Before the outbreak of the war, Eu Yan Sang achieved a great success through doing overseas Chinese remittance business, especially focusing on foreign exchange business. There has been diverse researches studying Eu Yan Sang’s business network. However, its accounting books and foreign exchange network have not been concerned much by scholars. It will show the connection between Guangzhou(Canton) and Southeast Asia via Hong Kong through the flow of overseas Chinese capital dealt by Eu Yan Sang, a Cantonese enterprise.
Conclusion
According to the list of Eu Yan Sang accounting books, both Hong Kong and Guangzhou offices re-opened their businesses of remittance and traditional medicine shops in 1946. Moreover, remittances through telegraph (Dianhui 电汇) from Malayan branches such as Singapore (石叻), Penang (庇能), Kuala Lumpur (吉隆坡), Seremban (芙蓉), Perak (坝罗), Kampar (金宝), and Gopeng (务边) were also normalized as per the business situation before the war. After the surrender of the Japanese Empire, the major banks of Eu Yan Sang where a large amount of capital was transacted were HSBC and the Bank of East Asia (BEA). Eu Yan Sang had several bank accounts with BEA, such as the Guangzhou BEA account, the Hong Kong BEA account, the BEA Yan Sang, and the BEA Singapore account. Among these accounts, the major bank account was the BEA Yan Sang, which is where the largest capital was transacted. HSBC bank account of Hong Kong Eu Yan Sang was mainly used for transactions between Hong Kong and branches in British Malaya.
During the British re-occupation era in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula, Eu Yan Sang constructed its foreign exchange network with Guanzhou branch in a different shape, the British sterling-backed foreign exchange network. This new type of network was organized due to the distrust of the Nationalist government and a strong confidence in the HKD. The HKD was trusted by the public of Hong Kong and Guangdong province even during the Japanese occupation. This confidence created a great obstacle for the Japanese Empire to circulate military notes. At the same time, the exchange rate of the HKD with the British sterling was determined as 16 HKD per one British pound, which reflected the official sterling conversion rate of 4.06 US dollars. In 1945, Hong Kong became a member of the Sterling Area group. Because the Malayan dollar, which had been circulated mainly in Straits Settlements (including Singapore) and British Malaya before the Pacific War, was also backed by the sterling, a free market could emerge among Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula based on the sterling standard monetary system.
Due to the monetary confidence of the public and the link with Singapore and branches in British Malaya within the British sterling sphere, Eu Yan Sang could circulate foreign exchange when dealing with overseas Chinese remittance. It was not necessary to convert HKD into the Chinese legal tender or the Gold Yuan note 金圓券 for distribution to the local society, because local societies in Hong Kong, Guangdong province, and further South China mainly accepted the Hong Kong dollar, the British pound, and the US dollar. It could be more useful to remit Hong Kong dollars directly to the receivers. In addition, the Chinese legal tender issued by the Nationalist Government failed to be trusted by the public due to its disastrous exchange rate caused by the Civil War.
In conclusion, during the war years, Eu Yan Sang faced a number of external constraints, including British rule, Japanese threats, the Japanese occupation and the British re-occupation. Up until 1941, it was not much experienced by the Japanese problems without the closure of Guangzhou branch, so the remittance trade carried on as usual. However, once Hong Kong was under Japanese military administration, Eu Yan Sang had to adapt and survive without access to the trade. In the end, it attempted to survive under Japanese financial control by putting the emphasis on its ties to local society as well as its adaption to Japanese colonial rule. After the Japanese surrender, with the British re-occupation on Hong Kong and Malay Peninsula, Eu Yan Sang could begin to form its own business network backed by the British sterling monetary system.
In the late imperial China, Chinese who tried to depart imperial territory across the South C... more In the late imperial China, Chinese who tried to depart imperial territory across the South China Sea and make a living overseas were regarded as criminals or useless people by the Qing government. Therefore, they were often executed by Qing government. This kind of perspective by the Qing dynasty had been changed from the mid-1870s as Qing government began to realize the economic potentials of Chinese in abroad, so called overseas Chinese. Before this change of perspective by Qing government, various kinds of harsh circumstances like Taiping Rebellion, corruptions of the officials, and natural disasters pushed the numerous population of Chinese to cross the sea. Externally, there had been the creation of new demands for Chinese labor as the plantation economics of Western imperial countries in Southeast Asia had developed. Due to those internal and external reasons, from the early-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, a significant number of Chinese departed their hometowns in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Because the main reason of their departure was normally economic poverty, the major purpose of their departure was working and supporting their family such as living necessaries, education of their children, and cash gifts for family. Therefore, the increase of Chinese migrants means the increase of remittances from Southeast Asia to China. With the money returning back to their hometown, the numerous letters written by Chinese laborers in Southeast Asia were also sent to the hometown in China. The combination of letters and remittances was called as ‘Qiaopi (侨批)’ in Chinese and, especially, in the case of letter, it reveals the real life and conditions of them. Due to the importance of ‘Qiaopi’ in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, it was nominated by UNESCO to be listed in the Asia-Pacific Memory of the World Register in May 2012. As noted above, Chinese who were working or searching for the living overseas were not regarded as the subjects under the protection of Qing government until the 1875 when the Qing government decided to treat them as the people that should be protected and to send the consuls to Western countries and Singapore. Finally, in 1877, Qing government could establish the consulate in Singapore to protect overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia after negotiating with British government. However, it means that they were working in overseas countries as foreign laborers who were not accepted by their home country until 1877. As migrant workers who were left stateless until 1877, how did overseas Chinese perceive themselves? What kind of factors formed their identity instead of nationality? To answer those questions regarding overseas Chinese identity before 1877, this article will examine their thoughts, perspectives, and ideas on the environment surrounding them via remittance system and letters from Southeast Asia to China. Those letters to their parents or wife and children would be a good method to reveal their perspectives on themselves. In this regard, with the investigation on processes of sending letters and money back to their hometown, this article will identify what the letters of overseas Chinese laborers shows us on their identity, which could be the root of contemporary overseas Chinese identity.
Social Transformations in Chinese Societies 14(2), 2018
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaosh... more Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in the maritime world of the South China Sea amidst the changing monetary systems of the rival empires and political regimes from 1939 to 1945. It particularly focuses on overseas Chinese remittance business in Shantou under the Japanese rule. Local societies in coastal China and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia experienced severe hardships due to the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War and the Chinese Civil War. As fighting among the rival empires and regimes intensified, Chinese migrant communities straddling between Southeast Asia and South China had to negotiate and adapt to survive these crises, regardless of whether they were government-affiliated or local autonomous subjects.
Design/methodology/approach – This research draws on archival materials to investigate the reactions of Chinese migrant communities in Chaoshan region in times of war and regime change. How did local maritime societies and overseas Chinese adapt to the harsh realities of the wartime? How did the Japanese Empire use Wang Jingwei’s puppet government in Nanjing to control the Chaoshan remittance network? How did the remittance network shift its operational structure in face of a wartime crisis?
Findings – Faced with the wartime crisis and the Japanese occupation, Chaoshan communities used a variety of survival strategies to protect and maintain the overseas Chinese remittance business. In dealing with remittances from Singapore, British Malay and Indonesia, they cooperated with the Japanese military authority and its puppet government to maximize the autonomy of their business operation in the Japanese controlled East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. On the other hand, to secure the flow of remittances from French Indochina and Thailand, the indirectly controlled territories in the Japanese Empire, Chaoshan merchants sought an alternative path of delivering remittances, known as the Dongxing route, to bypass the Japanese ban on private remittances from these two regions.
Research limitations/implications – It would be a better research if more resources, including remittance receipts and documents during the Japanese occupation, could be found and used to show more detailed features of Chaoshan local society. Originality/value – This research is the first one to investigate the contradictory features of local Chaoshan society during the Japanese occupation, an under-explored subject in the Chinese historiography.
동아연구(The Journal of the Institute for East Asian Studies Sogang University), 2019
Shophouse also known as Qilou and Wujiaoqi in Chinese, a tropical architectural culture in South... more Shophouse also known as Qilou and Wujiaoqi in Chinese, a tropical architectural culture in Southeast Asian urban district, has been one of symbols showing the hybrid characteristics of Southeast Asia. Interestingly, this architectural culture had been spread throughout diverse main urban districts in East Asia, especially surrounding South China Sea rim, such as Singapore, Malacca, Penang, Batavia, Hong Kong, Canton, Cahozhou, Shantou, Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Taiwan, Jinmen. It shows well the cultural interaction between Southeast Asia and South China through overseas Chinese trans-regional network. This paper aims at exploring the features of forming urban district in Singapore via Shophouse; tracing the transplantation process of Shophouse culture from Singapore to Xiamen of Fujian Province; lastly, thinking the role of overseas Chinese doing business between Southeast Asia and South China in this trans-regional interaction of culture. Based on primary sources and existing secondary researches, this paper finds that the Singapore was the first port-city of building the main urban streets with shopping arcade through constructing shophouse buildings. It was due to diverse consideration including natural environment, urban administration, increasing population, urban economic infrastructure and so on. In 19th to 20th century, Singapore became one of the most modernized city in Asia with the well-developed and well-arranged urban districts. All these processes could be attributed to the major contribution of Chinese in Singapore because they had provided most urban infrastructure enjoyed by European, Malay, Indian, and Chinese. Therefore, it could be noted that the Shophouse is a hybrid culture developed and utilized by overseas Chinese in terms of urban administration. This concept of shophouse architectural culture had been transmitted to Xiamen city, a major Fujian overseas Chinese home village and an essential port-city. With the plan of the Nationalist government to launch the re-development of southeastern port cities, overseas Chinese with huge capital began to invest in property industry of Xiamen. At the same time, they formed the urban district following the way of constructing shophouse streets in Singapore and other cities of Southeast Asia. They already experienced this shopehouse streets was a effective and well-arranged way of building modernized urban area in their hometown. Shophouse architectural cultrue and ‘five feet’ spaces called veranda for shopping arcade had been a common urban environment throughout South China Sea rim until the mid 20th century. It has been inherited today as a legacy of overseas Chinese cultural network between South China and Southeast Asia.
For thirteen years from 1937 to 1949, many Chinese entrepreneurs in both mainland China and South... more For thirteen years from 1937 to 1949, many Chinese entrepreneurs in both mainland China and Southeast Asia experienced harsh circumstances due to the Anti-Japanese War, the Asia Pacific War and the Chinese civil War. In particular, overseas Chinese enterprises with their business networks spreading to Southeast Asia and South China had to find ways of adapting and surviving. They had to react rapidly frequent changes in the external environment, such as the British colonial rule, the Japanese threat, the Japanese occupation and the British re-occupation after the war. Their reaction and adaption are the focus of this paper. Owing to Parks M. Coble's research on Chinese capitalists in Shanghai under the Japanese rule and Kuo Huei-Ying's concept, called 'Bourgeois Nationalism', on the overseas Chinese merchants, this paper deals with OCBC(Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporations), a major overseas Chinese-funded bank, as a case study. In 1932, OCBC incorporated other two overseas Chinese banks in Singapore, Ho Hong Bank and Huashang Bank, to survive the horrible economic crisis in Asia caused by the Great Depression and became the largest overseas Chinse-funded international bank. Until now (2017), OCBC has been an outstanding transnational bank having branches in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and South China. What this paper concentrates on is OCBC’s commercial activities to make balance between empires and regimes, such as the Britain, Japan and the Nationalist Government, before and after the war exploded. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese military administration in Singapore, called 'Syonan-to', wanted to use the OCBC's transnational network and its contribution on the Malay local society to stabilize occupied territories in Southeast Asia. Based on several evidences, this paper finds that OCBC re-launched the commercial activities in Singapore, Malay Peninsula and Xiamen in China under the Japanese colonial rule, so called 'East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere'. On the other hand, the leaders of OCBC moved to India just after the outbreak of the War and pursued re-opening its business through the support of the Britain and the US. With the end of the War in 1945, OCBC could re-open its business in Singapore with the allowance of the British colonial office and re-connect the transnational business network straddling from Southeast Asia to South China as well. All these efforts of OCBC to survive and adapt to the changing circumstances during the wartime period help us conceptualizing the fundamental character of the overseas Chinese capitalists as 'Entrepreneurial Nationalism'.
Recently, with the rise of China and its expansionism to Asia, the constant tensions and conflict... more Recently, with the rise of China and its expansionism to Asia, the constant tensions and conflicts between China and overseas Chinese political communities such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have emerged. This comtemporary international political issues offer meaningful implications to some researchers who are interested in the Asian studies, especially overseas Chinese and its diaspora. The aim of this paper is to introduce diverse analysis of these researchers on overseas Chinese studies to the Korean scholarly environment, which has not been familar with this topic. Two of most general tendency among the overseas Chinese studies can be observed in the debates on the characteristics of the overseas Chinese community. As Wang Gung-wu implies in his pioneer researches, Chinese communities in the mainland China and the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia both has shared something like common traditional values, so called “Chineseness”. On the other hand, Adam McKeown criticizes this kind of China-centered perspective and suggests an alternative approach, “Diasporic Nationalism”, which regards overseas Chinese communities in the world as an independent subject against ‘home country’-‘host country’ discourse. The problem of these two perspectives on the overseas Chinese communities is that these researches – despite of their collisions – fundamentally have a common premise, ‘every overseas Chinese community shares the same homogeneity’. This premise could not describe the entire overseas Chinese communities in the globe including Southeast Asia. In this regard, the “ecological differences” that is proposed by Philip Kuhn could be an appropriate concept to study overseas Chinese communities, because it emphasizes the diversity of studying overseas Chinese history regardless of any other theoretical framework. The ‘ecological differences’, as a research approach in understanding overseas Chinese community, carries a proper way of facing the coming resurrection of Chinese ‘Empire’. To understand the diverse dimensions of conflicts between the Chinese expansionism and the overseas Chinese politico-socio-cultural communities including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, it is necessary to deal with those confrontations individually because Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have been rested on the different ecological environments from each other.
In the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese entrepreneurs both of mainland China and Southeast Asi... more In the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese entrepreneurs both of mainland China and Southeast Asia had been experiencing harsh circumstances due to the continuous wars such as Anti-Japanese war and Asian Pacific war. As conflicts among empires and political regimes like Britain, Japan, and China reached at peak, Chinese companies, which had a network between Southeast Asia and South China, had to adapt and survive under those tensions. In the wartime period from 1937 to 1941, especially, because those Chinese companies had faced frequent changes of external environments such as British colonial rule, Japanese threats, and Japanese occupation, they had to react rapidly to those external changes. These reactions, survivals, and adaptations of Chinese companies are the main argument of this research. In particular, this paper focuses on the overseas Chinese remittance network and the foreign exchange business that was a major profit of the overseas Chinese remittance business. The China & South seas Bank, which was a big commercial bank established by the outstanding overseas Chinese entrepreneur, Huang Yizhu, also faced this kind of harsh wartime circumstance. During the Anti-Japanese War, the China & South seas Bank closed most of branches in China without Hong Kong and Gulangyu offices and tried to concentrate on the overseas Chinese remittance business, so called Qiaopi trade, and the foreign exchange flow, which was the most profitable business of the bank. Huang Yizhu decided to focus on the foreign exchange flow from Hong Kong to Shanghai via the Qiaopi network. On the other hand, the Bank of China, the largest governmental bank during the Republican era of China, was an important part of the financial plan of the Nationalist Government to stabilize the monetary circumstances of the Central China in competing with the Japanese monetary regulations. The foreign exchange flow within the Qiaopi network between South China and Southeast Asia was a key target of the Nationalist Government to secure the foreign exchange reserve, which could stabilize the value of the Chinese legal tender circulated in the Central China. Through the collaborations with other governmental institutions in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, the Bank of China expanded its Qiaopi network and dealt with the foreign exchange in large quantities. The wartime vulnerability was an opportunity for the Bank of China. At first, the general structure of the Qiaopi network and the financial policies of three political regimes, such as the British Empire, Japanese Empire and the Nationalist Government, during the Anti-Japanese War are provided as a background information of this paper. And then, this paper investigates the reactions of two banks on the outbreak of the war and the subsequent changing monetary environments of diverse political regimes. This is a key topic of this research.
During the period from the 19th to the mid-20th centuries, colonial Singapore played a central ro... more During the period from the 19th to the mid-20th centuries, colonial Singapore played a central role as an Asian trading hub. From 1965, the Republic of Singapore, as a sovereign nation, attempted to uphold its former colonial position of dominance. The efforts undertaken by the Singaporean elites proved to be highly effective, surpassing even the ideological conflict of the 1960s. This resulted in communist nations like the Soviet Union, China, North Vietnam, and North Korea expressing a desire to establish commercial trade relations with Singapore. In the 1950s and 1960s, North Korea stood out as an Asian nation that had achieved notable industrial advancements. North Korean leaders sought to utilize Singapore as a platform for disseminating its industrial products and economic achievements. The efforts made by North Korean communist leaders can be analyzed through various activities carried out between Singapore and North Korea. In the case of Singapore, its leaders aspired to broaden its trading horizons by establishing connections with socialist nations and adopting the insights gained from North Korean industrialization. Through primary sources of Singapore news articles, North Korean news articles, South Korean diplomatic archives, and CIA archives, this paper focuses on the mutual interactions of Singapore, the trading hub, and North Korea, the industrial estate.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in the maritime world of the South China Sea amidst the changing monetary systems of the rival empires and political regimes from 1939 to 1945. It particularly focuses on overseas Chinese remittance business in Shantou under the Japanese rule. Local societies in coastal China and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia experienced severe hardships due to the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War and the Chinese Civil War. As fighting among the rival empires and regimes intensified, Chinese migrant communities straddling between Southeast Asia and South China had to negotiate and adapt to survive these crises, regardless of whether they were government-affiliated or local autonomous subjects. Design/methodology/approach This research draws on archival materials to investigate the reactions of Chinese migrant communities in Chaoshan region in times of war and regime change. How did local...
Uploads
The attempt of North Korean communist leaders could be examined by diverse activities between Singapore and North Korea, such as launching mutual exchanges of high elites, connecting with overseas Chinese merchants in Singapore, and opening the industrial exhibition for North Korean industrialization. In the case of Singapore, its leaders hoped to draw on the experiences of North Korean industrialization because the ultimate mission before and after the independence was a high proportion of industrialization guided by the UN economic adviser and Goh Keng Swee, the Minister of Finance, beginning with the construction of the Jurong East industrial estate. Through primary sources of Singapore news articles, North Korean news articles, South Korean diplomatic archives, and CIA archives, this paper focuses on the mutual interactions of Singapore, the trading hub, and North Korea, the industrial estate.
Due to its geographical proximity to the two most advanced and populous civilizations in Asia, the Indian subcontinent and mainland China, Southeast Asia has long been a meeting ground for Chinese and Indian diaspora. The aggressive expansion of Western empires, particularly the British Empire, into Southeast Asia during the colonial era beginning in the 19th century had increased the mass migration of Chinese and Indians to this area. In this background, the overseas Chinese and overseas Indians encountered in the colonial Southeast Asia, especially the British colonial territories including the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, and British Burma of the British India. Along with this tendency, Chinese and Indian economic institutions co-existed and often connected with one another in the British colonies of Southeast Asia.
This research compares financial customs of two diaspora groups in Southeast Asia, paying particular attention to the capital flow in terms of remittances, credit business, bill of exchange and so forth, and figures out the historical moments of interaction. Given that this kind of study has received relatively little attention from the existing scholarship of Asian economic history, overseas Chinese and overseas Indian history, and Southeast Asian history, it will contribute to a better understanding of trans-national/regional financial transactions conducted by the two diaspora groups in a comparative perspective.
With the large number of migrants, the overseas Chinese could relocate all throughout Southeast Asia and became deeply rooted in the local society and economy. Furthermore, they constructed vast but dense network through remittances (thanks to the massive movements of labour population), known as Qiaopi network and Piaohui(draft) payment system. On the other hand, the strength of Indian merchants in dealing with trans-regional credit transactions (remittances, moneylending, payments, etc.) within British colonies was their greater financing capabilities. In the British colonial dominion of Southeast Asia, the Chettiar merchant caste was known for controlling the credit business sector. The ability of Chettiars to raise capital provided complete backing for the colonial economy in Burma, the Malay States, and the Straits Settlements. The hundi system was crucial for their trans-regional and inter-ethnic money transactions.
The encounter of Chinese and Indian merchants in Burma, Malay States, and Singapore frequently resulted in a combination of Chinese infiltration into locals because of the bigger population and Chettiars' finance capability. Acquiring the massive quantity of capital managed by two diaspora groups - Chinese for the foreign exchange market and Chettiars for loanable capital - was made possible by the British banking industry's focus on the Asian market. As a result, a connected commercial network of ‘Qiaopi’ and ‘Hundi’ between China, Southeast Asia, and India was formed during the colonial period.
In the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese entrepreneurs in both mainland China and Southeast Asia experienced great hardship as a result of the Anti-Japanese War and the Asia Pacific War. As conflicts among Britain, Japan, and China peaked, Chinese companies with networks stretching between Southeast Asia and South China had to find ways of adapting and surviving. They had to react rapidly frequent changes in the external environment, including the weakening of British colonial rule, Japanese threats, and the Japanese occupation. Their reactions and adaptations of Chinese company are the focus of this paper.
Eu Yan Sang, a well-known Cantonese overseas Chinese enterprise, was not exceptional in this case. Its trans-national commercial network stretching from Singapore and the British Malaya to Canton via Hong Kong as headquarter was also vulnerable to the changing circumstances during the wartime period. Before the outbreak of the war, Eu Yan Sang achieved a great success through doing overseas Chinese remittance business, especially focusing on foreign exchange business. There has been diverse researches studying Eu Yan Sang’s business network. However, its accounting books and foreign exchange network have not been concerned much by scholars. It will show the connection between Guangzhou(Canton) and Southeast Asia via Hong Kong through the flow of overseas Chinese capital dealt by Eu Yan Sang, a Cantonese enterprise.
Conclusion
According to the list of Eu Yan Sang accounting books, both Hong Kong and Guangzhou offices re-opened their businesses of remittance and traditional medicine shops in 1946. Moreover, remittances through telegraph (Dianhui 电汇) from Malayan branches such as Singapore (石叻), Penang (庇能), Kuala Lumpur (吉隆坡), Seremban (芙蓉), Perak (坝罗), Kampar (金宝), and Gopeng (务边) were also normalized as per the business situation before the war. After the surrender of the Japanese Empire, the major banks of Eu Yan Sang where a large amount of capital was transacted were HSBC and the Bank of East Asia (BEA). Eu Yan Sang had several bank accounts with BEA, such as the Guangzhou BEA account, the Hong Kong BEA account, the BEA Yan Sang, and the BEA Singapore account. Among these accounts, the major bank account was the BEA Yan Sang, which is where the largest capital was transacted. HSBC bank account of Hong Kong Eu Yan Sang was mainly used for transactions between Hong Kong and branches in British Malaya.
During the British re-occupation era in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula, Eu Yan Sang constructed its foreign exchange network with Guanzhou branch in a different shape, the British sterling-backed foreign exchange network. This new type of network was organized due to the distrust of the Nationalist government and a strong confidence in the HKD. The HKD was trusted by the public of Hong Kong and Guangdong province even during the Japanese occupation. This confidence created a great obstacle for the Japanese Empire to circulate military notes. At the same time, the exchange rate of the HKD with the British sterling was determined as 16 HKD per one British pound, which reflected the official sterling conversion rate of 4.06 US dollars. In 1945, Hong Kong became a member of the Sterling Area group. Because the Malayan dollar, which had been circulated mainly in Straits Settlements (including Singapore) and British Malaya before the Pacific War, was also backed by the sterling, a free market could emerge among Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula based on the sterling standard monetary system.
Due to the monetary confidence of the public and the link with Singapore and branches in British Malaya within the British sterling sphere, Eu Yan Sang could circulate foreign exchange when dealing with overseas Chinese remittance. It was not necessary to convert HKD into the Chinese legal tender or the Gold Yuan note 金圓券 for distribution to the local society, because local societies in Hong Kong, Guangdong province, and further South China mainly accepted the Hong Kong dollar, the British pound, and the US dollar. It could be more useful to remit Hong Kong dollars directly to the receivers. In addition, the Chinese legal tender issued by the Nationalist Government failed to be trusted by the public due to its disastrous exchange rate caused by the Civil War.
In conclusion, during the war years, Eu Yan Sang faced a number of external constraints, including British rule, Japanese threats, the Japanese occupation and the British re-occupation. Up until 1941, it was not much experienced by the Japanese problems without the closure of Guangzhou branch, so the remittance trade carried on as usual. However, once Hong Kong was under Japanese military administration, Eu Yan Sang had to adapt and survive without access to the trade. In the end, it attempted to survive under Japanese financial control by putting the emphasis on its ties to local society as well as its adaption to Japanese colonial rule. After the Japanese surrender, with the British re-occupation on Hong Kong and Malay Peninsula, Eu Yan Sang could begin to form its own business network backed by the British sterling monetary system.
Due to those internal and external reasons, from the early-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, a significant number of Chinese departed their hometowns in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Because the main reason of their departure was normally economic poverty, the major purpose of their departure was working and supporting their family such as living necessaries, education of their children, and cash gifts for family. Therefore, the increase of Chinese migrants means the increase of remittances from Southeast Asia to China.
With the money returning back to their hometown, the numerous letters written by Chinese laborers in Southeast Asia were also sent to the hometown in China. The combination of letters and remittances was called as ‘Qiaopi (侨批)’ in Chinese and, especially, in the case of letter, it reveals the real life and conditions of them. Due to the importance of ‘Qiaopi’ in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, it was nominated by UNESCO to be listed in the Asia-Pacific Memory of the World Register in May 2012.
As noted above, Chinese who were working or searching for the living overseas were not regarded as the subjects under the protection of Qing government until the 1875 when the Qing government decided to treat them as the people that should be protected and to send the consuls to Western countries and Singapore. Finally, in 1877, Qing government could establish the consulate in Singapore to protect overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia after negotiating with British government. However, it means that they were working in overseas countries as foreign laborers who were not accepted by their home country until 1877. As migrant workers who were left stateless until 1877, how did overseas Chinese perceive themselves? What kind of factors formed their identity instead of nationality?
To answer those questions regarding overseas Chinese identity before 1877, this article will examine their thoughts, perspectives, and ideas on the environment surrounding them via remittance system and letters from Southeast Asia to China. Those letters to their parents or wife and children would be a good method to reveal their perspectives on themselves. In this regard, with the investigation on processes of sending letters and money back to their hometown, this article will identify what the letters of overseas Chinese laborers shows us on their identity, which could be the root of contemporary overseas Chinese identity.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in the maritime world of the South China Sea amidst the changing monetary systems of the rival empires and political regimes from 1939 to 1945. It particularly focuses on overseas Chinese remittance business in Shantou under the Japanese rule. Local societies in coastal China and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia experienced severe hardships due to the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War and the Chinese Civil War. As fighting among the rival empires and regimes intensified, Chinese migrant communities straddling between Southeast Asia and South China had to negotiate and adapt to survive these crises, regardless of whether they were government-affiliated or local autonomous subjects.
Design/methodology/approach – This research draws on archival materials to investigate the reactions of Chinese migrant communities in Chaoshan region in times of war and regime change. How did local maritime societies and overseas Chinese adapt to the harsh realities of the wartime? How did the Japanese Empire use Wang Jingwei’s puppet government in Nanjing to control the Chaoshan remittance network? How did the remittance network shift its operational structure in face of a wartime crisis?
Findings – Faced with the wartime crisis and the Japanese occupation, Chaoshan communities used a variety of survival strategies to protect and maintain the overseas Chinese remittance business. In dealing with remittances from Singapore, British Malay and Indonesia, they cooperated with the Japanese military authority and its puppet government to maximize the autonomy of their business operation in the Japanese controlled East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. On the other hand, to secure the flow of remittances from French Indochina and Thailand, the indirectly controlled territories in the Japanese Empire, Chaoshan merchants sought an alternative path of delivering remittances, known as the Dongxing route, to bypass the Japanese ban on private remittances from these two regions.
Research limitations/implications – It would be a better research if more resources, including remittance receipts and documents during the Japanese occupation, could be found and used to show more detailed features of Chaoshan local society. Originality/value – This research is the first one to investigate the contradictory features of local Chaoshan society during the Japanese occupation, an under-explored subject in the Chinese historiography.
This paper aims at exploring the features of forming urban district in Singapore via Shophouse; tracing the transplantation process of Shophouse culture from Singapore to Xiamen of Fujian Province; lastly, thinking the role of overseas Chinese doing business between Southeast Asia and South China in this trans-regional interaction of culture. Based on primary sources and existing secondary researches, this paper finds that the Singapore was the first port-city of building the main urban streets with shopping arcade through constructing shophouse buildings. It was due to diverse consideration including natural environment, urban administration, increasing population, urban economic infrastructure and so on. In 19th to 20th century, Singapore became one of the most modernized city in Asia with the well-developed and well-arranged urban districts. All these processes could be attributed to the major contribution of Chinese in Singapore because they had provided most urban infrastructure enjoyed by European, Malay, Indian, and Chinese. Therefore, it could be noted that the Shophouse is a hybrid culture developed and utilized by overseas Chinese in terms of urban administration.
This concept of shophouse architectural culture had been transmitted to Xiamen city, a major Fujian overseas Chinese home village and an essential port-city. With the plan of the Nationalist government to launch the re-development of southeastern port cities, overseas Chinese with huge capital began to invest in property industry of Xiamen. At the same time, they formed the urban district following the way of constructing shophouse streets in Singapore and other cities of Southeast Asia. They already experienced this shopehouse streets was a effective and well-arranged way of building modernized urban area in their hometown.
Shophouse architectural cultrue and ‘five feet’ spaces called veranda for shopping arcade had been a common urban environment throughout South China Sea rim until the mid 20th century. It has been inherited today as a legacy of overseas Chinese cultural network between South China and Southeast Asia.
Owing to Parks M. Coble's research on Chinese capitalists in Shanghai under the Japanese rule and Kuo Huei-Ying's concept, called 'Bourgeois Nationalism', on the overseas Chinese merchants, this paper deals with OCBC(Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporations), a major overseas Chinese-funded bank, as a case study. In 1932, OCBC incorporated other two overseas Chinese banks in Singapore, Ho Hong Bank and Huashang Bank, to survive the horrible economic crisis in Asia caused by the Great Depression and became the largest overseas Chinse-funded international bank. Until now (2017), OCBC has been an outstanding transnational bank having branches in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and South China.
What this paper concentrates on is OCBC’s commercial activities to make balance between empires and regimes, such as the Britain, Japan and the Nationalist Government, before and after the war exploded. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese military administration in Singapore, called 'Syonan-to', wanted to use the OCBC's transnational network and its contribution on the Malay local society to stabilize occupied territories in Southeast Asia. Based on several evidences, this paper finds that OCBC re-launched the commercial activities in Singapore, Malay Peninsula and Xiamen in China under the Japanese colonial rule, so called 'East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere'.
On the other hand, the leaders of OCBC moved to India just after the outbreak of the War and pursued re-opening its business through the support of the Britain and the US. With the end of the War in 1945, OCBC could re-open its business in Singapore with the allowance of the British colonial office and re-connect the transnational business network straddling from Southeast Asia to South China as well. All these efforts of OCBC to survive and adapt to the changing circumstances during the wartime period help us conceptualizing the fundamental character of the overseas Chinese capitalists as 'Entrepreneurial Nationalism'.
Two of most general tendency among the overseas Chinese studies can be observed in the debates on the characteristics of the overseas Chinese community. As Wang Gung-wu implies in his pioneer researches, Chinese communities in the mainland China and the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia both has shared something like common traditional values, so called “Chineseness”. On the other hand, Adam McKeown criticizes this kind of China-centered perspective and suggests an alternative approach, “Diasporic Nationalism”, which regards overseas Chinese communities in the world as an independent subject against ‘home country’-‘host country’ discourse. The problem of these two perspectives on the overseas Chinese communities is that these researches – despite of their collisions – fundamentally have a common premise, ‘every overseas Chinese community shares the same homogeneity’. This premise could not describe the entire overseas Chinese communities in the globe including Southeast Asia. In this regard, the “ecological differences” that is proposed by Philip Kuhn could be an appropriate concept to study overseas Chinese communities, because it emphasizes the diversity of studying overseas Chinese history regardless of any other theoretical framework.
The ‘ecological differences’, as a research approach in understanding overseas Chinese community, carries a proper way of facing the coming resurrection of Chinese ‘Empire’. To understand the diverse dimensions of conflicts between the Chinese expansionism and the overseas Chinese politico-socio-cultural communities including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, it is necessary to deal with those confrontations individually because Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have been rested on the different ecological environments from each other.
The China & South seas Bank, which was a big commercial bank established by the outstanding overseas Chinese entrepreneur, Huang Yizhu, also faced this kind of harsh wartime circumstance. During the Anti-Japanese War, the China & South seas Bank closed most of branches in China without Hong Kong and Gulangyu offices and tried to concentrate on the overseas Chinese remittance business, so called Qiaopi trade, and the foreign exchange flow, which was the most profitable business of the bank. Huang Yizhu decided to focus on the foreign exchange flow from Hong Kong to Shanghai via the Qiaopi network.
On the other hand, the Bank of China, the largest governmental bank during the Republican era of China, was an important part of the financial plan of the Nationalist Government to stabilize the monetary circumstances of the Central China in competing with the Japanese monetary regulations. The foreign exchange flow within the Qiaopi network between South China and Southeast Asia was a key target of the Nationalist Government to secure the foreign exchange reserve, which could stabilize the value of the Chinese legal tender circulated in the Central China. Through the collaborations with other governmental institutions in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, the Bank of China expanded its Qiaopi network and dealt with the foreign exchange in large quantities. The wartime vulnerability was an opportunity for the Bank of China.
At first, the general structure of the Qiaopi network and the financial policies of three political regimes, such as the British Empire, Japanese Empire and the Nationalist Government, during the Anti-Japanese War are provided as a background information of this paper. And then, this paper investigates the reactions of two banks on the outbreak of the war and the subsequent changing monetary environments of diverse political regimes. This is a key topic of this research.
The attempt of North Korean communist leaders could be examined by diverse activities between Singapore and North Korea, such as launching mutual exchanges of high elites, connecting with overseas Chinese merchants in Singapore, and opening the industrial exhibition for North Korean industrialization. In the case of Singapore, its leaders hoped to draw on the experiences of North Korean industrialization because the ultimate mission before and after the independence was a high proportion of industrialization guided by the UN economic adviser and Goh Keng Swee, the Minister of Finance, beginning with the construction of the Jurong East industrial estate. Through primary sources of Singapore news articles, North Korean news articles, South Korean diplomatic archives, and CIA archives, this paper focuses on the mutual interactions of Singapore, the trading hub, and North Korea, the industrial estate.
Due to its geographical proximity to the two most advanced and populous civilizations in Asia, the Indian subcontinent and mainland China, Southeast Asia has long been a meeting ground for Chinese and Indian diaspora. The aggressive expansion of Western empires, particularly the British Empire, into Southeast Asia during the colonial era beginning in the 19th century had increased the mass migration of Chinese and Indians to this area. In this background, the overseas Chinese and overseas Indians encountered in the colonial Southeast Asia, especially the British colonial territories including the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, and British Burma of the British India. Along with this tendency, Chinese and Indian economic institutions co-existed and often connected with one another in the British colonies of Southeast Asia.
This research compares financial customs of two diaspora groups in Southeast Asia, paying particular attention to the capital flow in terms of remittances, credit business, bill of exchange and so forth, and figures out the historical moments of interaction. Given that this kind of study has received relatively little attention from the existing scholarship of Asian economic history, overseas Chinese and overseas Indian history, and Southeast Asian history, it will contribute to a better understanding of trans-national/regional financial transactions conducted by the two diaspora groups in a comparative perspective.
With the large number of migrants, the overseas Chinese could relocate all throughout Southeast Asia and became deeply rooted in the local society and economy. Furthermore, they constructed vast but dense network through remittances (thanks to the massive movements of labour population), known as Qiaopi network and Piaohui(draft) payment system. On the other hand, the strength of Indian merchants in dealing with trans-regional credit transactions (remittances, moneylending, payments, etc.) within British colonies was their greater financing capabilities. In the British colonial dominion of Southeast Asia, the Chettiar merchant caste was known for controlling the credit business sector. The ability of Chettiars to raise capital provided complete backing for the colonial economy in Burma, the Malay States, and the Straits Settlements. The hundi system was crucial for their trans-regional and inter-ethnic money transactions.
The encounter of Chinese and Indian merchants in Burma, Malay States, and Singapore frequently resulted in a combination of Chinese infiltration into locals because of the bigger population and Chettiars' finance capability. Acquiring the massive quantity of capital managed by two diaspora groups - Chinese for the foreign exchange market and Chettiars for loanable capital - was made possible by the British banking industry's focus on the Asian market. As a result, a connected commercial network of ‘Qiaopi’ and ‘Hundi’ between China, Southeast Asia, and India was formed during the colonial period.
In the mid-twentieth century, many Chinese entrepreneurs in both mainland China and Southeast Asia experienced great hardship as a result of the Anti-Japanese War and the Asia Pacific War. As conflicts among Britain, Japan, and China peaked, Chinese companies with networks stretching between Southeast Asia and South China had to find ways of adapting and surviving. They had to react rapidly frequent changes in the external environment, including the weakening of British colonial rule, Japanese threats, and the Japanese occupation. Their reactions and adaptations of Chinese company are the focus of this paper.
Eu Yan Sang, a well-known Cantonese overseas Chinese enterprise, was not exceptional in this case. Its trans-national commercial network stretching from Singapore and the British Malaya to Canton via Hong Kong as headquarter was also vulnerable to the changing circumstances during the wartime period. Before the outbreak of the war, Eu Yan Sang achieved a great success through doing overseas Chinese remittance business, especially focusing on foreign exchange business. There has been diverse researches studying Eu Yan Sang’s business network. However, its accounting books and foreign exchange network have not been concerned much by scholars. It will show the connection between Guangzhou(Canton) and Southeast Asia via Hong Kong through the flow of overseas Chinese capital dealt by Eu Yan Sang, a Cantonese enterprise.
Conclusion
According to the list of Eu Yan Sang accounting books, both Hong Kong and Guangzhou offices re-opened their businesses of remittance and traditional medicine shops in 1946. Moreover, remittances through telegraph (Dianhui 电汇) from Malayan branches such as Singapore (石叻), Penang (庇能), Kuala Lumpur (吉隆坡), Seremban (芙蓉), Perak (坝罗), Kampar (金宝), and Gopeng (务边) were also normalized as per the business situation before the war. After the surrender of the Japanese Empire, the major banks of Eu Yan Sang where a large amount of capital was transacted were HSBC and the Bank of East Asia (BEA). Eu Yan Sang had several bank accounts with BEA, such as the Guangzhou BEA account, the Hong Kong BEA account, the BEA Yan Sang, and the BEA Singapore account. Among these accounts, the major bank account was the BEA Yan Sang, which is where the largest capital was transacted. HSBC bank account of Hong Kong Eu Yan Sang was mainly used for transactions between Hong Kong and branches in British Malaya.
During the British re-occupation era in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula, Eu Yan Sang constructed its foreign exchange network with Guanzhou branch in a different shape, the British sterling-backed foreign exchange network. This new type of network was organized due to the distrust of the Nationalist government and a strong confidence in the HKD. The HKD was trusted by the public of Hong Kong and Guangdong province even during the Japanese occupation. This confidence created a great obstacle for the Japanese Empire to circulate military notes. At the same time, the exchange rate of the HKD with the British sterling was determined as 16 HKD per one British pound, which reflected the official sterling conversion rate of 4.06 US dollars. In 1945, Hong Kong became a member of the Sterling Area group. Because the Malayan dollar, which had been circulated mainly in Straits Settlements (including Singapore) and British Malaya before the Pacific War, was also backed by the sterling, a free market could emerge among Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Malay Peninsula based on the sterling standard monetary system.
Due to the monetary confidence of the public and the link with Singapore and branches in British Malaya within the British sterling sphere, Eu Yan Sang could circulate foreign exchange when dealing with overseas Chinese remittance. It was not necessary to convert HKD into the Chinese legal tender or the Gold Yuan note 金圓券 for distribution to the local society, because local societies in Hong Kong, Guangdong province, and further South China mainly accepted the Hong Kong dollar, the British pound, and the US dollar. It could be more useful to remit Hong Kong dollars directly to the receivers. In addition, the Chinese legal tender issued by the Nationalist Government failed to be trusted by the public due to its disastrous exchange rate caused by the Civil War.
In conclusion, during the war years, Eu Yan Sang faced a number of external constraints, including British rule, Japanese threats, the Japanese occupation and the British re-occupation. Up until 1941, it was not much experienced by the Japanese problems without the closure of Guangzhou branch, so the remittance trade carried on as usual. However, once Hong Kong was under Japanese military administration, Eu Yan Sang had to adapt and survive without access to the trade. In the end, it attempted to survive under Japanese financial control by putting the emphasis on its ties to local society as well as its adaption to Japanese colonial rule. After the Japanese surrender, with the British re-occupation on Hong Kong and Malay Peninsula, Eu Yan Sang could begin to form its own business network backed by the British sterling monetary system.
Due to those internal and external reasons, from the early-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, a significant number of Chinese departed their hometowns in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Because the main reason of their departure was normally economic poverty, the major purpose of their departure was working and supporting their family such as living necessaries, education of their children, and cash gifts for family. Therefore, the increase of Chinese migrants means the increase of remittances from Southeast Asia to China.
With the money returning back to their hometown, the numerous letters written by Chinese laborers in Southeast Asia were also sent to the hometown in China. The combination of letters and remittances was called as ‘Qiaopi (侨批)’ in Chinese and, especially, in the case of letter, it reveals the real life and conditions of them. Due to the importance of ‘Qiaopi’ in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, it was nominated by UNESCO to be listed in the Asia-Pacific Memory of the World Register in May 2012.
As noted above, Chinese who were working or searching for the living overseas were not regarded as the subjects under the protection of Qing government until the 1875 when the Qing government decided to treat them as the people that should be protected and to send the consuls to Western countries and Singapore. Finally, in 1877, Qing government could establish the consulate in Singapore to protect overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia after negotiating with British government. However, it means that they were working in overseas countries as foreign laborers who were not accepted by their home country until 1877. As migrant workers who were left stateless until 1877, how did overseas Chinese perceive themselves? What kind of factors formed their identity instead of nationality?
To answer those questions regarding overseas Chinese identity before 1877, this article will examine their thoughts, perspectives, and ideas on the environment surrounding them via remittance system and letters from Southeast Asia to China. Those letters to their parents or wife and children would be a good method to reveal their perspectives on themselves. In this regard, with the investigation on processes of sending letters and money back to their hometown, this article will identify what the letters of overseas Chinese laborers shows us on their identity, which could be the root of contemporary overseas Chinese identity.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survival capability of Chaoshan people in the maritime world of the South China Sea amidst the changing monetary systems of the rival empires and political regimes from 1939 to 1945. It particularly focuses on overseas Chinese remittance business in Shantou under the Japanese rule. Local societies in coastal China and overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia experienced severe hardships due to the Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War and the Chinese Civil War. As fighting among the rival empires and regimes intensified, Chinese migrant communities straddling between Southeast Asia and South China had to negotiate and adapt to survive these crises, regardless of whether they were government-affiliated or local autonomous subjects.
Design/methodology/approach – This research draws on archival materials to investigate the reactions of Chinese migrant communities in Chaoshan region in times of war and regime change. How did local maritime societies and overseas Chinese adapt to the harsh realities of the wartime? How did the Japanese Empire use Wang Jingwei’s puppet government in Nanjing to control the Chaoshan remittance network? How did the remittance network shift its operational structure in face of a wartime crisis?
Findings – Faced with the wartime crisis and the Japanese occupation, Chaoshan communities used a variety of survival strategies to protect and maintain the overseas Chinese remittance business. In dealing with remittances from Singapore, British Malay and Indonesia, they cooperated with the Japanese military authority and its puppet government to maximize the autonomy of their business operation in the Japanese controlled East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. On the other hand, to secure the flow of remittances from French Indochina and Thailand, the indirectly controlled territories in the Japanese Empire, Chaoshan merchants sought an alternative path of delivering remittances, known as the Dongxing route, to bypass the Japanese ban on private remittances from these two regions.
Research limitations/implications – It would be a better research if more resources, including remittance receipts and documents during the Japanese occupation, could be found and used to show more detailed features of Chaoshan local society. Originality/value – This research is the first one to investigate the contradictory features of local Chaoshan society during the Japanese occupation, an under-explored subject in the Chinese historiography.
This paper aims at exploring the features of forming urban district in Singapore via Shophouse; tracing the transplantation process of Shophouse culture from Singapore to Xiamen of Fujian Province; lastly, thinking the role of overseas Chinese doing business between Southeast Asia and South China in this trans-regional interaction of culture. Based on primary sources and existing secondary researches, this paper finds that the Singapore was the first port-city of building the main urban streets with shopping arcade through constructing shophouse buildings. It was due to diverse consideration including natural environment, urban administration, increasing population, urban economic infrastructure and so on. In 19th to 20th century, Singapore became one of the most modernized city in Asia with the well-developed and well-arranged urban districts. All these processes could be attributed to the major contribution of Chinese in Singapore because they had provided most urban infrastructure enjoyed by European, Malay, Indian, and Chinese. Therefore, it could be noted that the Shophouse is a hybrid culture developed and utilized by overseas Chinese in terms of urban administration.
This concept of shophouse architectural culture had been transmitted to Xiamen city, a major Fujian overseas Chinese home village and an essential port-city. With the plan of the Nationalist government to launch the re-development of southeastern port cities, overseas Chinese with huge capital began to invest in property industry of Xiamen. At the same time, they formed the urban district following the way of constructing shophouse streets in Singapore and other cities of Southeast Asia. They already experienced this shopehouse streets was a effective and well-arranged way of building modernized urban area in their hometown.
Shophouse architectural cultrue and ‘five feet’ spaces called veranda for shopping arcade had been a common urban environment throughout South China Sea rim until the mid 20th century. It has been inherited today as a legacy of overseas Chinese cultural network between South China and Southeast Asia.
Owing to Parks M. Coble's research on Chinese capitalists in Shanghai under the Japanese rule and Kuo Huei-Ying's concept, called 'Bourgeois Nationalism', on the overseas Chinese merchants, this paper deals with OCBC(Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporations), a major overseas Chinese-funded bank, as a case study. In 1932, OCBC incorporated other two overseas Chinese banks in Singapore, Ho Hong Bank and Huashang Bank, to survive the horrible economic crisis in Asia caused by the Great Depression and became the largest overseas Chinse-funded international bank. Until now (2017), OCBC has been an outstanding transnational bank having branches in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and South China.
What this paper concentrates on is OCBC’s commercial activities to make balance between empires and regimes, such as the Britain, Japan and the Nationalist Government, before and after the war exploded. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese military administration in Singapore, called 'Syonan-to', wanted to use the OCBC's transnational network and its contribution on the Malay local society to stabilize occupied territories in Southeast Asia. Based on several evidences, this paper finds that OCBC re-launched the commercial activities in Singapore, Malay Peninsula and Xiamen in China under the Japanese colonial rule, so called 'East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere'.
On the other hand, the leaders of OCBC moved to India just after the outbreak of the War and pursued re-opening its business through the support of the Britain and the US. With the end of the War in 1945, OCBC could re-open its business in Singapore with the allowance of the British colonial office and re-connect the transnational business network straddling from Southeast Asia to South China as well. All these efforts of OCBC to survive and adapt to the changing circumstances during the wartime period help us conceptualizing the fundamental character of the overseas Chinese capitalists as 'Entrepreneurial Nationalism'.
Two of most general tendency among the overseas Chinese studies can be observed in the debates on the characteristics of the overseas Chinese community. As Wang Gung-wu implies in his pioneer researches, Chinese communities in the mainland China and the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia both has shared something like common traditional values, so called “Chineseness”. On the other hand, Adam McKeown criticizes this kind of China-centered perspective and suggests an alternative approach, “Diasporic Nationalism”, which regards overseas Chinese communities in the world as an independent subject against ‘home country’-‘host country’ discourse. The problem of these two perspectives on the overseas Chinese communities is that these researches – despite of their collisions – fundamentally have a common premise, ‘every overseas Chinese community shares the same homogeneity’. This premise could not describe the entire overseas Chinese communities in the globe including Southeast Asia. In this regard, the “ecological differences” that is proposed by Philip Kuhn could be an appropriate concept to study overseas Chinese communities, because it emphasizes the diversity of studying overseas Chinese history regardless of any other theoretical framework.
The ‘ecological differences’, as a research approach in understanding overseas Chinese community, carries a proper way of facing the coming resurrection of Chinese ‘Empire’. To understand the diverse dimensions of conflicts between the Chinese expansionism and the overseas Chinese politico-socio-cultural communities including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, it is necessary to deal with those confrontations individually because Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have been rested on the different ecological environments from each other.
The China & South seas Bank, which was a big commercial bank established by the outstanding overseas Chinese entrepreneur, Huang Yizhu, also faced this kind of harsh wartime circumstance. During the Anti-Japanese War, the China & South seas Bank closed most of branches in China without Hong Kong and Gulangyu offices and tried to concentrate on the overseas Chinese remittance business, so called Qiaopi trade, and the foreign exchange flow, which was the most profitable business of the bank. Huang Yizhu decided to focus on the foreign exchange flow from Hong Kong to Shanghai via the Qiaopi network.
On the other hand, the Bank of China, the largest governmental bank during the Republican era of China, was an important part of the financial plan of the Nationalist Government to stabilize the monetary circumstances of the Central China in competing with the Japanese monetary regulations. The foreign exchange flow within the Qiaopi network between South China and Southeast Asia was a key target of the Nationalist Government to secure the foreign exchange reserve, which could stabilize the value of the Chinese legal tender circulated in the Central China. Through the collaborations with other governmental institutions in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, the Bank of China expanded its Qiaopi network and dealt with the foreign exchange in large quantities. The wartime vulnerability was an opportunity for the Bank of China.
At first, the general structure of the Qiaopi network and the financial policies of three political regimes, such as the British Empire, Japanese Empire and the Nationalist Government, during the Anti-Japanese War are provided as a background information of this paper. And then, this paper investigates the reactions of two banks on the outbreak of the war and the subsequent changing monetary environments of diverse political regimes. This is a key topic of this research.