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Chinese Colonial Entanglements : Commodities and Traders in the Southern Asia Pacific, 1880–1950 / ed. by Gregor Benton, Claire Lowrie, Julia Martínez.

Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: Asia Pacific FlowsPublisher: Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, [2024]Copyright date: 2024Description: 1 online resource (234 p.) : 14 b&w illustrationsContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780824897604
  • 9780824898144
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 330.99 23/eng/20231228
LOC classification:
  • DS732 .M37 2024
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations and Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Romanization and Chinese Characters -- CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Chinese Economic Entanglements in the Southern Asia Pacific -- PART I: COMMODITIES -- CHAPTER 2 The Australasian Banana Industry: Chinese, Australian, and Pacific Economic Connections -- CHAPTER 3 Chinese Furniture Factories and European Businesses in Australia, 1880–1900 -- CHAPTER 4 Chinese Indentured Labor and the Christmas Island Phosphate Company -- PART II: CHINESE BUSINESS LEADERS -- CHAPTER 5 Chinese Business Elites and Revenue Farming in British North Borneo -- CHAPTER 6 Chinese Australian Transnational, Transfamilial Business Practices: The Man Sun Wing Enterprise -- CHAPTER 7 Chinese Entrepreneurs Connecting Rural Australia to Asia: Harry Fay of Hong Yuen Pty Ltd. -- CHAPTER 8 Chinese Business in Samoa before World War II -- CHAPTER 9 Epilogue -- Selected Bibliography -- Editors and Contributors -- Index
Summary: Chinese Colonial Entanglements takes a new geographical approach to understanding the Chinese diaspora, shining a light on Chinese engagement in labor, trade, and industry in the British colonies of the southern Asia Pacific. Starting from the 1880s, a decade when British colonization was rapidly expanding and establishing new industries and townships, this volume covers the period up to 1950, including the 1930s when economic competition saw new racialized immigration restrictions, and the 1940s when Chinese traders found new opportunities. The editors, Julia T. Martínez, Claire Lowrie, and Gregor Benton, bring together nine historians of Chinese diaspora in an effort to break down the boundaries of traditional area studies. Collectively, the chapters offer fresh comparative and transnational perspectives on economic entanglements across a region bounded by the Malay archipelago, Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the western Pacific. Histories of white settler colonies such as Australia have tended to view Chinese diasporic experiences through the lens of exclusionary politics and closed borders. This book challenges such interpretations, bringing to the fore Chinese economic endeavors that connected Australia with Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The volume begins with an introduction that makes the case for a regional approach to Chinese diaspora history. This is followed by chapters on colonial commodity production where Chinese traders and workers were central to the development of colonial banana, phosphate, and furniture industries. These industries reflect the diversity of Chinese roles, from small business owners to indentured workers for British colonial enterprise. The book then explores the economic activities of Chinese business elite from revenue farming to intercolonial trading and rural retail. It points to colonial restrictions on business development and explains how Chinese enterprises sought to overcome restrictions through relationships with colonial leaders and by mobilizing Chinese family and transnational business networks in case studies from British North Borneo, Australia, and Samoa. Relying on diverse sources, including archival correspondence, Chinese-language newspapers, personal letters and oral histories, the authors reveal the importance of social, familial, and political connections in shaping the relationships between the colonial authorities and Chinese workers and traders.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations and Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Romanization and Chinese Characters -- CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Chinese Economic Entanglements in the Southern Asia Pacific -- PART I: COMMODITIES -- CHAPTER 2 The Australasian Banana Industry: Chinese, Australian, and Pacific Economic Connections -- CHAPTER 3 Chinese Furniture Factories and European Businesses in Australia, 1880–1900 -- CHAPTER 4 Chinese Indentured Labor and the Christmas Island Phosphate Company -- PART II: CHINESE BUSINESS LEADERS -- CHAPTER 5 Chinese Business Elites and Revenue Farming in British North Borneo -- CHAPTER 6 Chinese Australian Transnational, Transfamilial Business Practices: The Man Sun Wing Enterprise -- CHAPTER 7 Chinese Entrepreneurs Connecting Rural Australia to Asia: Harry Fay of Hong Yuen Pty Ltd. -- CHAPTER 8 Chinese Business in Samoa before World War II -- CHAPTER 9 Epilogue -- Selected Bibliography -- Editors and Contributors -- Index

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Chinese Colonial Entanglements takes a new geographical approach to understanding the Chinese diaspora, shining a light on Chinese engagement in labor, trade, and industry in the British colonies of the southern Asia Pacific. Starting from the 1880s, a decade when British colonization was rapidly expanding and establishing new industries and townships, this volume covers the period up to 1950, including the 1930s when economic competition saw new racialized immigration restrictions, and the 1940s when Chinese traders found new opportunities. The editors, Julia T. Martínez, Claire Lowrie, and Gregor Benton, bring together nine historians of Chinese diaspora in an effort to break down the boundaries of traditional area studies. Collectively, the chapters offer fresh comparative and transnational perspectives on economic entanglements across a region bounded by the Malay archipelago, Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the western Pacific. Histories of white settler colonies such as Australia have tended to view Chinese diasporic experiences through the lens of exclusionary politics and closed borders. This book challenges such interpretations, bringing to the fore Chinese economic endeavors that connected Australia with Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The volume begins with an introduction that makes the case for a regional approach to Chinese diaspora history. This is followed by chapters on colonial commodity production where Chinese traders and workers were central to the development of colonial banana, phosphate, and furniture industries. These industries reflect the diversity of Chinese roles, from small business owners to indentured workers for British colonial enterprise. The book then explores the economic activities of Chinese business elite from revenue farming to intercolonial trading and rural retail. It points to colonial restrictions on business development and explains how Chinese enterprises sought to overcome restrictions through relationships with colonial leaders and by mobilizing Chinese family and transnational business networks in case studies from British North Borneo, Australia, and Samoa. Relying on diverse sources, including archival correspondence, Chinese-language newspapers, personal letters and oral histories, the authors reveal the importance of social, familial, and political connections in shaping the relationships between the colonial authorities and Chinese workers and traders.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Nov 2024)