The Chinese in Southeast Asia
According to one finding, approximately 23 million Chinese are in Southeast Asia, forming around 80 per cent of the Chinese outside China. Who exactly are these Chinese in Southeast Asia, and how do we identify and understand the Chinese in Southeast Asia?
The reading group aims to explore various frameworks and concepts used by scholars from different disciplines to identify and understand the Chinese in Southeast Asia. Are the Chinese in Southeast Asia part of the global Chinese diaspora in North America and Europe? Are they part of different waves of economic and political migrants? Moreover, is it even possible to identify the Chinese as a particular group in Southeast Asian nations? The Chinese are identified as the Chinese race in Southeast Asia’s multicultural nations like Malaysia and Singapore. However, they might be considered an assimilated minority group in nationalised Indonesia and the Philippines. In the deracialised but nationalised state of Thailand, the Chinese formed part of the ruling elites and simply became Thai. In Myanmar’s borderland, the Kokang Chinese have become a powerful ethnic minority group, claiming autonomy against both Myanmar and China.
Reading Lists
Session 1 - Who are the Chinese in Southeast Asia?
Suryadinata, L. (1997). ‘Ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia: Overseas Chinese, Chinese Overseas, or Southeast Asians?’ in Leo Suryadinata (ed.). Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Session 2 - Thinking of the Chinese in Southeast Asia through the Lens of Citizenship Law
Suryadinata, L. (2002) ‘China’s Citizenship Law and the Chinese in Southeast Asia’, in M.B. Hooker (ed.) Law and the Chinese in Southeast Asia. ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute (Books and Monographs), pp. 169–202.
Session 3 - The Chinese in Southeast Asia and Ethnic Dynamics
Yen, Ching-Hwang. (2008). ‘Social Change in the Ethnic (Overseas) Chinese Communities: A Historical Perspective’, in The Chinese in Southeast Asia and Beyond: Socioeconomic and Political Dimensions. New Jersey: World Scientific Pub.
Session 4 - The Chinese in Southeast Asia and Group Formation
Baffie, Jean. (2007). “The Ang-Yi or Chinese Secret Societies of Thailand. Understanding a Total Social Phenomenon”. Investigating the Grey Areas of the Chinese Communities in Southeast Asia, edited by Arnaud Leveau, Institut de recherche sur l’Asie du Sud-Est contemporaine.