Producing China in Southeast Asia : Knowledge, Identity, and Migrant Chineseness PDF
Preview Producing China in Southeast Asia : Knowledge, Identity, and Migrant Chineseness
Chih-yu Shih E ditor Producing China in Southeast Asia Knowledge, Identity, and Migrant Chineseness Producing China in Southeast Asia Chih-yu Shih Editor Producing China in Southeast Asia Knowledge, Identity, and Migrant Chineseness 123 Editor Chih-yuShih Department ofPolitical Science National Taiwan University TaipeiCity Taiwan ISBN978-981-10-3447-3 ISBN978-981-10-3449-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3449-7 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016960715 ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinor foranyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Printedonacid-freepaper ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd. Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:152BeachRoad,#21-01/04GatewayEast,Singapore189721,Singapore Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the support and patience of many people and institutions. All participating authors, interviewers and, in par- ticular, interviewees have gone through tedious editorial processes due the variety of languages, accounting systems, rules of copyrights, and school calendars involved. The project is a relatively small component of a much larger project on the intellectual history of China studies that has begun since the beginning of the century. The scope and stage of the entire project is accessible in detail at http:// politics.ntu.edu.tw/RAEC. Over the past decade, the Ministry of Education, National Taiwan University and the Ministry of Sciences and Technologies in Taiwanhaveprovidedbothadministrativeandfinancialsupportofvariousdegrees. TheInstituteforChinaStudiesattheUniversityofMalaya,theInstituteofChinese StudiesattheVietnameseAcademyofSocialSciences,andNationalUniversityof Singapore havehelped coordinating theoral historyinterviewsof theseniors.Last but not least, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as well as the Center for TaiwanStudiesaffiliated withtheGuangxiAcademyofSocialSciencessponsored threeinternationalworkshopsintotalinBeijingandGuilinrespectivelyinorderto carryouttheprojectthroughitsmostdifficultstages.Therewasabsolutelynoreturn expected by either host. v Contents Part I Perspectives 1 Introduction: China and Chinese Migrant Scholarship . ..... .... 3 Chih-yu Shih 2 Pursuing Chinese Studies Amidst Identity Politics in Malaysia.... 17 Chow Bing Ngeow, Tek Soon Ling and Pik Shy Fan 3 A Local History of Vietnamese Sinology in Early-Twentieth Century Annam—The Case of the Bulletin Du Học Báo 遊學報. .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 39 Nam Nguyen 4 Understanding Chinese Economy Accurately—John Wong and His China Research. ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 59 Chueiling Shin 5 Two Intellectual Paths that Cross the Borders: Nguyen Huy Quy, Phan van Coc, and Humanities in Vietnam’s Chinese Studies.. .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 75 Chih-yu Shih, Chih-chieh Chou and Hoai Thu Nguyen Part II Interviews 6 A Determined Ethnologist: Interview with Professor Tan Chee-Beng .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 95 Chee-Beng Tan, Chow Bing Ngeow and Tek Soon Ling 7 A Witness to History: Interview with Professor Yen Ching-Hwang.. .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 113 Yen Ching-Hwang, Chow Bing Ngeow and Tek Soon Ling 8 A Synthetic Observer: Interview with Professor John Wong.. .... 129 Chih-yu Shih, Chueiling Shin and Chang-hong Chen vii viii Contents 9 An Interrogator of Identity: Interview with Professor Leo Suryadinata... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 139 Chuiling Shin and Yuan-ning Yang 10 The Founder of a Discipline: A Project Note on the Intellectual Growth of Professor Nguyen Huy Quy .. .... .... .... ..... .... 153 Chih-yu Shih and Thi Hue Phung 11 A Self-learner of Chinese Poetry: A Project Note on the Intellectual Growth of Professor Phan Van Coc. ..... .... 161 Chih-yu Shih and Thi Hue Phung Index .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 175 Part I Perspectives Chapter 1 Introduction: China and Chinese Migrant Scholarship Chih-yu Shih Abstract ThestrategyofsurvivalanddevelopmentofthedescendantsofChinese historical migrants, along with their evolving self-understanding, inevitably affects theperspectivesonChinaandChinesestudiesintheircountries.Theseperspectives are distinguishable from the perspectives of China studies arising elsewhere because Chinese cultural values and modern national identities are not merely the objectofstudy.Thesestudiessimultaneouslyimplicatesubjectivity,whichpertains to how authors and their readers position themselves among ethnic, national, and civilizational identities. To appreciate Southeast Asian understanding and research onChina,studyingbeyondinterstateperspectivesisnecessary.Ourmethodologyis a preliminary attempt at an anthropology of Knowledge, which stresses the rele- vanceofencountersandchoicesintheprocessofknowledgeproductionthatmirror and reproduce as well the survival of human groups. (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) Keywords Anthropology of knowledge Southeast Asia Sinology China (cid:1) (cid:1) Chinese migrant Chineseness Intellectual history Humanity and pragmatism are two distinctive features of how intellectuals of SoutheastAsiaunderstandChinaandChinesenessinthetwenty-firstcentury.These features emerge because descendants of Chinese historical migrants comprise a significant portion of the population in Southeast Asian countries. Hence, these descendants live in various versions of the legacy of Chinese humanity, and improve their ways of living according to their present conditions. The strategy of survival and development of the descendants, along with their evolving self-understanding,inevitablyaffectstheperspectivesonChinaandChinesestudies in their countries. These perspectives are distinguishable from the perspectives of China studies arising elsewhere because Chinese cultural values and modern nationalidentities arenotmerelytheobject ofstudy.Thesestudiessimultaneously C.Shih(&) DepartmentofPoliticalScience,NationalTaiwanUniversity, No.1,Section4,RooseveltRoad,Taipei10617,Taiwan e-mail:[email protected] ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2017 3 C.Shih(ed.),ProducingChinainSoutheastAsia, DOI10.1007/978-981-10-3449-7_1 4 C.Shih implicate subjectivity, which pertains to how authors and their readers position themselves among ethnic, national, and civilizational identities. National-level identitynecessarilyinvolvesdangerousself-interrogationand,attimes,politicsthat is often suppressive and confrontational (Campbell and Shapiro 1999; McClintock etal.1997).IntellectualwritingsonChinathatsticktotheethnicandcivilizational levels provide sensible exits. In Southeast Asian Chinese studies, humanities usu- ally prevail over social sciences at these two alternative levels. In addition, how humanities can be instrumental to their choice of identity strategy makes pragma- tism an important theme. SoutheastAsianstudiesofChinesehumanitiesareintertwinedwiththechanging discoursesandpracticesofChinesenessofindigenousChineseresidents.However, scholarsrarelyencounterthissubject.Chinesenessisanintrinsiccharacteristicfora good number of Southeast Asian countries; some perceive Chineseness is a long, diverse,and evolving phenomenon (Chun1996;Hau 2004). Studies ofhumanities imbuedwithChinesenessarecategoricallydifferentfromthoserelyingprimarilyon civilizational resources that marginalize Chinese cultural values. For example, humanities in Europe are founded on continental philosophy and church history (CAN1990;Zürcher1995).Theirepistemologicaltrajectoryusuallygivesrisetoan approach based on differences, which examines how the disparity between China andEuropeisamodeltobeemulatedoravillaintobeconverted(Bersick2012).In addition, studies in Chinese humanities are epistemologically almost irrelevant to Hindu. Indian scholarship on China in the area of humanities is unlikely to incur anxietytowardthelossofcertaintyasregardtoIndiannationalidentity(Shihetal. 2012),althoughtheIndiannationalidentityisconstantlydisputedbydifferinglocal trajectories. Historical Contexts of China and Chinese Studies The colonial administration was the first to document Chinese diasporic commu- nities in Southeast Asia at a time when the Chinese basically identified their motherland as China. To facilitate colonial governance, colonial authorities found Chinese useful collaborators but potentially dangerous groups at the same time (Kuhn 2009; Lee 1991). The China factor in the intellectual construction of China becamerootedasSoutheastAsiaattheoutsetandwentthroughtheSecondWorld War,decolonization,ChineseCivilWar,ColdWar,andmostrecently,Chinarising (Wang and Cushman 1988). The decolonization split the Chinese communities to the extent that rivaling political stands had to be adopted. None of the rivals were generally convincing; nevertheless each stand enlisted some romanticizing and the opportunisticstrategyofsidetaking(Wickberg1964;Williams1960;Wilson2004). The Cold War imposed anti-Communism that rendered Chineseness as suspected liaison with Communist China. In addition, nation building in each country gener- allydiscouragedidentificationwithhomelandsinChina.Accordingly,Chinadidnot qualify to bea subjectof academicinquiry.
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