Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T20:56:13.498Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Qiaopi Trade and Its Role in Modern China and the Chinese Diaspora: Toward an Alternative Explanation of “Transnational Capitalism”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2016

Hong Liu  and
Gregor Benton
Get access

Abstract

This essay takes issue with the idea that the trade in remittance letters (qiaopi 侨批) was a modern form of “transnational capitalism” that relied on trust in a system of impersonal rules rather than “a distinctive form of ‘Chinese capitalism’” dependent on cultural or familial affinities, and that qiaopi traders used instrumental economic practices to transnationalize their businesses. The essay aims to identify alternatives to modern capitalism that are, at the same time, robustly cosmopolitan, and for which modernity is multiple rather than modular. Ethnicity and identity matter greatly in diasporic Chinese business culture, as sources of entrepreneurial resilience and creativity, especially in the early stages of diaspora formation. Far from forming an obstacle to economic growth and technological innovation, business familism, social networks, and their associated cultural values can be shown, at least in some periods and contexts, to have assisted economic development in Chinese societies at home and abroad, by enabling social mobility, furthering family interests, building partnerships, facilitating contracts, and promoting other practices proper to a modern market economy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , August 2016 , pp. 575 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Benton, Gregor, and Gomez, Edmund Terence. 2008. Chinese in Britain, 1800–Present: Economy, Transnationalism, Identity. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Jinhe, Cai 蔡金河 and Guanghua, Xu 许光华. 2014. “Shilun Taiguo Huawen bao dui Taiguo qiaopi ye de gongxian” [On the contribution of Thailand's Chinese-language press to Thailand's qiaopi trade]. In Shijie jiyi yichan: Qiaopi dang'an yantao hui lunwen ji [World memory heritage: Collection of papers from the qiaopi archive symposium], eds. Zhongguo lishi wenxian yanjiu hui, 365–70. Shantou: Chaoshan lishi wenhua yanjiu zhongxin.Google Scholar
Chan, Shelly. 2015. “The Case for Diaspora: A Temporal Approach to the Chinese Experience.” Journal of Asian Studies 74(1):107–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. “Whose Imagined Community?” In The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories, 1–13. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chunsheng, Chen 陈春声. 2004. “Lishi de neizai mailuo yu quyu shehui jingji shi yanjiu” [Studies on the internal historical context and regional social and economic history]. Shixue yuekan 8:8–9.Google Scholar
Chunsheng, Chen 陈春声. 2005. “Haiwai yimin yu difang shehui de zhuanxing: Lun Qingmo Chaozhou shehui xiang ‘qiaoxiang’ de zhuanbian” [Diasporic and local social transformations: Transformations in the late-Qing Chaozhou qiaoxiang]. Di San Jie Renlei Xue Gaoji Luntan [Third Anthropology Forum], October 29.Google Scholar
Liyuan, Chen 陈丽园. 2010. “Qiaopi yu kuaguo Huaren shehui de jiangou” [Qiaopi and the construction of transnational ethnic-Chinese society]. In Di san jie qiaopi wenhua yantao hui lunwen xuan [Third symposium on research into qiaopi culture], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 164–80. Hong Kong: Tianma chuban youxian gongsi.Google Scholar
Xunxian, Chen 陈训先. 2008. “Qiaopi ye yu Chao shang wen hua yuan” [The qiaopi trade and the origins of Chao merchant culture]. In Di yijie qiaopi wenhua yantao hui lunwen xuan [Selection of papers from the first qiaopi culture symposium], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 167–71. Hong Kong: Gongyuan chuban youxian gongsi.Google Scholar
Xunxian, Chen 陈训先. 2010. “Lun ‘yinxin hefeng’” [On ‘silver and letter in one envelope]. In Di san jie qiaopi wenhua yantao hui lunwen xuan [Third symposium on research into qiaopi culture], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 181–89. Hong Kong: Tianma chuban youxian gongsi.Google Scholar
Chen, Zhongping. 2011. Modern China's Network Revolution: Chambers of Commerce and Sociopolitical Change in the Early Twentieth Century. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Desai, Radhika. 2009. “The Inadvertence of Benedict Anderson: Engaging Imagined Communities.” Asia-Pacific Journal, March 16.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, Shmuel N. 2000. “Multiple Modernities.” Daedalus 129(1):1–29.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, Shmuel N., and Schluchter, Wolfgang. 1998. “Introduction: Paths to Early Modernities—A Comparative View.” Daedalus 127(3):1–18.Google Scholar
Gomez, Edmund Terence, and Benton, Gregor. 2004. “Introduction: De-essentializing Capitalism: Chinese Enterprise, Transnationalism, and Identity.” In Chinese Enterprise, Transnationalism, and Identity, eds. Gomez, Edmund Terence and Hsiao, Michael, 1–19. London: RoutledgeCurzon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Lane Jeremy. 2012. “The Post Office and State Formation in Modern China, 1896–1949.” PhD diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign.Google Scholar
Harris, Lane Jeremy. 2015. “Overseas Chinese Remittance Firms: The Limits of State Sovereignty, and Transnational Capitalism in East and Southeast Asia, 1850s–1930s.” Journal of Asian Studies 74(1):129–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. [1821] 1991. Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Edited by Wood, Allen W.. Translated by H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. [1837] 2011. Lectures on the Philosophy of History. Translated by Alvarado, Ruben. Aalten, Netherlands: Wordbridge Publishing.Google Scholar
Henkin, David M. 2006. The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-Century America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honig, Emily. 1992. Creating Chinese Ethnicity: Subei People in Shanghai, 1850–1980. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hsu, Madeline Y. 2000. “Migration and Native Place: Qiaokan and the Imagined Community of Taishan County, Guangdong, 1893–1993.” Journal of Asian Studies 59(2):307–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Annian, Huang 黄安年. 2014. “Zhongshi qiaokan xiangxun yanjiu” [Paying attention to the studies of qiaokan and village bulletins]. http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-415-788201.html (accessed May 2, 2015).Google Scholar
Huang, Cen, and Godley, Michael R.. 1999. “A Note on the Study of Qiaoxiang Ties.” In Qiaoxiang Ties: Interdisciplinary Approaches to “Cultural Capitalism” in South China, eds. Douw, Leo, Huang, Cen, and Godley, Michael R., 306–38. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Jiaxiang, Huang 黄家祥. 2010. “Zhaoan qiaopi ye liubian” [Flow and change in the Zhaoan qiaopi trade]. In Di san jie qiaopi wenhua yantao hui lunwen xuan [Third symposium on research into qiaopi culture], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 502–10. Hong Kong: Tianma chuban youxian gongsi.Google Scholar
Ting, Huang 黄挺. 2008. “‘Gongan bu’ suo jian zaoqi qiaopi ye yunying de yixie wenti” [Some questions in the operations of the qiaopi trade in the early period encountered in the “public ledgers”]. In Di erijie qiaopi wenhua yantaohui lunwen xuan [Selection of papers from the second qiaopi culture symposium], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 208–17. Shantou: Chaoshan lishi wenhua yanjiu zhongxin.Google Scholar
Junying, Jia 贾俊英. 2014. “Jindai Minnan qiaopi ju xinyong de shanbian: Yi Tianyi ju wei gean de kaocha” [The evolution of trust in modern qiaopi shops in southern Fujian: Using Tianyi as a case study]. In Shijie jiyi yichan: Qiaopi dang'an yantao hui lunwen ji [World memory heritage: Collection of papers from the qiaopi archive symposium], eds. Zhongguo lishi wenxian yanjiu hui, 138–56. Shantou: Chaoshan lishi wenhua yanjiu zhongxin.Google Scholar
John, Richard R. 2009. Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Linda Cooke. 1993. “Shanghai: An Emerging Jiangnan Port, 1683–1840.” In Cities of Jiangnan in Late Imperial China, ed. Johnson, Linda Cooke, 151–80. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Mulin, Ke 柯木林. 1991. “Chengyi Maxi xiang Lin shi zupu de faxian ji qi shiliao jiazhi” [The discovery of the Lin lineage genealogy of Chengyi's Maxi Village and its historical value]. Nanyang wenti yanjiu 1:70–76.Google Scholar
Yun, Liao 廖耘 and Erchi, Wu 吴二持. 2010. “Qiaopi yu Zhongguo chuantong de daode guannian” [Qiaopi and China's traditional concepts]. In Di san jie qiaopi wenhua yantao hui lunwen xuan [Third symposium on research into qiaopi culture], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 259–70. Hong Kong: Tianma chuban youxian gongsi.Google Scholar
Liu, Hong. 1998. “Old Linkages, New Networks: The Globalization of Overseas Chinese Voluntary Associations and Its Implications.” China Quarterly 155:588–609.Google Scholar
Liu, Hong. 2011. “An Emerging China and Diasporic Chinese: Historicity, State, and International Relations.” Journal of Contemporary China 20(72):813–32.Google Scholar
Liu, Hong. 2012. “Beyond a Revisionist Turn: Networks, State, and the Changing Dynamics of Diasporic Chinese Entrepreneurship.” China: An International Journal 10(3):20–41.Google Scholar
Jin, Liu 刘进. 2007. “Minguo shiqi Wuyi qiaokan zhong de yinxin guanggao” [Remittance advertisements in Wuyi qiaokan in the Republican period]. Wuyi daxue xuebao 9(1):33–37.Google Scholar
Jin, Liu 刘进. 2009. Wuyi yinxin [Wuyi silver and letters]. Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zeyang, Luo 罗则扬. 2004. “Qiaopi wenhua yu haiyang wenhua” [Qiaopi culture and oceanic culture]. In Shou jie qiaopi wenhua yantao hui lunwen ji [Selection of papers from the first qiaopi culture symposium], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 208–14. Shantou: Chaoshan lishi wenhua yanjiu zhongxin.Google Scholar
Chujian, Ma 马楚坚. 2008. “Chao bang pixin ju yu qiaohui liutong zhi fazhan chutan” [Preliminary investigation of the Chao bang remittance offices and the development of the circulation of overseas remittances]. In Di yijie qiaopi wenhua yantao hui lunwen xuan [Selection of papers from the first qiaopi culture symposium], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 19–40. Hong Kong: Gongyuan chuban youxian gongsi.Google Scholar
Maclachen, Patricia L. 2011. The People's Post Office: The History and Politics of the Japanese Postal System, 1871–2010. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Weiqiang, Mei 梅伟强 and Zefeng, Guan 关泽峰. 2010. Guangdong Taishan Huaqiao shi [Overseas Chinese history in Taishan, Guangdong]. Taishan: Zhongguo Huaqiao chubanshe.Google Scholar
Weiqiang, Mei 梅伟强 and Xue, Mei 梅雪. 2007. “Jiti jiashu” lian Wuzhou-Wuyi qiaokan xiangxun yanjiu (1978–2005) [“Collective family letters” and research on Wuzhou-Wuyi qiaokan and village newsletters (1978–2005)]. Hong Kong: Xianggang shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Meskill, Johanna M. 1970. “The Chinese Genealogy as a Research Source.” In Family and Kinship in Chinese Society, eds. Chin, Ai-li S. and Freedman, Maurice, 139–62. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Rana, Pradumna B., and Chia, Wai-Mun. 2014. “The Revival of the Silk Roads (Land Connectivity) in Asia.” RSIS Working Paper no. 274. Singapore.Google Scholar
Zongyi, Rao 饶宗颐, ed. 1965. Chaozhou zhi huibian [Chaozhou gazetteer compilation]. Hong Kong: Longmen shudian.Google Scholar
Romani, Gabriella. 2013. Postal Culture: Reading and Writing Letters in Post-Unification Italy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Wenjing, Su 苏文菁 and Qinghai, Huang 黄清海. 2013. “Quanqiu hua shiye xia de qiaopi ye: Jian lun qiaopi wenhua de haiyang wenming shuxing” [On the qiaopi trade in the perspective of globalization: And also on the oceanic civilizational quality of qiaopi culture]. Minshang wenhua yanjiu 7(1):33–47.Google Scholar
Wang, Di. 2008. The Teahouse: Small Business, Everyday Culture, and Public Politics in Chengdu, 1900–1950. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Weizhong, Wang 王炜中. 2007. Chaoshan qiaopi [Chaoshan qiaopi]. Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Williams, Michael. 2003. “In the Tang Mountains We Have a Big House.” East Asian History 25–26:85–112.Google Scholar
Hongli, Wu 吴鸿丽. 2008. “Chuxi Minnan qiaopi wenhua” [Preliminary investigation of southern Fujian's qiaopi culture]. In Di yijie qiaopi wenhua yantao hui lunwen xuan [Selection of papers from the first qiaopi culture symposium], ed. Weizhong, Wang, 358–69. Hong Kong: Gongyuan chuban youxian gongsi.Google Scholar
Yixiang, Wu 吴以湘, ed. 1949. Chaozhou xiangxun [Chaozhou village bulletins] 4(2). Singapore: Chaozhou xiangcun she.Google Scholar
Hui, Xinjiapo Shunde Tongxiang 新加坡顺德同乡会, eds. 1948. Shunde qiaokan [Shunde qiaokan] 2. Singapore: Shunde qiaokan she.Google Scholar
Qunxi, Yang 扬群熙, ed. 2003. Chaoshan diqu qiaopi ye ziliao [Materials concerning the qiaopi trade in the Chaoshan region]. Shantou: Shantou shi tushu guan.Google Scholar
Ting, Yao 姚婷. 2011. “Qiaokan zhong de qiaoxiang shehui yu ‘qiao’ ‘xiang’ wangluo—jiyu 1949 nian qian Xinning zazhi ‘guanggao’ lanmu de fenxi” [Qiaoxiang society and “qiao” and “xiang” networks in qiaokan—based on an analysis of the advertisements columns in Xinning zazhi before 1949]. Huaqiao Huaren lishi yanjiu 4:21–30.Google Scholar
Ting, Yao 姚婷 and Weiqiang, Mei 梅伟强. 2009. Bainian qiaokan: “Xinning zazhi” lishi wenhua lun [One hundred years of qiaokan: Xinning zazhi and historical culture]. Taishan: Zhongguo Huaqiao chubanshe.Google Scholar
Xingyan, Yuan 袁兴言. 2010. “Weiguan kongjian shi jiaodu jiedu ‘Jinmen Xue shi zupu’ ji ‘Xianying’ zhong de Zhushan cun” [Interpreting Zhuxan village in the genealogy of Xue lineage in Quemoy and Shine with a spatial micro-historiography prospect]. http://www.nqu.edu.tw/upload/edusf/attachment/c930ccc96d692e2ca8159e10589060b1.pdf (accessed May 5, 2016).Google Scholar
Linyou, Zhang 张林友. 2014. “Qiaopi dang'an yu Minyue jindai jinrong shi yanjiu: Jiyu shiliao bijiao de fenxi kuangjia” [Research on the qiaopi archives and the modern financial history of Fujian and Guangdong: An analytical framework on the basis of a comparison of historical materials]. In Shijie jiyi yichan: Qiaopi dang'an yantao hui lunwen ji [World memory heritage: Collection of papers from the qiaopi archive symposium], eds. Zhongguo lishi wenxian yanjiu hui, 223–27. Shantou: Chaoshan lishi wenhua yanjiu zhongxin.Google Scholar
Mingshan, Zhang 张明汕. 2006. “Qiaopi ye zhe jianfu lishi shiming” [Qiaopi traders shoulder a historical responsibility]. In Taiguo qiaopi wenhua [Thailand's qiaopi culture], eds. Lin, Hong 洪林 and Daogang, Li 黎道纲, 101–4. Bangkok: Taizhong xuehui congshu.Google Scholar
Youguo, Zheng 郑有国. 2013. “Heigeer ‘haiyang wenhua’ chanshi” [Expounding Hegel's notion of “oceanic culture”]. Minshang wenhua yanjiu 7(1):60–69.Google Scholar
Zurndorfer, Harriet Thelma. 1995. Chinese Bibliography: A Research Guide to Reference Works about China Past and Present. Amsterdam: Brill.Google Scholar