This course explores the migration and settlement of overseas Chinese in a global context through a long-term historical perspective. We provide an overview of the formations and transformations of Chinese settled communities in Chinatowns and other similar ethnic enclaves. The lectures and tutorials will explore Chinese migration in late imperial and colonial Asia, Chinese disapora in settler and frontier societies in the modern/western world, development of Chinatowns across western and non-western contexts in the age of exclusion and nationalism, anti-Chinese movements, assimilation, and hybridization in various Chinese communities, new migration and immigration reforms, as well as new Chinatowns, “ethnoburbs”, and transnationals in the contemporary world. Through exploration of various historical themes and changing patterns, case studies will be provided about Chinatowns/Chinese settlements in Southeast Asia, the Americas (focusing on the United States but also covering Canada and Latin America), Japan, Oceania, Europe, and Africa.

Course Schedule (Readings are for reference, tutorials, and are subject to change)

Week 1

Introduction of the course – Who are the Chinese Overseas? What are “Chinatowns”?

Readings:

Tu Weiming, “Cultural China: The Periphery as the Center,” Daedalus 120 (1991), 1-32 or Tu Weiming ed., The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, (Stanford University Press, 1994), 1-35

Week 2

Theories and Studies of Chinese Migration and Transnationalism — Why people move across borders in history? What are the implications of the Chinese “diaspora”?

Readings:

Wang Gungwu, “Patterns of Chinese migration in historical perspective,” China and the Chinese Overseas (Singapore: Times Academic, 1991), 3-21

Adam McKeown, “Conceptualizing Chinese diasporas, 1842 to 1949,” Journal of Asian Studies, 58.2, 306-337

Aihwa Ong, “On the Edge of Empires: Flexible Citizenship among Chinese in Diaspora,” positions 1:3 (1993), 745-778

Ien Ang, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West (Routledge 2001), ch 1-2

Lawrence J.C. Ma and Carolyn Cartier ed., The Chinese Disaspora: Space, Place, Mobility, and Identity (Rowen & Littlefield, 2003), ch 1-2.

Min Zhou, Contemporary Chinese America: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Community Transformation, (Temple University Press), 1-42

Week 3

Chinese Trading Networks and Emigration in Southeast Asia — How did traditional Chinese sojourning and migration in Southeast Asia change in the age of colonialism and imperialism?

Readings:

Philip Kuhn. Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008), 1-107

Wang Gungwu, The Chinese Overseas (Harvard, 2008), 1-78

Eric Tagliazozzo and Wen-Chin Chang eds., Chinese Circulations: Captial, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia (Duke University Press, 2011), 1-20

Lawrence Crissman, “The Segmentary Structure of Urban Overseas Chinese Communities,” Man new series 2 (1967), 185-204

Anthony Reid ed., Sojourners and Settlers: History of Southeast Asia and the Chinese, ch. 1-2

Week 4

Chinese Settlements (Chinatowns) in Southeast Asia — What were the dynamics of Chinese acculturation, creolization, violence, and nationalism?

Readings:

Philip Kuhn, Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times, 153-196, 239-282

Wang Gungwu, The Chinese Overseas (Harvard, 2008), 79-117

Carl A. Trocki, “Boundaries and Transgressions: Chinese Enterprise in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Southeast Asia,” in Aihwa Ong and Donald Nonini, Ungrounded Empires (Routledge, 1997).

G. William Skinner, “Creolized Chinese Societies in Southeast Asia,” in Anthony Reid, ed. Sojourners and Settlers: Histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese (St Leonard, Australia: Allen and Unwin, 1996).

Tan Chee-Beng, Chinese Overseas: Comparative Cultural Issues, (Hong Kong University Press, 2004), ch.2.

Week 5

Chinese settlements in Japan from port cities to Chinatowns — How did trade and modernity affect the formations of Chinatowns in Japan?

Readings:

Angelo Akimitsu Ishi, “From ethnic ghetto to “gourmet republic” : the changing image of Kobe’s Chinatown and the ambiguities of being Chinese in modern Japan”, in David Blake Willis and Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, eds., Transcultural Japan : at the borderlands of race, gender and identity (Routledge, 2008),

Mely G. Tan, “The invention of delicacy: Cantonese food in Yokohama Chinatown” in David Wu and Sidney Cheung eds., The Globalization of Chinese Food, (Hawaii University Press, 2002)

横浜中华街150年 : 落地生根の岁月 / [编集横浜开港资料馆]. 横浜市 : 横浜开港资料馆, 2009.

Week 6

Gold Mountain and Coolie Trade in North America, Latin America & Caribbean,and Oceania – What were the causes and context of Chinese migration to frontier societies (esp. in US and Australia)?

Readings:

Philip Kuhn, Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times, 197-238

Madeline Hsu. Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home: Transnationalism and Migration between the United States and South China, 1882-1943. (Stanford University Press, 2000), 1-54

Yong Chen, Chinese San Francisco, 1850-1943, (Stanford University Press, 2000), 1-44

John Kuo Wei Tchen, New York Before Chinatown (John Hopkins University Press, 1999), 3-166.

Week 7

Chinese America and Chinatowns in the Age of Exclusion — What were the consequences of anti-Chinese movement and bachelor society in the development of early Chinatowns across the United States and Canada? How did detention and exclusion (such as Angel Island) affect the conditions of Chinese communities?

Readings:

Madeline Hsu. Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home, 55-89

Erika Lee, At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 1-146

Yong Chen, Chinese San Francisco, 45-144

K. Scott Wong and Sucheng Chan, Claiming America: Constructing Chinese Identities During the Exclusion Era (Temple University Press, 1998), 1-164

Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yang eds. Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 (University of Washington Press, 1980)

Week 8

Chinese American Transnationalism and Community Building – What was the relationship between the emigrant homeland (qiaoxiang) and the overseas Chinese? 

How did Chinese develop their local community and cultural identities?

Readings:

Madeline Hsu. Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home, 91-186

Michael Szonyi, “Mothers, Sons, and Lovers: Fidelity and Frugality in the Overseas Chinese Divided Family before 1949,” Journal of Chinese Overseas 1.1 (2005), 43-64. [O]

Elizabeth Sinn, “’Hong Kong’s Role in the Relationship Between China and the Overseas Chinese” in Lynn Pan (ed.), Encyclopaedia of the Chinese Overseas, (Singapore: Archipelago Press and Landmark Books), 1998

Yong Chen, Chinese San Francisco,, 145-268

Haiming Liu, The Transnational History of a Chinese Family: Immigrant Letters, Family Business and Reverse Migration (Temple University Press, 2006)

Adam McKeown, Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change (University of Chicago Press, 2001), 1-99

Huping Ling, Chinese Chicago, Race, Transnational Migration, and Community Since 1870. (Stanford University Press, 2011)

Week 9

Effects of War and Communism (and decolonization) on the Treatment of Chinese in Various Contexts- What were the different effects of WWI, WWII, and the Cold War on the ideas of being Chinese in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia?

Readings:

Philip Kuhn, Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times, 283-320

Erika Lee, At America’s Gates, 147-245

Sucheng Chan and Madeline Y. Hsu eds., Chinese Americans and the Politics of Race and Culture (Temple University Press, 2008), 62-172

K. Scott Wong and Sucheng Chan, Claiming America, 165-214

Week 10

Immigration Reforms and New Chinatowns in the US – How did new immigrants from Greater China and multiple social positions after 1965 change the characteristics of Chinatowns across the United States (and Canada)?

Readings:

L Ling-Chi Wang, “Roots and the Changing Identity of the Chinese in the United States,” in Tu Wei-ming ed., The Living Tree, 185-212.

Min Zhou, Contemporary Chinese America: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Community Transformation, (Temple University Press, 2009), 43-236

Peter Li, Chinese in Canada (Oxford University Press, 1998)

Week 11

New Immigrants (Legal and Clandestine) from Fuzhou and Wenzhou in the US and Europe – How did new immigrant communities and migrant networks form after the opening of China since the 1980s? What were the new occupational niches and immigrant patterns of the new Chinatowns?

Readings:

Philip Kuhn, Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times, 321-386

Ko-lin Chin, “Safe House or Hell House? Experiences of Newly Arrived Undocumented Chinese,” in Paul Smith ed, Human Smuggling: Chinese Migrant Trafficking and the Challenge to America’s Immigrant Tradition (Washington: Center for International and Strategic Studies, 1997), 169-195

Xiaojian Zhao, The New Chinese America: Class, Economy and Social Hierarchy (Rutgers University Press, 2010)

Li Minghuan, “To Get Rick quickly in Europe: reflections on migration motivation in Wenzhou,” in Frank Pieke and Hein Mallee eds, Internal and International Migration: Chinese Perspectives (Richmond: Curzon), 181-198

Fran N. Pieke et al., Transnational Chinese: Fujianese Migrants in Europe (Stanford University Press, 2004)

Week 12

Chinatowns in Africa and Developing Countries: A New Frontier or Soft Power – What were the economic opportunities, racial relations, and effects of globalization in the formation of new Chinese communities in Africa and other developing nations?

Readings:

Ufrieda Ho, Paper Sons and Daughters: Growing Up Chinese in South Africa (Oxford University Press, 2011)

Leo Suryadinata & Lee Guan Kin eds., Chinese Migration in Contemporary Perspectives: Adapation and Development (Chinese Heritage Centre, 2009)

Week 13

The Futures of Chinatowns and Chinese Diasporas: What were the varying interpretations of new Chinese migrants as transnationals such as “astronauts”, “returnees”, “assimilated model minority”, etc? Where were the identity crises for overseas Chinese to negotiate between a fixed ethnic enclave (Chinatowns/ethnoburbs) and transnational longings?

Readings:

Aihwa Ong, “On the Edge of Empires: Flexible Citizenship among Chinese in Diaspora,” positions 1:3 (1993), 745-778

Wang Gungwu, “Greater China and the Chinese Overseas,” China Quarterly 136 (1993), 926-948

Andrea Louie, Chineseness Across Borders: Renegotiating Chinese Identities in China and the United States (Duke University Press, 2004)

Week 14

Paper/Research Presentations – what are your stories of research about Chinatowns and Chinese disapora in history and in the age of globalization?

Final Research Paper 40%

First Short Paper 20%

Oral Presentations and Tutorials 20%

Attendance and Class Participation 20%

Ang, Ien, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West

Benton, Gregor and Frank N. Pieke eds., Chinese in Europe

Cheng, Sucheng, Chinese American Transationalism: The Flow of People, Resources, and Ideas Between China and America During the Exclusion Era

Ho, Ufreida, Paper Sons and Daughters: Growing up Chinese in South Africa

Hsu, Madeline Y., Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home: Transnationalism and Migration Between the United States and South China, 1882-1943

Ip, Manying, Transmigration and the New Chinese: The New Zealand Experience

Kuhn, Philp, Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times

Kwong, Peter, The New Chinatown

Lee Erika and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America

Li, Peter S. The Chinese in Canada

Liu, Haiming, Transnational History of a Chinese Family

Liu, Hong, The Chinese Diaspora (4 vols)

Louie, Andrea, Chinese Across Borders: Renegotiating Chinese Identities in China and the United States

Ma, Laurence, Carolyn Cartier, and Sen-dou Chang et al., The Chinese Diaspora

McKeown, Adam, Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change: Peru, Chicago, Hawaii, 1900-1936

Ong, Aihwa and Donald Nonini, Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Transnationalism

Ong, Aihwa, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logic of Transnationality

Pan, Lynn, Sons of the Yellow Emperor: A History of the Chinese Diaspora

Reed, Anthony and Kristine Alilunas-Rodgers, Sojourners and Settlers: The History of Southeast Asia and the Chinese

Skinner, G William, Chinese Society in Thailand

Suryadinata, Leo, Migration, Indigenization, and Interaction: Chinese Overseas and Globalization

Suryadinata, Leo and Ang Cher Kiat (eds). Chinatowns in a globalizing Southeast Asia.

Tagliacozzo, Eric and Wen-chin Chang eds. Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia

Tchen, John Kuo Wei, New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882

To, Wing-kai, Chinese in Boston: 1870-1965

Wang, Gungwu, The Overseas Chinese: From Earth Bound China to the Quest for Autonomy

Watson, James L. Emigrants and the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in Hong Kong and London

Yokohama Boomtown: (web resources)

Zhao, Xiaojian, The New Chinese America: Class, Economy and Social Hierarchy

Zhou, Min. Contemporary Chinese America: Immigration, Ethnicity and Community Transformation

Chuka Kaikan 中华会馆(编). 落地生根: 神戸华侨与神阪中华会馆百年史 A hundred years of Chinese in Kobe-Osaka and their association. Kenbun-shuppan (Press) 研文出版.

横浜开港资料馆, 横浜开港资料普及协会(编). 1994. 横浜中华街 : 开港から震灾まで : 落叶帰根から落地生根へ History of Yokohama Chinatown. 横浜开港资料馆.

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