Chinese in Southeast Asia

ETHNONYMS: Huaqiao, Huaren, Sangley (in the Philippines), Tangren (Mandarin)

Orientation

Identification. The Chinese in Southeast Asia once referred to themselves as "Huaqiao" (Chinese sojourners) but now describe themselves as "Huaren" (Chinese people). Another common ethnonym for Chinese, "Zhongguo ren" (people of the Central Kingdom), is avoided in Southeast Asia because it holds overtones of political allegiance to China: the Overseas Chinese live outside the political boundaries of China and are citizens or permanent residents of a variety of Southeast Asian nations. The southern Chinese, who form the core of immigrants to Southeast Asia, also refer to themselves as "Tangren" (people of Tang), alluding to the fact that their ancestors migrated to southern China at the demise of the Tang dynasty in the tenth century a.d. In the Philippines they are called "Sangley," from a Southern Min word referring to "[those who] do business."

Location. Overseas Chinese are found in cities throughout Southeast Asia, and although populations may be found in rural areas, the Chinese are overwhelmingly urban. In Southeast Asian cities they are visible in their capacity as merchants, with shops sometimes clustered in distinctive "Chinatowns."

Demography. Migration to Southeast Asia originated primarily in the coastal area of southeastern China, in particular Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan, and reached its peak in the second half of the nineteenth century, spurred by new opportunities created by the opening of treaty ports after the First Opium War. The only predominantly Chinese population in Southeast Asia is that of Singapore, where an estimated 2 million Chinese form 76 percent of a population of 3 million. In Malaysia, the Chinese form a large minority, currently estimated at 34 percent of a population of 18 million. In Indonesia, where the Chinese are only 3 percent of the total population of 195 million, there are 5 to 6 million Chinese; in Thailand, the Chinese population has been recently estimated as 5 to 6 million or more in a total population of 57 million; in the Philippines there are 600,000 in a population of 62 million; in Cambodia, 300,000 in a population of 8.5 million; in Laos, 25,000 in a population of 4 million. In Vietnam in the mid-seventies there were perhaps 2 million Chinese, but many have since become refugees. Demographic statistics do not always reveal the extent of the Overseas Chinese presence, since partially assimilated Chinese may not be counted as "Chinese" in a census report even though they maintain Chinese identity.

Assimilation. Chinese who settled in Southeast Asia before the mid-nineteenth century were likely to intermarry and become assimilated to local populations, or to develop new social forms syncretized from elements of Chinese and local cultures. Examples include the mestizos of the Philippines, the Peranakans of Indonesia, and the Baba of Singapore and Malaysia. In contemporary Indonesia and Malaysia, cultural assimilation is now less common: the practice of Islam is now an important expression of ethnic and national identity for "peoples of the soil," and this tends to form an obstacle to intermarriage and full assimilation. By contrast, Chinese have tended to assimilate more readily in the Buddhist countries of mainland Southeast Asia. In Thailand, for example, assimilation has been relatively easy for Chinese; at the same time a population of "Sino-Thai," who have maintained distinctively Sinitic cultural practices while adopting the Thai language and Thai names, has persisted. On the one hand, assimilation has resulted from the relative absence of barriers to intermarriage into a population that shares a common world religion in Buddhism, and on the other hand it is the result of government policy, which since 1948 has restricted Chinese-language instruction in formerly Chinese-medium educational institutions. In Vietnam, it was once axiomatic that Chinese found low barriers to assimilation, since Vietnam had been deeply influenced by Sinitic culture, adopting Chinese characters, Mahayana Buddhism, and for a time a bureaucratic structure of government in which candidates for high office were selected through an examination system modeled on that of imperial China. However, colonial rule and its political aftermath have had an impact on the position of Chinese populations in Southeast Asia. For example, in the period of French colonial rule, French regulations discouraged Vietnamese but encouraged Chinese participation in commerce, and in 1970 it was estimated that while Chinese Vietnamese were only 5.3 percent of the total population, they controlled 70-80 percent of the commerce of Vietnam. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the Chinese Vietnamese became a political target, and many fled or were driven out of Vietnam. The Chinese Kampucheans were labeled urban "exploiters" by Pol Pot, and it is estimated that 200,000 perished between 1975 and 1979.

Linguistic Affiliation. Overseas Chinese speak a variety of Sinitic regional languages, drawn from three language groups that are not mutually intelligible. Major regional languages include Min (Northern and Southern), Yue, and Hakka. Within Overseas Chinese communities, Chinese also identify themselves by their topolect of origin (misleadingly termed a "dialect"). Topolects of Southern Min include Fujian (Hokkien, Fukien), Chaozhou (Chaochow, Taechew, Teochew), and Hainan. Topolects of Northern Min include Fuzhou (Foochow, Hockchew), Xinghua (Henghua), and Fuqing (Hockchia). Speakers of Yue (Cantonese, Guangfu, Yueh) and Hakka (Hokka, Ke, Kechia, Kejia, Kek, Kheh) are also widely found in Southeast Asia. A single urban community in Southeast Asia might include speakers of eight or more Sinitic topolects, and in such situations, one topolect tends to become the lingua franca for that community. For example, the Fujian topolect of Southern Min (Hokkien) is dominant in many Overseas Chinese communities in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, whereas another Southern Min topolect, Chaozhou (Teochew), dominates in Thailand. There are also long-resident Chinese populations who speak Southeast Asian languages as the language of the home: an estimated 65 percent of Chinese Indonesians speak Indonesian in the home; an estimated 80 percent of Chinese Thai speak Thai. In some cases, Chinese has been creolized with Southeast Asian languages: Baba Malay, formed from Hokkien and Malay, is spoken in Singapore and Malaysia; Peranakan Indonesian, formed from Indonesian, Javanese, and Hokkien, is used in Indonesia. The Chinese regional languages share a single written language, which was once learned through diverse literary registers of the regional languages. Since the Republican Revolution of 1911, the written language has been learned through Mandarin-medium education, which was for a time a force for Chinese nationalism in Southeast Asia as well as in China. With the exception of Singapore, Southeast Asian governments have in the postcolonial era promoted national languages at the expense of Chinese-medium education, thus eroding one important base for the continuation of Sinitic culture in Overseas Chinese communities. For example, the Indonesian government promotes Bahasa Indonesia as the medium of education and public discourse, and it has restricted Chinese-medium education and the Chinese-language press. In Malaysia, mastery of the national language, Bahasa Melayu, is increasingly indispensable to public life. However, Mandarin Chinese continues to be a medium of instruction in Chinese-medium primary schools and private secondary schools, and the Chinese-language press has persisted. In the Philippines, Chinese-language instruction has been restricted since 1973, and the new generation of Chinese Filipinos is considered more Filipino than Chinese in outlook. The command of Chinese languages is useful in business, and allows Chinese to maintain ethnic ties across national boundaries; this is one important motive for the maintenance of Chinese-language ability in the context of Southeast Asia.

History and Cultural Relations

Chinese Buddhist monks paid early visits to Southeast Asia, but regular trading visits did not begin until the fourteenth century. Chinese were drawn to the rich entrepôts of Malacca, Manila, and Batavia as trade developed between Europe and Asia in the following centuries, and they were also attracted in considerable numbers to work in Ayuthia, Thailand. In 1842, Great Britain and China signed the Treaty of Nanking, which ceded the island of Hong Kong to Britain and opened five treaty ports to British trade and residence, including Xiamen (Amoy) and Fuzhou (Foochow) in Fujian Province. Labor migration was encouraged, and a thriving "coolie trade" brought many Chinese men (and a much smaller population of Chinese women) from these ports to work in parts of the world where labor was needed, including colonial Southeast Asia. The coolies met with varied fates: some returned to China after their sojourn in Southeast Asia; some perished under arduous working conditions and ill treatment; and some stayed, the most successful prospering greatly under the protective umbrella of European colonial rule. In the colonial period, Overseas Chinese were frequently middlemen between the European colonists and Southeast Asian producers or consumers. In the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements, for example, Chinese bid for contracts to manage the lucrative opium farms and controlled opium distribution on behalf of the British. In Indonesia, Chinese farmers collected taxes and worked as labor contractors for the Dutch; they were also moneylenders and dominated internal trade. The legendary successes of a few who amassed great wealth reinforced the stereotype of Chinese migration as a form of economic colonialism that exploited Southeast Asian resources and the Southeast Asian "peoples of the soil."

Settlements

In urban Southeast Asia, opulently decorated temples, kongsi (collective ancestral halls), dialect associations, and Chinese chambers of commerce are among the most impressive expressions of Chinese cultural identity and presence. A common form of construction combines place of work and residence in shop-houses, connected and fronted by a 1.5meter covered veranda. Businesses frequently cluster: for example, fabric sellers, jewelry dealers, and sellers of ritual paraphernalia each will have a territory within the business district. Where allowed, food is hawked on every corner; also common are Chinese restaurants, in which large groups can be entertained at wedding or festival banquets. In Singapore and elsewhere, development and modernization have created new settlement forms that stand beside the old: many Chinese now reside in high-rise apartments or suburban housing estates, and shops and restaurants cluster in malls as well as in rows of shop-houses.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Overseas Chinese have found their economic niche primarily in commerce, though in the context of the modern state they have diversified into a variety of occupations. The family-run business is common and describes a range of undertakings, from modest ventures involving the cooperation of husband and wife (with children sometimes providing labor) to multinational firms run by family members trained in the latest management techniques and employing nonfamily members. Increasingly, employees in Chinese-managed firms are multiethnic rather than exclusively Chinese.

Trade. Overseas Chinese have historically been traders and middlemen in Southeast Asia. Chinese business networks are legendary for the extent of their international linkages, which often follow family or ethnic networks.

Division of Labor. Husband and wife frequently cooperate in running family firms. Household work is primarily managed by women, and children often assist in this work. Unmarried children also frequently help out in small family businesses.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. In Chinese society, descent is patrilineal, and each child is given his or her father's surname, one of the Chinese "100 surnames." With the exception of Singapore and Malaysia, Chinese in Southeast Asia have been urged or required to adopt non-Chinese names as a step toward identification with the nations in which they live. Many surname groups have kongsi that maintain genealogical records for that surname, though the importance of this aspect of identity has waned somewhat.

Kinship Terminology. The extensive and detailed Chinese kinship terminology distinguishes members of the patrilineage from matrilateral kin, as well as marking generation and birth order. Maintenance of the Chinese kinship terminology is a fundamental aspect of a claim to Chinese identity for creolized Chinese such as the long-resident Baba community of Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Urban Chinese generally marry in their twenties or thirties, and residence after marriage is often with the husband's family. It is common to marry across subethnic ("dialect") group boundaries; Overseas Chinese tend toward a high degree of religious tolerance, and religious differences are in general not a barrier to intermarriage. Chinese have intermarried with members of local Southeast Asian populations; however, intermarriage with a Muslim entails conversion to Islam and so, to some extent, loss of Chinese identity—thus the rate of intermarriage has been lower in Malaysia and Indonesia than elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Divorce in traditional Chinese society was difficult: a woman who left her husband would give up her children who, as members of her husband's patrilineage, would remain with their father's family. This is no longer the case; women have a much higher likelihood of getting custody rights under modern laws than they did in the prewar period. With the increasing economic independence of women, and with residence in extended families often replaced by nuclear-family residence, divorce is no longer as strongly discountenanced as it once was.

Domestic Unit. The extended patrilineal family persists, and at the most developed phase in the cycle a family may include parents, unmarried sons and daughters, and married sons with their wives and children. The nuclear family, however, is increasingly the norm, and young couples who can afford to do so establish independent residences.

Inheritance. Property is passed from the husband to his wife and children upon death; however, the patrilineal custom of leaving property to sons persists. Men, while living, may give property and financial support to persons who are not legal heirs (such as "little wives" and their children), who may be helped with gifts, support in achieving educational goals, or loans to aid them in business ventures.

Socialization. Child-rearing responsibilities fall primarily to the mother, though grandparents or other relatives sometimes tend children, freeing the mother to seek employment. Children are taught to respect their elders by using the appropriate terms of address and, ideally, to show deference to authority by not defending themselves when criticized. Education follows the standard of the country in which children reside: Chinese-medium education has been restricted throughout Southeast Asia (except in Singapore and in Malaysia, where the constraints are relatively moderate), and government-designed curriculums attempt to orient the younger generation toward identification with Southeast Asian national cultures. Chinese cultural forms are often transmitted outside the educational system by community-based cultural and recreational clubs.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Chinese society in Southeast Asia tends to be stratified, with relative wealth or poverty definitive of social status. At the same time, Overseas Chinese maintain crosscutting links between classes through membership in associations that link members through bonds like those of "dialect" group and shared surname. The leaders of associations such as the Chinese chamber of commerce may be called upon to represent the interests of the Chinese community and to promote community aims. With the exception of Singapore, at the national level Overseas Chinese continue to tend to exercise economic rather than political power and influence.

Social Control. Overseas Chinese live in modern states, and are subject to the legal and political systems of those states. Within their communities, concern with "face" or reputation promotes acts of public-spirited generosity. Chinese culture is imbued with ethical ideas drawn from Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, and celebrates heroic figures who embody these ideals; the notion of karma gives hope of superior rebirth to those who are moral in their present lives.

Conflict. Overseas Chinese came to Southeast Asia with a tradition of self-policing. In the nineteenth century, secret societies (tongs ) maintained forces of fighting men, and violent confrontation between rival secret societies was common, as was fighting between members of different subethnic groups (Cantonese against Hokkien, for example). In contemporary Overseas Chinese communities, a minority of Overseas Chinese are involved in the "underground economies" of the area, and illicit business activities such as prostitution, the drug trade, and illegal gambling have their own "police force" in the form of gangs that provide protection to those involved in these activities. Conflict between Chinese and majority populations has occasionally erupted into violence in Southeast Asia. Outbreaks of anti-Chinese violence are often ascribed to resentment of the favorable economic position of the Chinese, a position that is, to some extent, the legacy of European colonial rule.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Chinese religious culture is syncretic, and Chinese "popular" religion is comprised of elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. The practice of Chinese religious culture involves performing the rituals of ancestor worship and participation in the cycle of public festival events: both are coordinated by the rhythms of the lunar calendar. Some Chinese are also active in the support of such world religions as Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism (Sri Lankan and Thai), and Christianity.

Chinese religious culture is polytheistic and involves worship and placation of a variety of hierarchically arranged supernatural beings. The most basic division is that between heaven and earth. At the top of the heavenly hierarchy are spiritual beings who transcend human life, like the Lord of Heaven; next are the spirits of human beings who have, through their spiritual cultivation and perfection, transcended the human cycle of death and rebirth to become Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, or Immortals; next are the venerated spirits of human heroes. Earth, by contrast, is associated on the one hand with gods of the earth, who are territorial protectors, and on the other with the "prison of earth," or hell, which is governed by an appointed bureaucracy modeled on the courts of the district magistrates of prerepublican China. Ghosts are thought to be potentially malevolent beings who may cause human suffering when provoked.

Religious Practitioners. Buddhist monks and Taoist priests contribute to Chinese religious culture by performing funeral rituals and the rites associated with public festivals. Buddhism functions as a world religion as well as serving the needs of religious culture. Buddhist monasteries offer education and retreats for lay Buddhists. Buddhist monks and Taoist priests ideally base their authority on spiritual self-cultivation and on mastery of the traditional texts chanted in ritual performance. Spirit mediums by contrast are ordinary persons whose special abilities belong to the spirits who possess them. Spirit mediums engage in ritual performances and folk healing, and they are frequently consulted for aid when Chinese encounter medical or personal problems that do not resolve themselves and thus are thought to have a spiritual cause. Christian missionaries were active during the colonial period in establishing schools and promoting conversion to a variety of Christian religions; Christianity also has a presence among the Chinese of Southeast Asia. While women may become Buddhist nuns or spirit mediums, Chinese women do not tend to become religious practitioners, in part because they are considered ritually impure as the result of menstruation and childbirth.

Ceremonies. Participants in Chinese religious culture perform the rites of ancestor worship, offering food, drink, and incense on a family altar on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month. Offerings are also made at this time to the Lord of Heaven, a select number of gods on the family altar, and the gods of the earth. In addition, major ancestral offerings are made during the Qing Ming festival on the fifth day of the fourth lunar month, on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, and on the twenty-second day of the twelfth lunar month. Festivals are celebrated to honor or placate a range of deities, and community members worship in the temple during the festive period and enjoy the Chinese opera or stage show performed in the deity's honor. Religious practitioners are frequently involved in the celebration of festivals; Buddhist monks or Taoist priests may be engaged to perform elaborate rituals, in particular during the Hungry Ghosts festival; spirit mediums perform dramatic rituals such as firewalking or "washing" in hot oil in the festivals that honor their patron deities.

Arts. Chinese art forms are frequently linked with the affirmation of cultural identity in the Southeast Asian context. They include traditional music, Chinese opera and puppet theater (most commonly performed at temple festivals), Chinese dance, painting, calligraphy, and literature, including works written in Chinese and English as well as in a variety of Southeast Asian languages. Overseas Chinese also engage in a variety of crafts, including gold- and silversmithing, furniture making, and the design and manufacture of batik textiles.

Medicine. Modern medicine is used side by side with Chinese medicine. Overseas Chinese consult acupuncturists, bonesetters, herbalists, and Chinese traditional doctors as well as modern medical practitioners. Certain illnesses and mental disturbances (including anxiety) are ascribed to "collisions" with members of the spirit world or to the action of black magic. When such causation is suspected, the ill person is frequently taken to visit a spirit medium, who diagnoses the cause and offers a magical cure.

Death and Afterlife. Funeral rituals draw kin together with members of the groups in which the deceased participated to perform the ceremonies that transform the deceased into an ancestor, represented on the family altar with a spirit tablet. Funerals may express the social status of the deceased both through the scale of ritual performance and the scale of events such as the funeral cortege that transports the coffin to the grave or crematorium. Rituals of salvation may be performed by Taoist priests or Buddhist monks or nuns. The Taoist ceremonies performed forty-nine days after the death dramatically depict the soul's journey through the courts of hell, where it is given a potion of forgetfulness and sent on to a new rebirth. This ceremony offers the soul paper models of goods that the soul is thought to need in its new life (a house, money, servants, a car), and these are burned at the conclusion of the ritual.

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JEAN DeBERNARDI