Chinese Business in the Making of a Malay State, 1882-1941: Kedah and Penang

by Wu Xiao An

Overview

This book examines how Chinese family and business networks, focused around activities such as revenue farming, including opium, the rice trade, and pawnbroking, and related legal and labour organization activities, were highly influential in the process of state formation in Malaya. It shows how Chinese family and business networks were flexible and dynamic, and were closely interlocked with economic and social structures, around which government, and states, developed. It considers the crucial role of wealth and power in the process of state formation, and challenges accepted views of Chinese ethnicity and migration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415301763
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/20/2003
Series:	Chinese Worlds
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1550L (what's this?)

About the Author

Wu Xiao An received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam. He held a lectureship at Xiamen University (1991-93) and was awarded fellowships at the University of Amsterdam (1993-99), The National University of Singapore (2000-1) and Kyoto University (2002).
His research interests include the modern history of Southeast Asia and the Chinese overseas.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Settings
3. Networking Regional Interactions 1882-1889
4. Family and State 1889-1895
5. Old Framework and New Development 1895-1905
6. Transition 1905-1909
7. Confrontation and Accommodation 1909-1918
8. Another Round of Adjustment 1918-1928
9. A New Profile of Community and Business 1928-1941
10. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

'The richness of both the thematic approaches as well as the breadth of the source materials used will surely make this book compelling reading. Readers interested in colonial history, state formation, social change, family business networks, and legal institutional development will all find challenging views and interesting description. Moreover, Wu Xiao An has shown us convincingly that these diverse issues not only can be analysed in an integrated fashion, but that they should be.' - Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

'The book is a major contribution to studies of nineteenth and twentieth century Malaysian history, studies of the overseas Chinese and studies of colonialism and it should be seen as an important complement to other works which show the role played by Penang in its neighbouring territories.' - Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

'Dazzling with empirical richness, judicious in its understanding of state formation's complexities, the work shows up the confluences of power and economic relations across Kedah, Penang and Thailand... Putting Chinese business in such a cross-regional context is both new and innovative... Chinese Business in the Making of a Malay State is an important scholarly achievement not the least because it is provocative of thoughts and analytical visions.' - YAO Souchou, SOJOURN, Vol. 22 No. 2, 2007

"[T]his study demonstrates the crucial role played by Chinese immigrants in the transformation and modernisation of Southeast Asia, and presents another type of Chinese immigrant economy. In contrast to the works based on North American experiences that depict Chinese immigrants as an underclass and a marginalised category under the dominant structure of host countries, this study suggests that Chinese immigrants actively participated and played a major role in shaping the expanding economy and emerging new society in Malaya...All in all, this book is a major contribution to the study of Chinese in Southeast Asia. It has greatly enhanced our knowledge and understanding of the formation of Chinese business networks in Southeast Asia in general and Malaya in particular. Students in the study of Southeast Asia and Chinese Diaspora will find this book a valuable reference." - Wang Cangbai, Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, Vol 3, 2007

'The richness of both the thematic approaches as well as the breadth of the source materials used will surely make this book compelling reading. Readers interested in colonial history, state formation, social change, family business networks, and legal institutional development will all find challenging views and interesting description. Moreover, Wu Xiao An has shown us convincingly that these diverse issues not only can be analysed in an integrated fashion, but that they should be.' - Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

'The book is a major contribution to studies of nineteenth and twentieth century Malaysian history, studies of the overseas Chinese and studies of colonialism and it should be seen as an important complement to other works which show the role played by Penang in its neighbouring territories.' - Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

From the Publisher