Ethnicities, Personalities And Politics In The Ethnic Chinese Worlds

Ching-hwang Yen

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9789814603034
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

The rise of the economic power of the ethnic Chinese, known also as overseas Chinese, Chinese overseas or Chinese diaspora, was a late 20th century phenomenon. It was partly the result of the rise of the Four Little Asian Dragons in the 1970s, and was

A. Ethnic Chinese Ethnicities

CHAPTER 1

FROM IMMIGRANTS TO CITIZENS: CHANGING IDENTITIES OF THE CHINESE IN MALAYSIA

Preamble

In the developing countries of Southeast Asia, the Chinese have been unsettled by the issue of identity.¹ As a minority that commands substantial influence in economic arena, their identities have been questioned, suspected or even distorted by some politicians for their selfish gains. Of course, the Chinese are not the only minority subject to scrutiny and attack, other minorities such as Indians also received the same treatment. “ Identity” is a relatively new sociological term that denotes subjective identification with things and objects. It consists of a different variety of things both substantive and abstract, such as race, place, culture, politics, economics, nation, class and social status.

An individual embraces different types of identity. A person can be a citizen of a particular country, but also can belong to different racial stock, different culture, different class and social status. There is no obvious conflict among these different identities within a person. However, they could be exploited by some unscrupulous politicians and can be turned into tension and conflicts. In a person’s inner world, these different identities can be arranged in the order of importance that can be changed according to the changes of perceptions, time and place. Before the emergence of the newly independent states in Southeast Asia, national identity was weak because most of these territories were the colonies of Western Powers which attempted to foster loyalty towards colonial mother countries, local identity was not promoted. Thus, the identity of the Chinese minority towards newly emerged Southeast Asian countries awaited to be nurtured and developed.

To examine the process of change of the Chinese Malaysians from immigrants to citizens, the identities consisted mainly of cultural identity and national identity. The relationship between these two changed overtime according to the changes in economic and political environments in Malaysia and China, and their perceptions of importance to these changes. The changes of the Chinese identities can be divided into three different stages: pre-1912 period, the period between 1912 and 1945, and from post-war to independence.

Chinese Cultural Identity in the pre-1912 Period

In the pre-1912 stage, cultural identity dominated Chinese immigrants’ self-identification. National identity was weak. This was because the Chinese immigrants had no knowledge of the modern concept of “nation”; they were vaguely aware that they came from the land ruled by the corrupt Manchu and Chinese officials, and they were probably the subjects of the “ Great Qing Dynasty” (Da Qing Zimin). Before the founding of the Chinese Republic in 1912, the modern concept of “Nation State” did not receive emphasis, and it was also not specifically relevant to everyday life of the Chinese immigrants. What dominated their life in British Malaya (including Singapore and Malaya before the independence of Malaya in August 1957) was traditional Chinese cultural identity. The homelands of the Southeast Asian in Guangdong and Fujian were shrouded in Confucian ideas. When the immigrants left China’s shores, they brought with them traditional Chinese customs and festivities.² These festivities brought back good memories of village life in China, and brought the immigrants together to share good food and joy to help relieve boredom in foreign land. They invariably reinforced traditional Chinese cultural identity among early Chinese immigrants in British Malaya.

Underpinning the immigrants’ cultural identity were ancestral (zuji) and regional (diyu) identities. Before the Chinese immigrants left their home villages or districts, the ancestral and regional identities were not particularly relevant. Surrounded by kinsmen and village folks in a rural environment, the prospective Chinese immigrants did not worry about these identities. But when they arrived in British Malaya, these identities became indispensable in their life — from acquiring an accommodation, looking for a job, to doing a business and success in economic advancement. In this new environment, the regional identity tended to expand its boundary — from speaking same local dialect to similar regional dialects. For instance, the immigrants from Southern Fujian region (or known as Minnan) tended to group and socialise together because they spoke similar Hokkien (or known as Minnan) dialect. Their customs and religious practices were not very different from each other. This expanded regional identity reinforced their traditional Chinese cultural identity. However, the customs and mores of early Chinese immigrants belonged to the small or lower Chinese cultural tradition (xiao chuantong) that appeared to be crude and unrefined. The big or higher Chinese cultural tradition (da chuantong) awaited the introduction of Chinese newspapers and modern schools.

The founding of the Lat Pau (Le Bao), the first Chinese newspaper in Singapore in 1881, was significant for the development of traditional Chinese cultural identity in British Malaya. For the first time, it brought the Chinese communities in the region closer to China, reporting news about China’s politics, economics, social–cultural and religious activities. It also provided a platform for exchange of greetings and ideas.³ Following the footsteps of Lat Pau, other Chinese newspapers also appeared in British Malaya. They included the Sing Po (1890–1899), Thien Nan Shin Pao (1898–1905), Jit Shin Pau (1899–1901), Thoe Lam Jit Poh (1904–1905), Chong Shing Yit Pao (1907–1910), Sun Pao (1908–1909), The Union Times (1908–1911) in Singapore, Penang Sin Poe (1904–1911) and Kwong Wah Yit Poh (1910–1911) in Penang. Most of these Chinese newspapers possessed strong political orientation, they were mouthpieces or supporters of either Chinese reformers or revolutionaries.⁴ Though they differed in political orientation and aims and engaged in political polemics, they invariably injected into the minds of general Chinese readers the ideas of a modern China and things Chinese. This helped shape their Chinese cultural identity as well as stimulating a national identity.

Four years before the publication of Lat Pau, in 1877, the Qing government established a Chinese consulate in Singapore, the first of its kind in the world.⁵ The first Chinese Consul, Hoo Ah Kay (or known in Chinese official records as Hu Xuanze, nickname Whampoa), was a local Chinese leader and businessman. His main duty was to protect local Chinese residents, and he had little interest in promoting Chinese cultural and national identities. However, his two famous successors Consul Tso Ping Long (Zuo Binglong) and Consul-General Huang Zunxian contributed significantly to these two aspects. They fostered traditional Confucian values of loyalty, filial piety, chastity and harmony. They founded two different literary societies named “ Hui Xian She” and “ Tu Nan She”, respectively. The name Hui Xian that literarily meant “The meeting of talents” suggests Consul Tso’s intention of fostering literary talents in British Malaya, while the name Tu Nan that literarily meant “Advancing to the South” suggests Consul-General Huang’s ambition of expanding Chinese culture to Southeast Asian region. Both Tso and Huang’s efforts brought the Chinese in the region closer to Qing China, rekindled their Chinese cultural and national identities, and made contributions to regionalisation of the local Chinese.⁶

At about same time, there emerged a mighty cultural movement in British Malaya to revive Confucianism in local Chinese communities. Launched by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, two prominent Chinese reformers, in China in 1895 as part of their reform programme, however, the Confucian revival movement in China faded away after the ill-fated “ Hundred Days’ Reform.” Taking cue from China, the Confucianists’ leaders in British Malaya — Dr. Lim Boon Keng and Mr. Khoo Seok Wan — launched the revival movement. Ironically, the formal movement was started in Kuala Lumpur by a group of Cantonese Confucianists, but it was taken up by Lim and Khoo, and the movement spread rapidly to other parts of the peninsula. The movement initially aimed at converting Overseas Chinese en masse by observing Confucius’ birthday (27th of eighth moon of lunar calendar) and paying homage to Confucius’ portrait, but later concentrated on raising funds for establishing Confucian temples and schools.⁷ Although it achieved limited success due to various reasons, it succeeded to publicise Confucianism and traditional Chinese culture through the barrage of newspaper reports and feature articles on the issue.

More important than these cultural initiatives were political movements launched by the Chinese reformists led by Kang Youwei and the revolutionaries led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Having targeted the Overseas Chinese as the major financial source for their actions in China, they carried out propaganda and fundraising activities in the Overseas Chinese communities, while British Malaya was an important integral part of their appeals. Newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, reading clubs, public talks and mass rallies were the instruments for churning out their messages. Regardless of their competition, rivalry and debates, both reformers and revolutionaries invariably projected China as a united political entity, not just Fujian and Guangdong — the homelands of the Overseas Chinese. Both promoted China as a modern state based on sovereignty, land and people. China was no longer perceived as a vague cultural entity without clear national boundaries. For the first time, a new sense of Chinese nationhood based on a modern concept of nation state emerged. It was larger than the district, prefecture and province that they had known before. This new China identity was crucial that directed their loyalty to a nation state, but also in return helped the breakdown of dialect barriers in the Chinese communities in British Malaya.⁸ During this stage, this vague and not yet clearly-defined Chinese national identity coexisted with regional and kinship identities. On top of being a Fujianese, Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese or Teochew was an identity of Chinese, and there were no direct conflicts of these various identities.

Changes of Identities in the Period between 1912 and 1945

The founding of the Chinese Republic on 1 January 1912 marked the beginning of a new political system based on Western concepts of democracy and rule of the people, by the people and for the people. The Republic gave Chinese and the Overseas Chinese a new sense of identity and a source of pride. Due to active participation of the Chinese in British Malaya in the Chinese revolution before 1912, and the close relationship between Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the local Chinese leaders,⁹ the establishment of the Republic moved the Chinese in the region closer to China, and strengthened their Chinese identity. However, the two most important forces that help mould the Chinese national identity of the Malayan Chinese were the rise of modern Chinese education and the surge of Overseas Chinese nationalism.

Modern Chinese education in British Malaya had ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title Page
• Copyrigh
• Contents
• About the Author
• Introduction
• A. Ethnic Chinese Ethnicities
• B. Ethnic Chinese Personalities
• C. Ethnic Chinese Politics
• Index