Teaching Asia’s Giants: China 1 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 25, Number 2 Fall 2020 Made in China or Born Abroad?: Creating Identity and Belonging in the Chinese Diaspora By Nathan D. Gardner and Bernard Z. Keo The astute eye might notice Chinatowns around the world and wonder how they came to be in places so far from China and what connections there might be between these sites of “Chinese-ness” or between them and China. 1 This astute eye might also notice the influences of local cultures or local interpretations of what it means to be “Chinese”. In many such places—Malaysia, Indonesia, the US and Australia—this is a history of emigration from the mid-nine- teenth century to the early twentieth century from a common home and localization in new homelands, thereby cre- ating new and distinct community identities. In another way, this is also the history of maintaining a Chinese identity in unfamiliar environments and forging connections with compatriots across borders. The story of Chinese diasporas depends on perspective. We first will see how early emigres and sojourners adapted themselves to their new homes. Second, we will explore how a transnational Chinese identity shifted over this period from one con- nected narrowly to a “native place”, to a concept of a broader Chinese nation and a global Chinese community. Forging Local Chinese Identities Chinese have long migrated within China, but over the course of the nineteenth century, people from the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian moved in great numbers to the Nanyang [Southern Seas]—what we know today as Southeast Asia—in search of fortune. 2 The Opium Wars (1839-1860) forcibly opened China, disrupted the econ- omy, and provided new opportunities to circumvent the Qing Dynasty’s discouragement of migration. 3 The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) further disrupted the southern and eastern provinces, forcing many to leave home. 4 The British colony of Malaya and the Dutch colony of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) were particularly attractive des- tinations for these displaced peoples because the large-scale agricultural plantations and mining operations required vast work-forces. 5 These industries at the crosswinds of the lucrative Asia-Europe trade attracted not only laborers but also merchants and brokers. By the mid-nineteenth century, the flow of Chinese labor into Southeast Asia had become systematized as European and Chinese commercial interests turned to cheap Chinese labor to fill the demand in Malaya and the East Indies. Following the abolition of the slave trade by the British and Dutch Empires, cheap Chinese labor was seen by imperial administrators as the solution to labor shortages. Instead of chattel slavery, the British and Dutch turned to the credit-ticket system: a complex, Chinese established labor and brokerage recruitment system Under this system, Chinese coolies would be recruited in mainland China through clan associations, secret societies or kin- ship networks. Once recruited, these laborers were transported to a colony with the price of their travel paid for by the broker on the China side. Once at the colony, their debt accrued by transport costs would be purchased by a local labor broker—typically also a Chinese businessman—who charged the coolies for interest, food, lodging, and entertainment (primarily opium) while finding them an employer. The brokers on the colony side were primarily long-established entrepreneurs in the region. In facilitating the coolie trade, these middlemen sat at the interstices of Chinese and Europeans in the colonies, connecting Chinese labor with primarily European capital. As the final step in this credit-ticket system, the coolies’ debt would be taken over by the employer with the coolies signing a contract to repay their debt through salary deductions. 6 A rickshaw puller in Singapore recounted his own journey to the Nanyang: I came with three other of my friends after writing to some relations … they told me that I would work … if I am tough and hard-working. By pulling rickshaws I can make a living and by the end of the year can return after making over $100. We left our village for Shauto (Swatow) and from there took a steamer, the “Sea King”, to Singapore. The fare was $19. 7 This supply and demand of Chinese labor created substantial Chinese populations throughout the region. Those who travelled out of China were huaqiao [sojourners] making their way to faraway places in the hope of earn- ing enough money to create a better life for themselves and their families. 8 While many did think of themselves as transient migrants, there were also those who settled in Southeast Asia permanently and considered these new countries home. .9 By the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, new ideas about identity and belonging permeated many communities that had entrenched themselves into Malaya and the Netherlands East