Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:26:02.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Contribution of the Chinese to the Development of Southeast Asia: A New Appraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Claudine Salmon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A great deal has been written during the last three decades on the Chinese in Southeast Asia in Chinese and Japanese generally and in English particularly. The outstanding feature of the Western approach to studying this ethnic community has been that research methods of sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists have largely replaced those of historians.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 260 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Kasetsiri, Charnvit, The Rise of Ayudhya: A History of Siam in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Kuala Lumpur, 1976), p. 194Google Scholar; Viraphol, Sarasin, Tribute and Profit: Sino-Siamese Trade, 1652–1853 (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), p. 419CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chen Chingho A., “The Ka I Hen Tai: A Collection of the “Fûsetsu” – Its Compilation and Utility Value for the Study of Indochinese Modern History” (Unpublished report presented in Paris in 1979 at the Institute for Higher Chinese Studies).

2 Chou Ta-kuan's account on Cambodia entitled Chen-la feng-tu chih which was written at the end of the 13th century gives a list of Chinese products wanted by the Cambodians under the heading Yu teh t'ang-huo. For a translation into French, see Pelliot, P., Mémoires sur les coutumes du Cambodge de Tcheou Ta-kouan, version nouvelle; oeuvres posthumes de P. Pelliot n °111 (Paris, 1951), p. 27Google Scholar.

3 For a survey of the rice trade between Siam and Thailand, see Viraphol, , Tribute and Profit, pp. 107–20Google Scholar.

4 Horses were also introduced at the same time; see Khôi, Lẽ Thanh, Le Viêt-nam: histoire et civilisation, Les êditions de minuit (Paris, 1955), pp. 93, 501Google Scholar.

5 Wen-wu (1959:2), 75Google Scholar.

6 Tê-k'un, Chêng, Archaeology in Sarawak (Cambridge, 1969), p. 21Google Scholar.

7 Yi-sein, Chen, “The Chinese in Upper Burma before A.D. 1700”, Journal of Southeast Asian Researchers 2 (1955):86–87Google Scholar.

8 Skinner, G. William, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History (Ithaca, N.Y., 1961), p. 2Google Scholar.

9 Fan, Shih, “Mian-shih shu-lüeh”, in Hsiao-fang hu-chai yu-ti tsung-ch'ao 10, 131Google Scholar; Yi-sein, Chen “Mian-tien hua-ch'iao shih-lüeh”, Nan-yang wen-chai 15, no. 2 (1964):25–26Google Scholar. The toponyme of Mao-lung cannot be located with precision, but we have good reason to think that it was somewhere within the confines of modern Burma and Yunnan province, in an area inhabited by Wa tribes.

10 Hakatoko, Wada, “Vietnamese and Burmese Silver during the Ch'ing Dynasty” (in Japanese), Shigaku 33, nos. 3–4 (1963):119–38Google Scholar.

11 Jackson, James C., “Mining in Eighteenth-Century Bangka: The Pre-European Exploitation of a Tin Island”, Pacific View Point 10, no. 2 (09 1969):33Google Scholar. According to the author, “the most important Chinese contributions to the mining industry were their adaptation of the elaborate systems of water control characteristic of their home village environment and their ability to mobilise and organise an effective workforce” (p. 43).

12 Their mining methods were very similar to those used by their counterparts in the exploitation of tin deposits in Bangka island. See Jackson, James J., Chinese in the West Borneo Goldfields, University of Hull, Occasional Papers in Geography, no. 15 (1970), p. 88Google Scholar.

13 According to a Vietnamese tradition, the first Chinese potter introduced his craft into Annam as early as the 3rd century B.C. See Ceramic Art of Southeast Asia (Singapore, 1971), p. 10Google Scholar.

14 Skinner, , Chinese Society in Thailand, p. 10Google Scholar.

15 Chou Ta-kuan, Chen-la feng-tu chih, under the heading wu-ch'i.

16 Dampier, William, Voyages and Discoveries (London, 1931), p. 195Google Scholar. For Chinese influences on Burmese handicraft, see Purcell, Victor, The Chinese in Southeast Asia (London, 1965), p. 68Google Scholar.

17 Ling, Roth H., Oriental Silverwork, Malay and Chinese: A Handbook for Connoisseurs, Collectors, Students and Silversmiths (Kuala Lumpur, 1966) (reprinted edition from the original of 1910), p. 300Google Scholar; Meng, Ho Wing, Straits Chinese Silver (Singapore, 1976), p. 268Google Scholar.

18 Nederlandsch-Indisch Plakaatboek, vol. 2 (1642–1677), pp. 122–23, 130–31Google Scholar.

19 Ibid., p. 356. According to De Haan, , Oud Batavia (Batavia, 1922), vol. 1, p. 424Google Scholar, during the following century the arak industry in Batavia was obviously flourishing: in 1712 there were 12 factories, in 1715 the number increased to 18 and in 1762 to 20; the last figure remained stable until 1793. This industry was aimed at export.

20 Kasetsiri, , Rise of Ayudhya, p. 82Google Scholar.

21 Viraphol, , Tribute and Profit, p. 19Google Scholar.

22 Chin-Keong, Ng, “A Study on the Peasant Society of South Fukien, 1506–1644”, Nan-yang ta-hsüeh hsüeh-pao 6 (1972):211Google Scholar.

23 Yi-sein, Chen, “Chinese in Upper Burma”, p. 28Google Scholar.

24 Skinner, , Chinese Society in Thailand, p. 46Google Scholar.

25 Wickberg, Edgar, The Chinese in Philippine Life, 1850–1898 (New Haven, Conn., 1965), pp. 94–96Google Scholar.

26 Scott, Edmunt's discourse of Java in Samual Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimage (Glasgow, 1905), vol. 2, p. 444Google Scholar.

27 Purcell, , Chinese in Southeast Asia, pp. 364–65Google Scholar.

28 Willmott, W.E., “History and Sociology of the Chinese in Cambodia prior to the French Protectorate”, Journal of Southeast Asian History 7, no. 1 (03 1966):26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Mouhot, Henri, Travels in the Central Parts of Indochina (Siam), Cambodia and Laos (London, 1864), p. 61Google Scholar.

30 It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the Dutch prohibited in Java the purchase of land by Chinese.

31 Gaspardone, Emile, “Un Chinois des Mers du Sud, le fondateur de Ha-tiên”, Journal Asiatique 240, no. 3 (1952):363ff.Google Scholar; Boudet, Paul, “La conquête de la Cochinchine par les Nguyẽn et le rôle des émigŕes Chinois”, B.E.F.E.O. 42 (1942): 121–22Google Scholar.

32 Except an extremely interesting paper by Chen Ching-ho, entitled “Mac Thien Tu and Phraya Taksin: A Survey on Their Political Stand, Conflicts and Background”, still unpublished in 1979, and of which a copy had been presented to the present writer by the author himself.

33 Khôi, Le Thanh, Le Viêt-nam, p. 119Google Scholar.

34 Hok-lam, Chan, “Chinese Refugees in Annam and Champa at the End of the Sung Dynasty”, Journal of Southeast Asian History 7, no. 2 (09 1966):5–6Google Scholar.

35 Huan, Ma, Ying-yai Sheng-lan: “The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores” (1433), transl. and ed. Mills, J.V.G. (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 99–100Google Scholar.

36 De Graaf, H.J., Pigeaud, Th.G. Th., De eerste moslimse vorstendomnen op Java, Studiën over Staalkundige geschiedenis van de 15de en 16de eeuw, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 69 (The Hague, 1974), pp. 35–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Kasetsiri, , Rise of Ayudhya, p. 70Google Scholar.

38 Ibid., pp. 81–82.

39 At the beginning of the 18th century, Ha-tiên (the Ponteamass of the Europeans) had supplanted Oudong, the capital of Cambodia, as a centre of trade, partly because of its convenient location. See Hamilton, A., A New Account of the East Indies, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1727), pp. 196–97Google Scholar.

40 Gaspardone, , “Un Chinois des Mers du Sud”, p. 375Google Scholar.

41 Ching-ho, Chen, “On the Literary works of Mac Thien-tu, Governor of Ha-tiên, with Special Reference to ‘Ha Tiên thap vinh’” (in Japanese), Shigaku 40, nos. 2–3 (Tokyo, 1967):149–221Google Scholar.

42 Boudet, , “La conquête de la Cochinchine”, pp. 115–32Google Scholar.

43 Chen, Chingho A., “The Migration of the Cheng Partisans to South Vietnam” (in Chinese), pt. II, New Asia Journal 8, no. 2 (1968):478Google Scholar.

44 Taksin is said to have been conversant in Chinese, Malay, and Vietnamese.

45 l-lin, Wu, Sung-k'a chih, [Description of Songkhla] Jen-jen wen-k'u, (Taipei, 1968), p. 155Google Scholar; Sokichi, Kimura, “On the Tombstones and Ancestral Tablets of the Wu Family of Songkhla in South Thailand” (in Japanese), Shigaku 43, no. 3 (1970):71–109Google Scholar.

46 Hsiang-lin, Lo, A Historical Survey of the Lan-fang Presidential System in Western Borneo, Established by Lo Fang-pai and Other Overseas Chinese (in Chinese with an abstract in English) (Hong Kong, 1961), p. 165Google Scholar.

47 For the cultural relations between Vietnam and China, see, among others, Ting-i, Kuo et al. , Chung yüeh wen-hua lun-chi, Chung-hua wen-hua ch'u-pan shi-yeh wei-yuan hui (Taipei, 1956), 2 vols., p. 348Google Scholar.

48 Tung-hsi yang-kao, 3, under the heading Chiu-kang.

49 Skinner, , Chinese Society in Thailand, pp. 14–15Google Scholar.

50 Ibid., p. 14.

51 De Haan, , Oud Batavia, vol. 1, p. 508Google Scholar; Kai-ba li-tai shih-chi, ed. Nan-yang hsüeh-pao 9, no. 1 (06 1953):33–34Google Scholar.

52 De Haan, , Oud Batavia, vol. 1, p. 508Google Scholar: “Het gezin van den G.G. de Haan werd dertig jaar lang medisch behandeld door de vrouw van een Chineesch Luitenant”.

53 The Malay term dacing is derived from the Chinese ta ch'êng which means “great steelyard”.

54 MajThorn, WilliamMemoir of the Conquest of Java, with Subsequent Operations of the British Forces in the Oriental Archipelago (London, 1815), pp. 244–45Google Scholar.

55 Plakaatboek 6 (6 12 1751):110–12Google Scholar; (22 Sept. 1752):276–78.

56 Skinner, , Chinese Society in Thailand, p. 14Google Scholar.

57 Hae, Ong Tae, The Chinaman Abroad, or A Desultory Account of the Malayan Archipelago, Particularly of Java, trans. Medhurst, W.H. (Shanghai, 1849)Google Scholar.

58 Iskandar, T., “Some Manuscripts of Jakarta Lending Libraries” (Paper presented at the Second European Colloquium on Indonesian Studies held inLondonin Apr. 1979)Google Scholar; Kratz, E.U., “Running a Lending Library in Palembang in 1886 A.D.”, Indonesia Circle, 11 1977, pp. 3–12Google Scholar.

59 Iskandar, op. cit., p. 2.

60 Voorhoeve, P., “A Malay Scriptorium”, in Malayan and Indonesian Studies, Essays presented to Sir Richard Winstedt on His Eighty-fifth Birthday, ed. Bastin, John and Roolvink, R. (Oxford, 1964), p. 260Google Scholar.

61 This question will be discussed in detail in a forthcoming study on the literature in Malay by the Chinese of Indonesia.

62 Salmon, Cl. and Lombard, D., “Le poème en malais d'un peranakan sur la visite du roi Chulalong-korn à Batavia en 1871”, Archipel 22 (1981)Google Scholar.

63 Lombard-Salmon, Cl., “Aux origines de la littérature sino-malaise: un sjair publicitaire de 1886”, Archipel 8 (1974): 155–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 Lombard, D., “La grammaire malaise de Lie Kim Hok (1884)”, in Langues et Techniques, Nature et Societe, vol. 2 (Paris, 1972), pp. 197–203Google Scholar.

65 Chiang, Lim Ying, “Early Arts and Literature in Thailand” (in Chinese), Journal of Southeast Asian Researches 5 (08 1969): 145–46Google Scholar.

66 Lombard-Salmon, Cl., “Writings in Romanized Malay by the Chinese of Malaya: A Preliminary Inquiry”, Kertas-kertas pengajian Tionghua [Papers on Chinese Studies] (Kuala Lumpur) 1 (12 1977):69–95Google Scholar.

67 The Celestial Mirror. An English translation by Gyi, J.A. Maung and Hoon, Cheah Toon of Po Kam — or Extracts from Liau Chai, Pau kong an, Hokkien Libraries Series I (Rangoon, 01 1894, 1st ed.), III, 127, VIIIGoogle Scholar.