Nexus of mobility: Chinese economic migration to west Borneo, c. 1740-1850

Abstract

In historical studies of Chinese diaspora, an increasing focus is currently being placed on Chinese "organizational genius," that is, Chinese are said to have been adept at providing mutual aid and promoting economic ventures overseas, and also effective in governing their own internal affairs and fending off racial discrimination in the age of Euro-American imperialism. This paper examines Chinese migration to West Borneo in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It argues that Chinese social imaginaries and organizational forms ultimately relied on two cardinal institutions: the Chinese deity cults and ancestral cults, with their associated rituals. By studying an early case of Chinese migration to Southeast Asia, this paper hopes to lay a foundation for comparative research on similar organizations developed by Fujian and Guangdong people in Taiwan, China and other parts of the world; and argues that the nexus of Chinese mobility and Chinese people's relatively successful economic achievements should be located in these symbolic institutions.