Ms. Yukako Nagamura, researcher at JICA’s Ogata Research Institute, served as moderator.
On March 10, 2022, JICA Sadako Ogata Research Institute for Peace and Development (JICA Ogata Research Institute) co-hosted the online course “Migration History and Multicultural Understanding Online Course – Understanding ‘Others’ from History” with JICA Yokohama Migration Museum. The lecture was part of the JICA Ogata Research Institute’s research project, “Research on Migration and Networks of Nikkei between Japan and Latin America. In the fifth of a series of six lectures, Shohei Yao, JSPS Research Fellow (PD), gave a talk on “The World from the Perspective of ‘Overseas Chinese'” under the moderation of JICA Ogata Research Fellow Yukako Nagamura.
People with Chinese roots living around the world are known as “overseas Chinese” or “Chinese. It is said that there are 40 to 50 million of them, but their true identity is not properly understood. Mr. Yao said, “The image that people tend to have of ‘overseas Chinese’ as ‘controlling the world economy’ or ‘anti-social forces’ is not the reality. I would like to eliminate stereotypes of “overseas Chinese” and deepen understanding of the real situation.
Academically, the term “overseas Chinese” is defined as immigrants with origins in China who have not acquired the nationality of their country of residence, and “Chinese” as those who have. The term began to be used in the mid-19th century, but even before that there were many people from China who had moved overseas. Mr. Yao reviewed the history of “overseas Chinese,” noting that as far back as the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century, they expanded into Southeast Asia following the “Zheng He Expedition” and contributed to the formation of a trade network in the region, that they were responsible for the labor that carried trade goods when the Spanish entered the Philippines in the 16th century, and that they were responsible for the establishment of the Overseas Chinese Settlement in Manila in 1582. In 1582, an overseas Chinese settlement was established in Spanish Manila, which is considered to be the oldest Chinatown in the world. In modern times, after the Opium War, people of Chinese origin were introduced as an indispensable labor force for the expansion of colonial management by the Western powers. The development of tin mines in the Malay Peninsula and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, for example, involved the movement of millions of Chinese as cheap labor to replace black slaves, as if they were trafficked. The concept of “overseas Chinese” was born in order to manage their own people living abroad. Since the 20th century, some overseas Chinese have expanded into other businesses such as rubber plantation management. Overseas Chinese were the backbone of colonial management in Southeast Asia.
Shohei Yao, who spoke to deepen understanding of “overseas Chinese.”
In light of this history, Mr. Yao introduced new trends in research on “overseas Chinese” and “Chinese people. One is the rethinking of the model minority image. When it comes to immigrant workers, attention tends to focus on the “honors students” who have risen to prominence through hard work, but there is a trend to look not only at the handful of such people, but also at the “ordinary” people who have lived modestly and independently, even though they fall outside of this group. However, there is a growing trend to pay attention not only to a handful of such people, but also to “ordinary” people who have lived modestly and independently despite their outliers. The other is research that focuses not only on the coexistence of majorities and minorities, but also on the relationships between different minorities. For example, many Native Americans worked on the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, as well as “overseas Chinese” and “Chinese”. Citing the fact that both groups had something in common in that they had to live far from their homelands, and that a kind of solidarity was created beyond ethnicity, Mr. Yao warned that “the conventional nation-centered perspective of American and Chinese history misses these important points.
After touching on the difficulty of categorizing people from diverse backgrounds, Mr. Yao again asked the question, “What is an ‘overseas Chinese’?” He then asked the question, “What is an ‘overseas Chinese’? My answer is that ‘overseas Chinese’ is merely a symbol for management. It was a label that was conveniently attached to a group for ease of management in colonial management and development. Since it is not strictly defined, there is no way we can discuss it all together as one. However, because it is full of contradictions, we can think through “Overseas Chinese” about how to find connections across barriers of nationality, region, and ethnicity, and how to eliminate barriers between those who govern and those who are governed. The principle of multicultural conviviality is to realize “humaneness” equally for all people. I would like to provide the knowledge necessary to achieve this through my research,” he said.
During the Q&A session, we asked the following questions: “Where did the image of overseas Chinese being good at business come from?” Why are there Chinatowns all over the world? Is it really possible to transcend nationality, region, and ethnicity? The lecture was a strong reminder of the theme of multicultural conviviality, which runs throughout the entire lecture series.
© Source JICA
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