Originating in the 1820s and used for 150 years thereafter, qiaopi is the name given in Chinese to letters written home by Chinese emigrants to accompany remittances. Their key function was to preserve family ties. Although such correspondence focused principally on the provision of economic support, the qiaopi also touched on cultural, political, educational, and gender themes. This book therefore seeks to examine the qiaopi from two interconnected perspectives. One views qiaopi from a political and institutional angle, the other from a financial and social angle. Bringing together the extensive research of a group of international scholars, this multi-authored volume sheds light on the larger significance of the qiaopi for modern China. Taking an empirical, evidence-driven approach, the contributors employ a wide range of primary sources in both Chinese and English and relate their findings to scholarship in both the Chinese-speaking world and in non-Chinese interdisciplinary fields. In so doing, this book helps to bridge the gap between Chinese- and English-speaking researchers in the field of qiaopi studies. As one of the first books in English on the qiaopi trade and its significance, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese history and Chinese migration, as well in Migration Studies and Diaspora Studies more generally.

Qiaopi is one of several names given to the “silver letters” Chinese emigrants sent home in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These letters-cum-remittances document the changing history of the Chinese diaspora in different parts of the world and in different times. Dear China is the first book-length study in English of qiaopi and of the origins, structure, and operations of the qiaopi trade. The authors explore the characteristics and transformations of qiaopi, showing how such institutionalized and cross-national mechanisms helped sustain families separated by distance and state frontiers and contributed to the sending regions’ socioeconomic development. Dear China contributes substantially to our understanding of modern Chinese history and to the comparative study of global migration.

Chinese Diaspora Charity and the Cantonese Pacific, 1850–1949 sheds new light on the history of charity among Chinese overseas and its place in the history of charity in China and in the wider history of global philanthropy. It finds that diaspora charity, besides serving traditional functions of helping the sick and destitute and supporting development in China, helped to build trust among dispersed hometown networks while challenging color boundaries in host societies by contributing to wider social causes. The book shows that charitable activities among the “Gold Rush” communities of the Pacific rim—a loosely integrated émigré network from Guangdong Province perhaps better known for its business acumen and hard work among English-speaking settler societies in North America and Australasia—also led the way with social innovations that helped to shape modern charity in China. Fitzgerald and Yip’s volume demonstrates that charity lay at the heart of community life among Chinese communities overseas. From remittances accompanying letters to contributions to benevolent organizations, emigrants transferred funds in many different ways to meet urgent requirements such as disaster relief while also contributing to long-term initiatives like building schools or hospitals. By drawing attention to diaspora contributions to their host societies, the contributors correct a common misunderstanding of the historical Chinese diaspora which is often perceived by host communities as self-interested or disengaged. This important study also reappraises the value of charitable donations in the maintenance of networks, an essential feature of diaspora life across the Cantonese Pacific. “Fitzgerald and Yip’s fascinating collection is a major contribution to the growing study of charity and its relationship to social welfare. The essays show how remittances were used for much more than family support. The book fills a large gap on the almost unrecognized importance of charity among Cantonese communities in the Chinese diaspora.” —Diana Lary, University of British Columbia “This collection is a great contribution to our understanding of how important charity became among overseas Chinese in the early stages of the diaspora—between 1850 and 1949. Philanthropy was crucial in the creation of trust networks among the diasporic communities that earned Chinese recognition to the overseas communities both in China and in their host countries.” —Sue Fawn Chung, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

This book offers a comprehensive account of indentured Chinese labour in the Dutch East Indies between 1880 and 1942, particularly in its twilight years after 1917. The author shows that Chinese indenture started and evolved differently from other forms of bonded labour in Southeast Asia and globally, including its Indian and Javanese variants. This difference is reflected in its lexicon, which was in part special to the Chinese strain. Using fieldwork findings from the tin islands of Bangka and Belitung and the Deli plantations on Sumatra as well as archival materials in Dutch, Chinese, and other languages held in libraries in Java, Nanjing, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Leiden, this book presents cutting-edge research that sets out to contribute to the revising of our historical understanding of indenture.

Qiaopi is the name given in Chinese to letters written home by Chinese migrants to accompany remittances, in the 150 years starting in the 1820s. Qiaopi had numerous functions and dimensions, ranging from economic and social to cultural and political. In June 2013, the Qiaopi Project was officially registered under UNESCO's 'Memory of the World' programme, set up in 1992 because of 'a growing awareness of the parlous state of preservation of documentary heritage' in the world.This book presents around one hundred letters from Singapore, China, Malaysia, Thailand, the USA, and Canada, including photographic reproductions of the original letters, transcriptions in Chinese characters, and English translations, where necessary with explanatory notes. Most of the letters collected in Chinese and non-Chinese archives, and in this sourcebook, were products of the Qiaopi system as traditionally defined. A few, especially some to and from North America, especially in the second half of the twentieth century, went through the Post Office, and were not handled by Chinese remittance companies. Not all the letters accompanied remittances.侨批是指海外华人移民通过民间渠道寄回侨乡，附带家书或简单留言的汇款。侨批涉及经济、社会、文化、政治等各方面的内容。 2013年，中国侨批档案成功入选《世界记忆名录》，成为人类共同的记忆遗产。本资料集收集了来自新加坡、中国、马来西亚、泰国、美国、加拿大等国家的100多封侨批与回批的原始文件副本，编者对这批资料进行了整理、转写、校对、翻译。这些原始资料不仅包括传统定义上的侨批（即侨汇和侨信），同时也包括了一些华人移民书信，有些是华人移民与中国国内亲人的往来书信，有些则是移居不同地区的华人移民之间的往来书信。

Native and foreign speakers, mother tongues and national languages have jostled for distinction throughout the modern period. The fight for global dominance between the English and Chinese languages opens into historical battles over the control of the medium through standardization, technology, bilingualism, pronunciation, and literature in the Sinophone world. Encounters between languages, as well as the internal tensions between Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, present a dynamic, interconnected picture of languages on the move. --

Chinese Colonial Entanglements takes a new geographical approach to understanding the Chinese diaspora, shining a light on Chinese engagement in labor, trade, and industry in the British colonies of the southern Asia Pacific. Starting from the 1880s, a decade when British colonization was rapidly expanding and establishing new industries and townships, this volume covers the period up to 1950, including the 1930s when economic competition saw new racialized immigration restrictions, and the 1940s when Chinese traders found new opportunities. The editors, Julia T. Martínez, Claire Lowrie, and Gregor Benton, bring together nine historians of Chinese diaspora in an effort to break down the boundaries of traditional area studies. Collectively, the chapters offer fresh comparative and transnational perspectives on economic entanglements across a region bounded by the Malay archipelago, Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the western Pacific. Histories of white settler colonies such as Australia have tended to view Chinese diasporic experiences through the lens of exclusionary politics and closed borders. This book challenges such interpretations, bringing to the fore Chinese economic endeavors that connected Australia with Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The volume begins with an introduction that makes the case for a regional approach to Chinese diaspora history. This is followed by chapters on colonial commodity production where Chinese traders and workers were central to the development of colonial banana, phosphate, and furniture industries. These industries reflect the diversity of Chinese roles, from small business owners to indentured workers for British colonial enterprise. The book then explores the economic activities of Chinese business elite from revenue farming to intercolonial trading and rural retail. It points to colonial restrictions on business development and explains how Chinese enterprises sought to overcome restrictions through relationships with colonial leaders and by mobilizing Chinese family and transnational business networks in case studies from British North Borneo, Australia, and Samoa. Relying on diverse sources, including archival correspondence, Chinese-language newspapers, personal letters and oral histories, the authors reveal the importance of social, familial, and political connections in shaping the relationships between the colonial authorities and Chinese workers and traders.