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Post by nzbc on Feb 5, 2019 23:16:43 GMT 12
In the last few decades, more than 160,000 remittance documents have been found and preserved in Guangdong and Fujian, as part of the qiaopi and yinxin project. The recovery of these documents is important for empirical studies focusing attention on the historical development and social-economic impact of the Chinese remittance network. Remittances have been credited with helping to rectify China’s international balance of payments, modernizing industry and commerce in Fujian and Guangdong, institutionalizing the remittance trade, and strengthening the transnational networks of Chinese families (Yao 1943; Lin 1987; Du 1995; Dai 2003; Chen 2008; Liu 2009; Chen 2010). Most importantly, studies on Chinese remittances demonstrate that the Chinese approach to organising remittances was different from the remittance behaviour of English-speaking immigrants, who favoured the use of money orders and telegraphic transfers by individuals (Magee and Thompson 2006, 179-180). In Chinese remittance networks, local Chinese merchants, clan associations, mobile brokers, bankers, postmasters, and interpreters collaborated through various channels. Thus, a “social network” approach has been employed in qiaopi and yinxin studies to explain how economic behaviour was constructed and reconstructed locally and internationally by social associations (Chen 2000; Hsu 2000; Dai 2003; Chen 2008; Hamanutsa 2008; Liu and Li 2011; Benton and Liu 2015; Harris 2015). Rather than focus on self-interest and profit-seeking, the interrelationship between the growth of the remittance business and social associations is often implicit in the success of the former. This chapter follows the same characterization of Chinese remittance network but asks how the world economy functionally influenced the Chinese approach to organizing the remittance business beyond social associations and cultural pursuits. It focuses on the Chinese Australian remittance trade in a world economy enhanced by gold output. Chinese Australian remittances have barely figured in qiaopi and yinxin studies, due to the limited amount of surviving remittance documents. By examining the remittance networks of Chinese Australians from the late nineteenth century through to 1916, this chapter argues that cultural pursuits and social-networks cannot adequately explain the Chinese Australian remittance trade, and that one must look beyond that to the emergence of Australian economic power in the Pacific region. It also discusses the impact of remittance networks and practices on enterprising Chinese Australians. Jinxin reflect the transformation of Chinese immigrants from gold diggers to trans-local capitalists at a time when the world economy was undergoing fundamental changes. espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:729490
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Post by nzbc on Feb 5, 2019 23:18:07 GMT 12
Jinxin: the remittance trade and enterprising Chinese Australians, 1850–1916 Kuo, Mei-fen (2018). Jinxin: the remittance trade and enterprising Chinese Australians, 1850–1916. The Qiaopi trade and transnational networks in the Chinese diaspora. edited by Gregor Benton, Hong Liu and Huimei Zhang. New York, NY, United States: Routledge.160-178.
The Qiaopi Trade and Transnational Networks in the Chinese Diaspora Edited ByGregor Benton, Hong Liu, Huimei Zhang
ABOUT THIS BOOK 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.
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Post by nzbc on Feb 5, 2019 23:19:26 GMT 12
Chapter 7|16 pages Sex scandals, Gold Mountain Guests’ Wives, and female roles in the Siyi qiaoxiang A study of the family letters of overseas Chinese in the Republican era ByJin Liu Hide abstract The Siyi 四邑 region, which encompasses the four counties of Taishan, Xinhui, Kaiping, and Enping, is well known as the sending area of the Chinese diaspora in North America, with Taishan as its most typical embodiment. Most Chinese emigrants were young males, who maintained economic and emotional connection with their families by way of qiaopi, i.e. remittances accompanied by letters (known as yinxin in Siyi). Qiaopi are extremely rich in content, and among the issues they illuminate is the attitude of males to females and to marriage. Given their rare display of intimate knowledge about Chinese society in modern times, these letters reveal much about gender relations. The Siyi newspapers and local magazines frequently reported sex scandals in the region during the Republican era, including adultery and secret flight from marriage, but these were seldom mentioned in letters sent home by Chinese emigrants. Using information from such letters, this chapter examines a sex scandal in 1939 and its impact both in China and among Chinese overseas, and thus exploring life, family experience, and social status of Siyi women in this period.
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Post by nzbc on Feb 5, 2019 23:20:19 GMT 12
Chapter 8|19 pages Jinxin The remittance trade and enterprising Chinese Australians, 1850–1916 ByMei-fen Kuo Hide abstract The social network approach has been employed in qiaopi and yinxin studies to explain how economic behaviour was constructed and reconstructed locally and internationally in the case of social associations. This chapter also looks at Chinese remittance networks, asking how the world economy functionally influenced the Chinese approach to organizing the remittance business. The Chinese Australian remittance trade permits a case study of the impact of the gold rush on Chinese overseas remittances. Few remittance documents sent by Chinese Australians seem to have survived, so this chapter instead analyses newspapers, personal letters, company records, and national archives from the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. It revives the term jinxin (gold and letter), used by Chinese Australians to describe their remittances. Jinxin referred to profiting from gold, exchanging currency, and recycling remittances into innovative enterprises. The case of Wing Sang Co. shows that the remittance trade played an important role in the history of Chinese Australian entrepreneurship between 1894 and 1916 by strengthening commercial and social capital, thus helping Chinese Australian merchants meet their business needs. The history of jinxin further illustrates the history of the transformation of Chinese immigrants from the gold diggers to trans-local capitalists at a time when the world economy was undergoing fundamental changes.
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