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The importance of the Chinese diaspora is widely recognized. ""Wanning Sun"" examines the key role of the media in the Chinese diaspora. She focuses especially on the media's role in communication, in fostering a sense of community, in defining different kinds of 'transnational Chineseness' - overseas Chinese communities are often very different from one country to another - and in showing how media communication is linked to commerce, which is often a key activity of the overseas Chinese. Revealing a great deal about the vibrancy and dynamism of the Chinese-language media, the book considers

Entangled loyalties : Qiaopi, Chinese community structures, and the state in Southeast Asia / Van Dongen Els -- Qiaopi and politics in modern China and the Chinese diaspora / Gregor Benton, Hong Liu, Huimei Zhang -- Migration and home remittances in the financial market connecting Southeast Asia and South China / Takeshi Hamashita -- Serving the national interest : the qiaopi industry, the Chinese post office, and the transnational practices of the state, 1937-1945 / Lane J. Harris -- The evolution of the qiaopi trade : a case study of the Tianyi firm / Junying Jia -- The operating modes of the qiaopi trade and impact on the qiaopiju : a case study of the oversea-Chinese banking corporation (OCBC) / Bozi Liu -- Sex scandals, gold mountain wives, and female roles in the siyi qiaoxiang : a study of the family letters of overseas Chinese in the republican era / Jin Liu -- Jinxin : the remittance trade and enterprising Chinese Australians, 1850-1916 / Mei-fen Kuo

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.

Becoming Activists in Global China is the first purely sociological study of the religious movement Falun Gong and its resistance to the Chinese state. The literature on Chinese protest has intensively studied the 1989 democracy movement while largely ignoring opposition by Falun Gong, even though the latter has been more enduring. This comparative study explains why the Falun Gong protest took off in diaspora and the democracy movement did not. Using multiple methods, Becoming Activists in Global China explains how Falun Gong's roots in proselytizing and its ethic of volunteerism provided the launch pad for its political mobilization. Simultaneously, diaspora democracy activists adopted practices that effectively discouraged grassroots participation. The study also shows how the policy goal of eliminating Falun Gong helped shape today's security-focused Chinese state. Explaining Falun Gong's two decades of protest illuminates a suppressed piece of Chinese contemporary history and advances our knowledge of how religious and political movements intersect.

Fast-paced economic growth in Southeast Asia from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s brought increased attention to the overseas Chinese as an economically successful diaspora and their role in this economic growth. Events that followed, such as the transfer of Hong Kong and Macau to the People's Republic of China, the election of a non-KMT government in Taiwan, the Asian economic crisis and the plight of overseas Chinese in Indonesia as a result, and the durability of the Singapore economy during this same crisis, have helped to sustain this attention. The study of the overseas Chinese has by now become a global enterprise, raising new theoretical problems and empirical challenges. New case studies of overseas Chinese, such as those on communities in North America, Cuba, India, and South Africa, continually unveil different perspectives. New kinds of transnational connectivities linking Chinese communities are also being identified. It is now possible to make broader generalizations of a Chinese diaspora, on a global basis. Further, the intensifying study of the overseas Chinese has stimulated renewed intellectual vigor in other areas of research. The transnational and transregional activities of overseas Chinese, for example, pose serious challenges to analytical concepts of regional divides such as that between East and Southeast Asia. Despite the increased attention, new data, and the changing theoretical paradigms, basic questions concerning the overseas Chinese remain. The papers in this volume seek to understand the overseas Chinese migrants not just in terms of the overall Chinese diaspora per se, but also local Chinese migrants adapting to local societies, in different national contexts

THE CHINESE INTELLECTUAL DIASPORA, WHICH HAS GROWN SINCE THE 1989 TIANANMEN SQUARE VIOLENCE, IS WRESTLING WITH FACTIONALISM AND A CRISIS OF MEANING HAUNTINGLY SIMILAR TO THE CRISIS THAT THEIR PREDECESSORS FACED 100 YEARS AGO. TODAY'S CHINESE INTELLECTUAL EXILES ARE UNLIKELY TO HAVE A MAJOR ROLE IN THEIR COUNTRY'S POLITICAL LIFE UNLESS THE SYSTEM IS FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED.

In the summer of 1997, two issues involving diaspora Chinese captured headlines across the United States. The first was the return of Hong Kong to Chinese control after more than a century of British rule; coverage of this issue focused not only on the future of human rights in Hong Kong, but also on the close economic linkages between Hong Kong and China and on the importance of Hong Kong to China's economic future. The second was the scandal involving alleged illegal contributions of foreign funds to the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States. Senate hearings in the cases of both parties centered on political contributions funneled through wealthy diaspora Chinese entrepreneurs. Republicans tried especially hard to demonstrate that China had orchestrated an attempt to illegally influence the US political system, using diaspora Chinese as intermediaries. To the consternation of a great many Chinese living in the United States, the proceedings raised questions regarding the loyalty of diaspora Chinese and their connections with China, as well as reviving stereotypes of shadowy and mysterious connections among ethnic Chinese.

Problems and prospects for China's exiles, particularly those involved in the 1989 protest movement. Some reference to Eastern Europe's impact on China.