Beyond Borders

Stories of Yunnanese Chinese Migrants of Burma

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5804263
AutoresWen-Chin Chang (0000-0003-2117-6219), Hui Yew-Foong
Ano2017
Volume32
Fascículo1
Páginas182-184
Data de publicação2017-03-31
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0217-9520 • E-ISSN: 1793-2858
EditoraISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute (PUBLISHER • SG)
DOI10.1355/sj32-1j
OpenAlexW3022334612
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas77

Beyond Borderscomprehend their lives' many dramatic disruptions, caused by political turmoil, ethnic confl icts, and economic constraints, and also realized their profound wish to tell how their biographies interplay with the region's geopolitics.The more we got to know each other, the more they told their histories, characterizing themselves in remarkable detail.Not only were many of them good storytellers, but they actively wanted to have their stories recorded in written form (and they would check with me from time to time about the progress of my writing). 1Initial rhetorical declinations were gradually transformed into invitations to record their migratory lives.In this book I retell many of these Yunnanese migrants' stories, illustrating not only their lived experiences but also what they expressed of their thinking, feeling, intimacies, courage, ambition, and despair.These experiences, thoughts, and emotions, which involve their inner selves and their relationships with other people and external environments, highlight their agency and individuality.At the same time they refl ect a complex history of contemporary Yunnanese migration, fi rst from Yunnan, in southwestern China, to Burma, and then, for some, from Burma to other places.These movements coincided with multiple national politics during the Cold War period, involving China, Burma, Thailand, Taiwan, and the United States (Chang 1999; Ministry of Information, the Union of Burma 1953;Qin 2009;Young 1970;Zeng 1964).I focus on migrant Yunnanese mobility and (transnational) economic ventures, the most prominent themes in their narrative accounts.In Merchants and Migrants: Ethnicity and Trade among Yunnanese Chinese in Southeast Asia , Ann Maxwell Hill (1998) delineates the signifi cance of Yunnanese migration and mercantile talents.She points out their "penchant for commerce," characterized by their knowledge of markets, credit arrangements, and adaptation to local political structures, as well as their risk-taking nature.Hill's interpretation of the interplay between trade and politics illustrates an interaction between mobile Yunnanese identities and the changing circumstances of the larger social world.However, while I share Hill's focus on migration and economic ventures, I go beyond the limitations of her fi eldwork, which basically took place in Chiang Mai 1.When my informants saw me the next time I returned, many of them raised the question: "Teacher Chang, you must have written several books, right?"Also, when they introduced other informants to me, they often said to them: "Tell your story; Teacher Chang will write it into a book."After the Yuan conquest, Yunnanese history entered a signifi cant chapter in terms of Han Chinese immigration.The imperial court of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE) carried out massive Chinese resettlement in this borderland to consolidate its rule.The recruited immigrants included troops ( juntun ), civilians ( mintun ), merchants ( shangtun ), and exiles ( zuixiyimin ).By the end of the dynasty the Han Chinese had become the majority ethnic group in terms of both size and political power.The Ming court also launched both military and economic explorations in upland Southeast Asia and what is now northeastern India.In a mountainous environment, courier stations and trading routes extended to different parts of the region and sustained the fl ow of goods through long-distance caravan trade.Because of its physical contiguity with Yunnan, Burma served as the major country for Yunnanese economic adventurism in ordinary times and for asylum in times of political unrest

Geography · Political science · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · History