This book provides an original analysis of the economic success of Overseas Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia: The ethnically homogeneous group of Chinese middlemen is an informal, low-cost organization for the provision of club goods, e.g. contract enforcement, that are essential to merchants’ success. The author’s theory - and various extensions, with emphasis on kinship and other trust relationships - draws on economics and the other social sciences, and beyond to evolutionary biology. Empirical material from her fieldwork forms the basis for developing her unique, integrative and transdisciplinary theoretical framework, with important policy implications for understanding ethnic conflict in multiethnic societies where minority groups dominate merchant roles.

The past two decades have witnessed far-reaching socioeconomic and political changes in Asia, such as the growing intraregional flows of capital, goods, people, and knowledge, the rise of China as the world’s second largest economy, and its increasing influence in Southeast Asia, intensified US–China confrontations in the global arena, and the onslaught of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Focusing on multidimensional interactions (including geopolitical and economic relationships, diaspora engagement, and knowledge exchange) between China and Southeast Asia, this book argues that an interwoven perspective of the political economy, transnational governance, and regional networks serves as an effective analytical framework for deciphering these transformations as well as their global and theoretical implications. Drawing upon a wide range of primary data and engaging with the latest interdisciplinary scholarship on contemporary Asia, this book’s thought-provoking and nuanced analyses will appeal to scholars and students in Chinese and Southeast Asian studies, international political economy, international relationships, ethnic and migration studies, and public governance.

Modern Asian economic history has often been written in terms of Western impact and Asia's response to it. This volume argues that the growth of intra-regional trade, migration, and capital and money flows was a crucial factor that determined the course of East Asian economic development. Twelve chapters are organized around three main themes. First, economic interactions between Japan and China were important in shaping the pattern of regional industrialization. Neither Japan nor China imported technology and organizations, and attempted to "catch up" with the West alone. Japan's industrialization took place, taking advantage of the Chinese merchant networks in Asia, while the Chinese competition was a critical factor in the Japanese technological and organizational "upgrading" in the interwar period. Second, the pattern of China's integration into the international economy was shaped by the growth of intra-Asian trade, migration, and capital flows and remittances. While the Western impact was largely confined to the littoral region of China, intra-Asian trade was more directly connected with China's internal market. Both the fall of the imperial monetary system and the rise of economic nationalism in the early twentieth century reflected increasing contacts with the Asian international economy. Third, a study of intra-Asian trade and migration helps us understand the nature of colonialism and the international climate of imperialism. In spite of the adverse political environment, East Asian merchant and migration networks exploited economic opportunities, taking advantage of colonial institutional arrangements and even political conflicts. They made a contribution to national and regional economic development in the politically more favourable environment after the Second World War, by providing the valuable expertise and entrepreneurship they had accumulated prewar. The character of the international order of Asia, governed by Western powers, especially Britain, but shared also by Japan for most of the period, was "imperialism of free trade", although it eventually collapsed by the late 1930s.

Why did it take China more than a century after its defeat in the first Opium War to begin systematically acquiring the fruits of modern technology? To what extent did the rapid economic developments after 1949 depend on features unique to China and to Chinese history as well as on the socialist reorganization of society? These are the major questions examined in this collection of papers which challenges many previously accepted generalizations about the nature and extent of advances in China's economy during the twentieth century. The papers discuss the positive and negative effects of foreign imperialism on Chinese economic development, the adequacy of China's financial resources for major economic initiatives, the state of science and technology in late traditional China, the changing structure of national product and distribution of income, the cotton textile and small machine-building industries as examples of pre-1949 economic bases, the village-market town structure of rural China, the tradition of cooperative efforts in agriculture, and the influence of the Yenan period on the economic thinking of China's leaders.

Diasporas are nodes of cultural exchange, connecting different systems of values, beliefs, and social organization. Throughout history and the present, diasporas have provided important contributions to economies, politics, and culture, both for the home countries and for societies of residence. This book contains case studies from different disciplines, exploring diaspora as a resource, both on collective and on individual levels. Common themes are the structure and use of diaspora networks, as well as relations between different diasporas, ranging from co-existence to competition or strategic co-operation, and the complex interdependence between diaspora and urbanity. (Series: Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology / Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien / Etudes d'Anthropologie Sociale de l'Universite de Fribourg - Vol. 36)

The global order, based on international governance and multilateral trade mechanisms in the aftermath of the Second World War, is changing rapidly and creating waves of uncertainty. This is especially true in higher education, a field increasingly built on international cooperation and the free movement of students, academics, knowledge, and ideas. Meanwhile, China has announced its plans for a "New Silk Road" (NSR) and is developing its higher education and research systems at speed. In this book an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars from Europe, China, the USA, Russia, and Australia investigate how academic mobility and cooperation is taking shape along the New Silk Road and what difference it will make, if any, in the global higher education landscape. Opening chapters present the global context for the NSR, the development of Chinese universities along international models, and the history and outcomes of EU-China cooperation. The flows and patterns in academic cooperation along the NSR as they shape and have been shaped by China's universities are then explored in more detail. The conditions for Sino-foreign cooperation are discussed next, with an analysis of regulatory frameworks for cooperation, recognition, data, and privacy. Comparative work follows on the cultural traditions and academic values, similarities, and differences between Sinic and Anglo-American political and educational cultures, and their implications for the governance and mission of higher education, the role of critical scholarship, and the state and standing of the humanities in China. The book concludes with a focus on the "Idea of a University"; the values underpinning its mission, shape, and purpose, reflecting on the implications of China's rapid higher education development for the geo-politics of higher education itself.

The nature, institutional foundations, and issues surrounding the apparent success of Chinese business networks is examined in this book. Major concepts such as guanxi, xinyong and gangqing, exploring the nature of trust, relationships and sentiments in Chinese business networks, are re-examined. A significant amount of literature has been devoted to the study of Chinese business, and it largely falls into two broad schools: the culturalist approach, arguing for an essentialist formulation to explain success and the market approach, suggesting that there is nothing inherently unique about Chinese business. This book critiques both these approaches and argues, based on primary data collected in various countries, and with case studies of a large number of Chinese businesses, that another approach, the institutional embedded approach, provides a better explanation for the success, and failure of Chinese business and Chinese business networks.

Following 1996's 'Asian Donorgate' campaign finance controversy, Chinese Americans, and by proxy all Asian Americans, were depicted in U.S. public discourse as foreigners subversively attempting to buy influence with U.S. politicians. Racial Politics in an Era of Transnational Citizenship asks, Will the perception of the Asian American as the 'perpetual foreigner' continue to reproduce itself uncritically, heightening during times of media-supported nationalism? Scholar Michael Chang's incisive work contributes greatly to current debates on civil rights and on the meaning of 'citizenship' and 'belonging' among a transnational community and in a globalized world.

Hong Kong has remained the global metropolis for Asia since its founding in the 1840s following the Opium Wars between Britain and China. David Meyer traces its vibrant history from the arrival of the foreign trading firms, when it was established as one of the leading Asian business centres, to its celebrated handover to China in 1997. Throughout this period, Hong Kong has been prominent as a pivotal meeting place of the Chinese and foreign social networks of capital and as such has been China's window on to the world economy, dominating other financial centers such as Singapore and Tokyo. Looking into the future, the author presents an optimistic view of Hong Kong in the twenty-first century, challenging those who predict its decline under Chinese rule. This accessible and broad-ranging look at the story of Hong Kong's success will interest anyone concerned with its past, present and future.

Why are some countries rich and others poor? David N. Weil, one of the top researchers in economic growth, introduces students to the latest theoretical tools, data, and insights underlying this pivotal question. By showing how empirical data relate to new and old theoretical ideas, Economic Growth provides students with a complete introduction to the discipline and the latest research. With its comprehensive and flexible organization, Economic Growth is ideal for a wide array of courses, including undergraduate and graduate courses in economic growth, economic development, macro theory, applied econometrics, and development studies.