Identity politics can impede Chinese identification in southeast Asia because the migrant population, particularly the intellectual aspect of that population, have to consider the political effects of their intellectual and social activities on the survival of Chinese communities. Similarly, these communities have to deal with the necessity of nation-building in the aftermath of the Second World War, which required integration rather than the exaggeration of differences. Consequently, restriction on self-understanding as well as self-representation has become more than apparent in Chinese migrant communities in southeast Asia. With this in mind, identity politics can inspire self-understanding among the migrant communities, as intellectuals rediscover how humanism can enable a claim of ‘Chineseness’ that can be registered differently and creatively in a variety of national conditions. Migrant communities generally understand the importance of political accuracy, and this being accurate involves subscribing to pragmatism, something which is apparent in the scholarship and creative outputs of these communities. Humanism and pragmatism together are the epistemological parameters of self-representation, whereas civilizational and ethnic studies are their methodological parameters. This book was originally published as a special issue of Asian Ethnicity.

Reproducing Chinese Culture in Diaspora discusses how a group of anti-communist Chinese exiles from Yunnan Province have managed to establish a rural livelihood in Thailand's northern hills over the past half century. When faced with the seemingly invincible Communist forces that were sweeping across the Mainland, these nationals retreated in 1949 or shortly thereafter to the Golden Triangle that sits astride the borders of Burma, Laos, and Thailand in voluntary exile. This book mainly concerns their hardships as they have struggled to carve out a new life along with their attempts to find an agricultural identity in the area. Initially gaining power as drug traffickers and narco-kings, the Yunnan exiles have transformed into sustainable farming leaders. Yet, despite their success in establishing themselves in Thailand, their community is facing a steep decline that threatens their long time survival. Part of their rationale in leaving communist China in search of a new settlement in the Golden Triangle, the exiles sought to protect Chinese traditions and ideals in the face of what they felt was Western influence. Yet, in their attempts to maintain their traditions, they've drifted to the opposite extreme, treating those traditions as sacrosanct and adhering to them rigidly. As a result, many of the younger generations are fleeing the communities from this "cultural petrification," and those who stay openly challenge the authoritarian old guard in a desire to modernize. This clash of old vs new severely strains a prosperous yet fragile community, clouding its future in uncertainty.

Identity politics can impede Chinese identification in southeast Asia because the migrant population, particularly the intellectual aspect of that population, have to consider the political effects of their intellectual and social activities on the survival of Chinese communities. Similarly, these communities have to deal with the necessity of nation-building in the aftermath of the Second World War, which required integration rather than the exaggeration of differences. Consequently, restriction on self-understanding as well as self-representation has become more than apparent in Chinese migrant communities in southeast Asia. With this in mind, identity politics can inspire self-understanding among the migrant communities, as intellectuals rediscover how humanism can enable a claim of ‘Chineseness’ that can be registered differently and creatively in a variety of national conditions. Migrant communities generally understand the importance of political accuracy, and this being accurate involves subscribing to pragmatism, something which is apparent in the scholarship and creative outputs of these communities. Humanism and pragmatism together are the epistemological parameters of self-representation, whereas civilizational and ethnic studies are their methodological parameters. This book was originally published as a special issue of Asian Ethnicity.

Chinese cuisine has had a deep impact on culinary traditions in Southeast Asia, where the lack of certain ingredients and access to new ingredients along with the culinary knowledge of local people led Chinese migrants to modify traditional dishes and to invent new foods. This process brought the cuisine of southern China, considered by some writers to be "the finest in the world," into contact with a wide range of local and global cuisines and ingredients. When Chinese from Southeast Asia moved on to other parts of the world, they brought these variants of Chinese food with them, completing a cycle of culinary reproduction, localization and invention, and globalization. The process does not end there, for the new context offers yet another set of ingredients and culinary traditions, and the "embedding and fusing of foods" continues, creating additional hybrid forms. Written by scholars whose deep familiarity with Chinese cuisine is both personal and academic, Chinese Food and Foodways in Southeast Asia and Beyond is a book that anyone who has been fortunate enough to encounter Southeast Asian food will savour, and it provides a window on this world for those who have yet to discover it.

This book presents studies on Chinese intellectuals in Southeast Asia and how they understand China and Chineseness in the 21st century. It posits, through analyses of works and oral histories of a number of Chinese scholars in the region, that the dominant but distinctive approaches adopted by them are those that are rooted in humanism and pragmatism. In doing so, the book explores the significant population, local conditions and strategy of survival among the Southeast Asian Chinese as factors that influence their views and perspectives. Studies presented in the book simultaneously implicate subjectivity, where authors and their readers position themselves among ethnic, national, and civilizational identities. It highlights that while national-level identity necessarily involves dangerous self-interrogation and, at times, politics that is often suppressive and confrontational, intellectual writings on China that stick to the ethnic and civilizational levels provide more sensible exits. With that, the book then goes on to make the argument that in Southeast Asian Chinese studies, the humanities usually prevail over the social sciences at these two alternative levels. Lastly, the book also shows how the humanities can be instrumental to Southeast Asian Chinese scholars’ choice of identity strategy which makes pragmatism an important theme. The book will be of interest to students and researchers involved in Southeast Asian and Chinese studies.

There have been few efforts to overcome the binary of China versus the West. The recent global political environment, with a deepening confrontation between China and the West, strengthens this binary image. Post-Chineseness boldly challenges the essentialized notion of Chineseness in existing scholarship through the revelation of the multiplicity and complexity of the uses of Chineseness by strategically conceived insiders, outsiders, and those in-between. Combining the fields of international relations, cultural politics, and intellectual history, Chih-yu Shih investigates how the global audience perceives (and essentializes) Chineseness. Shih engages with major Chinese international relations theories, investigates the works of sinologists in Hong Kong, Singapore, Pakistan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and other academics in East Asia, and explores individual scholars' life stories and academic careers to delineate how Chineseness is constantly negotiated and reproduced. Shih's theory of the "balance of relationships" expands the concept of Chineseness and effectively challenges existing theories of realism, liberalism, and conventional constructivism in international relations. The highly original delineation of multiple layers and diverse dimensions of "Chineseness" opens an intellectual channel between the social sciences and humanities in China studies.

The idea of the ‘nation’ is a Western concept which has been applied to Southeast Asia. It is a project which has been in progress since the last century but is still incomplete. Various theoretical frameworks which are associated with nation and nation-building in the Southeast Asian region have been briefly dealt with. The book aims to examine the making of the nations in Southeast Asia using both historical and political science approaches. Concepts related to nation such as ethnicity, state, indigenism and citizenship have also been analysed in the Southeast Asian context. Specific examples of nation-building in five major Southeast Asian countries are presented. Problems and prospects of Southeast Asia's nation-building and citizenship building in the era of globalisation are also discussed.

This collection examines the historically and geographically specific form of economic organization of the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and how it has adapted to the different historical and socio-political contexts of Southeast Asian countries. Moving beyond cultural explanations and traits to focus on the process of evolution and dynamism of situated practices, it argues that Chinese Capitalism is rapidly becoming a form of ‘hybrid capitalism’ and embodies the interdependent of culturally and institutionally specific dynamics at local and regional level, evolving and adapting to different institutional contexts and politico-economic conditions in the host Asian economies. This text also explores the social organization and political economy of the so-called overseas Chinese by examining the changing dynamism of Chinese capitalism in relation to forces of globalization. Focusing on key actors, primarily Chinese entrepreneurs in their business practices, and situated practices as well as cultural, political, social and economic factors under globalizing conditions, it provides providing a broad understanding without fixating or homogenizing Chinese capitalism, contributing to the understanding of the contexts that give rise to the emergence and transformation of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia.

This volume examines the role of Chinese businesses and industries in Asian production networks. By presenting different case studies of the Asian region, the contributors illustrate how China successfully exports the Chinese business model, based on Chinese ethics, social networks and production integration. The contributors also discuss topics such as the implications and ramifications of global product sharing within Asia; the prospects of free trade agreements in Asia; the economic advantages of Chinese family lineage and Guanxi − an influential Chinese network; collaboration of overseas Chinese with mainland Chinese, as well as direct Chinese business involvement and investment in other Asian countries.