This talk will examine the trade network of ethnic Chinese subjects of European empires in Southeast Asia during the colonial period. The ethnic Chinese are scattered across major ports around the South China Sea and they enjoy special privileges as colonial subjects in uncolonized areas — they have extraterritorial rights in China and Siam from the latter half of the 19th century up to the 1930s. Even though they were colonial subjects, it remains unclear where their loyalty lay. Almost all of them sent money back to China and supported various political factions there. The ones based in Siam would often serve both the Siamese court and colonial enterprises while sending money back home to China to support reforms or revolutions of their choice. The ones based in European colonies across Southeast Asia employed their colonial subject status to enhance their opportunities in trade with China and to further their political agenda back in the ancestral homeland. Basically, there is an Overseas Chinese Empire functioning underneath the facade of European/American colonies across the South China Sea in the late 19th to early 20th century. This group of people had a tremendous influence on Chinese nation-building as well as anti-Japanese movements later on during the course of the Second World War.

Dr. Wasana Wangsurawat is a historian of transnational Asia and the Chinese diaspora. She serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

This event is sponsored by Pace University and the New York Southeast Asia Network.