Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Vol. 166, no. 4 (2010), pp. 533-544 URL: http://www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/btlv URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-100894 Copyright: content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License ISSN: 0006-2294 REVIEW ESSAY KWEE HUI KIAN Studies on the Chinese in Southeast Asia in the twenty-first century Michael D. Barr and Zlatko Skrbis, Constructing Singapore; Elitism, ethnicity and the nation-building project. Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2008, xiii + 304 pp. ISBN 978877694028, price GBP 50.00 (hard- back); 9788776940294, GBP 16.99 (paperback). Marleen Dieleman, The rhythm of strategy; A corporate biography of the Salim Group of Indonesia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007, 205 pp. [ICAS Publications Series, Monograph 1.] ISBN 9789053560334. Price: EUR 29.50 (paperback). Kristina Goransson, The binding tie; Chinese intergenerational rela- tions in modern Singapore. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009, x + 191 pp. ISBN 9780824832599, price USD 57.00 (hard- back); 9780824833527, USD 26.00 (paperback). Chang-Yau Hoon, Chinese identity in post-Suharto Indonesia; Culture, politics and media. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2008, xi + 230 pp. ISBN 9781845192686. Price: GBP 49.95 (hardback). Leo Suryadinata, Understanding the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007, x + 310 pp. ISBN 9789812304377. Price: USD 21.90 (paperback). Sikko Visscher, The business of politics and ethnicity; A history of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007, xviii + 372 pp. ISBN 97899713657. Price: USD 32.00 (paperback). Voon Phin Keong (ed.), Malaysian Chinese and nation-building; Before Merdeka and fifty years after. Vol. 2. Kuala Lumpur: Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, 2008. ISBN 9789833808066 (hard- back); 9789833908059 (paperback). Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access 534 Book reviews University of Toronto [email protected] With their achievement of independence from the colonial powers in the pe- riod from the 1940s to the 1960s, most Southeast Asian countries granted citi- zenship to resident migrant Chinese as well as to those who were born locally but had ancestral links in China. However, collectively speaking, the Chinese were regarded as a formerly alien people who needed to be assimilated into the Southeast Asian societies. As part of the nation-building process, many Southeast Asian regimes closed down the Chinese schools and press. Even in Singapore, which has a Chinese majority exceeding 70 per cent, all Chi- nese schools were gradually converted to national schools with English as the main medium of instruction. Moreover, the new ruling elites of Southeast Asia also maintained that the Chinese controlled disproportionately large shares of the economy. Governments therefore intervened to discriminate against the Chinese and in favour of those regarded as indigenous. Indonesia implemented the Benteng policy, by which import and export licenses were granted only to pribumi (indigenous) entrepreneurs, and the PP-10, which prohibited foreign nation- als from doing retail business in rural areas. In Malaysia, the New Economic Policy (NEP) launched in 1970 involved wealth restructuring measures to ensure that bumiputera (children of the soil) would acquire 30 per cent of the corporate sector in the economy within 20 years. The period from the 1950s to the 1970s thus saw a boom in scholarly writ- ing on the overseas Chinese. Many academics expressed strong objections towards extreme discriminatory measures such as those taken in Indonesia, where all manifestations of Chinese language and culture and imports of Chinese-language materials were ultimately prohibited. At the same time however, most scholars were concerned with the phenomenon of Chinese economic dominance. Hence, although they protested against anti-Chinese discrimination, there was an implicit agreement among them that some form of affirmative economic action, along the lines of the NEP, was necessary. The Chinese in Southeast Asia still attract much academic attention today. A contextual factor here is that national politics in these countries, particu- larly Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, has continued to operate along communal lines up to to the present. Furthermore, the economic rise of China following Deng Xiaoping’s adoption of an open-door policy in the late 1970s appears to have influenced policies towards the Chinese in the Southeast Asian countries. Since the early 1990s, the Malaysian and Indonesian gov- ernments have become less stringent in their prohibitions of the celebration of Chinese festivals and cultural performances such as the lion dance. In Singapore, where the PAP regime has professed multiculturalism and meri- Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access Book reviews 535 tocracy as its ruling ideology since 1965, the government began to adopt a pro-Chinese stance from the 1980s. Some governments also appeared to adjust their economic and nation- building policies in the 1990s. With the conclusion of the NEP in Malaysia in 1991, then Prime Minister Mahathir announced ‘Vision 2020’ as the new nationalist ideology, a concept that promises to be more Malaysian- oriented rather than bumiputera-oriented in policy terms. Regime change in the Southeast Asian countries also precipitated shifts in policies towards the Chinese. With the fall of Soeharto in 1998, the subsequent governments gradually abolished anti-Chinese legislation in Indonesia. Published between 2007 and 2009, the seven books under review mainly concern the Chinese in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia in recent decades. The books edited by Voon feature the results of a major research project undertaken by the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies in 2006 on the Chinese in Malaysia in the last 50 years. Written exclusively by Chinese Malaysian academics, volume 1 is on the historical background and economic aspects of nation-building, while volume 2 focuses on political and cultural features.1 In the latter volume, several authors examine Chinese political par- ticipation in Malaysia through their voting patterns and support for various political parties, and also through the lobbying activities of Chinese guilds and associations (Lee Kam Hing, Danny Wong Tze Ken, Ho Hui Ling, and Thock Ker Pong). Others look at the development of Chinese schools and the Chinese arts and literary scene in Malaysia (Lim Chooi Kwa, Chong Fah Hing, and Chung Yi). Authors such as Wong Wun Bin and Voon Phin Keong also analyse Chinese culture and philosophy, proposing that Chinese moral elements could enrich Malaysian nation-building. Contributors to the anthology apparently perceive a continuation of the bumiputera-oriented policies of the Malaysian regime despite the end of NEP and Mahathir’s proclamation of Vision 2020. Wong Wun Bin, for example, criticizes the state’s pro-Malay stance (p. 482): in a multi-ethnic country such as Malaysia, inter-ethnic harmony and moral values are far more important than administering the country from a dominant perspec- tive of ethnicity or that of resource contestation. In other words, nation-building in a multi-ethnic country goes well beyond material progress but requires constant efforts to nurture inter-ethnic harmony, tolerance, accommodation and other ‘in- tangibles’. Various authors also appeal for the inclusion of the interests of Chinese Ma- laysians in the nation-building process. These sentiments are best summa- rized in Yow Cheun Hoe’s chapter: yes, it is true that in the British colonial pe- 1 Unfortunately, the present reviewer was not able to inspect volume 1 for this review. Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access 536 Book reviews riod, many Chinese were sojourning and wanted to return to China. But in the post-colonial era, these Chinese have become citizens and no longer profess loyalty to China. Chinese Malaysians are here to stay and are looking for ‘a more open national paradigm amidst all the ascending transnational possibil- ities’ (p. 568). If the Malaysian state continues to deny Chinese culture, it will lead to ‘involuntary brain drain’ (p. 565). Yow also states that with China’s emergence as a global economic powerhouse, Chinese Malaysian investments are ‘based on business calculations’ rather than loyal sentiments (pp. 565-6). One may obtain a better understanding of these particular sentiments and appeals by examining the background of the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, the sponsor of the research projects and publisher of the anthol- ogies. In 1985, 15 national-level Chinese organizations submitted a ‘Joint Declaration’ to the Malaysian government, appealing to the latter to consider the ‘civil rights of all Malaysians’ and not merely those of the bumiputera. Simultaneously, these organizations set up the Centre as a research unit and think tank. It seems fitting then that the contributions sought by the Centre for its publication to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence reiterate the appeal for a more inclusive nationalist ideology for all Malaysians. The book by Suryadinata is an anthology of articles he has previously published in the past two decades. In these articles, Suryadinata mainly analyses political, economic, and cultural developments among the Chinese in Southeast Asian societies in the last 20 years. As these articles have been previously published as separate articles, there is