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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Chinese new migrants in Suriname : the inevitability of ethnic performing Tjon Sie Fat, P.B. Publication date 2009 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Tjon Sie Fat, P. B. (2009). Chinese new migrants in Suriname : the inevitability of ethnic performing. Vossiuspers - Amsterdam University Press. http://nl.aup.nl/books/9789056295981-chinese-new-migrants-in-suriname.html General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:04 Oct 2021 Tjon Sie Fat:AUP/Buijn 14-08-2009 00:50 Pagina 1 UvA Dissertation SieFat Tjon B. Paul Chinese New Migrants in Suriname Faculty of Social and Behavioural The Inevitability of Ethnic Performing Sciences The Inevitability of Ethnic Performing ofEthnic The Inevitability Paul B. Tjon Sie Fat Paul Brendan Tjon Sie Fat (Paramaribo, 1966), studied Sinology at Leiden University. He returned to the Netherlands to commence his PhD research at the University of Amsterdam in 2001, bringing to bear his background in Sinology, linguistics, identity issues and anti-discrimination NGOs on the problems of modern migration and citizenship in Suriname. This book covers various aspects of New Chinese Migration in Suriname in the 1990s and early 2000s. It is an ethnography of New Chinese Migrants in the context of South- South migration, but also a first ethnography of Chinese in Suriname, as well as an analysis of Surinamese ethnic discourse and ethnopolitics. Starting in the 1990s, renewed immigration from China changed the dynamics of the Surinamese Chinese community, which developed from a Hakka enclave to a culturally and linguistically diverse, modern Chinese migrant group. Local positioning strategies of Chinese had always depended on ethnic entrepreneurship and political participation, but were now complicated by anti-immigrant sentiments. 9 789056 295981 The Inevitability Of Ethnic Performing Lay out: Paul B. Tjon Sie Fat Cover design: René Staelenberg, Amsterdam Cover illustration: Ranu Abhelak ISBN 978 90 5629 598 1 NUR 740 © P.B. Tjon Sie Fat / Vossiuspers UvA – Amsterdam University Press, 2009 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. CHINESE NEW MIGRANTS IN SURINAME; THE INEVITABILITY OF ETHNIC PERFORMING ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op donderdag 8 oktober 2009, te 12.00 uur door Paul Brendan Tjon Sie Fat geboren te Paramaribo, Suriname Promotor: prof. dr. J.M. Baud Co-promotoren: prof. dr. G.A. de Bruijne dr. L.M. Douw Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I need to express my deepest appreciation to my promotor and copromo- tores, and WOTRO, the science division within the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Research (NWO) that provided the grant which made this project possible, and also AMIDSt for its help in the publication of this book. The idea for studying the Chinese of Suriname came from Ad de Bruijne, to whom I was introduced by Ivet Pieper during a presentation he gave on the Lebanese of Suriname at the Dutch embassy in Para- maribo. It took a while to find a suitable team, but eventually Ad de Bruijne, Leo Douw, and Michiel Baud formed a triad that could cover the different areas of Surinamese studies, modern Chinese migration, and transnationalism in the Caribbean Region, as well as successfully deal with the capriciousness of an older, foreign, and inexperienced PhD candidate. For providing me with a desk and access to computers that allowed me to finish a large part of the text, I am grateful to the Amster- dam office of International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), especially Jeroen de Kloet and Heleen van der Minne, who are proof that you can still find Real People in the academic world. For going far beyond the call of duty in helping me find material and data, I would also like to thank the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden, especially the folks in the library and the special col- lections, the Department of Cultural Studies in Paramaribo, its Director Hillary de Bruin and the ladies of its library, and the General Bureau of Statistics in Paramaribo. Crucial without a doubt was the help of my research assistants and resource persons, Lillian Mungroop, Dean Wesenhagen, and Mr. and Mrs. Tjin A Ton, who could reach ‘Old Chinese’ and New Chinese when I was unable to. Rita, Maily, and Lily Lee Kit Min, Alwin and Myrène Tjin A Kiet, Renate Tjon Lim Sang, and Carmen Lieuw were not quite infor- mants or resource persons, especially on those occasions when I was not quite a researcher and more Laiap and Surinamese. I greatly enjoyed Sunday morning yim ca, zuk and lopetpan, sitting in on huiguan events, or sitting along the sidelines and compare notes on experiences of being Chinese. A special word of thanks to Ranu Abhelakh, who could help sift gossip from facts by virtue of her experience as a journalist, and who kindly allowed me to use photographs she took during the 2003 comme- moration of Chinese Settlement and the 2004 inauguration ceremony of Zhejiang Tongxiang Hui. I had been warned that writing a thesis would be an extremely lonely experience as few people tend to show understanding or interest in what can easily appear to be an arcane subject. But the lack of formal affiliation with an institute in Suriname and the Netherlands meant the absence of colleagues, networks, discussions, and, too often, inspiration. The people who made up for that isolation with critical conversation and sharp insights may not have known at the time how important they were and how very real their contributions to the way I have learnt to under- stand Surinamese society and issues of Chinese identity: Annette Tjon Sie Fat, Eithne Carlin, Sharda Ganga, Sikko Visscher, Hebe Verrest. Back in Leiden, Owen Tjon Sie Fat, my twin, witnessed me trying to finish the manuscript, and consequently my regular transformations into the God of Grouch. He would regularly supply me with company, Cola and take-aways, and never bothered to have me institutionalized. I sup- pose I should thank Maarten Zeeman for always asking when I was finally going to get a REAL job, and offering to be one of my ‘paranimfomaniacs’. Matthijs Frankena patiently provided me with a social life in the isolation of my theses, and could find interesting music and strange food to lift the mood, so that the next paragraph of this text seemed less challenging. There are many others I could have mentioned in this regard, some whose names I have forgotten, others whose names I cannot men- tion, such as the many immigrants from the People’s Republic of China who shared their experiences but asked to remain anonymous. I would like to note that most of the people without whose help, support, criticism, and interest this project would never have been completed, are women. In the years I spent on this project I found that the Hakka women’s stereotype is basically true. So remember that if you want an opinion, ask a man, but if you want things done, ask a woman. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1 1.1 ETHNICITY AND ETHNIC IDENTITY IN SURINAME ....................................... 2 1.2 APANJAHT IDEOLOGY...................................................................... 21 1.3 THE BOOK’S PURPOSE ..................................................................... 32 1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK ................................................................ 38 2 CHINESE ETHNIC IDENTITY IN SURINAME ........................................ 40 2.1 PRIMORDIALISM AND SINOCENTRISM ................................................... 41 2.2 HUAQIAO: OVERSEAS CHINESE .......................................................... 47 2.3 LAOKEH AND SINKEH ...................................................................... 49 2.4 HAKKA IDENTITY ........................................................................... 50 2.5 TONG’AP AND LAIAP ....................................................................... 51 3 FUIDUNG’ON HAKKAS – THE ‘OLD CHINESE’ ....................................

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