Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese were often employed in Western enterprises as shroffs to handle different currencies from traders. Maggie Keswick (Ed.), The Thistle and the Jade: A Celebration of 150 Years of Jardine, Matheson & Co., London, U.K.: Octopus Books, 1982. OVERSEAS CHINESE 175

George Hicks’ collection of titles on overseas Chinese, framed by his edited works on the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, presents a holistic view of the economic and social history of overseas Chinese in the region, in particular focusing on the different components of the socio-economy and the movement of capital by overseas Chinese in the period before World War II. Hicks’ first publication on overseas Chinese,A Bibliography of Japanese Works on the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, 1914–1945 (1992), covers the time of the Taisho democracy, where Japan under a liberal government and as an ally of the West gained German pos- sessions in China and sought overseas Chinese as potential business partners and co-investors in industries throughout Asia. The entries comprise reports and surveys on overseas Chinese in Bibliography on Southern China, published by the Taiwan Government-General, with supporting resources from other Japanese sources, such as the South Manchurian Railway Company. The other three edited publications, Overseas Chinese Remittances from Southeast Asia 1910–1940 (1993), With Sweat and Abacus: Economic Roles of Southeast Asian Chinese on the Eve of World War II (1995) and Chinese Organisations in Southeast Asia in the 1930s (1996), contain translations of prewar Japanese research on overseas Chinese from the start of World War I till the early 1940s, during the Japanese Occupation. Taken together, they present facets of Japanese scrutiny on the overseas Chinese community in the region, covering both the commercial and economic components of remittances but also a scrutiny of organisations and associations who were perceived as antagonistic to Japanese interests. The studies contained in these publications were all conducted by Japanese agencies, who started as early as the 1850s, when Japan opened its doors to external relations, to gather intelligence and data in the region. Mark Peattie, in his fore- word to Overseas Chinese Remittances, notes the Japanese propensity Mark R. Peattie, Foreword, in George L. Hicks (Ed.), for gathering and analysing information at all levels in government, Overseas Chinese remit- academic and private agencies.1 The two main agencies of the Japanese tances from Southeast Asia 1910–1940, Singapore: administration tasked with intelligence in Southeast Asia were the Select Books, 1993, xix. Taiwan Government-General, formed in 1895 as part of the colonial