Chinese Subcommunal Elites in 19Th-Century Penang

Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 25, No.2, September 1987 Chinese Subcommunal Elites in 19th-Century Penang MAK Lau-Fong* Abstract Based on published inscriptional data, the paper attempts to study a group of Chinese subcommunal elites in 19th-century Penang. The group comprises in general the social and the economic elite. The former is gauged by their frequency in donating to the many Chinese voluntary associations, and the latter by the total amount donated through out the 19th century. It is found that the Hokkiens produced a disproportionately large group of social elites, in comparison with other contemporary Chinese speech groups. While the well-spread Hokkien economic elite also dominated the Chinese community in Penang, the group's ascendancy was curtailed and checked by the Cantonese/Hakka elite whose top donor's contributions dwarfed that of his Hokkien counterpart. The Hokkien elite is said to have been drawn from five major clans by the surnames Chen, Lin, Qiu, Xie and Yang. The Qius were the most influential group, but the Yangs' status seems to have been inappropriately conferred. proximity despite their differences. This Introduction is especially the case with those settling in While Chinese of different dialect origins the former British Straits Settlements, i.e. emigrated chiefly from the two coastal Malacca, Penang and Singapore (and provinces, namely Fujian and Quangdong, later Malaya), many of whom were contract they did not subsequently reside together in labourers working at tin mining sites and all recipient settlements. It seems that plantations of various kinds. those who migrated to the American conti Among the early Chinese immigrants nent were of relatively homogeneous speech in the 19th century, circumstantial evidence group ongms. Their demographic com indicates that the Hokkiens had demo position displayed such an overwhelming graphically been the major dialect group dominance by a particular speech group in each of the three Settlements. Popu that speech divergence had never become lation census data establish their numerical a problem of social solidarity internally. dominance from 1881 to 1901. In Penang Chinese immigrants to Southeast Asia, in particular, the Hokkiens had a clear however, having been segmented into dominance of 500/0 (inclusive of 200/0 of heterogeneous dialect groups, had to work the Straits-born Chinese) in 1881, 550/0 and interact with one another in close (Straits-born 230/0) in 1891 and 610/0 (Straits-born 260/0) in 1901 [Mak 1985: * Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 0511 71]. The second biggest dialect group for 254 MAK L. F.: Chinese Subcommunal Elites in 19th-century Penang the same period was the Cantonese, with Hokkien group and its components. In a dominance of 20°tla in 1881, 23% in 1891 the process, the more reputable members of and 22% in 1901. The third and fourth these groups will be individually identified. largest Chinese dialect groups were re These elites shall comprise two major spectively the Teochius and Hakkas. types: the social and the economic. After The Hokkien subcommunity was never analyzing the 15 Chinese leaders who were regarded as homogeneous, but as being indisputably in elite positions in 19th composed of five clans as their anchor century Singapore, Yong [1967] identified groups. The population census data un wealth as the most important single factor fortunately do not yield information on the for becoming a leader, alongside linguistic numerical dominance of any of the five ability and connections with the con clans. The supposed relative prominance temporary secret societies. Yen [1986 : results simply from the assertions of a num 82-3] even states categorically that "wealth ber of scholars. For instance, both Tan determined social mobility and enabled [Chen and Tan 1972] and Imahori [1974: people to acquire titles and political 56-65] felt that the five surname groups influence. So wealth facilitated the acqui from Fujian had been most influential in sition of clan leadership." Both of these 19th-century Penangj these are generally writers are dealing with people who identified as the Chens, Lins, Qius, Xies, possessed power, popularity and/or base and Yangs. Except for the Chens, the resources such as wealth, social status and other four surname groups had, before special skills. emigration, been living in China in mono In the present study, the elites to be surname communes exclusively. It IS identified are those who had been out therefore not surprising to find from the standing in relation to certain socio relevant inscriptions that each of these economIC events, where the possession of four clans at one time would accept as followers was not essential. The typology members only those who were related to the ofelites is, of course, empirically determined respective mono-surname communes in rather than conceptually constructed. Fi China [Franke and Chen 1985: 856-74; nancial status, which is readily available 883-7; 903-5]. Despite the individualized from the published inscriptional data, is membership criteria, the five clans were taken here to characterize the economic close to one another on a number of oc elite, a type which is locally and customarily caSIOns. For instance, the heads of the known as 'towkay'. clans had in the late 1870s served together On the other hand, a member of the social with others as directors of the Chenhuang elite is one who excels in some kind of miao [ibid.: 598-601]. social behaviour or practice with the The principal task of the present inquiry intention of distinguishing himself. Large is to study some of the socio-economic scale financial donation is a behaviour which characteristics of the perceivedly dominant typifies a social elite status. Writers have 255 usually subsmned or mixed up this type of Franke and Chen [1985] constitute the elite status with the economic elite status, primary source of the present study. All for lack of information on the former personal names inscribed on any com category's financial position. Historical memorative objects erected in the 19th and official documents do not normally century were processed with the help of contain information on personal wealth a micro-computer. Entries associated with known or unknown to others. But to each personal name are: the type and name differentiate a member of the social elite of the voluntary association to which the from that ofthe economic elite for analytical person had made a donation, the amount purposes, it is imperative to know, first, and year of the donation, the speech-group the person's performance in the social arena origins of the donor, and other reference and second, his comparative financial items. position. It is fortunate that information The temporal coverage includes, In about the two conditions is obtainable from principle, all inscriptions set up during the the inscriptions.l ) 19th century. However, one inscription Wealth may be hidden. So the towkays established in 1795 and a few others in the who qualify for our study are those who first decade of the present century are also had expended their wealth in exchange for included, mainly for the sake of continuity. social recognition. The means of exchange That is, donors who had contributed in the in question was to make contributions, 19th century would have their 1795 or 20th especially financial ones to the many types century donations included. of voluntary associations. While a social Out of the 14,000 or so romanized leader at the subcommunal level might personal names, 350 (representing 49 well be a member of the social elite, the donors) were selected for analysis. Each reverse was not necessarily so. The former of them donated a minimmn of $1,000, or may establish himself through the insti contributed on five occasions at least, to any tutional position he occupied in any voluntary association. The amount of each voluntary association, whereas the latter is donation made by most donors was normally decided by the frequency of donation spelt out in the inscription except for such within a specific time pericd. symbolic contributions as serving on a com mittee or giving away a plot of land. Symbolic contributions merely supplement Data Collection specific amounts of donations. Inscriptions compiled and edited by The speech-group origin of each donor required some extra effort to identify. 1) There are limitations in using inscriptional data to identify Chinese elites of both types. One This involved applying mUltiple and uni limitation is that those who had not donated to dimensional criteria. The speech-group subcommunal associations, or whose donations could not measure up to our criteria, must be origin of a donor was taken as definite when bypassed. it is declared in the title of the inscription 256 MAK L. F.: Chinese Subcommunal Elites in 19th-century Penang piece. Whenever this was unsatisfactory, the text ofthe inscription was scrutinized for The Analysis identification purpose. Two major types of subcommunal elite The next residual step was to associate status have been identified. For the pur the person with the speech-group origin poses of this study, a member of the social of the principal donors of the association elite is one who made at least five contri concerned. Should all three methods fail, butions to any voluntary associations reference was then made to some other throughout the 19th century, while a sources, such as commemorative magazines member of the economic elite is one who published by the association concerned or made a total donation of at least $1,000. other related associations. These measures place the Hokkiens on Chinese voluntary associations in 19th a much higher elite level than the Cantonese century Penang may be widely categorized and Hakkas. Table 1 shows that among into three kinds.

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