Transnational Economic Citizenship in China-SEA Business Networks: HK & Singapore Study (1, Slides of Economic Sociology

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The Making of Transnational

“Economic Citizenship” in the

Growing China-Southeast Asian

Business Networks: In Retrospect of

Colonial Hong Kong and Singapore,

The Problems

• Timing of Chinese Bourgeois Nationalism

before W. W. II.

– Cities in mainland China: Marie Claire-Bergère:

The “golden age of Chinese bourgeois

nationalism”: 1919-

– Colonial Hong Kong and Singapore: from the 1928

Jinan Incident

What motivated Singapore Chinese Business

Elites for a nationalist turn?

• Accelerating business competition between

Singapore Chinese manufactures and the

importation of Japanese goods in the Southeast

Asian Market

• The shrinking customer base for low-end market after the

rubber crisis and immigration restriction in the late 1920s

• After China’s reaching tariff autonomy from 1929,

Singapore Chinese manufacturers lost favorite customs

duties to export goods to mainland China—the Southeast

Asian market became critical

• Depreciation of Japanese yen in the 1930s Great

Depression

Importation of Rubber Shoes in British Malaya

by Countries

Source: 1927: NKZ , V. 17, N. 5: 48; 1928-1930: NKZ , V. 18, N. 3, 11-12; 1931, NKZ , V. 19, N. 3:13; 1932-1933: NKZ , V. 20, N. 4: 38-39;

5. 1934: NKZ , V. 22, N. 4: 24-5.

Estimated Retail Prices of Rubber-soled

Canvas Shoes, 1931

Big Three Singapore Chinese Rubber

Manufactures

Japanese

imports

---

Tan Kah**

Kee &

Co.

People's

Rubber

Goods

Manufactory

Nanyang

Manufac-

turing

Co.

95 cents 65 cents 80 cents 63 cents

* Based on the following most popular trademarks: “Washington”, “Moon & Star”, “3 7

Heroes” and “B. B. B.” (Source: NKZ, 17, 5 [May 1932]: 48-50). Docsity.com

The nationalist turn of Hong Kong Chinese

Business Communities

• The blurring boundary between Hong Kong

and Canton manufactures after the 1930s

• China’s tariff autonomy (1929): importation of

Chinese manufactures from overseas societies

such as Hong Kong and British Malaya had to be

subject to high customs duties as foreign imports

Tan Kah Kee’s definition of Chinese national

productss

Source: Nan Yang Siang Pao, August-September 1930

Organization of the Hong Kong Chinese

Manufacturers’ Union (CMU)

Source: Xianggang zhonghua changshang lianhehui xinxia kaimu qingdian tekan, 1964: 22.

Major Participants of the Second Grant Exhibition of

Chinese National Product Organized by the SCCC,

Singapore, October 10, 1936

Source: Xianggang zhonghua changshang chupin zhinan [Directory of products of the Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers’ Union] (Xianggang zhonghua changshang lianhe hui chuban, 1936), Section Ding-

Member Firm of the Hong Kong CMU in

Singapore Grand Exhibition (1)

• The Chow Ngai Hing Knitting

Factory

• Founded before 1911 by

Chow Song Ting (周頌庭) in

Canton

• Set up the Hong Kong factory

in 1927

• In 1934, two sales offices

were set up in Shanghai and

Singapore

Source: CMU Zhinan, 1936: Section Yi and Section Bing-

Source: Xinjiapo zhonghua zongshanghui guohuo kuoda zhanlan tuixiao dahui tekan, Oct. 1935

Conclusion

• From the essential “embedded ethnic ties”,

the making of “transnational business

networks” to the search for “transnational

economic citizenship”