Qiaopi is one of several names given to the “silver letters” Chinese emigrants sent home in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These letters-cum-remittances document the changing history of the Chinese diaspora in different parts of the world and in different times.
Dear China is the first book-length study in English of
qiaopi and of the origins, structure, and operations of the
qiaopi trade. The authors explore the characteristics and transformations of
qiaopi, showing how such institutionalized and cross-national mechanisms helped sustain families separated by distance and state frontiers and contributed to the sending regions’ socioeconomic development.
Dear China contributes substantially to our understanding of modern Chinese history and to the comparative study of global migration.
Table of Content
List of Maps and Tables
Foreword by Wang Gungwu
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Genealogy of Qiaopi Studies
2. The Structure of the Qiaopi Trade and Transnational Networks
3. The Qiaopi Trade as a Distinctive Form of Chinese Capitalism
4. Qiaopi Geography
5. Qiaopi and Modern Chinese Economy and Politics
6. Qiaopi, Qiaoxiang, and Charity
7. Qiaopi and European Migrants’ Letters Compared
Conclusions
Appendix: Selected Qiaopi and Huipi Letters
Glossary
Notes
References
Index
About the author
Gregor Benton is Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University. His books include Mountain Fires: The Red Army’s Three-Year War in South China and The Qiaopi Trade and Transnational Networks in the Chinese Diaspora (coedited with Hong Liu and Huimei Zhang). Hong Liu is Tan Kah Kee Endowed Professor of Asian Studies and Chair of School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His publications include China and the Shaping of Indonesia, 1949–1965 and Singapore Chinese Society in Transition.
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