The Making of Transnational “Economic Citizenship” in the Growing China-Southeast Asian Business Networks: In Retrospect of Colonial Hong Kong and Singapore, 1919-1941

Huei-ying Kuo

hkuo@binghamton.edu

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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”: 1919-1927

Colonial Hong Kong and Singapore: from the 1928 Jinan Incident

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Chinese Business-led Nationalist Activities in Inter-war Hong Kong and Singapore

The 1928 Jinan Incident (led by Tan Kah Kee and his Ee Ho Hean Club)

The 1932 Shanghai Incident (led by Lee Choon Seng and the SCCC)

The 1937 Marco Polo Bridge Incident (led by Tan Kah Kee and the SCCC)

The 1928 Jinan Incident (led by the board of the directors of the Tung Wah Hospital)

The 1932 Shanghai Incident (led by Chan Lim Pak, chairperson of the Tung Wah Hospital and a founding member of the Chinese Manufacturers’ Union [CMU])

The 1937 Incident (led by the Hong Kong Chinese General Chamber of Commerce)

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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

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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.

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The Big Three Singapore Chinese Rubber ManufacturesTan Kah Kee’s (1874-1964) Tan Kah Kee & Co.

Teo Eng Hock’s (1871-1958) People’s Rubber Goods Manufactory

The Nanyang Rubber Manufacture

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

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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

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The Search for Transnational “Economic Citizenship” (1): Requests for special tariff protection Definition of “Chinese products” (“國貨” )

according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and Industry: “Chinese capital, Chinese materials, Chinese labor, and Chinese management”

But what constituted the criteria of “Chinese” capital?

The territorially-bounded criteria of the Chinese Maritime Customs

Definition of Chinese “national products” from the perspective of Chinese overseas

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Tan Kah Kee’s definition of Chinese national productss

Source: Nan Yang Siang Pao, August-September 1930

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Organization of the Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers’ Union (CMU)

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

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The Search for Transnational “Economic Citizenship” (2): Exhibitions of “national products” organized by overseas Chinese Organized by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of

Commerce and the Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers’ Union

Who participated? Chinese manufactures from both Hong Kong and S’pore and major cities in mainland China such as Shanghai, Canton, Tianjin and Beijing

Transnational connections of ethnic Chinese manufacturers: 1st. The Grant Exhibition of Chinese Products (organized by

the SCCC on Oct. 10, 1934) 2nd. The Second Grant Exhibition of Chinese Products

(organized by the SCCC on Oct. 10, 1936) 3rd-6th: Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers’ Union also

organized four similar events between 1938 and 1940

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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-15.

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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-8

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

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Hong Kong CMU Member Firms in Singapore Grand Exhibition (2)

The Sam Kwang Weaving Factory, Ltd.

Owner: Yuen Chow Ming (阮秋明 ), active member of CMU

Founded in 1928, Hong Kong

High-end products, weave cloth from British fibers

Source: CMU Zhinan, 1936: Section Bing-6 NYSP (20 July 1937)

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Conclusion

From the essential “embedded ethnic ties”, the making of “transnational business networks” to the search for “transnational economic citizenship”