Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia 3 (March 2003)
Southeast
Asian Studies in Greater China
Liu Hong
China has a long tradition of studying its southern neighbors in the
region often called the “Nanyang” (南洋) or Southern Ocean. Writings on Southeast Asia by Chinese
envoys and traders can be traced back to the third century A.D. These
travelogues and official records, though by no means scholarly studies, contain
a diverse range of indispensable materials for studying the region prior to the
advent of Western colonialism. Even in the early twentieth century, there were
still relatively numerous Chinese scholars focusing their research on Southeast Asia. Some of them had
trained in Japan and were influenced by that country’s “South Seas Fever” of the
time. In 1908, some Chinese students and officials in Tokyo formed an
association devoted to issues of Southeast Asian commerce and published the Magazine of the Research Association for
Commerce in the Nanyang Archipelago (《南洋群島商業研究會雜誌》). Two decades
later, the Bureau of Nanyang Cultural Affairs (南洋文化事業部) was established at Jinan University in Shanghai and published a
scholarly journal on Southeast Asia. In 1940, a group of Chinese scholars and
men of learning exiled in Singapore
established the China South Seas Society (中國南洋學會), which has continued to publish the Journal of the South Seas Society and monographs.
The development of Southeast Asian studies
in the People’s Republic of China
after 1949 has seen mixed progress. While there was much disruption during the
Cultural Revolution (1966-76), the past two decades have witnessed a remarkable
revival of scholarly interest in the region, which has been strengthened by
some newly developed programs on Southeast
Asia in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
This essay briefly describes the major institutional settings in Greater China and
research concerns pertaining to Southeast
Asia. In addition to some written sources
and my past experience as a graduate student and lecturer in Southeast Asian
studies in the PRC, this essay relies primarily on my research trips to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan
over the past few years and my interaction with faculty members there. It
should be emphasized that my preliminary observations do not in any way reflect
the official views of these institutions.
Major Institutions in the PRC
Like research institutes dealing with other
foreign countries and regions, China’s institutes
on Southeast Asia can be divided into two types: those affiliated with universities
and the academies of social sciences at various levels; and those attached to
government agencies. The latter are primarily concerned with policy matters and
act more like think tanks in the West. (For instance, there are Southeast Asian
or Asian sections in the China Institute of International Studies [中国国际问题研究所] under the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the China Institute of Contemporary
International Relations [中国现代国际关系研究所] under the Ministry of State
Security). This essay is mainly concerned with the former type – research institutes
that are exclusively or predominantly devoted to Southeast Asian studies. In mainland
China, there are five major institutes:
Center
for Southeast Asian Studies, Research School of Southeast Asian
Studies, Xiamen University
(厦门大学东南亚研究中心)
Xiamen University (www.xmu.edu.cn),
located in Fujian Province and founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee (陈嘉庚), one of the most
famous overseas Chinese entrepreneurs and social activists, has an established
tradition of studying Southeast Asia. In addition to faculty members in the
History Department, Faculty of Economics, and Institute of Anthropology
whose studies are concerned with Southeast
Asia, the majority of researchers on the
region are housed in the Research School of Southeast Asian Studies (南洋研究院). Its
predecessor, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, was jointly founded in 1956 by the National Central Committee of
Overseas Chinese Affairs and Xiamen University, making it the PRC’s first research institute on Southeast Asia and the Overseas
Chinese. The Institute was restructured in 1996 to become the present Research
School, comprising four institutes with some 45 full-time staff members: the
Institute of Politics and Economy in Southeast Asia; the Institute of Overseas
Chinese Studies (concerned with both the history and current status of ethnic
Chinese in Southeast Asia); the Center for the History of China’s International
Relations (primarily concerned with interactions with Southeast Asia); and the
Center for Chinese Literature in Southeast Asia (concerned with Chinese-language
literature). The Research School offers MA and Ph.D. programs and publishes two quarterly journals, Studies of Southeast Asian Affairs (南洋问题研究) and Southeast Asian Studies (A Quarterly Journal of Translations; 南洋资料译丛).
In 2000, as a part of national efforts
undertaken by the Ministry of Education to pull limited resources together and strengthen
selected research institutes in the humanities and social sciences, the Center
for Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University, drawn primarily from staff of
the Research School but also enlisting adjunct researchers from other
universities in China and overseas, was designated one of 100 key national institutes
for the humanities and social sciences.
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Zhongshan University
(中山大学东南亚研究所)
This Institute grew out of the Research Unit of Southeast Asian History at the
Department of History of Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) University (www.zsu.edu.cn) in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.
The Unit was reconstituted as an independent research institution in 1978,
though today some researchers have returned to teaching positions in either the
History Department or School of International Studies. With about 15 full-time researchers, the Institute has four divisions:
Southeast Asian History, Overseas Chinese Studies, Contemporary International Relations
in Southeast Asia, and Southeast Asian Economy. Like its counterpart at Xiamen University,
the Institute offers a graduate studies program. It began publishing a journal
called Southeast Asian Studies (东南亚研究) in 1983. After
26 issues, the journal was renamed Asia-Pacific
Studies (亚太研究) in 2000.
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Jinan University
(暨南大学东南亚研究所)
The predecessor of this institute, also located in Guangzhou, was the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, South China Branch of the Chinese Academy of
Science, established in 1960 in the campus of Jinan University (www.jnu.edu.cn). The university is under the
National Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs and caters mainly to Chinese
students from overseas and children of returned overseas Chinese. Its 25
full-time researchers are housed in five different divisions: Economy,
International Relations, Culture and Education, Overseas Chinese, and
Information. It publishes a quarterly journal called Southeast Asian Studies (东南亚研究).
Yunnan
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences (云南社会科学院东南亚研究所)
The history of this institute (located in Kunming, Yunnan Province) can
be traced to 1963 when the Southeast Asia research unit was formed within the Yunnan Institute of History. In
1981, it merged with the South Asia research unit to form the current institute under the Yunnan
Academy of Social Sciences. It has about 38 researchers who are divided into largely
geographic research divisions: Thailand,
Burma, Indo-China, South Asia, and Southeast Asian political economy. Since 1983, the Institute
has published the journal Southeast Asia (东南亚).
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences (广西社会科学院东南亚研究所)
Located in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, this institute was established
in 1989 out of the Research Division on Indo-China of the Guangxi Academy of
Social Sciences (formed in 1979). Its divisions include Comprehensive Research,
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and Overseas Chinese. It publishes a journal called All-Around Southeast Asia (东南亚纵横).
In addition to these institutes that are devoted
exclusively to Southeast Asia, there are others that have committed an important segment of their
staff and resources to the region. For instance, at Peking University (www.pku.edu.cn), the Institute of South and
Southeast Asian Studies was formed in 1985 and incorporated into the Institute of Asian and
African Studies six years later; the latter institute is now part of the School of International Studies. In August 2002, the Center
for Southeast Asian Studies, Peking University (北京大学东南亚学研究中心) was founded as one of the constituting members of the University’s
Institute for Asian-Pacific Studies. Unlike the Southeast Asian
Centers/Institutes mentioned above, this Center is a “virtual” program of the
North American style, which draws its researchers from different faculties
within the University. One of its main missions is to organize and coordinate
Southeast Asia-related research activities engaged by different institutes,
departments, and centers within the university in order to push forward
interdisciplinary research.
Other institutes include the Institute of Asian and
Pacific Studies, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, Beijing; the Institute of Asian and Pacific Studies, Shanghai
Academy of Social Sciences; and the Institute of Overseas Chinese Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou. A few years ago, the Center for Overseas Chinese Studies was formed
at Peking University (mainly by faculty members from the Institute of Asian and
African Studies and the School of Oriental Studies). A similar Center was established within the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in November 2002. A significant amount
of the research in the last three institutions is focused on the ethnic Chinese
in Southeast Asia.
A few observations can be made about the PRC
institutions described above. In the first place, the institutional setting
reveals a strong regional bias, with all five major Southeast Asia institutes
located in southern China. This regional concentration results not only from geographical proximity,
but also reflects historical and cultural linkages between southern China and
Southeast Asia, partly through long-standing trade ties and partly through
large-scale migration. More than 90 percent of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia trace their origins
to Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan, the provinces in which the five Southeast Asia institutes are
located today. (In contrast, studies on North
America, Europe, and Japan are
fairly underdeveloped in southern China and
are mostly centered in Beijing and Shanghai). Secondly, and closely related to the previous characteristic,
studies of Southeast Asia as a geographical region and socio-political construct have often
been mixed with research on the region’s ethnic Chinese population. This is a
legacy of long-standing Chinese historical tradition of writing about Southeast Asia, which displayed
a strong predisposition to treat the region in conjunction with Chinese
migration and/or its ties to China.
The economic success of the ethnic Chinese in the region since the 1960s and
their pioneering role in investing China
since the 1980s further strengthen this tendency to mix the region with the
region’s ethnic Chinese. Finally, while there is a certain degree of
duplication of research efforts in the five institutes, there are also some
divisions of labor among them. The Xiamen Center, for instance,
is better known for research on Indonesia,
Singapore, and Malaysia, while the Yunnan Institute is strong on Thailand
and Burma and the Guangxi Institute covers the affairs of Vietnam, Laos, and
Cambodia quite extensively.
Hong Kong and Taiwan
In addition to these five major Southeast
Asia-related institutes in the PRC, there are a number of institutes in Hong Kong and Taiwan
that have devoted significant attention to Southeast
Asia. Unlike their mainland counterparts, they
were, with one exception, established in the mid-1990s or later and are more
concerned with contemporary political and economic issues at this time of
regional integration and globalization.
The Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University (香港大學亞洲研究中心) (http://www.hku.hk/cas/)
was established in 1967. While it has traditionally focused on China and
Hong Kong, Southeast Asia has recently gained greater prominence in its research agendas. In
1996 the well-endowed China-ASEAN Project was established to promote Southeast
Asian Studies, and it has since organized a series of China-ASEAN Roundtables
and published monographs of selected papers presented at these events.
The Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong (香港城市大學東南亞研究中心) (http://www.cityu.edu.hk/cityu/research/searc.htm)
was established in September 2000. It is within the Faculty of Humanities and
Social Sciences and hosted by the Department of Applied Social Sciences. The Centre’s
current core research theme includes “Remaking
Southeast Asia in a Global Context: Cultures, Development, Challenges.” It
comprises three sub-themes: Southeast Asia and Globalisations: environment, people, markets; Southeast Asian
Fault-lines: schisms, convergence, conflicts; and Southeast Asian Interactions:
cross border and inter-ethnic relations.
In Taiwan, the
development of Southeast Asian studies has been facilitated by the government’s
Southward Policy of the mid-1990s and the island’s increasing investment in the
region. The Center for Asia-Pacific Area
Studies (CAPAS), Academia Sinica (中央研究院亞太研究計劃) (http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~capas/) is
the newly reorganized (January 2003) Asia-Pacific Research Program (APARP), the
2002 merger of programs focusing on Southeast Asia (dating from 1994) and Northeast
Asia (from 1998). The Center maintains its focus on these two areas. Its four
major research directions include Asia-Pacific history and prehistory; languages,
religions, ethnic groups, and indigenous cultures in Asia-Pacific; post-colonial
political, economic, social transformations and developments in Asia-Pacific;
and the interaction of ethnic Chinese and local societies in Asia-Pacific.
The Graduate
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,
Tamkang University (淡江大學東南亞研究所) (http://www2.tku.edu.tw/~tibx/homepage.htm)
was established in 1996 and aims to “increase the integrated understanding of
regional strategies and security, politics, societies, histories, humanities,
and international relations in Southeast
Asia.” It currently has 10 full time
researchers and provides various courses for graduate students.
The Graduate
Institute of South East Asian Studies, National Chi Nan University (國立暨南國際大學東南亞研究所) (http://www.dseas.ncnu.edu.tw/)
was founded in 1997, aiming at “promoting teaching and researching in Southeast
Asian politics, economics, society, culture and ethnic relations as well as
building the resources in this field to meet the needs of national policy on
Southeast Asia.”
The
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, National Sun Yat-Sen University (國立中山大學東南亞研究中心) (http://www2.nsysu.edu.tw/cseas/)
was established in 1998, with three research divisions: Southeast Asia
(covering the economy, society, culture, and political development of each
Southeast Asian country); Taiwan and Southeast Asia (focusing on Taiwan’s
political, economic, and security relations with the region, bilaterally and
multilaterally); and Regional Relations (concentrating on regional political
activities, economic integration, humanities, and cultural interactions).
Researchers and their Disciplinary Backgrounds
While there is a significant degree of
diversity with respect to the backgrounds and research concerns of Southeast Asia scholars and institutes
in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the background of researchers in the mainland institutes is much
more homogeneous. There it is estimated that some 600 full-time researchers are
entirely or partially concerned with Southeast
Asia. They can be divided roughly into two
generations. First are the Returned Overseas Chinese (归侨) who were born in
Southeast Asia and returned to China in the 1950s and 1960s, some attracted by
the promise of the New China and some repelled by anti-Chinese riots, especially
in Indonesia and Malaysia. Familiar with local cultures and languages and having
first-hand experience in Southeast Asia, they nevertheless rarely had the opportunity to return for further
fieldwork due to the circumstances of the Cold War. Hence they relied heavily
on texts and published materials for their analysis. Many were trained in
history or international relations; according to an early 1990s survey, 43
percent of China’s Southeast Asianists were trained in history, 14 percent in
economics, and 12 percent in international relations/politics. Accordingly, the
work of these scholars tends to manifest a historical and nation-state
perspective. The second generation was trained in China’s
universities in the 1980s and 1990s. They are more familiar with current theoretical
debates in the humanities and social sciences and some have had opportunities to
do field research in Southeast Asia or library research in the West, but many lack the indigenous language
capacity and intimate local knowledge possessed by their predecessors.
This disciplinary background has an impact
on the scope of Southeast Asian studies in the PRC. A survey conducted in October
2001 found, from 1990 onwards, the appearance of 607 publications (including
monographs, journal articles, reference works, etc.) on various aspects of Southeast Asia. Although there
has been no specific content analysis of these publications, earlier
observations provide clues to the major thematic and disciplinary concerns of
the mainland’s Southeast Asianists. An extensive survey of 4,024 articles
published in 334 journals in the late 1980s and early 1990s concluded that 31
percent belonged to “politics,” defined broadly to include domestic politics of
Southeast Asia and international relations of the region. Articles on “economics,”
particularly concerned with the economic development of ASEAN, took second
place at 30 percent. These were followed by “history” (27 percent) and
“culture” (11 percent).
This division of disciplinary category appears
largely unchanged to today, though interest in more theoretical and regional
themes is on the rise and there is a gradual increase in the number of scholars
trained in anthropology and sociology. Meanwhile, the combination of Southeast Asia as a region with ethnic Chinese in the region remains a characteristic
of China’s Southeast Asian studies. There seems to have been no serious
attempt to date to conceptualize the convergence and divergence of these two
separate yet closely related domains of analysis.
Obviously, Southeast Asian studies in
mainland China has made important progress over the last two decades, evidenced in
part by the increasing number of publications and the holding of major large-scale
conferences (nearly ten in the 1990s). However, there are also many constraints,
some structural and some intellectual. In a questionnaire distributed among
Southeast Asianists in the early 1990s, 22 percent reported the major
limitation in the field to be the lack of research funding, followed by deficiencies
in research materials (18 percent) and competent researchers (16 percent), the lack
of exchange with foreign colleagues (15 percent) and restrictions posed by
government policy (14 percent).
By the turn of the twenty-first century,
however, the constraints seem more intellectual than structural. Over the last
few years, the Chinese government, in addition to loosening its control of the
public sphere, has committed a sizable amount of research funding to the
humanities and social sciences. The Center of Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University and the Institute of Overseas Chinese Studies at Jinan University have been evaluated and selected as key national institutes for the
humanities and social sciences, receiving substantial funding from the Ministry
of Education, the National Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs, and their
respective universities. Researchers from other universities and institutions
have also benefited from the nation’s greater interest in Southeast Asia and closer
Sino-ASEAN cooperation, which bring corresponding increases in funding and
expanding opportunities to liaise with foreign colleagues. More pressing
problems were aired at a national convention of Southeast Asianists held in Beijing in October
2001. Attention there was drawn to deficiencies in the following areas: knowledge
of local languages, substantial fieldwork in the region, good-quality
publications encompassing solid empirical data, well-informed theoretical
frameworks, and regional perspectives.
In conclusion, as Southeast Asia’s closest
neighbor, Greater China has a long history of curiosity and writing about the
region. Today, ASEAN is China’s fifth largest trading partner and also ranks highly in China’s
regional security strategy. How to capitalize on long scholarly tradition,
geographical proximity, and close economic ties constitutes a challenge for
Southeast Asianists in China. For Southeast Asianists in the region and elsewhere, it is also
quite obvious that constructive collaboration with Chinese partners on issues
of mutual interest will not only benefit the involved parties, but also push
the global enterprise of Southeast Asian studies to a new stage.
Hong Liu is associate professor in the
Department of Chinese Studies and assistant dean of the Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. Since 2000 he has served as
a guest research professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University,
and the Institute of Overseas Chinese Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou. He can be reached at chsliuh@nus.edu.sg.
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