Chinese in Colonial Burma

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Yi Li

   Pages 1-19

3. Coming to Burma

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

      PDF

   2. From Frontier to Heartland

      • Yi Li

      Pages 23-61

   3. A Chinese Mental Map of the Irrawaddy Delta

      • Yi Li

      Pages 63-108

4. Being Burmese Chinese

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 109-109

      PDF

   2. Merchants of the Empire

      • Yi Li

      Pages 111-145

   3. The Rangoon Vice

      • Yi Li

      Pages 147-177

   4. Making No Political “Noise”

      • Yi Li

      Pages 179-219

   5. Epilogue

      • Yi Li

      Pages 221-228

5. Back Matter

   Pages 229-262

   PDF

Using previously unexplored archives from colonial institutions and individuals, and primary materials produced by the Burmese Chinese, this comprehensive study investigates over a century of history of the Burmese Chinese under British colonial rule. Due to the peculiar position of Burma in the British imperial world and the Southeast Asian Chinese network, the Chinese community had a unique experience in a Southeast Asian colony governed by Europeans with an India-based system. This book reveals, through everyday life experience, prominent community figures, and milestone events, the internal rivalry and integration among different regional groups within the community, and the general impressions it left in contemporary observations and communal memories. The book also traces historical roots of some unsolved ethnic issues in present-day Myanmar.

• Rise of Nationalism and Anti-Colonialism
• The Notion of Ethnic Chinese Remaining Politically Silent
• The Rangoon Vice
• Chinese Activities in Colonial Burma
• Merchants of the Empire
• Chinese Commercial Operations
• Colonial Burma
• Burnese Chinese
• Chinese
• empire
• history
• history of literature
• migrant
• noise
• writing

“Li’s book is a very valuable one. Throughout the book she has successfully kept a transnational vision by interweaving the histories of political change in china, the expansion of the British imperial world and the evolution of the Burmese Chinese community. … the book has provided an inspiring basis for looking at the lives of Burmese Chinese during the British colonial period, and for continuing endeavours to explore other related archives and relevant materials.” (Wen-Ching Chang, SOJOURN - Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, Vol. 33 (3), November 2018)

“Li’s exhaustive coverage of Chinese and English language sources provides a new look at how the Chinese in Burma, as a smaller percentage of the diaspora in Southeast Asia, continued to transplant many of the same political, economic, and social networks through kinship connections. … it is certainly an invaluable contribution to the history of Chinese diasporic experiences, and necessary reading for scholars of Chinese and Southeast Asian studies.” (Siew Han Yeo, Journal of Burma Studies, Vol. 22 (1), June, 2018)

• Department of History, SOAS, University of London, London, United Kingdom

  Yi Li

Yi Li received her PhD in history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore between 2014 and 2015. Her research interests include modern Southeast Asia and Chinese diaspora, with a particular focus on migration and colonial history.

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