Overview
- Develops research into Chinese secret societies in British Malaya
- Challenges the traditional view that Chinese secret societies were purely criminal
- Highlights the changing attitudes of the British toward Chinese migrants
Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies (CIPCSS)
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Keywords
- Colonial knowledge
- Chinese secret societies
- British Empire
- Chinese migrants
- Migration history
- Colonial Asia
- Colonial knowledge production
- British Malaya
- Chinese labour history
- Immigration
- Singapore
- Malaysia
- Triads
- British colonies
- Colonial policy
About this book
This book explores the changing relations between Chinese secret societies in British Malaya and the British colonial government, examining how and why British attitudes towards Chinese migrants changed over the nineteenth century, from welcoming them at the century’s start, to suppressing them by the end of the century. These changes later marked a crucial turning point in which Chinese migrants were no longer seen as foreign settlers without legal status, but a part of the colonial population of British Malaya. Suggesting that Chinese secret societies in colonial Asia were far more important than they have traditionally been perceived and moving away from the view that they were simply violent criminal organisations, the book analyses the much broader socioeconomic purposes that the societies served and examines how British colonial perceptions and attitudes played a role in their functioning. The author incorporates this story into the wider process of colonial knowledge production across the global British Empire, illustrating how this became an important factor in helping the British integrate the Chinese into their systems. A welcome contribution to studies on colonial Asia, this book provides a wide-ranging overview of the changing role of Chinese secret societies in British Malaya and will provide new insights for those researching the history of southeast Asia, colonialism and migration.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Wei Chin Wong is currently an Associate Professor at the Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University, United International College (UIC) in China. Her research focuses on British colonial records and the history of Chinese migration in Southeast Asia.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Governing Chinese Secret Societies in Colonial British Malaya, 1786-1900
Authors: Wei Chin Wong
Series Title: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-52598-8Due: 11 November 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-52601-5Due: 11 November 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-52599-5Due: 11 November 2024
Series ISSN: 2635-1633
Series E-ISSN: 2635-1641
Edition Number: 1
Number of Illustrations: 25 b/w illustrations