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
The Problems
Timing of Chinese Bourgeois Nationalism
before W. W. II.
Cities in mainland China: Marie ClaireBergère: The “golden age of Chinese
bourgeois nationalism”: 1919-1927
Colonial Hong Kong and Singapore: from the
1928 Jinan Incident
2
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
3
General Chamber of
Commerce)
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
4
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.
5
The Big Three Singapore Chinese
Rubber Manufactures
Tan Kah Kee’s (18741964) Tan Kah Kee & Co.
Teo Eng Hock’s (18711958) People’s Rubber
Goods Manufactory
The Nanyang Rubber
Manufacture
6
Estimated Retail Prices of Rubber-soled
Canvas Shoes, 1931
Big Three Singapore Chinese Rubber
Japanese
Manufactures
imports
*
Tan Kah
People's
Nanyang
Kee &
Rubber
ManufacCo.
Goods
turing
Manufactory
Co.
95 cents
65 cents
80 cents
63 cents
7
* Based on the following most popular trademarks: “Washington”, “Moon & Star”,
“3
Heroes” and “B. B. B.” (Source: NKZ, 17, 5 [May 1932]: 48-50).
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
8
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
9
Tan Kah Kee’s definition of Chinese
national productss
Source: Nan Yang Siang Pao, August-September 1930
10
Organization of the Hong Kong Chinese
Manufacturers’ Union (CMU)
Source: Xianggang zhonghua changshang lianhehui xinxia kaimu qingdian tekan, 1964: 22.
11
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
12
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 Ding15.
13
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
14
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)
15
Conclusion
From the essential “embedded ethnic ties”,
the making of “transnational business
networks” to the search for “transnational
economic citizenship”
16