From a Migrant Village to a Trans-oceanic Lineage Society: the Qiaoxiang Zhushan in Quemoy before 1949
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
ShingyenYuan
Abstract
Overseas Chinese movement in the modern Chinese history had affected the coastal provinces with a large trans-oceanic population and remittances. Furthermore, it politically encouraged nationalism and revolutions a century ago. Thus, qiaoxiang (overseas Chinese home village), being the main objective area of home place identity and the flow of expatriate remittances from overseas Chinese, has special value in research.
With inspiration from micro-sociology and micro-history, this paper selected Zhushan Village on the island of Quemoy as the research site for investigating qiaoxiang history. Also, the concept of old / middle / new strata is applied to analyze the village’s genealogy and Qiaokan (overseas Chinese home place publication). Beginning with inference from the geographic history, this research progressively focuses on discussions of the migration type, remittance economy and building activities in the qiaoxiang era.
Therefore, the dynamic concepts of "migrant village" and "trans-oceanic lineage society" were introduced to supplement the traditional static understanding of a "rural village". The migration tradition of Xue’s clan was not only seen with the establishment on Quemoy in Yuan Dynasty, but also the partial emigration in the former village period in Ming Dynasty. Furthermore, when the newly established Qing Dynasty enforced the notorious Immigration Decree in 1664, the whole clan emigrated from its village. After the war period, the Xue’s clan abandoned the former village, and relocated to the area of today’s Zhushan Village. With a unique site typology which was totally different from the regional fengshui tradition, the lineage society expanded the housing and farming area. Then, in the time of the Overseas Chinese Movement, the term qiao (overseas Chinese) or yanke (overseas guest) was used to call a new type of emigrants who had the trans-oceanic mobility and settlement rights at the same time. Economical and building activities of the home village were mainly supported by these emigrants’ remittances and cash flow in the private housing market. At that time, the Zhushan Village was not only a settlement with the collective mobility and memories of ancient ancestors, but a core node in Xue’s trans-oceanic lineage society.
The migration tradition, remittances economy, qiaoxiang building and trans-oceanic families were not exclusive historical phenomena to Zhushan Village, but common historical characteristics of qiaoxiang in general. According to the micro-historical analysis of this village, the two-way flow of population and capital should be re-recognized as a set of trans-oceanic lineage social organizations phenomena. The architectural symbols of qiaoxiang building activities, on the other hand, can be seen as cultural representations which express the joint effect of local tradition and cross-border entrepreneurship.
Subjects
qiaoxiang (overseas Chinese home village)
Overseas Chinese Study
Architecture History
Qiaokan (overseas Chinese home place publication)
Quemoy(Kinmen)
SDGs
Type
thesis
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