Sojourning and emigration: emigrant communities in Chaoshan area (1949-1958)
Social Transformations in Chinese Societies
ISSN: 1871-2673
Article publication date: 5 September 2018
Issue publication date: 12 November 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Chaozhou-speaking communities in northeast Guangdong Province dealt with new barriers of border control during the 1950s, and how they circumvented these institutional obstacles to leave China for Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. The emigration process was reshaped by new social and political forces in Maoist China. How did the Chaoshan people apply for the travel permit to leave China? How did they enter the hosting countries? How did the emigration experience influence the identity formation of Chaoshan Chinese in the 1950s?
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on archival sources, memoirs and interviews to demonstrate the ways in which Chaoshan people pursued new strategies of emigration during the 1950s.
Findings
In Maoist China, the application for an entry-exit permit was a rather complicated bureaucratic process for ordinary people. One needs to consider the class status, geographical origins and overseas connections of the applicants as well as the changing official policies toward overseas Chinese.
Research limitations/implications
This paper emphasizes on the impacts of emigration experience on the identity formation of Chaoshan people and the incremental transformation of these emigrant communities in Guangdong Province.
Practical implications
This scholarly finding throws light on the transformation of Chaoshan from a fluid, mobile maritime environment to an increasingly state-centric agrarian society during the 1950s.
Originality/value
This paper is an original scholarly study of the history of Chaoshan communities in South China and their emigration to Southeast Asia.
Keywords
Citation
Wang, H. (2018), "Sojourning and emigration: emigrant communities in Chaoshan area (1949-1958)", Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 97-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/STICS-04-2018-0005
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited