Introduction: China and chinese migrant scholarship

Abstract

The strategy of survival and development of the descendants of Chinese historical migrants, along with their evolving self-understanding, inevitably affects the perspectives on China and Chinese studies in their countries. These perspectives are distinguishable from the perspectives of China studies arising elsewhere because Chinese cultural values and modern national identities are not merely the object of study. These studies simultaneously implicate subjectivity, which pertains to how authors and their readers position themselves among ethnic, national, and civilizational identities. To appreciate Southeast Asian understanding and research on China, studying beyond interstate perspectives is necessary. Our methodology is a preliminary attempt at an anthropology of Knowledge, which stresses the relevance of encounters and choices in the process of knowledge production that mirror and reproduce as well the survival of human groups.