Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review[T]his is an excellent historical account of the role of emigrants in the making of Xiamen and is presented in a readable and theoretically important volume.
* The Middle Ground Journal *
Although Coming Home to a Foreign Country does not engage in the urban qiaoxiang debate, Ong's work proves that it was possible – even worthwhile – to study the impact of migrants on the city, as well as the interactions between rural and urban China, through return migration. Ong's historiography also succeeds in chronicling the migrant cycle: The return of "old hands" perpetuated the cycle, and this ultimately re-made Xiamen the hub of Southern Fujianese migration.
* International Institute for Asian Studies *
Ong Soon Keong revisits these questions with a new twist[.]
* Pacific Affairs *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Defining Xiamen: Trade and Migration before the Opium War (1839–1842)
2. Opening for Business: Xiamen as a Treaty Port
3. Facilitating Migration: Xiamen as a Migration Hub
4. Manipulating Identities: State and Opportunities in Xiamen
5. Transforming Xiamen: Urban Reconstruction in the 1920s
6. Making Home: Xiamen as Destination and Home
Conclusions
