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Remittance letters from Manila: The gendered, individual and emotional world of the Chinese diaspora
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 December 2024
Abstract
In the long history of Chinese emigration, men left home to work abroad, leaving family members behind. While overseas, they sent money to their relatives along with remittance letters (qiaopi). Many qiaopi were formulaic documents prepared by professional letter writers, but those sent by Huang Kaiwu to his wife between 1903 and 1916 provide information on changing family values and gender norms in the years leading up to the Chinese Revolution and Republic. Huang was a textile merchant in the Philippines, a leader of the Chinese community in Manila, and a revolutionary who actively supported the 1911 Revolution. His wife lived with members of his family in his home village. His letters reveal tensions between tradition and change both on his part and on hers. Written at a time of momentous socio-political change and under the influence of Chinese nationalism, they provide insights into how modernist thinking played out in one Chinese migrant family and enrich academic understanding of the Chinese diaspora especially in the early twentieth century.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The National University of Singapore
Footnotes
This article was funded by the National Social Science Fund of China, the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences in 2020 (Grant No. 20BZS132). Previous versions of this article were presented at the Conference of ‘World Memory Heritage—Qiaopi Archive’, Shantou, 2014, the ISSCO Regional Conference on ‘East Asia and the Chinese Overseas’, Seoul, 2015, and Conference on ‘The Qiaopi Trade in China and Overseas’, Singapore, 2015. I would like to thank Mr Huang Qinghai and Mr Liu Bozi who generously providing access to the remittance letters consulted for this article. Many thanks go to Paul Kratoska, Ng Chin-keong, Liao Bolun Edgar, and Keo-cheok Cheong who kindly read through drafts of previous copies and provided valuable advice on the writing of this article, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Any shortcomings are my sole responsibility.
References
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7 Also known as Uy Cay Bot, and Huang Zaiyu 黄在毓.
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9 A collection of more than three hundred remittance letters published in 2016 and 2018 includes 77 letters from Huang Kaiwu to his wife. See Qinghai, Huang 黄清海, ed., Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi: shijie jiyi caifu 菲华黄开物侨批：世界记忆财富 [Remittance letters of Huang Kaiwu, a Philippine Chinese: Memory Heritage of the world] (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 2016)Google Scholar; Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1; Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, ed., Minnan qiaopi daquan (di er ji) (di yi ce) 闽南侨批大全 (第二辑) (第一册) [A complete collection of remittance letters from southern Fujian, vol. 2, no. 1] (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 2018).
10 Interview, Huang Jinbi 黄锦碧, 86, Jinzhai village, Jiaomei town, Longhai, Zhangzhou, Fujian, 23 Nov. 2014. Huang Kai'en is Jinbi's grandfather.
11 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 6–7, 12–13, 26, 27, 43.
12 Kwok-chu, Wong, The Chinese in the Philippines economy 1898–1941 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999), pp. 1–3Google Scholar.
13 Ibid., pp. 196–9.
14 Ibid., pp. 59–60.
15 Huang Kaiwu had been almost totally forgotten when the author visited his village in 2014: few villagers, including his relatives, knew about his contributions. He received little scholarly attention until his remittance letters became publicly available in 2009.
16 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 6–13, 16, 19, 98–9, 132, 135; Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 70–71, 131, 136, 390, 407.
17 ‘Feilübin zhonghua bushanghui’ [菲律滨中华布商会 The Chinese Textile Merchants’ Association in the Philippines], in Feilübin Minlila zhonghua shanghui sanshi zhounian jiniankan [菲律宾岷里拉中华商会三十周年纪念刊]. The Philippine Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, 1904–1933, a book published in commemoration of its 30th anniversary), eds. Ning Ming 宁明 and Huang Xiaochan 黄晓沧 (Manila: Publication Dept of the Philippine Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, 1936), vol. 1, pp. 74–81.
18 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 168–9; Liu, Bozi 刘伯孳, ‘Cong kuaguo jingyan dao minzu zhuyi de kuayue: yi Huang Kaiwu de qiaopi qiaoxin weili’ 从跨国经验到民族主义的跨越：以黄开物的侨批、侨信为例 [From international experience to nationalism: A case study of the overseas remittances and letters of Huang Kaiwu], Minshang wenhua yanjiu 闽商文化研究 [Journal of Studies on Fujianese Entrepreneurs Culture] 1 (2011): 30, 35Google Scholar.
19 See for example, Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, p. 80; Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 145, 137.
20 Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 23–5.
21 Luo Fuhui 罗福惠 and Xiaoyi 萧怡, eds, Juzheng wenji 居正文集 [Collected works of Ju Zheng] (Wuhan: Huazhong shifan daxue chubanshe, 1989), p. 281; Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan jindaishi yanjiusuo and Zhonghua minguoshi yanjiushi, ed., Sun Zhongshan quanji 孙中山全集 [Complete works of Sun Yat-sen] (vol. 3) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984), pp. 431, 458; Li Zonghuang 李宗黄, Zhongguo guomindang shi 中国国民党史 [A history of the Chinese Nationalist Party], 5th edn (n.p., 1929), pp. 138–9.
22 The Hengmei Textile Firm was later dissolved, and a sum of money was recouped by the families of his older brothers. Later on, Huang Kaiwu established another textile business under his own name (Huang Jinbi, interview). He died in 1968 in the Philippines. I would like to thank Kua Bak Lim for the information on Huang Kaiwu's year of death.
23 Liu, ‘Cong kuaguo jingyan dao minzu zhuyi de kuayue’, p. 30. He made use of transnational couriers (shuike), such as Huang Zhengrun (a lineage nephew), Lin Dengcan, Pingqing, Lin Zhican, and returned relatives or fellow villagers such as his lineage brother, Huang Linbin, to connect with his home community.
24 Apart from his wife, elder brothers and other relatives, Huang communicated with a variety of persons, including his wife's natal family, various revolutionaries during the 1911 Revolution, friends, business partners, and fellow villagers in China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. See Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 2–3, 62–3, 96–7, 148–9, 176–7.
25 Researchers distinguish three classes of Chinese migrant letters based on the recipient; see Benton, Gregor and Liu, Hong, Dear China: Emigrant letters and remittances, 1820–1980 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018), p. 157CrossRefGoogle Scholar. But Lin's diverse and flexible thinking and behaviour make Huang's letters hard to classify.
26 Kua Bak Lim, ‘Preface’, in Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, p. 9.
27 See Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 14–15, 28–9; Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 290–91. Unfortunately, none of her return letters were available.
28 Letter-writing services for illiterate spouses were common in migrant hometowns, provided by individuals or institutes. Remittance agencies provided free letter writing services.
29 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 10, 12.
30 Benton and Liu, Dear China, p. 161.
31 Ibid., pp. 172–4, 168.
32 Ibid., p. 175.
33 Ibid., p. 168.
34 Benton and Liu (Dear China, p. 167) point out the limitations of some analyses that argue ‘Chinese qiaopi scholars focus mainly on the historical, economic, and institutional setting, from the letter's collection in Chinatown and conveyance to China along networks to its delivery in the village’.
35 See for example, Haiming Liu, The transnational history of a Chinese family: Immigrant letters, family business, and reverse migration (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006); Huifen Shen, ‘Letters from Southeast Asia: Links between Chinese overseas and left-behind family members across the South China Sea in the 1890s–1910s’, paper presented at the Conference on ‘The qiaopi trade in China and Overseas’, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 10 Oct. 2015; Huiying, Dong, ‘Warm tidings in a Cold War: Remittance letters and family ties in the Chinese diaspora, 1950s–1970s’, in Singapore's social & business history through paper ephemera in the Koh Seow Chuan Collection, ed. Keng We, Koh (Singapore: National Library Board, 2017), p. 86Google Scholar; Benton and Liu, Dear China, p. 4.
36 Bao, Jiemin, ‘The gendered biopolitics of marriage and immigration: A study of pre-1949 Chinese immigrants in Thailand’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 34, 1 (2003): 127Google Scholar. On daughters-in-law's experiences of such marriages, see Shen, China's left-behind wives.
37 Benton and Liu, Dear China, pp. 160–61, 172–4.
38 Bao, ‘The gendered biopolitics of marriage and immigration’, p. 151.
39 Szonyi, Michael, ‘Mothers, sons and lovers: Fidelity and frugality in the overseas Chinese divided family before 1949’, Journal of Chinese Overseas 1, 1 (2005): 43–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
40 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi; Editorial Committee, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol, 1, no. 1; Liu, ‘Cong kuaguo jingyan dao minzu zhuyi de kuayue’, pp. 31–4.
41 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, p. 32.
42 Ibid., p. 44.
43 Ibid., pp. 6, 8, 20, 28, 30–31, 34–5, 38.
44 See for example, ibid., pp. 8–9, 34–5.
45 Ibid., p. 36.
46 See for example, ibid., pp. 34–5.
47 Ibid., pp. 26–7.
48 Ibid., pp. 34–5.
49 Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1. no. 1, pp. 8–9.
50 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 10, 17, 21, 27, 50.
51 Ibid., pp. 30–35, 52–3.
52 Ibid., pp. 36, 43.
53 On the separation of family members, see Shen, China's left-behind wives, pp. 24–37. For American colonial restrictions on Chinese immigrants, see Wong, The Chinese in the Philippine economy 1898–1941, pp. 28–9.
54 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 30–31, 42–3, 126; Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 300–301; Huang Kaiwu's letter to his wife, 16 Sept. 1914 that was unpublished, provided by Mr Liu Bozi.
55 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 4, 10.
56 Ibid., p. 15.
57 Ibid., p. 26.
58 See ibid., p. 42.
59 Ibid., p. 53.
60 See Benton and Liu, Dear China, p. 161.
61 Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 320–21; Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 50–54. In 1921, Huang Kaiwu and his family temporarily returned home to handle the building of the Jinzhai Overseas Chinese Primary School, supported by fellow villagers in Manila, Cebu, Sulu, and elsewhere in the Philippines (Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 168–9). See also Huang Qinghai 黄清海, ‘Cong Lin Shuyan kan feihua xinhaigeming reqing’ 从林书晏侨批看菲华辛亥革命热情 [A discussion on the Philippine Chinese Overseas’ enthusiasm for the 1911 Revolution: From the qiaopi of Lin Shuyan], Yatai Jingji 亚太经济 [Economy of the Asia Pacific], supplementary issue (2011): 70–75; Liu, ‘Cong kuaguo jingyan dao minzu zhuyi de kuayue’, pp. 30, 35.
62 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 17, 8, 34.
63 The house was built in a traditional Chinese style and remains in the village. Huang Jinqin 黄锦清, Huang Kaiwu's grandson, lived there at the time of my visit to Jinzhai in 2014.
64 Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 290–91.
65 Shen, China's left-behind wives, pp. 114–15.
66 Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 11.
67 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, p. 6; Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 5–6, 11, 16. In most occasions, it was several silver yuan. But in his letter on 18 Dec. 1903, he remitted 50 silver yuan. It was probably meant to cover the natal family's expenses when Lin Xuanzhi lived there.
68 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, p. 8.
69 Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 52–3; Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, p. 10.
70 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 8–9. To keep up his reputation, he continued to stay on in Manila even when the business was making little profit, to avoid any unflattering rumours, such as that he returned home because the business was bad; or that he could not handle the business.
71 See for example, Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 282–3.
72 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, p. 19.
73 Ibid., p. 22.
74 Ibid., pp. 24–5.
75 Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 300–301.
76 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 34–5. For the translation of sangu liupo, available at http://www.iciba.com/三姑六婆 (accessed 20 June 2015). In Jinzhai village, sangu liupo were considered ‘bad women’ and left-behind women were not allowed to meet them at home even during the Ming dynasty when the Yuegang global trade flourished. Interview with Mr Huang Zizhao 黄子照, Jinzhai village, Jiaomei town, Longhai, Zhangzhou, Fujian, 23 Nov. 2014.
77 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 26–7.
78 Ibid., pp. 20–21.
79 See for example, ibid., pp. 12–13, 16, 30, 42–3, 46.
80 Benton and Liu, Dear China, p. 164.
81 Liu, The transnational history of a Chinese family, pp. 135–40.
82 See for example, Wang, Weizhong 王炜中, ‘Chuxi qiaopi qingjie’ 初析侨批情结 [A preliminary study on the emotional ties of remittances), in Shoujie qiaopi wenhua yantaohui lunwenji 首届侨批文化研讨会论文集 [Papers from the Inaugural Workshop on Remittance Culture], ed. Wang, Weizhong (Shantou: Chaoshan wenhua lishi yanjiu zhongxin, 2004), pp. 268–76Google Scholar; Xu Xiuying 许秀莹, ‘Qiaopi, weixi qiaojuan hunyin shenghuo de niudai’ 侨批, 维系侨眷婚姻生活的纽带 [Remittances: The ties that bind the marital lives of the Qiaojuan], in Wang Weizhong, Shoujie qiaopi wenhua yantaohui lunwenji, pp. 307–12; Dong, ‘Warm tidings in a Cold War’.
83 Liu Bozi 刘伯孳, ‘Lue shu minnan huaqiao dui xinhai geming de gongxian—yi Huang Kaiwu de qiaopi qiaoxin wei cankao’ 略述旅菲闽南华侨对辛亥革命的贡献—以黄开物的侨批侨信为参考 [A discussion on the contribution of Chinese Overseas from Southern Fujian to the Philippines to the 1911 Revolution—Qiaopi of Huang Kaiwu as Reference], in Zhongguo qiaoshi xuejie jinian xinhai geming 100 zhounian xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 中国侨史学界纪念辛亥革命 100 周年学术研讨会论文集 [Collected Papers of Conference on the Academic Circle of Chinese Overseas Studies’ Commemorative Activity on the 100th Anniversary of the 1911 Revolution], ed. Zhao Hongying 赵红英 and Zhang Chunwang 张春旺 (Beijing: Zhongguo Huaqiao chubanshe, 2011), pp. 188–93. Queues were the symbol of Manchu rule over the Chinese during the Qing dynasty. Cutting queues signified a breaking of ties with the Qing ruler and their revolt against the rule.
84 See Ko, Dorothy, Cinderella's sisters: A revisionist history of footbinding (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
85 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 14–15.
86 Ibid., pp. 24–7, 38–9, 50–53.
87 Ibid., p. 40.
88 Ibid., pp. 20–22.
89 Ibid., pp. 28–31.
90 See Shen, China's left-behind wives, pp. 110–11.
91 Huang Qinghai, Feihua Huang Kaiwu qiaopi, pp. 40–43.
92 Ibid., pp. 38–9.
93 Ibid., p. 40.
94 An earlier discussion on the topic can be found in Shen, China's left-behind wives. However, the study does not provide an exploration on the changing relationship between migrants and their left-behind wives in letter correspondence.
95 Editorial Committee of Minnan qiaopi daquan, Minnan qiaopi daquan, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 330.
96 Ta, Chen, Emigrant communities in South China: A study of overseas migration and its influence on standards of living and social change, English version, ed. Lasker, Bruno (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1940), p. 128Google Scholar.
97 Benton and Liu, Dear China, p. 147.
98 See further Shen, China's left-behind wives, pp. 102–4, 137.
99 See Benton and Liu, Dear China, p. 164.
100 See Bao, ‘The gendered biopolitics of marriage and immigration’, p. 148; Maria, Tam Siumi, ‘Engendering Minnan mobility: Women sojourners in a patriarchal world’, in Southern Fujian: Reproduction of traditions in post-Mao China, ed. Chee-Beng, Tan (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2006), p. 148Google Scholar; Shen, China's left-behind wives, pp. 87, 90; Shen Huifen 沈惠芬, ‘Goujian dongnan yanhai qiaoxiang nüxing shenghuoshi: qiaopi ziliao de jiazhi yu liyong’ 构建东南沿海侨乡女性生活史：侨批资料的价值与利用 [Constructing a life history of the left-behind women in qiaoxiang in southeastern China: A discussion on the value and use of remittance letters for the research of left-behind women], Fujian Luntan 福建论坛 [Fujian Tribune] 7 (2013): 109; Benton and Liu, Dear China, pp. 151–75.
101 Shen, ‘Goujian dongnan yanhai qiaoxiang nüxing shenghuoshi’, p. 108.