Dear China - by Gregor Benton & Hong Liu (Paperback)

About the Book

"Qiaopi is one of several names given to the 'silver letters' Chinese emigrants sent home in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These letters-cum-remittances document the changing history of the diaspora in different parts of the world and different periods, and its ties to China. The qiaopi trade played a big part in making China transnational. This book, the first in English on qiaopi and on the origins, structure, and operations of the qiaopi trade, makes an important contribution to our understanding of modern Chinese history and to the comparative study of global migration"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Qiaopi is one of several names given to the "silver letters" Chinese emigrants sent home in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These letters-cum-remittances document the changing history of the Chinese diaspora in different parts of the world and in different times.

Dear China is the first book-length study in English of qiaopi and of the origins, structure, and operations of the qiaopi trade. The authors explore the characteristics and transformations of qiaopi, showing how such institutionalized and cross-national mechanisms helped sustain families separated by distance and state frontiers and contributed to the sending regions' socioeconomic development. Dear China contributes substantially to our understanding of modern Chinese history and to the comparative study of global migration.

From the Back Cover

"Dear China is the first and only book of its kind in the English language, and its excellent evidence-based and source-driven scholarship will form the benchmark for all future English-language studies on the qiaopi trade."--Glen Peterson, author of Overseas Chinese in the People's Republic of China
"In Gregor Benton and Hong Liu's new volume, the materials and references alone will open up new venues for us to rethink and trace the routes, legal and illegal, of Chinese migration worldwide. Dear China is one of the most significant contributions in the field in twenty years."--Jing Tsu, author of Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora

Review Quotes

"This fascinating volume by Benton and Liu proposes many noteworthy arguments for Southeast Asian history research because it pays heed to overseas Chinese society as one of the key factors in the region's historical changes."-- "Southeast Asian Studies"

"No matter what a reader of Dear China might think they know at the beginning, by the end of their perusal of this intensively researched and wide-ranging work they will know and appreciate a great deal more."-- "Journal of Chinese Overseas"

"A pertinent contribution to extant scholarship on the history of Chinese migration and diasporic ties between 1820 and 1980. . . . Students of oral history, social memory, in addition to migration researchers, will find this book an intelligible and informative read."-- "International Migration Review"

"Makes substantial and significant contributions to our ongoing struggles to attain better understanding of migration as a most human, yet greatly disruptive, element of our global society and economy."-- "Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review"

About the Author

Gregor Benton is Emeritus Professor at Cardiff University. His books include Mountain Fires: The Red Army's Three-Year War in South China and The Qiaopi Trade and Transnational Networks in the Chinese Diaspora (coedited with Hong Liu and Huimei Zhang).

Hong Liu is Tan Kah Kee Endowed Professor of Asian Studies and Chair of School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His publications include China and the Shaping of Indonesia, 1949-1965 and Singapore Chinese Society in Transition.