The Ethnic Chinese and Economic Development in Vietnam 9813016663, 9813016671, 9789814379243

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THE ETHNIC CHINESE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM

The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional research centre for scholars and other specialists concerned with modern Southeast Asia, particularly the many-faceted problems of stability and security, economic development, and political and social change. The Institute is governed by a twenty-two-member Board ofTrustees comprising nominees from the Singapore Government, the National University of Singapore, the various Chambers of Commerce, and professional and civic organizations. A tenman Executive Committee oversees day-to-day operations; it is chaired by the Director, the Institute's chief academic and administrative officer. The Indochina Unit (IU) of the Institute was formed in late 1991 to meet the increasing need for information and scholastic assessment on the fast-changing situation in Indochina in general and in Vietnam in particular. Research in the Unit is development-based, with a focus on contemporary issues of political economy. This is done by resident and visiting fellows of various nationalities. To understand the Vietnamese perspective better, the Unit also has a regular programme whereby scholars from Vietnam are invited to do research on issues of topical interest.

THE ETHNIC CHINESE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM TRANKHANH Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Hanoi

Indochina Unit INSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES

Cover Photograph: Street scene ofHang Buom, Hanoi, 1993, by courtesy of Russell Heng

Published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang Singapore 0511 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. © 1993 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data Tran Khanh. The ethnic Chinese and economic development in Vietnam. 1. Chinese—Vietnam—Economic conditions. 2. Vietnam—Economic conditions. I. Title. DS556.45 C5T77 1993 sls93-51703 ISBN 981-3016-66-3 (hard cover) ISBN 981-3016-67-1 (soft cover) The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the Institute or its supporters.

Typeset by International Typesetters Printed in Singapore by Scapa Pte. Ltd.

Dedicated to the memory of Professor K.S. Sandhu Director of ISEAS, 1972-1992

List of tables

ix

Acknowledgements

xi

Introduction

1

1. Formation and evolution of the ethnic Chinese community in Vietnam 2. The position of the Chinese in key economic sectors of South Vietnam before 1975

11 39

3. National reunification and the position of the Chinese in the southern economy 4. Summary and conclusions

103

Select bibliography Index The author

111 125 127

.List of tables

1. Number of Chinese and their geographical distribution in Vietnam before 1955 2. Number of Chinese in key cities of Vietnam and their percentage in the total Chinese population 3. Geographical distribution of the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam in the 1980s 4. Distribution of the Chinese in South Vietnam, by speech group 5. Socio-economic classification of the Chinese in SaigonCholon before 1975 6. Chinese capital investment in South Vietnam, 1974 7. Total direct capital investment in South Vietnam, by nationality 8. French and Chinese capital in Vietnam, 1906 9. Number of commercial enterprises in Vietnam, by territory, nationality, and size, 1952 10. Distribution of trade enterprises of different sizes among ethnic groups in Cochinchina, 1952

24 25 26 31 33 43 45 46 50 52

X

List of tables

11. Distribution of Chinese trade enterprises in various territories and according to business size, 1951 12. Proportion of Chinese enterprises of total South Vietnamese enterprises, 1956-57 13. Number of business enterprises owned by the ethnic Chinese in Saigon-Cholon's nine districts, 1971 14. Ethnic Chinese involvement in South Vietnam's services industry, 1958 15. Number of banks operating in South Vietnam, 31 December 1972 16. Number and types of Chinese food-processing businesses in Saigon-Cholon, 1953 and 1955 17. Ethnic origins of entrepreneurs and the success of their firms 18. Participation in domestic trade and services of the private and state sectors during the 1980s 19. Small-scale industrial production and handicraft of the Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City, 1984-85 20. Chinese small-scale industries and handicraft enterprises in the non-state sector in Ho Chi Minh City, 1985 21. Dynamic changes of Chinese small-scale industrial enterprises in the non-state sector in district 11 of Ho Chi Minh City, 1985-90 22. Number of Chinese households having relatives abroad 23. Number of Chinese households in ward 17 of district 6 of Ho Chi Minh City having relatives abroad

54 55 56 60 62 66 74 89 92 93

94 98 99

I ed g emeirte

This monograph is the outcome of my study in the past twenty years, encompassing my student days in Vietnam, China, and the erstwhile Soviet Union. To some extent, especially with regard to the economic position of the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam before and after 1975, this study draws on an unpublished dissertation, "Principal tendencies of the socio-economic and ethno-political development of the Chinese community in Vietnam (from the second half of the nineteenth century to 1954 in die North and to 1975 in the South)", which was defended by me in 1987, and my book, The Role of the Ethnic Chinese in the Economies of the Southeast Asian Countries, published in Vietnam in 1992, as well as other published and unpublished scholarly works. I would like to thank the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, for Research Fellowships to complete this monograph. I am grateful to the late Professor K.S. Sandhu, Director of ISEAS; Dr Ananda Rajah, then Co-ordinator of the Social Issues in Southeast Asia (SISEA) programme; and Mr Russell Heng Hiang Khng, Joint Co-ordinator of the Indochina Unit (IU), for valuable comments on my manuscript and the

xii

.Acknowledgements

interest they have taken in this study. My thanks also go to members of ISEAS staff who have given me encouragement and support. Their willingness to help has been indispensable even though tJieir names cannot all be mentioned here. I wish to thank them all. All that I can offer in return is this volume. Tran Khanh Singapore, May 1993

Close to twenty years have passed since South Vietnam was liberated in 1975. The economy of a re-unified Vietnam, however, is still poverty-ridden. One of the reasons for this is the lack of effectiveness in the use of private domestic resources, particularly that of the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam. Before 1975, Chinese capital, entrepreneurship, and skilled manpower in South Vietnam played an important role in the development of domestic markets and international trade. After 1975, however, Chinese participation in the Vietnamese economy underwent a decline brought about by the socialist transformation of the South and an exodus of capital. However, the residual economic potential of the Chinese who have remained in Vietnam is still considerable. Under doi moi, which is the programme of economic and political reforms in Vietnam, there is evidence that the Chinese are once again contributing significantly to the expansion of internal markets and capital accumulation for small-scale industrial development. Accordingly, the role which die Chinese have played in the past and are beginning to play again seems eminently worthy of study. From a more pragmatic point of view, it is also pos-

sible that a better appreciation of the role of the Chinese in the Vietnamese economy both historically and in the immediate future may well be of some value, if not indeed essential, to economic development. In addition to this, there are other related issues which continue to be of academic interest, for example, the study of ethnic relations and the interaction of the Chinese and Vietnamese in more recent times. The role of the Chinese in Vietnam's economy has been the subject of study by many Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese scholars, and it would be impossible to review all the relevant literature here. However, a brief summary will provide an understanding of the subject and issues that require further investigation. Vietnamese audiors began writing on the Overseas Chinese in the 1920s. Prominent among them at the time was Dao Trinh Nhat. His book, The Luc khach tru va van de di dan vao Nam Ky [The position of the Overseas Chinese and problems of emigration into Nam Ky] (Nam Ky being the southern part of Vietnam), was published in Hanoi in 1924. In it, he presents much valuable data on the economic activities of the ethnic Chinese and compares the economic role of Chinese entrepreneurs and businesses with that of the French and Vietnamese in the early decades of the twentieth century. In this study, he also examines aspects of traditional social and economic organizations of the Chinese in the context of the development of capitalism in Vietnam. Dao Trinh Nhat, however, remained a narrowminded nationalist and his work was controversial because, amongst other things, it featured in debates on ethnic issues and contributed to tension between the Vietnamese and the Chinese. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Vietnamese scholars paid more attention to the study of the role of the Chinese in the Vietnamese economy, especially in the South under the regime in Saigon. They included Tran Van Dinh (1961), Tan Viet Dieu (1961), Khuong Huu Dieu and Quoc An (1970), Hoang Truong Tan (1972), and Nguyen Van Sang (1974), among others. Tran Van Dinh was a prolific writer who wrote many articles on Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia in general, and in Vietnam in particular, most of which appeared in the periodical The Native Land in the early 1960s. One of his more noteworthy articles (Tran Van Dinh 1961) analyses the policies of the government of the Republic of Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem towards the Chinese. In the early 1970s, Khuong Huu Dieu and Quoc An (1970) wrote several articles (among others) that focused on the commercial activities of the Chinese, and analysed the factors that contrib-

uted to their greater success in business undertakings compared with the efforts of the local Vietnamese. The articles are important for the detailed data and documentation on the activities of the Chinese in various economic sectors, especially in trade and transport. Also noteworthy is the MA dissertation of Nguyen Van Sang, "Nguoi Viet goc Hoa va kinh te Viet nam" [Vietnamese of Chinese origin and Vietnam's economy] (1974). The thesis is valuable for detailed accounts of the economic activities of the Chinese in key sectors of South Vietnam's economy during the 1960s. However, it fails to recognize that the local Chinese bourgeoisie was part of the Vietnamese bourgeoisie and, accordingly, that ethnic Chinese resources could be viewed as an important component of domestic economic resources. Another shortcoming of the study was the relative lack of attention paid to the qualitative and quantitative changes in the nature of Chinese capital, entrepreneurship, and skilled labour in the context of the development of local technology and competition in domestic markets. Apart from studies which focused specifically on the Chinese, there exist many general studies of the Vietnamese economy and related socioeconomic issues which touch on the role of the Chinese. They include the works of Nguyen Huy (1972), Le Khoa (I960), Son Nam (1984), Nguyen Van Ngon (1972), and Phan Huy Le (1963). Nguyen Huy's work, Hien tinh kinh te Viet Nam [The economic situation in Vietnam], in two volumes, is particularly interesting because it deals with the position of the Chinese within the total economic situation of the Republic of Vietnam over two decades, namely the 1950s and 1960s. After 1975, when the Chinese community became a "problem" in the socio-economic and political life of Vietnam, a number of studies focusing on this issue were conducted by Hoang Kim (1978), Le Van Khue (1979), Nguyen Xuan Luong (1978), and most recently Chau Hai (1990^ 1990£), among others. Most of these authors, however, tended to concentrate primarily on the history of Chinese migration and on how the Chinese had come to terms — or had failed to do so — with the policies of the government of a unified Vietnam. However, these studies pay little attention to the ethnic relations between the ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese and the more recent works also fail to acknowledge the considerable changes in the socioeconomic conditions of the Chinese community in the past few years. More recently, reference materials and a variety of articles on the Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, have appeared. Prominent among them are "Nguoi Hoa thanh pho Ho Chi Minh trong chang

4

.17 intro

duong dau tien xay dung xa hoi chu nghia va nhung van de dat ra" [The Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City during the first period of transition to socialism] by Nghi Doan, Huynh Nghi, and Phan An (1989); Nguoi Hoa Quan 6thanbpho Ho Chi Minh [The Chinese in district 6 of Ho Chi Minh City] by Phan An et al. (1990); and "Phat huy tiem nang cua nguoi Hoa trong chien luoc phat trien kinh te-xa hoi cua thanh pho Ho Chi Minh 19912000" [To utilize ethnic Chinese resources in the strategy for the socioeconomic development of Ho Chi Minh City in 1991-2000] by the Mobilization Unit on the Hoa in Ho Chi Minh City (1992). The value of these works lies in the fact that they provide some statistics and details on the economic activities of the Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City after 1975. In general, however, recent Vietnamese scholarship has not paid adequate attention to the role of the ethnic Chinese in the national economy after 1975. It needs to be recognized that approaches in the social sciences in Vietnam after 1975 diverge from those in non-socialist countries as a result of which research in Vietnam has more often than not overlooked socioeconomic realities pertaining to the subject of the Chinese in Vietnam. Further, where policy-relevant implications are concerned, it appears that they have not been concerned with arriving at practical solutions nor have they sufficiently addressed issues in ethnic adaptation or integration. The Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia have captured the interest of Western scholars and otiier Asian scholars trained in the West for the last forty years. There is a considerable number of studies on the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and it would be impossible to undertake a critical evaluation of them here. However, mention must be made of a number of seminal works, for example, that of Purcell (1980), which was first published in 1951, Skinner (1950), Williams (1966), Amyot (1972), and Wang (1981, 1991). Although many of these works are not specifically concerned with the Chinese in Vietnam, nevertheless from the point of view of Vietnamese scholarship, they are of interest because they stand as examples of how the Chinese in the region may be studied from a variety of perspectives in the social sciences in non-socialist countries. The monumental work by Purcell is worth noting because, apart from being the first Western scholar to make a major contribution to the study of die Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, he also dealt with the Chinese in Vietnam. Parts 1 and 4 of his work, for example, contain important data on tiie Chinese in Vietnam, their economic activities before the 1960s, as well as a respectable treatment of the history of the formation of the community. Among more recent works on

the Overseas Chinese in the region, the work of Wu and Wu (1980) also deserves a mention, from the perspective of Vietnamese scholarship, because of its methodology, holistic analysis which treats the ethnic Chinese within a framework of total relations, and valuable statistical data on the economic situation of the Chinese in South Vietnam before 1975. In addition to these studies and other surveys which look at the Chinese in Southeast Asia, there are several studies that focus on the Chinese in Vietnam by Western scholars as well as Vietnamese scholars trained in the West. They include, to name a few, the dissertation "The Chinese in Vietnam: A Study of Vietnamese-Chinese Relations, with Special Attention to the Period 1862-1961" by Luong Nhi Ky (1963), the dissertation by Barton (1977), the dissertation on "Vietnamese Communist Policy toward the Overseas Chinese, 1920-1982" by Stern (1984), The Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam andSino-Vietnamese Relations, by Amer (1991), as well as articles by scholars such as Ungar (1985, 1987-88) and Barton (1983). Of the studies on the Chinese in Vietnam before 1975 conducted outside Vietnam, perhaps the most useful is Le Chinois au Sud- Vietnam by Tsai Maw Kuey (1968). The second part of this work, for instance, describes in considerable detail the economic activities of the Chinese in South Vietnam up to the mid-1960s. The value of the work lies in the descriptive and statistical data that it provides on the occupational structure and the overall economic position of the Chinese community in the country. Nevertheless, the study is not without some shortcomings. Its analytical framework seems inadequate and the author fails to consider the directions of development of the Chinese business community in the context of increasing competition and accommodations within the larger Vietnamese society. Still, the work is the first monograph to focus specifically on the Chinese in Vietnam and is a worthy contribution by a scholar trained in the West. Former Soviet social scientists have also paid a great deal of attention to the study of the Chinese in Vietnam. The first of such Soviet studies was a general study of the Chinese in Southeast Asia covering Vietnam as well: Naselenie kitaiskoi nasionalnosti v stranac IUge- Vostochnoi Asia [Population of Chinese nationals in Southeast Asian countries] by Simoniya (1959). The main part of this work reports on the economic activities of Overseas Chinese in the 1940s and 1950s. Essentially descriptive, this study nevertheless left a number of areas unexplored. It does not, for example, deal with the economic position of the Chinese in relation to the pressures which they came under during the latter half of the 1950s from the Ngo Dinh Diem

government, and the implications for South Vietnam's economy. Nevertheless, the study raises a number of questions regarding die Overseas Chinese, from the perspective of Soviet scholarship in the social sciences dominant at die time, which were subsequently taken up by other Soviet scholars from the 1960s to the 1980s. Anodier work which focuses on the process of the formation of Chinese capital in Southeast Asia, which also touches on Vietnam, is Zarubejnaia kitaiskaia Bourgeoisia-orujie Peking v Iugo- Vostochnoi

Asia [Overseas Chinese bourgeoisie — instrument of Beijing in Southeast Asia] by Andreev (1973). The importance of this monograph lies in its attempt to develop a tlieory of the process of the formation and evolution of Chinese capital, entrepreneurship, and skilled labour, resting on the assumption that there was an instrumental relationship between China and the Overseas Chinese bourgeoisie, and between the Overseas Chinese and former and Western capitalists. The work ignores, however, the role of Overseas Chinese capitalists in the development of domestic markets and of regional economic ties in Southeast Asia. A more recent compilation worth mentioning is Kitaiskie Ethnicheskiegrupi v stranac Iugo-Vostochnoi Asia [Eth-

nic Chinese groups in Southeast Asian countries] (1986). This compilation gives outlines of the culture, and socio-economic and political life of the Overseas Chinese in the region. The fourth chapter of the book is of particular interest because it focuses on the economic activities of Chinese entrepreneurs and their relations with the larger societies in which they are found in the region during the post-independence period in Southeast Asia. However, this work deals only with the Chinese in the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Apart from books and monographs, there are numerous articles by Soviet scholars focusing on different aspects of the Chinese community in Vietnam. They include, to name a few, the works of Kotova (1978, 1979), Borisova and Kotova (1981), Vanin (1981), among others. Many of these works, however, have a propagandistic character and their empirical content leaves much to be desired. A survey of the literature on the role of the Chinese in Vietnam's economy indicates that between 1964 and 1975, the Chinese community in South Vietnam flourished and prospered. Furthermore, during this period the Chinese community underwent important changes, both qualitatively and quantitatively: Chinese businesses, for instance, grew and became more diversified, as reflected in the growth of Chinese-owned capital and in terms of the occupational structure of the community. After 1975, however,

J^f roducHon

7

political changes in the South following the fall of Saigon resulted in a change in the fortunes of the ethnic Chinese and the part that they played in the economy of a unified Vietnam. The situation of the Chinese in Vietnam after 1975 and the economic ups and downs which they faced have been little researched. Nevertheless, the Chinese community has undoubtedly experienced considerable changes as a result of the political and economic changes that have taken place in Vietnam since 1975. There are no readily available Vietnamese documents, reference books, and research papers in libraries or even specific research centres inside and outside the country covering this period in any great detail, although this is, to some extent, now slowly changing with new governmental policies on access to hitherto restricted official sources of information. Where information exists, the data are not always comparable in the post-1975 period, and comparisons with data from the pre-1975 period are even more problematic because of gaps in the data, different methods of data gathering, and so on. Despite such difficulties, a study of the economic position of the Chinese in Vietnam especially after 1975 is much needed, precisely because so little is known about it. The topic is large and complex, and it would not be possible, in a single study, to deal with all aspects of the Chinese in Vietnam after 1975. Thus, the present study attempts to focus specifically on changing patterns of Chinese involvement in the economy of Vietnam as well as the impact of changes in the overall Vietnamese economy on the Chinese business system in the country. In dealing with this in the post-1975 period, it is necessary, however, to review the situation of the Chinese before 1975 so that the changes experienced by the Chinese in more recent times may be better understood. Within this framework, the study concentrates on the factors and social processes involved in the formation and evolution of the Chinese community in Vietnam and their influence on the economic development of this country in pre- and post-liberation Vietnam. It is hoped that it will also be possible to conclude the study with a reflective consideration of the economic capacities and prospects of the Chinese in the context of the recently instituted open-door policies of Vietnam and expected continuing economic reforms. The sources used in this study are mainly primary Vietnamese ones, although other sources (both primary and secondary) in English and Russian are also drawn upon. Some of these are translated works from other

languages. Some of these sources have already been noted above. To some extent, especially with regard to the economic position of the Chinese in pre1975 Vietnam, this study draws on an unpublished dissertation, "Osnovnue Tendensi Sosiano-Ekonomicheskie I Ethnopoliticheskie Razvitia Kitaiskoi obsinu vo Vietname (s vtoroi polaviniu XIX veka-1954 vo severe I — 1975 IUge)" [Principal tendencies of the socio-economic and ethno-political development of the Chinese community in Vietnam (from second half of the 19th century to 1954 in the North and to 1975 in the South)] by Tran Khanh (1987), tlie writer of this monograph. It is also based on a published book, Vai tro nguoi Hoa trong nen kinh te cac nuoc Dong Nam A [The role of the ethnic Chinese in the economies of Southeast Asian countries] by Tran Khanh (1992^), as well as other published and unpublished scholarly works. For developments after 1975, it draws on, amongst other sources (some of which have been mentioned), unpublished Party and government material, especially documents of the National Central Committee in Hanoi and local committees in Ho Chi Minh City on the Mobilization of the Overseas Chinese in Vietnam, and materials of the Committee for the Re-Education of the Southern Bourgeoisie. Apart from such sources, statistical yearbooks, various reports on the development of small-scale industries and trade in the private sector in Ho Chi Minh City, diplomatic materials, and historical documents in Vietnam are also consulted. In a work like this by a Vietnamese scholar on the subject of the ethnic Chinese minority in his country, questions are bound to be raised about objectivity. In as far as it is possible, the writer has presented the two major sides to this issue: the means by which the ethnic Chinese community has come to own a disproportionately large share of the national economy and how political authority in Vietnam has sought to manage this phenomenon, not always wisely, rightly, or effectively. It is possible for critics and other scholars to point out that the content of this monograph neglects this or that perspective extant in the vast corpus of work on the subject of the economic role of the Overseas Chinese in the region. Given the limitation of time and space, a certain amount of simplification is to be expected in a work like this. Above all else, it should be recognized that this is a Vietnamese perspective of the topic, and as with the research of scholars of any nationality or ethnic group, the perspective comes coloured by history, both ancient and recent, by present circumstances, and by personal experience. In that sense, every piece of work has its bias and this monograph claims no exception. The terms "ethnic Chinese", "local Chinese", "Chinese community", and

Jn+roduction

9

sometimes just "Chinese" are used frequently throughout this work. They refer to a person or a group who are of Chinese racial origin or who identify themselves as being of Chinese edinicity but who live permanently in Vietnam, regardless of their citizenship and level of integration into Vietnamese society. However, at points where it is necessary to clarify citizenship status or to differentiate between the Chinese in Vietnam and those elsewhere, this distinction is made clear in the context in which it is used. It is hoped that this monograph can contribute to an understanding of issues in "ethnicity and development", with particular reference to the role of the Chinese in Vietnam's economy, from die perspective of recent developments in Vietnamese social science scholarship. The changing conditions in Vietnam with die emphasis on "renovation" and open-door policies, and the social, economic, and political dynamics in Southeast Asia and beyond — in which various communities, whether they are "nation-states" or "nationalities" including the etlinic Chinese, are playing a part — suggest that a study of this kind may be of scholarly interest both in Vietnam and beyond.

and evolution o-f- the e+knic OX\\nase, community in Vie+na^n

Like most countries in Southeast Asia, the situation of the ethnic Chinese community in Vietnam has been a sensitive issue raising complex questions about ethnic relations, national policy on minorities and citizenship, economic domination of the local economy, and larger strategic interests. Certainly, in recent years, there were times when Vietnam's critical relations with its giant neighbour, China, got entangled with the question of the Hoa (Chinese) community in Vietnam. But present-day considerations are actually rooted in a much larger reality conditioned by both geography and history. Geographical proximity has meant a very early and long engagement with China. It had meant Chinese colonization and with that the inevitable influx of Chinese population and cultural influence. Even after the Vietnamese statehood was established permanently, there were at various times waves of Chinese migrants and periodic invasions from this huge northern neighbour. In the course of this long history, a Chinese community has emerged as a relatively permanent fixture in Vietnamese society. What makes the Chinese community distinct goes beyond numbers. It is also where they have settled, what trades they have chosen, and how they have been responding to the shifting socio-political realities of a new land. This first chapter looks at such historical trends.

1. Chinese immigration and economic activities in Vietnam before the colonial period a. Stages of Chinese immigration

Being contiguous with China, with routes of communication both by land and by sea well developed for more than two millennia, Vietnam was the first country in Southeast Asia to receive large numbers of Chinese immigrants. These people were drawn to Vietnam for several reasons:1 1. Harsh natural conditions with disasters such as famine and epidemics forced the Chinese to look for a more favourable environment. Vietnam was also a favoured place for settlement because its way of life was not too different from that of China, thus making it easier for the Chinese migrants to adapt. 2. Earning a living and doing business was easier in Vietnam because of Chinas stiff taxes and restrictive policies on business activities. The natives were also not much of a competition for them, and the migrants' easy success in making a livelihood attracted more and more migrants. Once trading communities were established in Vietnam and business links were established, for instance with the coastal areas of southeastern China, Chi-

14

Ckap+er 1

nese migrants found it very convenient to plug into the network; moving to Vietnam thus did not bring too disruptive a change to their lives. 3. Periodically, political disturbances in China also prompted many to seek refuge in Vietnam. Many successful Chinese merchants as well as disenchanted Chinese envoys and officials voluntarily chose to remain permanently in Vietnam after each political upheaval in China. 4. China's many military adventures into Vietnam also increased the size of the Chinese community For example, there were military officers and soldiers captured as prisoners of wars who requested permission to resettle in Vietnam instead of returning to their native land. 5. The economic policies introduced by Vietnam's Nguyen dynasty (AD 1802— 1945) were aimed at attracting and utilizing Chinese merchants and artisans to help expand commerce and develop Vietnamese handicraft. Chinese contacts with the Indochina peninsula began in 1110 BC during the sixth year of the reign of King Cheng, the second ruler of the Zhou dynasty.2 During the third century BC the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (221-225 BC), Shih Huang Ti conquered the area that is North Vietnam today. Thus began the long period of Chinese colonization and it also resulted in the first massive migration of Chinese into Vietnam. In 214 BC nearly half a million Chinese troops and fugitives were resettled in die northern part of Vietnam.3 After the crushing of the Vietnamese uprising by the two Trung sisters (popularly referred to in Vietnam as Hai Ba Trung), the Western Han dynasty (140-87 BC), which ruled China at that time sent peasants and soldiers to resettle on land further to the south, where the Chinese prefectures of Giao Chi, Cuu Chan, and Nhat Nam were located. Among these migrants were Chinese scholars and government officials.4 Throughout the period of Chinese colonization, which spanned ten centuries, Vietnam was to become one of the biggest receiving countries of Chinese migrants. Historical documents stated that Vietnam, after having regained independence from China in the tenth century AD, returned 87,000 Chinese nationals to China. A large number of other Chinese requested permanent resettlement in Vietnam and were granted permission to do so by the Vietnamese state. A large proportion of this group were registered into the Vietnamese head-tax book and were treated as Vietnamese.5 From the tenth century on, when successive wars of aggression were waged against Vietnam by the Song (tenth and eleventh centuries), the Yuan (thirteenth century), the Ming (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), and the

T~orw\c\V\on and evolution of tk^ etknic (Z-v\\nese community

15

Qing (eighteenth century), new waves of Chinese immigration took place. In AD 1279, for example, when the Song dynasty was about to be toppled by the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty, many civilian and military officials of the Chinese court fled to Vietnam with their families, relatives, and dependents. The Vietnamese Tran dynasty (AD 1226-400) allowed them to settle permanently in Vietnam.6 Then there was the Ming occupation (AD 1407-27) and in the war of liberation against the Chinese court, large numbers of Chinese soldiers were captured and they chose to remain in Vietnam. They were placed under strict supervision, however, and were not allowed to change residence within Vietnamese territory. From that time on, the Dai Viet government (Great Vietnam, then the name of Vietnam) started to enforce an assimilation policy which went as far as making die Chinese adopt the Vietnamese way of dressing.7 The next influx came after the Ming dynasty in China was usurped by the Manchus, who set up the Qing dynasty in AD 1644. According to the Dai Nam Chronicle, in AD 1679, about 3,000 Chinese officers, soldiers, and their families landed at Thuan An (today's Thua Thien province near Hue) in central Vietnam and proceeded to ask the Vietnamese court at Hue for land to farm in return for which they would pay tax. The court was receptive and gave them land on what is today known as Dong Nai in newly acquired territory to the south, popularly known in Vietnamese as Nam Ky or Nam Bo. The Dong Nai plain was then called Dong Pho and historical records show that by the end of the seventeenth century, Chinese merchants and artisans had cleared land and founded villages in this area, currently the districts of Binh Thach, Phu Nhuan, and Bien Hoa on the fringe of Ho Chi Minh City. These were known as Minh Huong villages, a term referring to descendants of Ming loyalists. More Chinese migrants were attracted to these villages by the bustling atmosphere and thriving business climate. They also attracted merchants from Japan, the Arabic countries, India, and even as far as Europe.8 Another influx of Chinese refugees came at the end of the seventeenth century and they settled in what was then Cambodian territory in the southern tip of present-day Vietnam. Most significant among them were 400 military officers and soldiers led by Mac Cuu (Mo Jiu), who was given suzerainty in AD 1708 over the territory known as Ha Tien, in return for which Mac Cuu had to pay homage to the Vietnamese court at Hue. The

16

Nguyen lords who then controlled the southern half of the country in the name of the Le dynasty appointed Mac Cuu as Lord of Ha Tien despite protests from Cambodia.9 Mac Cuu's men settled in both Vietnamese and Cambodian territory. After his death in AD 1735, his son Mac Tien Tri continued to be recognized by the Nguyen lords as Lord of Ha Tien. Mac Tien Tri opened markets as well as encouraged the development of commerce and handicraft. He also founded schools to teach the Chinese language. Ha Tien thus gradually became a commercial port and a centre for the diffusion of Chinese culture into South Vietnam in the eighteenth century.10 Thus by the end of the seventeenth century, Chinese settlements concentrated in Nam Ky (south). Prior to this, Chinese migration was a gradual process and the migrants would tend to assimilate over the years. It was only from this time that there was a critical mass of Chinese migrants, which together with steady inflows from China thereafter, hastened the formation of a distinct and relatively permanent Chinese community within Vietnamese society. Small Chinatowns sprouted in or close to almost every big city and major trading centre. The settlement patterns of the Chinese were also becoming more complex as the increasing numbers allowed them to congregate according to dialect groups or kinship or even the causes which led to their leaving China. Their growing economic sophistication also meant the creation of institutions to regulate business activities and some of these were in turn meshed with traditional Chinese allegiance according to kinship or birthplace. For instance, there existed in Vietnam's Chinese population, the bang, which are communities based on dialect groups, clans, and secret societies. There were also respective Chambers of Commerce to regulate business practices. It would be useful to know the proportion of the Chinese community within the larger Vietnamese population during that time, but unfortunately no definitive statistics are available as no census was ever conducted before the colonial period. Nevertheless, a number of publications estimated the Chinese population in Vietnam in the first half of the nineteenth century to be in the tens of thousands or less than 100,000. In Tonkin (the French term for the northern part of Vietnam), there was said to be about 20,000— 30,000 Chinese, the majority of whom worked in the mines." b. Chinese business activities and the attitude of the Vietnamese dynasties towards them

When Vietnam became independent of its Chinese colonial masters in

T-o^mafion and evolution of \v\e- etKnic {Skinese community

17

AD 938 and power was consolidated by the Ly dynasty (AD 1009-225), the issue of the ethnic Chinese as a resident community of foreign nationals and how they are to be treated arose. Thus began a form of assimilation policy. During the reign of the Ly's and the the subsequent Tran dynasty (AD 1226400), the use of ethnic Chinese scholars and officials in leading administrative position was advocated. But this applied to only those Chinese who had chosen to settle permanently in Vietnam. Those who retained their migrant status could not even travel without permission from the local authorities.12 During the Later Le dynasty (AD 1428-592) and under the rule of the Trinh lords in the north up till AD 1788, assimilation and surveillance of the Chinese community intensified. The Chinese had to abide by Vietnamese laws, conform with Vietnamese customs and traditions, even to the extent of dressing the Vietnamese way.13 Chinese immigrants were not free to travel within Dai Viet (Great Viet, the name of the country then), particularly in the vicinity of Thang Long, the country's capital. The more stringent Vietnamese attitude towards the Chinese community was because the Le's reign came as a result of having defeated the occupied force of China's Ming dynasty. The Chinese army had earlier entered Vietnam on the pretext of helping the then Tran emperor to quell a rebellion. They stayed on for twenty years (AD 1407-27). This was how assimilation gradually proceeded over the centuries. However, as mentioned above, new waves of migrants in the later part of the seventeenth century strengthened the identity of the Chinese community. It was not just a question of numbers. A new factor had also emerged to raise the socio-economic status of the Chinese. That was the growing importance of international commerce as more Western powers started to make their appearances in this part of the world in the seventeenth century. To understand the extent of Chinese participation in this important trade, let us look at some of these trading centres. As mentioned earlier, small Chinatowns started to emerge in almost every main city and in various important economic centres in Vietnam around this time. Examples would include Pho Hien, Hoi An (then known by foreigners as Faifo), Phien Tran (today's Gia Dinh), Tran Bien (today's Bien Hoa), Cholon, and Ha Tien. Pho Hien, located in the centre of the Red River plain in the north, came into being in the thirteenth century. Due to the thriving business in the beginning of the seventeenth century, more Chinese, Japanese, and Europeans were attracted to this town. The Dutch East India Company sent a trade representative there in AD 1637. The English

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Chapter 1

East India Company also established an office there in AD 1672. Unlike the European and the Japanese, Chinese merchants not only traded, but also participated in the production of black incense, alum sugar, sedge mat, Chinese medicinal herbs. The old town of Hoi An, 26 km. north of Danang, was reputedly the most busy trading port of Vietnam from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Its rise was mainly owing to foreign merchants, especially Chinese and Japanese, who controlled the external trade since native Vietnamese were not active in the seafaring business. European traders who called at this port in the seventeenth century related that Hoi An town had two special quarters: one Chinese and other Japanese, with each ruled by a Vietnamese governor. According to Le Qui Don, a renowned historian of that time, commerce and handicraft were the two main livelihoods of Hoi An's Chinese residents. They bought brass utensils transported there by European vessels and resold them in their own quarters.14 The seven-month long trading season began approximately with each new year and the natives would bring their products here for sale, things such as raw and processed silk, various kinds of wood and spices, and rice. Vessels from China arrived loaded with porcelain, paper, tea, silver bars, arms, sulphur, saltpeter, lead, and lead oxide. According to another source of history, the amount of gold extracted in South Vietnam was mainly for export. Chinese merchants from Hoi An bought over this volume to export. Gold, which was reserved entirely for export, was monopolized by the Chinese merchants of the town.15 Historic documents stated that by the eighteenth century (AD 1714), Chinese merchants of Hoi An established the Sea Trading Association. This was probably the first instance of institution-building by the Chinese migrants.16 There were in AD 1768 nearly 6,000 Chinese, most of whom were engaged in trading.17 Chinese-dominated trading centres have their ups and downs, a result of political changes within Vietnam and the Chinese community's relationship with the ruling powers of the time. This relationship and the status of the community was sometimes a function of state-to-state relations between China and Vietnam. Cholon, which is today still famous as a hub of Chinese economic activities, was one such example. It began as a small settlement of villages 5 km. from Saigon, born of theTay Son rebellion, which began in the early 1760s and ended with its leaders taking over the whole country in AD 1788. In order to escape the ravages of theTay Son uprising, in AD 1778 a group of Chinese moved from their settlement in Tran Bien (today's Bien Hoa), northeast of Saigon, to a place that came to be known

T~o\*w\c\\\ov\ ana evolution of the ethnic (Shinese community

as Cholon (todays districts 5 and 6 of Ho Chi Minh City), southwest of Saigon. This land was given to them by Le Van Duyet, the lord of that area and who was opposed to the Tay Son rebels. In AD 1792, during the reign of Tay Son, there was a massacre of the Chinese in Cholon. There were explanations to account for the Tay Son period, both during their uprising and when they were in power, this being a difficult time for the ethnic Chinese. The latter were on the wrong side since they were generally supportive of me Nguyen lords, die corrupt ruling order which the Tay Son leaders were seeking to overthrow. The Nguyen lords, and the imperial court at Hue that they controlled, had allowed Chinese migrants into the country and to prosper in their business. This effete regime was also heavily steeped in Confucianism and patterned on the Chinese imperial court, influences which the Tay Son leaders sought to remove. Furthermore, the Tay Son rebellion took its roots from widespread peasant discontent and die Chinese, a distinctive urban elite, were therefore a natural target. Finally, the Nguyen lords called on the assistance of the Qing emperor in China to help fight the rebels, and in AD 1788 an army from China invaded. It was defeated, however, but it must have added to anti-Chinese feelings within the Tay Son movement. In AD 1802 the Tay Son dynasty was toppled by Nguyen Anh, one of the last Nguyen lords. Nguyen Anh then established the Nguyen dynasty, declared himself Emperor Gia Long, and reverted to a Confucianist orthodoxy patterned after the Qing court in China. Chinese business activities flourished under the Nguyens. By the time the French acquired South Vietnam as a colony of Cochinchina in AD 1867, Cholon had 500 tiled houses, two man-made canals, and five bridges under construction, including one of iron. The quay along die Arroyo Chinois was covered wittH warehouses and shipyards. In the centre of the town was placed a fountain of Chinese design, and die streets were lit by lamps using coconut oil.18 The Nguyen rulers used Chinese merchants in the collection of taxes, encouraged them to set up shipyards to build boats and ships, allowed them to buy houses, acquire land, and form their own social and economic organizations. Historical records show that in some economic sectors, the Chinese were even more favoured than the Vietnamese. They could, for example, build ships of any capacity while the Vietnamese were allowed to build only small ships.19 In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Nguyen court exempted new Chinese immigrants from all taxes in the first three years after their arrival.20 Such preferential treatment for the Chinese community

19

20

(SKaptef 1

helped them to expand their economic power. It also encouraged further immigration by the Chinese. What was the motivation of the Nguyen court for encouraging the Chinese? First, the increasing wealth of the Chinese community served the interest of Vietnam's ruling class. Officials got financial spinoffs from Chinese businesses. The Chinese also brought useful handicraft skills. There were also common strategic interests at that time as Asian countries were starting to experience the encroachment of Western imperial powers. For Vietnam, a bigger and stronger China next door may be useful to fend offWestern powers. Besides commerce, the Chinese in Vietnam were also actively involved in investment and mining. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Chinese operated 124 mines in the North on lease. They recruited their own miners, mostly new arrivals from China. Materials extracted from these mines, such as iron and coal, were generally for export, with a small proportion reserved as tax payment to the Vietnamese authorities.21 Despite measures by local authorities to restrict Chinese miners, their number rose to 700— 800 at times.22 It was a general tendency then for successful Chinese mine foremen to return to China or revert to trading after having reaped huge profits from mining.23 Even though Chinese mining entrepreneurs paid taxes to the royal court and also reinvested part of their earnings, the overall participation of the Chinese in mining represented a loss rather than a gain of capital for Vietnam. Chinese leasing of mines was subsequently prohibited by law when the French colonized the country.

2. Evolution of the Chinese community during and after the colonial period Starting from the second half of the nineteenth century, especially towards the end of the century, the penetration and expansion ofWestern capital into Vietnam's economy drastically altered the social structure, economic pattern, way of life, and socio-economic relations within Vietnamese society in general, and the Chinese community in particular. During this period, the Chinese had to learn quickly to adapt to a new and increasingly more competitive business system — capitalism. At the same time, Chinese migration into Vietnam increased in scale. These settlers provided labour for economic development and acted as middlemen both in internal and external trade. Chinese businessmen not only come to dominate the retail trade, but their

T~oy*yriaVion and evolution of the e+k^ic (Z\\\v\e.s& community

activities also extended to finance, transportation, and manufacturing, albeit on a smaller scale than their French counterparts. a. The rapid growth of the Chinese population and their geographical distribution Two major factors converged to cause an upsurge in Chinese migration to Vietnam in the second half of the nineteenth century. A push factor was the political upheavals in China, which led to its people seeking better conditions overseas. A pull factor was French colonization and the policy of the colonial government to recruit Chinese labour for Vietnam. After the Treaty of Nanking in AD 1842 forced the Manchu court in Beijing to cede Hong Kong to the British and open five treaty ports to Western powers, it was no longer possible for the Chinese authority to control the movement of their nationals in and out of the country. At that time, the Chinese Government had officially banned travelling beyond the shores of China. Thus China became an increasingly stable source of manpower for labour-hungry Western colonies in Southeast Asia and Latin America. By AD 1860, articles within die Treaty of Peking signed between China and both Britain and France literally compelled the Manchu authorities to recognize the right of Chinese workers to seek a livelihood abroad under contracts they themselves could freely enter into.24 Dovetailing with this relaxation of laws on emigration was the political turmoil of the times which contributed to the urge to leave. During AD 1850-61 there was a large-scale uprising in the form of the Taiping Revolution. Added to that were the intermittent wars fought with Western powers. The majority of migrants in this exodus were the usual land-deprived peasants and impoverished city dwellers. But there was also a sizeable number of small and middle-scale businessmen, intellectuals, and military personnel. France colonized six provinces of southern Vietnam (Nam Ky), which constituted Cochinchina, in AD 1867 and established protectorates in central and northern Vietnam by AD 1884. The two protectorates were named Annam and Tonkin, respectively. From the start, the French colonial administration took measures to regulate Chinese immigration with a mixture of control and encouragement. In AD 1874 a special Immigration Bureau was established in Saigon which allowed Chinese immigrants into the country but only if they belonged to dialect groups already existing in the country and if the groups would provide sponsorship for their own kind. The Bureau was very active, and as early as AD 1897 it had a department that

21

22

could arbitrarily decide on the suitability of a Chinese immigrant for work; this aroused such an angry protest from the Chinese community that the administration was forced to close it down.25 After this, streams of Chinese immigrants could cross freely into Vietnam, and they congregated mainly in big cities. The French colonial administration allowed the Chinese to deal freely in rice, opium, and alcohol. Other legal rights included the right to own land, to travel without restriction within the Indochinese Federation, to establish commercial organization, to return to China for a visit, and to transfer their wealuS out of the country.26 Such favourable conditions continued to attract Chinese migrants as in the days of the Nguyen dynasty. Within a ten-year span, the number of Chinese in Cochinchina shot up from 44,000 in 1873 to 56,000 in 1889, concentrating mainly in big cities. Cholon in the year 1889 had a population of nearly 16,000 Chinese; Saigon, over 7,000; and Gia Dinh, nearly 3,000.27 In Tonkin and Annam, the Chinese migrants also gathered in Haiphong, Hanoi, Danang, and the Quang Ninh province, which bordered China. The Chinese here were involved mosdy in commerce and service. Chinese immigrants during the period of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also consisted of labourers contracted by the French to work in Vietnam. They were sent to excavate mines, specifically in Quang Ninh province, to build the railway linking Vietnam to the southern provinces of China or to tap rubber in plantations. By the 1920s, Chinese workers accounted for 7 per cent of the total number of miners and 17 per cent of the total number of industrial workers in Vietnam.28 The influx of Chinese labourers contributed not only to the country's manpower but also to the emergence of a working class in Vietnam. This rapid influx of Chinese migrants continued up till the middle of the twentieth century. Data published during the period AD 1912-22 give their number as 158,OOO.29 Between 1923 and 1933, nearly 600,000 arrived from China.30 Another set of data estimates the number to be 1.2 million between 1923 and 1951," which was a record at any given period of time during the whole history of Chinese emigration. But the traffic was prone to ebb and flow. The figures were high in the years 1925—30, 1936—38, and 1946-48, 32 correlating with the security situation in China. China was experiencing civil wars during the periods 1924—27 and 1946-49. The years 1936—38 saw the beginnings ofJapanese military encroachment on China. Going by official statistics, die figure for the Chinese population in Vietnam

Formation and evolution of+ke e+knic