Funded by a MOE Tier 1 grant, this project understands huiguan as ancestral communities characterised by complex socio-cultural and economic relationships based on common ancestral ties of same lineage, surname, locality or dialect.

To interrogate the (re-)making of ancestral communities, this project explores the following research questions in relation to huiguan:

• What are the historical development, membership, organisational mechanisms, main activities, and symbolic buildings (e.g. temples) affiliated with Singapore huiguan?
• In which ways do Singapore huiguan establish transnational linkages with mainland China? How are huiguan’s transnational linkages with mainland China reproduced through a wide range of programmes encouraged by Chinese state agents?
• How do huiguan elites encourage members’ participation and remake ancestral communities? How do huiguan members perceive and engage in huiguan’s transnational networking? What are their experiences and affections during their return trips to ancestral places? How are their identities reconstructed therein?
• In which ways are huiguan’s ancestral communities and socio-economic and cultural networks shaped by the influx of new Chinese migrants?
• How do huiguan networks at local and transnational scales evolve in different periods?

These research questions will be investigated through multi-sited ethnography and fieldwork in both China and Singapore. More about this project, click here.