This project investigates the transformation of Chinese Voluntary Associations (CVAs, Huaren Shetuan) in contemporary Southeast Asia. CVAs refer to “associations that originate out of the Chinese migrant communities and are controlled by them, hence not official and nongovernmental” (Kuah-Pearce and Hu-dehart, 2006), and can take on various forms such as surname organizations, hometown affiliations, chambers of commerce, dialect groups and religious associations. This project interrogates how CVAs (re)construct themselves and forge new processes of transnationalization and localization amidst the shifting dynamics in domestic environments and changing China-Southeast Asia relationships while China rises as a global superpower.

CVAs, along with Chinese schools and Chinese media, have been called one of the ‘three pillars’ of Chinese societies, have played pivotal roles in Chinese diasporic communities, particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries when these communities were growing, consolidating, and negotiating their position in the social fabric of colonial and post-colonial nation states in Southeast Asia. Increasingly viewed as shrinking and antiquated social institutions, CVAs in Southeast Asia are, in fact, undergoing complex, multi-dimensional changes, driven by many internal and external forces (Montsion, 2014; Cheng et al., 2014; Setijadi, 2016; Chan, 2020, Toh and Liu, 2021; Ren and Liu, 2021). Although not yet the subject of major academic investigation, these contemporary changes are significant and would offer fresh insights into the reconfiguration of ethnic Chinese communities in Southeast Asia as well as their renewed transnational connections with China in the contemporary era.

PI & Co-PI: Kenneth Dean & Ian Chong
Collaborators: Khun Eng Kuah, Orlando Woods, Wong Sin Kiong, Ying Ruo Show, Danny Wong Tze-Ken, Ngeow Chow-Bing, Emily Hertzman, Kwee Hui Kian & Charlotte Setijadi
ARI Team: Hue Guan Thye & Hing Jia Wen

Funding Agency: Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 2 (MOE-T2EP40222-0003)
Project Duration: 1 July 2023 – 30 June 2026