Diasporic Public Spheres in Colonial Asia: Chinese Bourgeois Associations in the Hong Kong-Singapore Corridor and Their Taiwan Ties, 1914-1941

Adopting Tim Harper’s concept of the diasporic public sphere and Prasenjit Duara’s circulatory history, this presentation shows the circulation of Chinese associations between British Hong Kong and Singapore and their ties with Japanese Taiwan. These bourgeois associations across different colonies responded to Chinese nationalism in mainland China, thus forming the diasporic public spheres. The latter were organized from the foundation of the speech-group ties in South China and were embedded in different colonial contexts. By mobilizing the same set of Chinese ethno-symbols (such as Confucianism) and adopting the similar discourse of Chinese economic interest, agendas of the diasporic public sphere connected with, and contested against, the normative construction of Chineseness in mainland China. Accordingly, from the prism of Taiwan, the circular history in the Hong Kong-Singapore corridor should be seen as more than just another story from another shore.