Southeast Asia as China's 'Lost Territory'

Abstract

In a 1923 speech Liang Qichao, a significant Chinese intellectual of the twentieth century, stated “[o]ur countrymen were the earliest people that arrived in Southeast Asia. If our country [China] had the political ability, it would have been our territory long time ago. But this is something that our ancestors were not able to complete… Therefore, we have now the task to bring it to completion” (Netherlands National Archives 2.05.90-528). Liang’s statement is an example of similar expressions that appeared in the 1920s when Southeast Asia was subjected to Western rule. China never formally ruled Southeast Asia, but why would the discourse of Southeast Asian territory emerge in this period when Southeast Asia was subjected to European colonialism? What was the role of overseas Chinese and their historical, political, economic, and cultural connections with China that caused these ideas to shape? This paper will discuss how Chinese intellectuals, such as Liang Qichao, constructed the logic that Southeast Asia belonged to China. By examining intellectual writing, such as Liang’s Biographies of China’s Eight Great Colonists (中國殖 民八大偉人傳) among other works, this paper suggests that the ‘rediscovery’ of the overseas Chinese in China’s nationalist project in the early twentieth century was pivotal for constructing Chinese imagination and claim of Southeast Asia as China’s territory. By using overseas Chinese writing, and British and Dutch archival material this paper will also discuss British, Dutch, and overseas Chinese responses to such views.