"Undoubtedly one of the most important studies in the field for many years.... [Sojourners and Settlers] is likely to set the agenda for research in the field for many years to come and it will certainly be essential reading for anyone interested in the ethnic Chinese of Southeast Asia and the Sino-Nanyang relationships." --Journal of Asian Studies

"Thorough and scholarly.... The most fascinating aspect of this book is its apparent shift away from cultural explanations of Overseas Chinese societies and their commercial success, and towards an emphasis on circumstance and the instrumental use of Chineseness." --Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

"When this collection of essays exploring the history of Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia was first published in Australia in 1996, it was the best account we had of the dynamics of overseas Chinese sojourning and settling. Appearing in paperback five years later, this is still the case." --Review of Bibliography in Sinology, 2002

Only recently has the role of Chinese minorities at the forefront of Southeast Asia's rapid economic growth attracted world attention. Yet interactions between Chinese and Southeast Asians are longstanding and intense, reaching back a thousand years and making it difficult, if not specious, to attempt to disentangle what is Chinese and what is indigenous in much of Southeast Asian culture. Sojourners and Settlers, now back in print, written by some of the most distinguished specialists in the field, demonstrates the depth of that relationship.

Contributors: Leonard Blussé, Mary Somers Heidhues, Jamie C. Mackie, Anthony Reid, Craig Reynolds, Claudine Salmon, G. William Skinner, Wang Gungwu, O. W. Wolters.

Anthony Reid is professor and director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.

table of contents