Singapore University of Social Sciences

This online course introduces students to the origins, evolution, and development of transnational overseas Chinese networks and businesses within the contexts of Southeast Asia. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates the disciplines of history, political economy, area studies, diasporic studies and East Asian studies to analyse the integration and evolution of Chinese businesses into regional societies and economies. The course will discuss the role of overseas Chinese businesses in terms of political-economic and political-cultural impacts on production networks, regionalism, and ASEAN economic integration. It relates transnational overseas Chinese businesses to the central role of being intermediaries and ‘pathfinders’ between the ASEAN region, existing Western/Japanese production networks and incoming mainland Chinese investments (including those under the rubric of Belt and Road Initiative). It also looks at the coping mechanisms in overseas Chinese business practices for managing constantly-evolving complex geopolitical trends in sectors such as commodities, banking, and property investments. The course shows the indigenisation of overseas Chinese businesses in Southeast Asia over generations and the emergence of nativised identities of the business owners. Analyses of debates over regional schemes in the integration of ASEAN itself as well as Chinese ambitions in BRI will also be contextualised in the studies of overseas Chinese businesses.