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Overseas Remittances in South-eastern China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Elena S.H. Yu
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Extract

Recent reports from China, based mostly on the travels of North-American and European scholars, have broadened our knowledge of social conditions in that country. In most cases, the journeys of these scholarly visitors have been greatly facilitated by the availability of Chinese guides and interpreters who at times become their main source of contact with the people, especially in non-Mandarin speaking regions. Thus, great strides have been made in our understanding of the new society. But there is another source of traveller's reportage from China — the hundreds of ordinary overseas Chinese, especially those between the ages of 50 and 90, who every day visit their relatives on the mainland — and about whose personal observations and experiences we know very little. Consequently, there are gaps in our knowledge of every-day life in China, especially in the remote countryside of provinces such as Fukien, which are least frequented by delegations from Europe and America.

Type
Reports from China
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 78 , June 1979 , pp. 339 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1979

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References

1. The conditions in the third village are quite similar to Lung-yan. In terms of distance, both Lung-yan and Yan-p'ing are about one hour by foot from a large urban centre. But whereas Amoy is accessible both by train and plane, this urban centre is accessible only by bus along dusty trails and sections of asphalted roads that are still under construction.

2. The absence of a travel guide also means that the accuracy of the estimates supplied by peasants is practically impossible to verify with officials since overseas Chinese visitors travelling as the author did rarely have the opportunity to meet the right person with the most significant data at their finger tips, much less do these overseas visitors have the acceptable justification for wanting precise figures. After all, their reason for being in China is principally to visit relatives whereas the scholars who travel in groups are there to be informed of the facts and figures.

3. Aside from the revenues it receives from its farm produce, including lychees and Lung-yan, Yan-p'ing has been able to build its own factories for manufacturing such products as soy sauce, peanut oil, rice vermicelli, button mushrooms, dried and spiced vegetables, rope, bamboo baskets, etc.

4. Some of these modern yang-lou's are now equipped with western-type flush toilets and shower facilities.

5. In this particular family, the large excess of rooms is due to the out-migration of able-bodied males to Hong Kong. But the villagers claimed that even when those men were living in that house, not all the bedrooms were filled.

6. It seems that the Chinese policy of prohibiting the peasants from charging rent for any portion of their house unwittingly serves to encourage co-residence among the extended family members. Families with too many empty spaces could be approached by the brigade or team leaders to “share” the extra space, especially when there is a temporary housing shortage or a demand for space for production purposes. Co-residence with large extended family members ensures that the extra rooms will be properly filled.

7. Under such circumstances, the best compromise that most families reach is for the parents to live with one married son - usually the youngest - while the rest set up their respective neolocal households, generally compensating for their separation from their parents by providing monthly subsidies.

8. The south-eastern Chinese distinguish between t'ien and yüan. The former are farmlands devoted solely to rice production; the latter are those used for planting vegetables and fruit, or anything that is not rice.

9. According to the author's informants, the selling of vegetables is not considered an illegitimate activity. But the selling of any non-vegetable products (meat, seafood, clothes, watches) is prohibited.

10. According to the villagers, black-marketing was banned while Chou En-lai was alive. Since his death, the power struggle “up there” has resulted in a great deal of confusion and administrative paralysis in the locality and as a result, nobody has been enforcing the law. Whether or not this is true is beside the point. What is important is that they believe it to be true and behave accordingly.

11. This shortage is most acutely felt in the hostel for overseas Chinese located nearest Lung-yan. The seasoned Hokkien travellers claimed that before Chou En-lai's death, the variety of food served at the hostel was impressive compared to the same five choices now available daily.

12. These are dormitories or living quarters that accommodate overseas Chinese who have been living in China for years and are travelling within the country. A small number of Chinese from abroad, especially the elderly, may also be found as registered guests in these chieh-tai-chan. In general, single or double bedrooms are very few in number: three to 10 persons to a room is common, with shared showers and rest-rooms for every floor.

13. In a few cases, the amount of goods brought into the country was so staggering that part of their “gifts“ were not allowed into the country, even when they offered to pay whatever duty it might cost them.

14. On the other hand, the potential to migrate overseas exists for those who have lineal relatives abroad. According to some educated people in that area, a person can apply for an exit visa on the grounds of “succeeding his father's business.” The wife will then follow through with an application some years later, while the children are still young, to “succeed” the husband's business. But such a migration scheme is restricted to those who have immediate relatives overseas. Still the number of applicants of such kind is so large that in the city near Lungyan and the surrounding regions, there was reportedly a rapid loss of able-bodied men due to emigration. It reached a point where, according to the villagers near Lung-yan, the administrative officials decided to stop accepting applications. For the past four years no new applications were accepted, and previous applications were left in limbo-they were neither denied nor accepted.

15. According to the Cantonese travellers from North America that the author interviewed, in Kwangtung (where there has also been a large migration overseas, a steady flow of remittances and an influx of overseas Chinese visitors) there is also a proliferation of black-markets, large houses, co-residence of extended families, large numbers of children per family, elaborate marriage customs, and traditional burial procedures. However, the villages or towns which have proportionally large numbers of migration overseas are not necessarily single-surname communities; they tend to be made up of more powerful and competing surnames.

16. Sidal, Ruth, Women and Child Care in China (Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books, 1972Google Scholar).

17. To some peasants, it might even be better to build houses than to bank the money which earns two per cent (li) annual interest - an amount not considered large enough an incentive for them to save. Furthermore, the need to leave some money in the bank is thwarted by the assurance that there will be regular remittances from overseas, so long as they keep in touch with their kin from one generation to the next. Moreover, any family which is temporarily short of cash can borrow from the commune without having to pay interest. There is no legal pressure to repay the loan. Some families take as long as one to two years to repay a loan of 150 yüan. The only penalty they suffer for non-repayment is that they cannot-borrow again. But in some extraordinary cases, they can still draw out small loans, even though a previous loan has not been paid off.

18. Watson, James L., Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in Hong Kong and London (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975Google Scholar).