Across, Between, and Beyond Nation States: Overseas Chinese Private Remittance Networks, 1850s–1930s

Abstract

This paper examines the development of private remittance networks that came into being in response to the practice of migrants sending financial resources back to their families in China from 1850 to 1930s and analyses them through the lens of transnational space. It discusses the transnational space between the diaspora and the homeland and the structures that link them. My research has shown that these networks contributed to a space transcending national borders. The material comprising the basis of this research project includes newspapers from the diaspora, remittance letters and receipts, and reports conducted by the Taiwanese governmental institutions and secondary material focused on both emigrant home villages in China and communities in destinations. In the diasporic context, space is created through shared experiences of migrants, who are physically separated from their families but remain linked through networks such as the remittance trade.