The Contribution of Archipel to the Knowledge of Insulindian Chinese (1971-2020) ̶ Some Key Topics

The creation of Archipel, which proposed to publish chronicles, studies, and especially documents and “dossiers thematiques” on the Insulindian world, was to become a platform for cultural and historical studies on various Chinese communities of the Indonesian archipelago, the Malay peninsula and Singapore, and to a lesser extent the Philippines, so to say on the fringes of the mainstream of Anglo-Saxon research that started in the late 1950s. Since 1971, slightly more than one hundred studies have been published that for the most part deal with literary and historical matters. Here we intend to reflect on these fifty years of research, that, although not planned, have over the years taken on a meaning that has gradually emerged over the year. We arbitrarily elaborate on a certain number of key themes for which the research has been particularly rewarding. The reader can get an idea of the variety of subjects dealt with during these fifty years by perusing the bibliography appended to this article.