Introduction: Challenges and Opportunities in the Studies of Translocal Chinese

The role of overseas Chinese and their economic contribution to China’s modernization process has been fertile ground for research. This issue contains three research articles and two research notes, all of which deal with overseas Chinese and their relation to translocal social development while putting forward some interesting and thought-provoking research findings. Over the past two centuries, Chinese people have scattered all over the world, including North America, Singapore, Malaysia, and Myanmar—so these five articles cover each of the countries and regions, researching topics ranging from remittance networks, cultural heritage, and visual art to political participation. Together, they demonstrate the broad scope of overseas Chinese geographical distribution and influence in the world. Since the mid-nineteenth century, many Chinese have gone overseas—mainly North America and Southeast Asia—to seek work opportunities as laborers. After accumulating enough wealth, they would contribute to their hometowns’ development by remitting money back to China. Some of them even participated in the political and public affairs of their hometowns, becoming eventually the cornerstone of the emerging social classes in China of the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Bowei Chiang’s and Ania Gricuk’s articles discuss the impact of overseas Chinese’s remittance networks on the development of their home country. Bo-wei Chiang’s article focuses on Chinese laborers who migrated from Kaiping, Guangdong to the United States and Canada in the mid-nineteenth century to engage in manual work such as railway construction or agricultural land development. Many of these early migrants laid the foundation for modernized infrastructure in their hometowns with their hard-earned money, which helped build houses and public utilities such as roads, hospitals, and