Distant Shores: Colonial Encounters on China's Maritime Frontier

China has traditionally been considered a land empire with a lack of maritime and colonial reach, but Distant Shores challenges this view by showing that the economic expansion of southeastern Chinese rivaled the colonial ambitions of Europeans overseas. Melissa Macauley's book focuses on Chaozhou, a region in Guangdong, where Chaozhouese reaped the benefits of an overseas colonial system without establishing formal governing authority. Their power was sustained through familial, fraternal, and commercial relationships spread across the ports of Bangkok, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Swatow.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 376 pages
Publication date: 05 December 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

China has long been perceived as a land empire with limited maritime and colonial reach, which contributed to its economic decline after the mid-eighteenth century. However, Distant Shores, a groundbreaking history, challenges this notion by demonstrating that the economic expansion of southeastern Chinese rivaled the colonial ambitions of Europeans overseas. The book, written by Melissa Macauley, traces the story from the Industrial Revolution to the Great Depression, focusing on Chaozhou, a region in the great maritime province of Guangdong. Macauley explores how sojourners from this ungovernable corner of China emerged as commercial masters of the South China Sea, without establishing formal governing structures. Instead, their power was sustained through a complex network of familial, fraternal, and commercial relationships spread across the ports of Bangkok, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Swatow.

The book presents a nuanced view of Chinese modernity, highlighting a convergence of colonial sites that were crucial to modern development and the acceleration of capital accumulation. Macauley's magisterial work of scholarship reveals how the transoceanic migration of Chaozhouese laborers and merchants across a vast maritime world connected the Chinese homeland to an ever-expanding frontier of settlement and economic extraction. This study sheds new light on the complex and multifaceted history of China and its place in the world, challenging traditional narratives and providing a fresh perspective on the colonial era.

Weight: 604g
Dimension: 233 x 157 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691214887