Why do so many Chinese in Southeast Asian cities combine with Chinese religious organizations with a history of more than 100 years?

Clan associations and fellow villagers associations are the most common friendship organizations for overseas Chinese and Chinese society. They have played an important role in the history of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and made many contributions. After World War II, with the vast majority of overseas Chinese joining local nationality and becoming citizens of the host country, the overseas Chinese society has evolved into a Chinese society, and the fallen leaves in the Chinese mentality have taken root. Why does this traditional social organization linked by blood and geography exist?

The product of a specific history

China people lived abroad for a long time, but the mass migration was after the Opium War. According to incomplete statistics, from the Opium War to the eve of the Second World War, more than 10 million people in China went abroad to make a living. There are many reasons why so many immigrants left the country in a short period of 100 years. There are both natural disasters and man-made disasters. The most important thing is that the invasion of western powers destroyed China's self-sufficient natural economic base, which led to the bankruptcy of a large number of farmers and small-scale craftsmen. The mass exodus from modern China was the product of imperialist colonial expansion and the result of China's semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.

/kloc-In the first half of the 9th century, China was still a feudal patriarchal society. Clan is the core of China's social structure, and the concept of region is deeply rooted in people's minds. Farmers and craftsmen who have just left the land can naturally only come to the overseas Chinese residence with this traditional social relationship and concept, and form their own new groups according to their familiar social organization model. This is how clan associations and fellow villagers' associations (guilds) based on blood and geography are produced. Singapore Caojiaguan (18 19), Siyi Chens Mansion (1848), Fujian Lins Ancestral Hall (1857) and Longgang Office of the Philippines (1884) belong to the earliest clan associations in Southeast Asia. Ho Ying Guild Hall in Malacca (1820), Ningyang Guild Hall in Singapore (1822), Huangjiaguan Guild Hall in Taishan (1854) and Fujian Guild Hall (1860) are the earliest geopolitical organizations.

/kloc-After the second half of the 9th century, more and more people from China immigrated to Southeast Asia. From 1880 to 1930, about 8.3 million China people arrived in the Straits Colony, including 6 million China contract workers. Due to language barriers, new immigrants who speak different dialects often live in one place, forming many dialect groups. For example, Cantonese people live in Singapore's Chinatown, hipsters live in Dabo Xinba, Fujian people live in Yayi, Dapo, and Hainanese live in gmcc and Tomifa, Xiaopo. This situation has accelerated the development of geo-organizations, and formed major gangs common in Southeast Asia, such as Fujian, Chaozhou, Guangdong, Hakka and Hainan. For example, there are five clubs in Vietnam and seven clubs in Thailand.

The extensive development and long-term existence of Zongxiang Guild Hall in Chinese communities in Southeast Asia is closely related to the Chinese society itself and the local economic situation and production level. In the early Southeast Asia under the western rule, the natural economy was still dominant, the indigenous capital had not yet formed, and the production level was low. Most of the immigrants from China belong to small producers and businessmen, which makes the clan relationship and its organization based on blood and geography develop widely and exist for a long time.

Old China was poor and poor, and could not effectively protect the overseas Chinese. Overseas Chinese had to rely on their own strength to help each other and stand on their own feet. As immigrants, China people feel the need to strengthen their national identity and cohesion. All these have increased the social significance of clan organizations for a long time.

In a word, it is no accident that the traditional social organization-Zongxiang Guild Hall has developed widely in Southeast Asian Chinese society. It is the product of a specific history. It is closely related to a certain population, productivity level, economic structure and nature, and the status of immigrants in China.