WELCOME TO THE SECOND ISSUE OF

The Journal of Chinese Overseas

WE RECEIVED VERY ENCOURAGING COMMENTS on the inaugural issue of the Journal of Chinese Overseas (JCO), and we look forward to the continuing support of our readers and researchers from all over the world.

In this second issue, we have six articles which show the diversity and richness of research in the study of Chinese overseas. The first two papers are on opium and the Chinese overseas, written by two well known scholars in this area of study, namely Carl A. Trocki and Evelyn Hu-DeHart. Carl Trocki examines the relationship between Chinese pioneers in Southeast Asia and the opium trade controlled by the British. Evelyn Hu-DeHart describes the life of coolies on the plantations of Peru and Cuba, and the effects of the planters' use of opium for social control. Together with Elizabeth Sinn's article on " Preparing Opium for America" in the inaugural issue, JCO has so far provided three interesting discussions on opium and the Chinese overseas.

The article by Michael J. Montesano presents us with a refreshing topic, the application of G. William Skinner's spatial model to the study of Thai history, in a way bringing social science and history together. Skinner's contribution to the spatial dimensions of social study in China is well known, and Montesano has brought researchers' attention to this neglected aspect of Skinner's theoretical contribution in the study of history and societies in Southeast Asia. Indeed Montesano calls for more attention to be paid to the spatial dimensions of Southeast Asian history and "the roles of Chinese as agents of spatial change in the region."

Chan Yuk Wah's article on Viet-kieu or "Vietnamese living abroad" provides yet another fascinating study of "Chinese overseas," reminding us of the contested nature of ethnic identities. By focusing on Viet-kieu who were born in China and who returned to Vietnam in the 1970s, and using informative cases in the borderlands of Vietnam and China, Chan Yuk Wah gives us a theoretically and ethnographically interesting paper and shows us how identities are shaped by economic and political constraints of time and space.

The next article by Kevin Blackburn and Chew Ju Ern is also on a topic that has not been much researched. The authors look at Dalforce, an army made up of Singapore overseas Chinese volunteers, which was organized to fight the Japanese invaders in World War II. The article describes how Dalforce as a symbol of Chinese resistance and unity became a heroic legend against the backdrop of rising overseas Chinese nationalism. It also ascertains the elements of myth and reality behind the legend.

The last article by Min Zhou and Mingang Lin brings us to a more current issue, "ethnic capital" in relation to the Chinese communities in New York and Los Angeles. Although the issue of ethnic capital has been discussed in Min Zhou's major works and those of other scholars, this article provides a good introduction to this interesting subject.

We are very encouraged by the number of books sent to us for review. In this issue we carry eight book reviews which inform readers on a wide range of topics. Leo Suryadinata looks into the revived issue of dual nationality and Chinese overseas, discussed in the volume edited by Zhou Nanjing. James K. Chin comments on a collection of fieldwork reports on the homeland (qiaoxiang) of Fujianese Chinese abroad. Claudine Salmon reviews the recent works collected in a volume on commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong region in 1750—1880. The two historical studies on Chinese businesspeople and the making of a Malay state, and on the Chinese communities in Australia, are reviewed by Chin Yee Whah and Charles A. Coppel respectively. Mette Thunø assesses a work on the relatively uncharted territory of Chinese migration in Germany, while Mak Lau Fong reviews Sharon A. Carstens' long-time scholarship on the Hakka and the Malaysian Chinese worlds. Finally Huang Shu-min reviews the interesting study of Jiemin Bao on gender, sexuality and identity among the Chinese Thai.

For more information about the Journal of Chinese Overseas, please visit . The Chinese Heritage Centre gratefully acknowledges the Lee Foundation's sponsorship of the publication of this journal.