Guest Editor's Introduction

The Focus of This Issue Is on the Chinese in South Africa whose history and present development have received increasing scholarly attention. The four articles and one report were papers initially presented at the regional conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas (ISSCO) held at the University of Pretoria in December, 2006. They discuss a range of topics that reflect the extent and significance of the Chinese presence in this part of the world.

The first two articles deal with the indentured Chinese laborers imported to South Africa during the first decade of the 20th century to work on the Witwatersrand gold mines in the northern interior of the country. Andrew Macdonald takes a refreshing look at the topic by assessing the attempt by medical officials to impose colonial control over the laborers as they were transported from China to South Africa in what he refers to as "floating compounds." He relates how both state and capital went to great lengths to ensure the laborers were kept in a state of good health, a futile attempt which was tenaciously resisted by the latter. Tu Huyhn's article focuses on the question of identity formation during the period of Chinese indenture. Tu argues that in the early 20th century, the deliberations over the import of labor from China as well as public reactions to the desertion of Chinese laborers is an historical process of great significance in the development of "South Africa's racial labor hierarchy."

Yoon Park's article brings the reader to the more recent past by taking an in-depth look at the place and space of the Chinese in the latter half of the 20th century and considering the question of identity among South African-born Chinese. Using a sociological frame of reference, her study shows how the South African state diminished the Chinese sense of identity, while the Chinese state, or "mythical China," served to reinforce an ethnic Chinese identity. Emmanuel Ma Mung looks beyond the borders of South Africa to the bigger context of Africa and Chinese migration. Focusing on the past decade, he discusses three strands of Chinese migration to the continent which has taken place in tandem with China's recently expanded foreign policy toward Africa. He also re-addresses the dyadic relations between China and the Chinese overseas and argues ultimately for the extension of this analysis to a triadic relationship which includes the settled countries.

In the report on the life of a Chinese woman, Thisgingnio, who settled in the Cape of Good Hope in the 18th century, historian James Armstrong, through a "mosaic-building process," uses her carefully inventoried estate and other archival records to piece together what might have been a tragic life, but ultimately one of "recovery and resiliency." It would also be a story that typifies the lives of exiles and convicts sent to the Cape.