{{Short description|Overseas Chinese community network}} {{About|the Overseas Chinese business network|the Cold War term|Bamboo Curtain|the term about the employment advancement barriers that East Asians face in the Western world|Bamboo ceiling}} {{Expand language|name=竹网|langcode=zh|date=October 2021}}<!-- Please conform to what was written on the Chinese wiki and do not go any further beyond that. --> {{Infobox | bodyclass = geography | above = | title = Bamboo network | image = 200px|Map of the bamboo network | label2 = Countries and territories | data2 = {{BRN}}<br>{{CAM}}<br>{{IDN}}<br>{{LAO}}<br>{{MYS}}<br>{{flagicon|Burma}} Myanmar<br>{{PHL}}<br>{{SGP}}<br>{{THA}}<br>{{VNM}} | label5 = Languages and language families | data5 = Chinese, English, Burmese, Filipino, Indonesian, Khmer, Laotian, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese and many others | label6 = Major cities | data6 = {{flagicon|BRN}} Bandar Seri Begawan<br>{{flagicon|THA}} Bangkok<br>{{flagicon|VNM}} Ho Chi Minh City<br>{{flagicon|IDN}} Jakarta<br>{{flagicon|MYS}} Kuala Lumpur<br>{{flagicon|Burma}} Mandalay<br>{{flagicon|PHL}} Manila<br>{{flagicon|CAM}} Phnom Penh<br>{{flagicon|SGP}} Singapore <br>{{flagicon|LAO}} Vientiane}} The '''bamboo network''' ({{zh|s=竹网|t=竹網|p=zhú wǎng}}) or the '''Chinese Commonwealth''' is a term used to conceptualize the links between businesses run by overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (in a narrower sense with the Min Chinese speaking community).<ref name=P204>{{Cite book |title=The China Information Technology Handbook |last=Pablos |first= Patricia |publisher=Springer |year=2008 |page=204}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cheung|first1=Gordon C. K.|last2=Gomez|first2=Edmund Terence|jstor=23462317|title=Hong Kong's Diaspora, Networks, and Family Business in the United Kingdom: A History of the Chinese "Food Chain" and the Case of W. Wing Yip Group|journal=China Review|volume=12|issue=1|date=Spring 2012|publisher=Chinese University Press|page=48|quote=Chinese firms in Asian economies outside mainland China have been so prominent that Kao coined the concept of "Chinese Commonwealth" to describe the business networks of this diaspora.|issn=1680-2012}}</ref> It links the overseas Chinese business community of Southeast Asia, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and Cambodia with the economies of Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan).<ref name=WH4-5>{{cite book|last1=Weidenbaum|first1=Murray L.|last2=Hughes|first2=Samuel|title=The Bamboo Network: How Expatriate Chinese Entrepreneurs are Creating a New Economic Superpower in Asia|url=https://archive.org/details/bamboonetworkhow00weid|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1996|publisher=Martin Kessler Books, Free Press|isbn=978-0-684-82289-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bamboonetworkhow00weid/page/4 4]–5}}</ref> Overseas Chinese companies in Southeast Asia are usually managed as family businesses in a centralized bureaucratic manner. In an article in The New York Review of Books, Indian critic Pankaj Mishra called it the "largest economic force in Asia outside of Japan".
==Structure== Overseas Chinese businesses in Southeast Asia are usually family owned and managed through a centralized bureaucracy.<ref name=WH4-5/><ref name=P205>Pablos (2008), p. 205.</ref><ref name=CHY325>Yen (2008), p. 325.</ref> The businesses are usually managed as family businesses to lower front office transaction costs as they are passed down from one generation to the next.<ref name=CHY325/><ref name=FJR>Richter (2002), p. 84.</ref><ref name=WH4-5/><ref name=P205/><ref name=WH4>Weidenbaum, Hughes (1996), p. 4.</ref><ref>Richter (2002), p. 180.</ref> The bulk of these firms typically operate as small and medium-sized businesses.<ref name=CHY325/><ref>Richter (2002), p. 12–13.</ref><ref name="onearm">{{cite book|author=Murray Weidenbaum|title=One-Armed Economist: On the Intersection of Business And Government|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0vxapmyvBsC&pg=PA264|access-date=30 May 2013|date=1 September 2005|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-3020-1|pages=264–265|archive-date=21 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521214959/https://books.google.com/books?id=p0vxapmyvBsC&pg=PA264|url-status=live}}</ref>
Bamboo networks are also transnational, which means channeling the movement of capital, information, and goods and services can promote the relative flexibility and efficiency between the formal agreements and transactions made by family-run firms.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Dynamic American Firm |last=Weidenbaum |first=Murray |publisher=Springer |year=2012 |isbn=978-1461313144 |publication-date= February 10, 2012 |page=80}}</ref> Business relationships are based on the Confucian paradigm of ''guanxi'', the Chinese term for the cultivation of personal relationships as an ingredient for business success.<ref name="handbook">{{cite book|author=Paz Estrella Tolentino|editor=H. W-C Yeung|title=Handbook of Research on Asian Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lTfWutnFbfkC&pg=PA412|year=2007|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|isbn=978-1-84720-318-2|page=412|access-date=2015-12-15|archive-date=2016-05-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521045726/https://books.google.com/books?id=lTfWutnFbfkC&pg=PA412|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://research.vu.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/1589314 |title=Templates of "Chineseness" and Trajectories of Cambodian Chinese Entrepreneurship in Phnom Penh* |website=Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |pages=68 |access-date=2017-08-16 |archive-date=2017-08-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816021339/https://research.vu.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/1589314 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=P201>Pablos (2008), p. 201</ref>
thumb|right|alt=Six men plow the earth in a sinkhole while another walks carrying empty baskets. Three others are standing and walking in the background.|Large numbers of Chinese male immigrants labored in rubber plantations and tin mines of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand while others set up small provision shops to eke out a living for themselves.<ref name=FJR/>
Some overseas Chinese businessmen include Malaysian dealmaker Robert Kuok, Indonesian banker and retail proprietor Liem Sioe Liong, and his son, financier and money manager Liem Hong Sien in addition to fellow Fuqing native and Salim Group co-founder and investor Liem Oen Kian, Filipino billionaire Henry Sy, and Hong Kong business tycoon Li Ka-shing.<ref name="FJR" /><ref name="RJR83">{{Cite book |last=Richter |first=Frank-Jurgen |title=Redesigning Asian Business: In the Aftermath of Crisis |publisher=Quorum Books |year=2002 |isbn=978-1567205251 |pages=83}}</ref>
Much of the business activity of the bamboo network is centered in the major cities of the region, such as Mandalay, Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, and Manila.<ref name=WH8>Weidenbaum, Hughes (1996), p. 8.</ref>
==History== Commercial influence of Chinese traders and merchants in Southeast Asia dates back at least to the third century AD, when official missions by the Han government were dispatched to countries in the Southern Seas. Distinct and stable overseas Chinese communities became a feature of Southeast Asia by the mid-seventeenth century across major port cities of Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.<ref name="YO5">{{Cite book |title=The Globalisation of Chinese Business Firms |last1=Yeung |first1=H. |last2=Olds |first2=K. |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=1999 |isbn=978-0333716298 |pages=5}}</ref> More than 1500 years ago, Chinese merchants began to sail southwards towards Southeast Asia in search of trading opportunities and wealth. These areas were known as Nanyang or the Southern Seas. Many of those who left China were Southern Han Chinese comprising the Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainanese who trace their ancestry from the southern Chinese coastal provinces, principally known as Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Chinese of South East Asia |last1=Mabbett |first1= Hugh |last2=Somers Heidhues |first2=Mary F. |publisher=Minority Rights Group |year=1992 |isbn=978-0946690992 |publication-date=December 3, 1992 |pages=1}}</ref> Periods of heavy emigration would send waves of Chinese into Southeast Asia. Unrest and periodic upheaval throughout succeeding Chinese dynasties encouraged further emigration throughout the centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Overseas Chinese of South East Asia: History, Culture, Business |last1=Rae |first1= I. |last2=Witzel |first2= M. |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |year=2016 |isbn=978-1349543045 |publication-date=January 29, 2016 |pages=3}}</ref> By the 12th century, Chinese began permanently settling in Thailand, and by the 13th century, in Cambodia<ref name="harris">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rs4IBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT23 |author=Zhou Daguan|title= A Record of Cambodia |translator= Peter Harris |publisher=University of Washington Press |year= 2007 |isbn=978-9749511244 |access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref><ref>Willmott (1967), p. 4</ref> and in Indonesia.<ref>{{cite book|author=Wang Gungwu|chapter=Sojourning: the Chinese experience in Southeast Asia|editor=Anthony Reid|title=Sojourners and settlers: histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese|location=Honolulu|publisher=University of Hawai'i Press|date= 1996|pages=1–9}}</ref> In the early 1400s, the Ming dynasty Chinese admiral Zheng He under the Yongle Emperor led a fleet of three hundred vessels around Southeast Asia during the Ming treasure voyages.<ref name="C31">Chua, (2003), p. 31.</ref>
Since 1500, Southeast Asia has been a magnet for Chinese emigrants where they have strategically developed a bamboo network encompassing an elaborately diverse spectrum of economic activities spread across numerous industries.<ref name="WH24">Weidenbaum, Hughes (1996), p. 24.</ref> The Chinese were one commercial minority among many including Indian Gujaratis, Chettiars, Portuguese and Japanese until the middle of the seventeenth century. Subsequently, damage to the rival trade networks the English and Dutch in the Indian Ocean allowed the enterprising Chinese to take over the roles once held by the Japanese in the 1630s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1= Anthony |last2= Chirot |first2= Daniel |title=Essential Outsiders: Chinese and Jews in the Modern Transformation of Southeast Asia and Central Europe |publisher= University of Washington Press |year=1997 |isbn= 978-0295976136 |pages=41}}</ref> Overseas Chinese populations in Southeast Asia saw a rapid increase following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949 which forced many refugees to emigrate outside of China causing a rapid expansion of the overseas Chinese bamboo network.<ref name="WH8" /><ref name="JEC428">{{Cite book |last=Joint Economic Committee Congress of the United States |title=China's Economic Future: Challenges to U.S. Policy (Studies on Contemporary China) |publisher=Routledge |year=1997 |isbn=978-0765601278 |pages=428}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Asian Management Systems: Chinese, Japanese and Korean Styles of Business |last=Chen |first=Min |publisher=International Thomson Business |year=2004 |isbn=978-1861529411 |pages=59}}</ref>
===1997 Asian financial crisis=== Governments affected by the 1997 Asian financial crisis introduced laws regulating insider trading led to the loss of many monopolistic positions long held by the ethnic Chinese business elite and weakening the influence of the bamboo network.<ref>{{cite web|last=Yeung|first=Henry|title=Change and Continuity in SE Asian Ethnic Chinese Business|url=http://econ.tu.ac.th/class/archan/RANGSUN/MB%20663/MB%20663%20Readings/%E0%B9%95.%20%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A2/Thai%20Capitalism/Change%20and%20Continuity%20in%20SE%20Asian%20Ethnic%20Chinese%20Business.pdf|publisher=Department of Geography, National University of Singapore|access-date=2017-08-16|archive-date=2013-07-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731132758/http://econ.tu.ac.th/class/archan/RANGSUN/MB%20663/MB%20663%20Readings/%E0%B9%95.%20%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%A2/Thai%20Capitalism/Change%20and%20Continuity%20in%20SE%20Asian%20Ethnic%20Chinese%20Business.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> After the crisis, business relationships were more frequently based on contracts, rather than the trust and family ties of the traditional bamboo network.<ref name="Chen">{{cite book|author=Min Chen|title=Asian Management Systems: Chinese, Japanese and Korean Styles of Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zbaVMDJG8SIC&pg=PA205|year=2004|publisher=Cengage Learning EMEA|isbn=978-1-86152-941-1|page=205}}</ref>
===21st century=== Following the reform and opening up initiated by Deng Xiaoping started in 1978, businesses owned by the Chinese diaspora began to develop ties with companies based in mainland China. With China's entry into the global marketplace and its concurrent global economic expansion since the dawn of the 21st century, the overseas Chinese community in Southeast Asia have served as a conduit for China's businesses.<ref name=FT>{{cite news|last=Quinlan|first=Joe|title=Insight: China's capital targets Asia's bamboo network|url=https://www.ft.com/content/67554d8a-920f-11dc-8981-0000779fd2ac|newspaper=Financial Times|date=November 13, 2007}}</ref><ref>Weidenbaum, Hughes (1996), p. 27.</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{cite book|title=World On Fire|first=Amy |last=Chua |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |year=2003 |isbn= 978-0385721868|title-link=World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability }} * {{Cite book |title=Ethnic Business: Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia |last1=Folk |first1=Brian C. |last2=Jomo |first2=K. S. |publisher= Routledge |year=2003 |isbn= 978-0415310116 |edition=1st |publication-date=September 1, 2003 }} * {{Cite book |title= Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurship and Capitalist Development in Southeast Asia |last= Gambe |first=Annabelle |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2000 |isbn= 978-0312234966}} * {{Cite book |title= Chinese Business in Southeast Asia |last=Gomez |first=Terence |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn= 978-0415326223}} * {{Cite book |title= Chinese Business in Southeast Asia: Contesting Cultural Explanations, Researching Entrepreneurship |last= Gomez |first=Terence |publisher= Routledge |year=2001 |isbn= 978-0700714155}} * {{Cite book |title= New Asian Emperors |last= Haley |first= George |publisher= Routledge |year=1998 |isbn= 978-0750641302}} * {{Cite book |title=Beyond the Bamboo Network: The Internationalization Process of Thai Family Business Groups |last= Hemrit |first=Maetinee|publisher=Stockholm School of Economics |year=2010 |isbn= 978-9172588431 }} * {{Cite book |title=Economic Success of Chinese Merchants in Southeast Asia |last=Landa|first= Janet Tai |publisher=Springer |year=2016 |isbn= 978-3642540189}} * {{Cite book |title=Entrepreneurship in Pacific Asia: Past, Present & Future |last=Paul Dana |first= Leo |publisher=World Scientific Publishing |year=1999 |isbn= 978-9810239299 }} * {{Cite book |title= The Overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia: History, Culture, Business |last=Rae |first=Ian |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2008 |isbn= 978-1403991652}} * {{Cite book |title=Business Networks in Asia: Promises, Doubts, and Perspectives |last=Richter |first=Frank |publisher=Praeger |year=1999 |isbn=978-1567203028}} * {{Cite book |title=Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia: Cultures and Practices |last=Santasombat |first=Yos|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2017 |isbn= 978-9811046957 }} * {{cite book | title=Ethnic Chinese as Southeast Asians | year=1997 | last= Suryadinata |first= Leo| publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies | location=Singapore | isbn=981-3055-58-8}} * {{Cite book |title= Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary |last=Suryadinata |first=Leo |publisher= Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |year=2012 |isbn= 9789814345217}} * {{cite book |title=Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia |last1=Tagliacozzo |first1=Eric |last2= Chang |first2=Wen-Chin |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-8223-9357-3 }} * {{Cite book |title=Chinese Business: Rethinking Guanxi and Trust in Chinese Business Networks |last=Tong |first=Chee-Kiong |publisher=Springer |year=2014 |isbn= 978-9814451840 }} * {{Cite book |title= The Chinese Overseas: From Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy |last=Wang |first= Gungwu |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2002 |isbn= 978-0674009868}} * {{cite book|title=The Chinese in Cambodia|author=Willmott, William E.|year=1967|location=Publications Centre|publisher=University of British Columbia Press|isbn=978-0774844413}} * {{cite book |title=The Bamboo Network: How Expatriate Chinese Entrepreneurs Are Creating a New Economic Superpower in Asia |last1=Weidenbaum |first1=Murray L. |last2=Hughes |first2=Samuel |publisher=Free Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0684822891 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bamboonetworkhow00weid }}
== External links == * [https://www.strategy-business.com/article/9702?gko=4a3c6 The Bamboo Network: Asia's Family-run Conglomerates] – Strategy + Business January 1, 1998]
{{Business organizations}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Bamboo network Category:Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia