An Investigation Into Chinese Exclusion In Southeast Asia After World War Ⅱ

This paper comes up with a new analyzing structure on Chinese exclusion in Southeast Asia after World War II, differing from the traditional analysis on this topic,which just focuses on some certain individual factors, such as economic disparities,politics, religion, culture and so on. This paper argues that based on dignity and honor the native people of Southeast Asia want to establish their own racial dominance after the country’s independence, which is the most important motivation for Southeast Asian countries to carry out the anti-Chinese policies, especially in economic and political sphere. The indigenous people want to construct their own racial domination;however, it is the Chinese who is dominating the local economy. Therefore, the local government must carry out the anti-Chinese policies. After a careful study, this paper argues that through the development of state-owned economy and bureaucratic capitalism, the indigenous peoples have mastered the economic lifeline of the country.The ethnic Chinese groups are still taking advantage in private sector. Meanwhile, the development paths of the Southeast Asian countries have not yet make the majorities of the indigenous out of poverty and achieve modernization. This paper gives a detailed analysis on the reasons why the economic development of the indigenous is always falling behind the Chinese minorities.What’s more, this paper point out that the Southeast Asia countries take the traditional way of nation-state building, which follows the model of "one country, one nation, one kind of culture, one language". This paper proposes that the construction of the nation-state itself is based on the doctrine of racial domination, it must be accompanied by the exclusion of minorities and forced assimilation. Even the civic nationalism which emphasizes on "equal citizenship" also advocates to assimilate the ethnic minorities with the “national culture” by adopting of a unified education system. Cultural assimilation policy adopted by Malaysia and Indonesia illustrates this point. The traditional ways of nation-state building have caused too many ethnic conflicts and even secession, so this paper questions the legitimacy and legality of the traditional ways or the western ways of nation-state building.Besides, this paper analyzes the impact of Chinese exclusion policy in Southeast Asia on ethnic Chinese groups, such as the re-migration of ethnic Chinese and the ethnic segregation in Southeast Asian countries.