Ong Soon Keong. Coming Home to a Foreign Country: Xiamen and Returned Overseas Chinese, 1843–1938

Coming Home to a Foreign Country: Xiamen and Returned Overseas Chinese, 1843-1938 by Ong Soon Keong is a new work dealing with the history of Chinese migration.Transcending traditional geopolitics, it places Xiamen at the crossroads of China's inland and transoceanic trade networks and explores the status and operating mechanism of Xiamen as an "in-between" place.Furthermore, Ong Soon Keong pays attention to the strategy of the returnees' recognition of identity and "home" on multilayers, which means that identity and "home" are not necessarily rooted in origins.When those non-indigenous overseas Chinese returned to Xiamen, the unique political and commercial environment benefited them to maximize their interests by leveraging "nationality, knowledge, vision, and, if available, wealth" (p.12).This is specifically reflected as they will interchange identities between locals and foreigners for either obtaining protection from foreign countries or forming a transregional alliance with Chinese.At the same time, Xiamen will also be transformed into their peaceful "home" by themselves.Building on predecessors' studies, Ong's core argument adopts to case of Xiamen to show how identity is manipulated intentionally as the concept of "home" is self-created.Apart from the preface and conclusion, the book is divided into six chapters, and its nuclear concerns are consistent with Ong's research intent, which is the study of modern Chinese migrants and Chinese returnees.Chapter 1 discusses Xiamen's evolution from a military port to a trade port chronologically.Chapter 2 reviews the commercial activities in Xiamen after the port was established by using data on the import and export of goods.Faced with the dumping of foreign goods, the local merchants showed great obstinacy and autonomy.In order to meet consumer demand from migrants and returnees, Xiamen changed its development path from being export-led to a "city for consumption" (p.154).The third chapter describes Xiamen's migration industry chain and the impact of the migration industry on its urban transformation.Migrants can be divided into Chinese coolies and free migrants.As a port for migrants to leave the country, Xiamen is a key link in the migration corridor.Under the huge demand, Xiamen has derived a complete migration mechanism from departure to arrival, each steps can generate profits: Migration has "spurred the growth of a host of migration-related industries, including passenger shipping, lodging, remittances, lighterage, and the semilegal 'space dividing' on steamship decks" (p.8), all of which ensure the maximum economic benefits of migration.